# Sesame Street diversifies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [November 16, 2021, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-diversifies/954421 "2021-11-16T00:19:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-diversifies/954421/21 "2021-11-16T22:58:22Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > The Count (Count von Count), while purple, does mention in one episode that he taught at a Moldavian university I assume he taught combinatorics. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-diversifies/954421/22 "2021-11-16T23:26:19Z")
Somehow I never connected for a while that the characters on Sesame Street were “official” Muppets as in the Muppet Show. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-diversifies/954421/23 "2021-11-16T23:33:40Z")
A few decades after Roosevelt Franklin, there was Kingston Livingston III: > **[Kingston Livingston III](https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Kingston_Livingston_III)** > > Kingston Livingston III (named after his dad and his grandfather) is a young boy Muppet on Sesame Street who first appeared in Season 24, in episode 3103. Kingston takes pride in doing his own thing instead of simply following the crowd. When his... ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-diversifies/954421/24 "2021-11-16T23:36:22Z")
They were (and are) “official” Muppets, though with a few exceptions (primarily Kermit, who predated _Sesame Street_, and who was Jim Henson’s alter ego), the Sesame Street Muppets are exclusively used for that show (and its spin-offs), and don’t cross over with other Muppet productions, like _The Muppet Show_, save for very occasional cameos, such as Big Bird’s appearance in _The Muppet Movie_. Originally, Henson retained ownership of the Muppets which he and his studio created for _Sesame Street_, but the rights to those Muppets (again, with the exception of Kermit) have been owned by Sesame Workshop since 2001. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-diversifies/954421/25 "2021-11-16T23:37:59Z")
According to the Muppet Wiki, he said he was “professor of counting from one to ten at the Institute of Technology at Moldavia.” [Cite](https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Count_von_Count) ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2021, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-diversifies/954421/26 "2021-11-17T16:46:42Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > A few decades after Roosevelt Franklin, there was Kingston Livingston III: There’s also Elijah and Wesley, introduced earlier this year: > **[Sesame Workshop Is Talking More Explicitly About Race—and Welcoming Two Black...](https://time.com/5947731/sesame-workshop-black-muppets/)** > > Meet the new father-son duo, Elijah and Wesley ---
**Author:** ![InfraBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infrablue/32/6366_2.png) [@InfraBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InfraBlue)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2021, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-diversifies/954421/27 "2021-11-17T22:13:49Z")
I always thought of Grover as being “ethnic” due to his accent which differs from General or Standard American English pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2021, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-diversifies/954421/28 "2021-11-17T22:16:19Z")
Grover is a Monster-American. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![InfraBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infrablue/32/6366_2.png) [@InfraBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InfraBlue)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2021, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-diversifies/954421/29 "2021-11-17T22:19:52Z")
Heh, Cookie Monster, as well, for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2021, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-diversifies/954421/30 "2021-11-17T22:23:37Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Grover is a Monster-American. 😃 I remember the day I realized that Grover and Yoda have basically the same voice. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2021, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-diversifies/954421/31 "2021-11-17T22:47:35Z")
Was Oscar the Grouch black or was that literally just the SNL parody of Sesame Street? ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2021, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-diversifies/954421/32 "2021-11-17T22:52:34Z")
Also Herry: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/2NSdNtOktHE/maxresdefault.jpg "Sesame Street: Fuzzy and Blue") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NSdNtOktHE) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2021, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-diversifies/954421/33 "2021-11-17T22:56:30Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Was Oscar the Grouch black or was that literally just the SNL parody of Sesame Street? He wasn’t intended to be black, I don’t believe. Oscar’s Muppeteer, Carrol Spinney, stated that he got his inspiration for Oscar’s voice from a NYC cab driver who drove him to the studio; Jim Henson, along with writer Jon Stone, are said to have based Oscar’s personality on Oscar Karp, the “magnificently rude” owner of the restaurant _Oscar’s Salt of the Sea_. But, that said, as noted in the [Wikipedia article on Oscar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_the_Grouch#Origins): > [@](#): > > According to _Sesame Street_ 's Robert W. Morrow, Oscar was created to indirectly demonstrate racial and ethnic diversity. Since his manners and tastes were different from those of the other characters, his creators hoped to address social issues by using his differences as a metaphor for racial and ethnic differences. Some viewers, however, saw Oscar as a “surrogate for poor, urban Americans” during the show’s early seasons.[[6]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_the_Grouch#cite_note-6) In the early _Sesame Street_ development there was criticism that Oscar represented residents of inner city who had grown to accept injustice when they should not have done so, and there were observers who perceived Oscar to be a negative impression of African-Americans even though the Sesame Workshop did not intend for him to represent black people. [Joan Ganz Cooney](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Ganz_Cooney) was confused by this viewpoint when journalist [Linda Francke](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Linda_Francke&action=edit&redlink=1) informed her of its existence.[[7]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_the_Grouch#cite_note-7) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-diversifies/954421.md?page=1)