# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/81 "2007-11-26T05:43:41Z")
Crayons are made by very happy old people! ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/82 "2007-11-26T06:19:48Z")
[QUOTE=Jolly Roger] Inspired by seeing my funny chef fall the stairs again with 4 root beer floats, I looked up this on youtube. I remember seeing it once in the morning while drinking my before-work-coffee and the tune stuck in my mind all of these years…[\*\*the Adventure Song. \*\*](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOhDr11F0wo) Now if I can only find a clip of a time when Elmo and some famous female opera singer were singing a song from Carmen…I shit you not. [/QUOTE] Just today I was able to google up a Sesame street sequence I saw _one_ time when I was _six._ (It was [url=“[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjEE5Mf24vg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjEE5Mf24vg)”]Celia Cruz and Big Bird singing a Cuban song about hummingbirds.[/url) I love the Internet for letting me find this, but what’s even freakier is that I’ve retained it all that time after (and I’m certain of this) seeing it only once. I would have been able to hum you the melody of the chorus and even blibber out a decent phonetic approximation of the Spanish lyrics. > [@](#): > > though admittedly much of the cast and crew of _Sesame Street_ were stoned out of their gourds much of the time … O RLY? Well, I suppose that accounts for that Pointer Sisters pinball numbers sequence. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/83 "2007-11-26T06:28:07Z")
That’s [Celia Cruz and Big Bird singing a Cuban song about hummingbirds.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjEE5Mf24vg) ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/84 "2007-11-26T09:30:02Z")
[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect] [Note on that article](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004753.html) for the language geeks among us. [/QUOTE] Strange how he focuses on the misconstruing of “phonics” in the Times article, and completely ignores this gross falsehood, which is just as serious, if not more: [QUOTE=(NYT’s) Grossman] Their disagreement is a pint-size version of the lingering education battle between advocates of phonics, who believe children should be taught proper spelling and grammar from the outset, and those who favor whole language, a literacy method that **accepts misspellings and other errors** as long as children are engaged **in reading** and writing. [/QUOTE] Whole language doesn’t accept errors in reading material. It advocates not obsessing about every little spelling error _all the time_ when learners begin _to write_. But even that is not its main point. And it’s disappointing that Liberman doesn’t even question these glibly tossed and unsubstantiated claims: [QUOTE=Siedenberg] …the problem is that the balance between the two is not specified or monitored closely. Balanced literacy mainly ends up being business as usual, i.e. whole language. [/QUOTE] If anything, phonics is more a default than whole language, in my experience. (It’s easier to teach.) In any case, it’s nearly impossible to know what teachers are actually doing unless you can monitor all classrooms all the time, and as far as I know, no one has done this. And: [QUOTE=Siedenberg] Educators from ed schools to educational administrators are very well insulated from the findings of psychologists and neuroscientists who have studied reading. [/QUOTE] Where does he (Sidenberg) pull these from? But I agree with Liberman’s main point. Junie B. is just a child author trying to brand herself. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/85 "2007-11-26T13:28:46Z")
I love YouTube!!! [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRPZ-6bLC6g) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ChahP31qh9k/hqdefault.jpg "Cowboy X") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChahP31qh9k) This is the stuff that makes life worth living. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/86 "2007-11-27T00:40:23Z")
That milk video is just so simple, relaxed, and charming, it actually brought a tear to my eye. I had forgotten the “man rushing because the baby needs milk” part and that got a chuckle from me. Parente’s bio says she studied marketing and economics at Rutgers. Why am I not surprised? A successful and unique creative enterprise just should not be tinkered with. Oh, well. Look up Stan Freberg’s sketch “Elderly Man River” from episodes 6 and 15 of his 1957 radio show. A censor forces him to change the song for, among other reasons, “the chillllldren.” From “Frauds on the Fairies” by Charles Dickens (1853) [http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/pva/pva239.html:](http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/pva/pva239.html:) > [@](#): > > If such a precedent were followed we must soon become disgusted with the old stories into which modern personages so obtruded themselves, and the stories themselves must soon be lost. With seven Blue Beards in the field, each coming at a gallop from his own platform mounted on a foaming hobby a generation or two hence would not know which was which, and the great original Blue Beard would be confounded with the counterfeits. Imagine a Total abstinence edition of Robinson Crusoe, with the rum left out. Imagine a Peace edition, with the gunpowder left out, and the rum left in. Imagine a Vegetarian edition, with the goat’s flesh left out. Imagine a Kentucky edition, to introduce a flogging of that 'tarnal old n!gger Friday, twice a week. Imagine an Aborigines Protection Society edition, to deny cannibalism and make Robinson embrace the amiable savages whenever they landed. Robinson Crusoe would be “edited” out of his island in a hundred years, and the island would be swallowed up in the editorial ocean… > > Frauds on the Fairies once permitted, we see little reason why they may not come to this, and great reason why they may. The Vicar of Wakefield was wisest when he was tired of being always wise. The world is too much with us, early and late. Leave this precious old escape from it, alone. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/87 "2007-11-27T01:36:51Z")
