# Sesame Street (older shows) not suitable for kids?!?!??? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 19, 2007, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071 "2007-11-19T20:03:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/1 "2007-11-19T20:03:13Z")
From the IMDB > [@](#): > > DVDs of early seasons of Sesame Street bear a warning to parents that they may not be appropriate for small children, the New York Times observed today (Monday). Carol-Lynn Parente, executive producer of Sesame Street noted that in the early days of the show, a regular feature was a parody of Masterpiece Theater, featuring Alistair Cookie, played by Cookie Monster, who appeared with a pipe. “That modeled the wrong behavior,” Parente observed. Oscar the Grouch appeared too grouchy. “We might not be able to create a character like Oscar now,” Gee, I guess seeing Cookie Monter smoke a pipe is why I’m not living up to my full pontential today. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/2 "2007-11-19T20:06:06Z")
Things are so white washed now. Oscar is too grouchy? He’s a GROUCH. Cookie Monster can’t smoke a pipe in a parody of Masterpiece Theatre? Wow, get rid of every Sherlock Holmes spoof ever. ---
**Author:** ![monica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/3 "2007-11-19T20:11:14Z")
I watched Sesame Street when I was little, and I turned out okay. We think. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/4 "2007-11-19T20:20:43Z")
Oh, fucking hell. I mean, Oh deaw, Gowdon, dat makes WhyNot weal sad! ('Cause modeling improper English is so much more useful than someone being grouchy. :rolleyes: ) ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/5 "2007-11-19T20:22:14Z")
I can believe it. On the one hand, it’s kind of silly, on the other hand, our cultural expectations have changed a lot in the past 30 years or so. And so, while the particular warnings may sound silly, the idea that one should not plop your child down in front of an episode from 30 years ago expecting the child to see something equivalent to today’s programming is valid. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/6 "2007-11-19T20:29:44Z")
Since when is Monsterpiece Theater from the early seasons? Muppet Wiki dates the first sketch (Me, Claudius) as being from 1981. Also, I thought the reason for the warning was there notable differences (most notably a different Gordon) that might confuse young children. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/7 "2007-11-19T20:36:11Z")
[QUOTE=Eureka] I can believe it. On the one hand, it’s kind of silly, on the other hand, our cultural expectations have changed a lot in the past 30 years or so. And so, while the particular warnings may sound silly, the idea that one should not plop your child down in front of an episode from 30 years ago expecting the child to see something equivalent to today’s programming is valid. [/QUOTE] Do you mean because it’s not really a half hour commercial for a toy or a game? (Though the old _Captain Midnight_ radio serials certainly _were._) I mean, it’s not like you’re plunking the kid down in front of _Amos & Andy_, though admittedly much of the cast and crew of _Sesame Street_ were stoned out of their gourds much of the time (as were the college students who were watching it, according to PJ O’Rourke :D), so perhaps that’s a “bad thing.” ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/8 "2007-11-19T20:37:32Z")
I remember when I was a kid how the only time Snuffleupagus would appear would be when Big Bird was around. Big Bird would try to convince the adults he was real but they never believed him. Long running gag on the show. Apparently they later realized this was a bad thing to teach kids (even if you are being molested don’t bother telling other people cause unless they see it they won’t believe you.) Since then Snuffy has been seen by all. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/9 "2007-11-19T20:38:00Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] ('Cause **modeling improper English** is so much more useful than someone being grouchy. :rolleyes: ) [/QUOTE] [Don’t even joke about it.](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/fashion/26junie.html) ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/10 "2007-11-19T20:43:29Z")
Ah hah! It’s Cookie Monster’s fault that I’m a smoker! I knew I could blame it on someone. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/11 "2007-11-19T20:44:02Z")
[QUOTE=Hampshire] I remember when I was a kid how the only time Snuffleupagus would appear would be when Big Bird was around. Big Bird would try to convince the adults he was real but they never believed him. Long running gag on the show. Apparently they later realized this was a bad thing to teach kids (even if you are being molested don’t bother telling other people cause unless they see it they won’t believe you.) Since then Snuffy has been seen by all. [/QUOTE] I think they just realized the gag was getting stale, even with their target audience. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/12 "2007-11-19T20:53:59Z")
