Stumble It!
Photo: Delfi's World (flickr)
The other morning, Michael asked a question with a fairly obvious answer: “What’s the name of the monster that eats the cookies?”
“Cookie Monster?” I replied, a bit stunned.
“Uh, yeah. Cookie Monster!” He went back to playing with his siblings.
It has been surprising to see the differences in what the kids find interesting and what they don’t, particularly in relation to what I was into when I was a kid. Like most Gen-Xers, “Sesame Street” was king in my household growing up. Of course, there wasn’t really any major competition except for “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and “The Electric Company,” which we watched too.
Now, there are a bazillion shows, and some of them are actually quite good. When the kids were smaller, they loved “Little Einsteins” and “Higglytown Heroes,” and I thought both of those shows were excellent. Especially Einsteins, which blended music and art into the action in ways that I’d never seen a children’s program do before. Higgleytown celebrates blue-collar workers as heroes, and any show that does that is wicked cool in my book.
But my kids just don’t really care that much about “Sesame Street.” Connie watched it all the time when she was small, but the boys, not so much. They are into “American Dragon: Jake Long,” and “Spider-Man”—both of which are cool—but part of me feels sad that they aren’t as into Sesame as I was.
Shuckin' and jivin'.
At first, I thought it was because producers made the ridiculous format change away from the fast-cut sketches of my youth, to longer stories that relegated characters to specific parts of the show. This made me crazy. I hate “Journey to Ernie,” Cookie seems to have been marginalized to the letter-of-the-day sequence, and the baby-talking bear is pervasive. And what the hell is Gordon doing in the idiotic Trash Gordon sequence!? On the other hand, the new keeper at Hooper’s store is awesome, and half of the old timers from the 70s are still there. Looking old, but still kicking.
Raging Dad with Bob, 1988.
Man, I was into Sesame. I remember when we got our first color television (hey, we was poor folk), and I was completely shocked to find that Telly was not gray, but purplish. When I was a kid, I got to perform on stage with Bob McGrath (and a hundred other kids) when he came to my small town in Northern Minnesota. I still remember the excitement of seeing Bob in person. He was a rock star, a father figure with that soft, velvet voice. I sang, sang a song with him and it stands as one of the most significant moments of my childhood.
Photo: JPox (flickr)
I always had a soft spot for Grover, mostly because he had the whole Super Grover bit. I loved it when he would burst through that paper wall. Ah, muppet memories. Speaking of Muppets, if you haven’t read Black Hockey Jesus’ defense of Gonzo over at Halushki’s blog, you should take care of that, post haste.
Filed under: raging history, they said what? | Tagged: childhood memories, children's programming, muppets, sesame street
Yeah, my kids aren’t feeling it much either. Especially with Gordon dressed up like Sgt. Pepper. I took them to Sesame Street live last year, and that was…disturbing…so maybe that had something to do with it.
I was a huge Muppet fan, not only were they hilarious, but they had the best musical guests! Elton John, Johnny Cash, Alice Cooper…come on, you can’t beat that eclectic mix! I bought my boys the complete fist season, and after a few mandatory watchings, they are starting to dig it:)
Soooooper Grover!!! I used to have a hat like his about a million years ago.
What a lovable loser her was. Loved him and Animal from the Muppet Show. And some weird King Prawn that came on right as I stopped watching.
My oldest child use to watch Sesame Street, but my two youngest ones didn’t like it for some reason. They would watch for five minutes and then get bored. Not sure why.
I was a Sesame Streeter too. Remember the Tweedle Bugs? They lived in the planter outside the window of the ambiguously gay duo, Burt and Ernie. I looooooved the Tweedle Bugs but they didn’t get a ton of airtime.
If you really want passion, though… it’s The Muppets for me. Agree with Brittany, the musical guests were fabulous. One of the most memorable musical numbers for me was Linda Ronstadt singing Blue Bayou with a stage full of frogs ribbitting in time to the music. And, to this very day, no Christmas could ever be complete without hearing my John Denver and the Muppets Christmas album. The Dr. Teeth Band (um, don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about) does a version of Little Saint Nick that kicks *ss and if you listen close enough, you will crack up at Animal’s part in it. Burn a copy for ya?
My daughter asked me that question and I told her it was the flaming Baalrog from The Lord of the Rings. I then showed her the critter in question and she’s stopped asking me questions entirely.
That is a win/win.
I was older when Sesame St started, but my little sisters loved it. I think the difference between it and most shows aimed at kids, and the key to its longevity, is it has humor on multiple levels, both targeting adults and kids. My second favorite thing to do after getting high as a teenager (the first was eating BLTs), was to watch Sesame Street( I found it very profound – no surprise there).
I am so impressed that you sang with Bob.
Fast forward 30 years. I got back into it when my kids were younger and watched with great interest and a little sadness (though I can’t remember why the sadness) about the worm (slimey?) trying to go to the moon.