Google has replaced their logo with a series of Sesame Street-inspired images in honor of the big birthday.

1969 was certainly a banner year.  Neil Armstrong touched down on the moon.  Woodstock took place in upstate New York.  The Beatles released Abbey Road.  The Boeing 747 is first placed into service.  The television shows The Brady Bunch and Monty Python’s Flying Circus debuted.  While those shows, for better or for worse (not necessarily in that order), eventually went off the air, another show that got its start in 1969 is still going strong: the venerable children’s show Sesame Street.

It would be difficult to be a part of American society and not be familiar with the show — everyone, it seems, knows Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and the ubiquitous Elmo.  The show was meant to depict the sort of world kids in the big city themselves lived in and the idea worked.  It worked so well that now, forty years later, the show is as popular as ever.  As of 2006, Sesame Street was the most watched children’s show in the world — there are 20 international independent versions and it is shown in over 120 countries.
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Sesame Street is the ne plus ultra of kid’s shows, the one show most of us don’t feel guilty flipping on for awhile so we can do something crazy like eat a meal or go to the bathroom. While it’s not the totally wacky and hilarious show I remember from my own childhood, there’s still that wonderful sense of gentleness, for lack of a better word. Monsters, kids, and grownups all peacefully coexist, life’s challenging moments (economic woes, the death of a neighborhood friend, the arrival of a sibling) are all gently explained, and the mysterious world of letters and numbers and colors is unlocked in the most fun and subtle way.

The show’s changed a lot since my childhood and feels more commercial to me. But those changes — and  indeed the show itself –have been rigorously, carefully researched from the very beginnings.

According to this interesting Miller-McCune article, Continue reading »

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Michelle Obama on Sesame Street

On November 10, 1969, a television show unlike any other debuted on PBS. Based on the idea that if you could hold the attention of children, you could educate them, the program introduced kids to a grouchy green creature who lived in a garbage can and an oversized yellow bird. That show, of course, was Sesame Street.  Forty years later, the program that forever changed children’s television is celebrating with a brand new look and a VIP quest. Continue reading »

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In honor of Sesame Street’s 40th Anniversary, NationalPost.com has a nifty interactive graphic.

“101 Muppets of Sesame Street” allows you to click on Muppets well-known and obscure and get info about each and every one of them, including the season they were introduced. Sure, you could look them up at the marvelous Muppet Wiki, which is what the National Post folks did. But this way is easier.

A few highlights: Continue reading »

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