Early 'Sesame Street' Deemed Unfit for Today's Kids
DVDs of early seasons of Sesame Street bear a warning to parents that they may not be appropriate for small children, the New York Times observed today (Monday). Carol-Lynn Parente, executive producer of Sesame Street noted that in the early days of the show, a regular feature was a parody of Masterpiece Theater, featuring Alistair Cookie, played by Cookie Monster, who appeared with a pipe. "That modeled the wrong behavior," Parente observed. Oscar the Grouch appeared too grouchy. "We might not be able to create a character like Oscar now," she said. The Times also noted that in the DVDs (Volumes 1 and 2) Cookie Monster can be seen "in his former inglorious incarnation: a blue, googly-eyed cookievore with a signature gobble ('om nom nom nom')."
WHAT!? Are you fucking KIDDING me?! Give me a fucking break! I can't believe that there are parents out there that buy into this bull-shit.
It's.
Fucking.
Sesame.
Street.
It's not like Oscar the Grouch is out going all Tony Soprano on the other muppets, or the cookie monster is telling kids to go light up and eat cookies until they puke! I can't believe people would put a warning like that on a fucking children's TV show. I am so fed up with the way society treats children...
Discuss.
I have to agree with Carol-Lynn Parente: instead of scaring the hell out of our children with 20th century TV shows we should show them more reality to make them feel safe in this world: burning forests, flooded cities, drive by shootings, bombed cities, starving children, mad cows, child porn, children with no legs from stepping on a land mine, kid soldiers, children with AIDS, children thrown out of the window because they disturbed the parents watching Sesame Street. No need to put a disclaimer on these images.
YourValentine wrote: I have to agree with Carol-Lynn Parente: instead of scaring the hell out of our children with 20th century TV shows we should show them more reality to make them feel safe in this world: burning forests, flooded cities, drive by shootings, bombed cities, starving children, mad cows, child porn, children with no legs from stepping on a land mine, kid soldiers, children with AIDS, children thrown out of the window because they disturbed the parents watching Sesame Street. No need to put a disclaimer on these images.
There's already a TV show like that.
It's called Wonder Showzen.
So Tinky-winky with his purple purse was too gay and Oscar in his trash can is too grouchy? So pathetic. It's as bad as Schwarzenegger banning the words 'mom' and 'dad' in California school books because they exclude 'alternative' lifestyles.
I agree. This politically correct crap has got to stop.
Dan Corson XI: Full Moon Fever wrote: Read on, gentle Queen Zoners!
Early 'Sesame Street' Deemed Unfit for Today's Kids
DVDs of early seasons of Sesame Street bear a warning to parents that they may not be appropriate for small children, the New York Times observed today (Monday). Carol-Lynn Parente, executive producer of Sesame Street noted that in the early days of the show, a regular feature was a parody of Masterpiece Theater, featuring Alistair Cookie, played by Cookie Monster, who appeared with a pipe. "That modeled the wrong behavior," Parente observed. Oscar the Grouch appeared too grouchy. "We might not be able to create a character like Oscar now," she said. The Times also noted that in the DVDs (Volumes 1 and 2) Cookie Monster can be seen "in his former inglorious incarnation: a blue, googly-eyed cookievore with a signature gobble ('om nom nom nom')."
WHAT!? Are you fucking KIDDING me?! Give me a fucking break! I can't believe that there are parents out there that buy into this bull-shit.
It's.
Fucking.
Sesame.
Street.
It's not like Oscar the Grouch is out going all Tony Soprano on the other muppets, or the cookie monster is telling kids to go light up and eat cookies until they puke! I can't believe people would put a warning like that on a fucking children's TV show. I am so fed up with the way society treats children...
Discuss.
How funny....I just went on a rant about this yesterday about being PC and how we are coddeling children and the results it has gotten us and what not. I was dealing more with academia and education and Helicopter Parents, but close enough to this issue: (The rant is at link if anyone is isterested).
Anyhow, back to the topic at hand: I think it's more a matter of parents reading FAR too much into things. Tinky Winky, Sesame Street....ANYTHING can be construed to represent something bad or some negative behavior we don't want in society, you just have to analyze it deeply to get to it. How many of us kids, when we were watching those sections immediately thought "I'm going to go and smoke a pipe now?" Answer? Zero! Because we didn't know how to analyze at that age...we were just watching for the pure entertainment value.
Also, I think it has a lot to do with parents not wanting to take responsibility for things they did when they were younger, and are looking to blame everything and everyone else. For example, say a parent started smoking, even though they know it is bad for you. They see the older stuff like this (Sesame Street, Looney Tunes which they'd never show again because of how "horrible" it is, stuff like that) and they say, "That's why I started smoking!! It had nothing to do with the fact that I made the conscious choice to smoke, knowing full well what the risks are and would be in the future...I saw it on this show every day and that brainwashed me and made me smoke!" Pfft. It's called personal responsibility, which today's society in the US loves to try and get rid of, thus the PC crap we are all embroiled in.
I'm not advocating for everyone to be a jerk to everyone else, or to openly smoke around your children...being polite and mindful of others is a quality I highly prize. What I am advocating is that treating every child like they will shatter into a million pieces and make a lifetime of bad decisions based on minutiae like this is doing more harm than good. Kids are stronger than we give them credit for, and babying them forever and protecting them from everything only takes away their chances to develop coping strategies and the strength they will need to get through life, it's temptations and it's disappointments when sooner or later the parents are no longer there to shield them from everything and fight their battles for them.