[QUOTE=toadspittle] [Don’t even joke about it.](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/fashion/26junie.html) [/QUOTE] Oh, man, I had no idea! I’m just annoyed with Elmo, Baby Bear and Telly for being morons. And I HATE that Snuffy is “real” now. Hate, hate, hate it. He was this awesome secret kid thing, and now he’s just another Muppet. ---
**Author:** ![Elret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Elret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elret)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/13 "2007-11-19T21:12:31Z")
I can remember an episode that showed a woman breastfeeding a baby, with Big Bird asking thoughtful questions about the process. I had been formula fed, as had all the babies I had ever seen being fed, and I thought it was so nice. I thought of it regularly over the years, and when it came time to feed my own baby, I believe it probably played some small part in my decision to breastfeed. However, I can remember in about seeing that clip one time, in about 1980 I’d guess, with a cousin, and her father was outraged that they would show such smut on tv. Like they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. You can’t please all the people all of the time. And probably several other cliches as well. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/14 "2007-11-19T21:16:03Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Oh, man, I had no idea! I’m just annoyed with Elmo, Baby Bear and Telly for being morons. And I HATE that Snuffy is “real” now. Hate, hate, hate it. He was this awesome secret kid thing, and now he’s just another Muppet. [/QUOTE] I hate that, too. More than anything about TV for kids is the idea that everything has to be examined and re-examined to be sure it’s sending the “right” message. Especially when half the time, I don’t even agree that it’s necessarily the best message. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/15 "2007-11-19T21:26:36Z")
These disclaimers appear on the _Sesame Street Old School_ DVD sets, featuring classic episodes of the long-running series. Volume 1, covering 1969-1974, was released last year, and Volume 2, covering 1975-1979, was just released. Some of the segments do feature behavior parents of today would not want their children to imitate: one segment features live-action children playing “follow the leader” in a junkyard, and another features two Abbott-and-Costelloesque live actors attempting to hammer a nail into a wall and comedically misusing both (holding the hammer the wrong way, placing the nail so the pointy end faces away from the wall, etc. And, indeed, the series has had to change or remove some recurring features due to complaints: as mentioned, Snuffleupagus became a real entity because it was feared that children may keep dangerous secrets away from their children, and a song entitled _I Want A Monster To Be My Friend_ had to be removed from circulation due to a lyric to the effect of “I’ll let him [the monster] do whatever he wants to me, even though he’s bigger than me.” Obviously, that could be taken the wrong way. But mainly, the original _Sesame Street_ paints a grim worldview of the way big cities really were in the era. Although there is no racial violence- indeed, blacks, whites, reds, blues, and greens live in harmony- the streets are run-down and gritty. As the _New York Times_ puts it: > [@New York Times](#): > > The show rolled, and the sweet trauma came flooding back. What they did to us was hard-core. Man, was that scene rough. The masonry on the dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, where the closeted Ernie and Bert shared a dismal basement apartment, was deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a fast track to diabetes. Oscar’s depression was untreated. Prozacky Elmo didn’t exist…Overweight layabouts, lacking touch-screen iPods and headphones, jockey for airtime with their deafening transistor radios. And one of those radios plays a late-’60s news report — something about a “senior American official” and “two billion in credit over the next five years” — that conjures a bleak economic climate, with war debt and stagflation in the offing. The old “Sesame Street” is not for the faint of heart, and certainly not for softies born since 1998, when the chipper “Elmo’s World” started. Anyone who considers bull markets normal, extracurricular activities sacrosanct and New York a tidy, governable place — well, the original “Sesame Street” might hurt your feelings. Not to mention the cast! Cookie Monster is addicted to sweets- although he has promoted healthy eating for the past 15 years, he still eats cookies as if his life depended on it. Oscar the Grouch needs some Prozac, and he lives in a garbage can- that’s got to be unsanitary. Bert and Ernie live in the same apartment- although I’ve always stood by my belief they’re