Classic! This is another one that I can remember the words to after 30some years… [Fat. Cat. Sat. Hat.](http://youtube.com/watch?v=wlypxopxUlM&feature=related) ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/88 "2007-11-27T02:07:59Z")
Don’t make me link “Wanda the Witch” and “Capital I” again, people. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/89 "2007-11-27T02:13:47Z")
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4VNMERVsC4) Yip yip yip yip! Telephone. Tel-e-phone. Rrrrrrring!!! ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/90 "2007-11-27T02:17:56Z")
Damn it. [Wanda the Witch](http://youtube.com/watch?v=ph0RN4X002o)\* [Capital I](http://youtube.com/watch?v=BRPZ-6bLC6g) _(Rubbing it here/scrubbing it there…)_ ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/91 "2007-11-27T02:24:03Z")
I was a very small child in the 1970’s and I loved Sesame Street because of those chicks with big hair and tight pants. No one could tell me they didn’t have a hair pie to match even at 4 years old. Maybe that is what people are concerned with. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/92 "2007-11-27T03:05:00Z")
Oh I just found one that I had been wanting to see again since forever. Gone With the Wind: [http://youtube.com/watch?v=qa2pdCgUzrE](http://youtube.com/watch?v=qa2pdCgUzrE) Especially disturbing is the squealing pig impaled on the chandelier. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/93 "2007-11-27T05:29:45Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia] And what about Grover? Anyone remember _The Monster at the End of this Book_? [/QUOTE] One of the finest books ever written. And yes, I currently own it. Lovable, furry old Grover. Sesame Street is just a shadow of what it was. Noggin had a show called “Play with Me Sesame” that was far more tolerable than the Elmo-infested crap that is now Sesame Street. Fortunately for me, my daughter does not like Elmo at all. (Unfortunately for me, she has Elmo’s Potty Time) ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/94 "2007-11-27T05:50:40Z")
Elmo bugs the hell out of me 99.9% of the time. The only exception is that for about 20 seconds I think that “Elmo’s Song” is kind of cute. Then I get very sick of it. Remember the song [_“I, Grover”_](http://www.lyricsdownload.com/sesame-street-i-grover-lyrics.html)? Now that song was cute all the way through. I used to have it on an album when I was a kid. Man… now I wanna hear that song… \*…Some mornings I wake up I feel so good and new I find my socks myself I put my shoes on too The feet are right, the feet are right Is it not wonderful that the feet are right? I, Grover, am big and tall and very smart and kind of cute and wonderful I think that there is nothing I cannot do You can get the feet right too…\* ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/95 "2007-11-27T17:47:19Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia] Anyone remember _The Monster at the End of this Book_? [/QUOTE] The best part is when he builds a brick wall over the next page. “Did you know you are very strong?” ---
**Author:** ![fuffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fuffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuffle)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/96 "2007-11-27T19:53:48Z")
Boy, that milk short scared the crap out of me as a kid. It was the music, I think. “Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiilk!!!” And the baby’s crying and the guy’s running around with weird machinery like the baby’s going to die if she doesn’t get milk. Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilk!! It was the only thing on Sesame Street that ever upset me. Of course, I was also secretly a little afraid of _There’s a Monster at the End of This Book_, even though it was one of my most favorite books ever. It was the whole meta-nature of the thing that tripped me out. I probably became an English major just to psychologically process the lessons unwillingly learned at Grover’s furry and cute knee. 🙂 ---
**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 27, 2007, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/97 "2007-11-27T20:00:41Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia] Oh, I remember that one! It was great. I liked the part when Big Bird and Snuffy are both singing the same song, about missing each other. And what about Grover? Anyone remember _The Monster at the End of this Book_? [/QUOTE] Let me guess. The monster was Grover, right? ---
**Author:** ![fuffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fuffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuffle)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/98 "2007-11-27T20:06:04Z")
Dude, use a spoiler box. ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/99 "2007-11-27T20:16:44Z")
:rolleyes: Like any reasonable adult could argue that the “hidden” gag in [Special Letters Unit](http://youtube.com/watch?v=S2CSkLR6mUQ) was intended for kids. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071/100 "2007-11-27T20:54:23Z")
I’ve been singing "_Roosevelt Franklin-ahhhhhhhh-Elementary School"_ for almost 40 years, and I knew I got it from Sesame Street because I could always picture the school in my head…but I never paused to think about it, and how something could stick that long. One thing about Sesame Street was that, as a grouchy kid, I was disturbed by the nice people and the whole friendly neighbor thing. I actually grew up in the ‘inner city’ and people weren’t nice. They were a product of the miserable late 60’s to early 70’s, and I didn’t feel comfortable with the nice people. Oscar I got. Big Bird annoyed me. Mr. Hooper? Bah - please that was uncomfortable - he didn’t sit well with me. I like anything that was a film clip about a crayon factory or some farm animals. Please, I don’t need to see the actual Sesame Street anymore. Show me something else. MAD did a spoof of Sesame Street that I saw in the late 70’s or circa 1980 that was great. I was about 13 when I read it and felt sooooo much better that someone could take shots at the show. Funny thing is that one of my most memorable things about SS is the end, when they (PBS) switched over to “The Electric Compannnnnnyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy”. But I was kinda ticked that I didn’t get why they named a show after a utility company. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-older-shows-not-suitable-for-kids/427071.md?page=6)