His bit with Rita Moreno was one of the funniest in the series, IMHO.
“Now that’s my kind of woman!”
I think it would be nice to have a new muppet that had gay parents (not the gay parents themselves; the muppets on Sesame Street should be mainly children), or perhaps have a gay human couple move to Sesame Street, but I think Bert and Ernie should be left as they are. There has never been any indication that they are gay (they live together, but they sleep in separate beds, people; c’mon!) and I think even kids would sense it was politically correct shoe-horning. The producers are right on this.
I was 8 years old when Sesame Street first aired. I didn’t know about homosexuality, but I thought Bert and Ernie were married. When I was in college, someone made a joke about B&E being gay and my first thought was, “Hey, I can see that! Don’t know why it never occurred to me before.” FWIW, it really wasn’t a big deal to me.
I understand why the producers of the show don’t want specifically B&E to be gay. So, although I think there should be some “Heather’s two mommies”-type of characters* on the show, I support the producers’ decision not to “retro-con” homosexuality onto B&E. Not sure if I’m expressing myself clearly here, but I’ll go ahead and throw it out there.
*puppet or human
Heh heh.
That’s a very good point. Kids also don’t question why Max and Ruby have no parents, or why Caillou is such a whiny bitch, to think about some other kid shows.
Tangentially related, I recently saw for the first time this old book by Margaret Wise Brown and Edith Thatcher Hurd about 2 miners who live together. By the time I got to the part where they were bathing in the same room (albeit in different tubs), I was pretty sure the miners were a couple.
I think its inappropriate to insert a moral debate into a kid’s show unless at least you’re going to show both sides of it.
Absolutely! No gay couples should be allowed on television until Hollywood is willing to have shows about heterosexual people, too!
Exactly which moral debates do you think need both sides shown?
I seem to recall the KKK objecting when Whoopi Goldberg and Elmo had a discussion on how the races are equal and should just get along. Do we need to show the other side of that?
Well, the Archie people have already gotten into the “token gay” industry by introducing a gay character who’s getting married into their quaint little gated community, the same one which begrudgingly introduced a black character in the 1970s, because they are [del] opportunistic cocks[/del] progressive minded trailblazers. So why can’t we expect the same out of Sesame Street? 
They’ve shown straight couples so there’s one side. Now they can show a gay couple. That would be both sides.
It never occurred to me that Bert & Ernie were gay but Big Bird is kind of an androgynous / ambiguous creature.
Yes, because that’s the strangest part of an 8 foot tall, sentient canary that can talk, haha. Such a weird conversation when you try to mix sex with muppets…:rolleyes:
It would weird me out if Bert and Ernie were gay. If they want to make another gay couple on Sesame Street, though, that’d be cool. But not Bert and Ernie – that’d just be too weird. We’ve always known them as best buddies. That they’re LIKE brothers, but not brothers.
Gay couples exist. What’s the other side of that?
That not everyone wants it displayed to their (or other people’s) children as normative. You can argue–quite strongly, in fact–that it’s no different than not teaching your children about people of other races and creeds. But don’t pretend it’s not a contentious issue, especially in the U.S.
My daughter says she was 6 when she first had the idea that Bert and Ernie were a couple.
Someone needs to show Ernie this.
Well DUH. It’s the unibrow!
**Curtis ** aka **Qin Shi **is a sheltered kid (what’s he, 15 now?) who has had it drilled into his head that homosexuality is bad. The other side of gay couples existing is straight couples existing. It’s like when people say they don’t “believe” in homosexuality. Fuck if you “believe” or not, it exists.
Hmmm, so I guess when Sesame Street introduced an interracial couple in the 1970s, they also should have shown the views of the other side from those saying the races should stay separate, right?
::looks at next post in this thread::
SOme might even say eyebrows of doom.
Very simple. Sesame Street is publicly funded. Therefore it has no business taking stands on religious issues. Just as the state should not condemn gay marriage, It has no business saying it is OK. Homosexuals have the right to their life style, protection from discrimination, but not state advocacy of it. Taxpayers’ money shouldn’t be use to promote things many find morally offensive.