Monday, November 26, 2007

Not the Same Street

I just read this article about how the original Sesame Street episodes are coming on to DVD. This is great news, I thought, because I have always wanted to show my kids the Sesame Street of my youth.

However, it seems that the DVD has been labelled as "adult material." As the article explains, it is shocking how times have changed -- almost too shocking. For example, a little girl named Sally meets Gordon (a stranger) on the street and follows him home for some milk and cookies. It makes one realize how much we've lost. Maybe it is best that a parent explain to a young child that, unfortunately, some things just aren't the same anymore.

I miss those simpler, carefree days. Life has become much more complicated.

We stopped watching Sesame Street last year when they started politicking about the plight of orphans in Cambodia and about the homeless and AIDS victims in other third world countries. One character named Gina (a single woman) even adopted a baby out of wed-lock. It was just too much to explain to my kids -- when everything on Sesame Street in the past was, by nature, self-explanatory. The show used to deal with abstract yet relevant subjects like sharing, friendship, and cooperation, along with the practical subjects like the alphabet and numbers. Sesame Street used to be educational and fun, without the "complicated" issues of Angelina Jolie. Let the grown-ups deal with all that.

Can you tell me how to get, how to get to (the old) Sesame Street?

3 comments:

marisa said...

It's definitely a comment on our society and how overly-sensitive we've become. It's like when they changed the Pirates ride at Disneyland.

Dad Stuff said...

I thought it would be nice to watch some old episodes to show my kids who Mr. Hooper was, and what the show was like before Elmo.
It is too bad how some things have changed.

Anonymous said...

Some of the things have always been great and still are. But I agree that it has gotten a little to "inclusive" with Gina adopting a baby without getting married. I also don't like some of the celebrities they bring on their show, what with their politics and everything.