On Sunday night I watched a prime-time PBS special marking the 35th anniversary of “Sesame Street.” It was odd to see how much has changed since the 1970s/early 80s. Strangely, the humans are the same: Gordon and Susan, Luis and Maria, and Bob (although Bob’s deaf friend Linda seems to be gone). But now Gordon and Susan have an adopted son, Milo, and Luis and Maria are married and have a daughter named Gabriela. Milo and Gabriela both appear to be teenagers, so I’m sure they’ll get married someday. As for the muppets, Big Bird is still neurotic, Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster are still every child’s id, Grover is still ironically humorous, and Bert and Ernie still haven’t come out of the closet. (I think Bert needs to see “Avenue Q.”)
As I’m sure most “Sesame Street” afficionados know, Elmo and “Elmo’s World” have taken over the show. But that wasn’t as jarring to me as all the computerized animation the show uses today. I feel old now, and I now realize it’s true that every generation grows up taking for granted the technology that the previous generation thought was so cool.
The special included a few classic routines that I was shocked to realize had been buried in the deepest recesses of my memory. For the last couple of days I’ve been unable to get the following lyrics out of my head:
Ten eggplants —
Over easy!
That’s one of our little jokes
(Ha, ha, ha)
You can play the Sesame Street 35th Anniversary Trivia Game. That Oscar the Grouch is so mean.
Sometimes I wish I could be a kid again.
What’s most jarring to me is that while I, seven-years-old at its inception, was a little too old for Sesame Street, many of my friends–including my boyfriend–weren’t even born at all when it first aired. I did develop an appreciation for the show as an adult, though.
And, having worked in public television for nine years, I still find caches in boxes and closets of Sesame Street schwag (as well as stuff from all the other core PBS programming).