nothing more than a Muppet Odd Couple, I can see why gays relate to their often bumpy, but always sunny, relationship. I’m pretty sure Grover has ADD- he’s always running around and shouting. The Count is obviously an obsessive-compulsive. I’m not sure what Big Bird’s deal is- but since he’s so tall yet acts like a child, I’m sure it must be some form of mental retardation. In short, the beloved characters which still appear today simply could not be created in 2007. (Of course, Jim Henson knew how to toe the line between slapstick for kids and edgy humor for adults: in the original pitch film for the series, which was _never_ meant to be seen by children, a Muppet exective pitches a rather unusual title for the series: “These kids can’t read or write yet, right? So how’s about we call it _Hey Stupid!_”) And yet…although _Sesame Street_ itself has changed, it really hasn’t. If you look at the very first episode, each segment is introduced by a character, even though they still have the rapid-fire commerical style which was intended from day one. Today, segments still have rapidity, but are introduced: the Count counts the number of the day, and Cookie Monster attempts to refrain from eating the letter of the day (he always does eat it, of course.) Elmo’s World is here, but in a way, it teaches children about everyday concepts just as other classic Muppets did. And some of the segments that appear on these DVD sets appeared on the series for years and still do today. Ernie singing “Rubber duckie, you’re the one”…Kermit summing up the problems of being a minority by saying “It’s not easy bein’ green”…a pinball careening around a field counting as the Pointer Sisters sing “one, two, three, **four** , five, six, seven, eight, **nine** , ten, eleven, twelve”…Big Bird declaring “Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz, it’s the most remarkable word I’ve ever seen”…the simple questions “Who are the people in your neighborhood” and “One of these things is not like the other”…and of course, the simple, premise of a sunny day, sweeping the clouds away. We all want to be on our way to where the air is sweet. Although we don’t know how to get to Sesame Street, we’re pretty sure what we’ll find when we get there. Here’s the article from the Times: [Sweeping the Clouds Away](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/magazine/18wwln-medium-t.html). Sesame Street is brought to you today by the letter S- for Sesame Street- and by the numbers 38- the number of years it’s been on the air- and 109- the record setting number of Emmy awards it has won. Sesame Street is a production of the Children’s Television Workshop- or the Sesame Workshop, as it’s known today. Whatever you call it, they, along with the Jim Henson Company, and all the folks responsible for _Sesame Street_, have been responsible for a long memory of learning and laughter- no matter how politically incorrect some of it may be today. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/16 "2007-11-19T21:29:36Z")
> [@Zoggie](#): > > Wow, get rid of every Sherlock Holmes spoof ever. Hey, whatever happened to Sherlock Hemlock, anyway? He didn’t smoke. A lot of Muppets from the Street are MIA. I’m not sure where some of them went to, but some I can guess- Forgetful Jones probably forgot to eat or breathe, and Mumford the Magnificent was probably beheaded by Muslims after calling Allah a peanut butter sandwich. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/17 "2007-11-19T21:38:39Z")
[QUOTE=mobo85] Hey, whatever happened to Sherlock Hemlock, anyway? He didn’t smoke. [/QUOTE] He did shoot up morphine and cocaine though. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/18 "2007-11-19T21:45:43Z")
> [@myself](#): > > because it was feared that children may keep dangerous secrets away from their children The last word should be “parents” in that sentence, of course. Now _that_ was a controversial Sesame Street- the one where one of the kids got pregnant. Disturbing on so many levels. I think Joe Raposo hanged himself rather than write “When Babies Have Babies” for that epsiode. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/19 "2007-11-19T22:01:04Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] From the IMDB Gee, I guess seeing Cookie Monter smoke a pipe is why I’m not living up to my full pontential today. [/QUOTE] Oh for Pity’s sake! **IT WAS A BUBBLE PIPE** if I am not mistaken. Those people who wrote that warning lable and put it on the DVDs need to get a grip! ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/20 "2007-11-19T22:02:21Z")
[QUOTE=Zabali\_Clawbane] Oh for Pity’s sake! **IT WAS A BUBBLE PIPE** if I am not mistaken. Those people who wrote that warning lable and put it on the DVDs need to get a grip! [/QUOTE] Either way, Parente says that Cookie would eat his pipe at the end. I’m pretty sure that nowadays that’s what the censors call “imitatable behavior.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071.md?page=2)