New York Times: Sweeping the Clouds Away Sunny days! The earliest episodes of “Sesame Street” are available on digital video! Break out some Keebler products, fire up the DVD player and prepare for the exquisite pleasure-pain of top-shelf nostalgia.
Just don’t bring the children. According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, “Sesame Street: Old School” is adults-only: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”
So I watched Sesame Street daily from age 2 -in 1969, when it started - to probably 6 or so. I am certain that it had a strong influence on my desire to live in a city, because the Street was so, so cool-looking to me: fun, lots of people close by, everyone hanging out together. I desperately wanted those surroundings, even as a child, not the suburban neighborhoods we always lived in.
So there you go: Sesame Street is dangerous because it lets kids see other ways of living, including people of many races being friends in close quarters. Not to mention two men living together.
I wanted to live in a big city to, because i thought from watchinf it everyone hung out having fun on the stoop - Ive tried to watch the new stuff with my nieces and nephews and wtf? Its like tv for methadone clinics
the problem is sesame street is now crate and barrel, disney store, and california pizza kitchen on one side and on the other an entire block of 30 foot tall cold, sparse, underdesigned, devoid of people (except for security guards), office/condo lobbies surrounded by back painted glass covered with 'retail for lease' signs
stoops, garbage cans? not that i've ever seen
no cookies but perhaps a cheesecake factory could move in for the cookie monster
hell sesame street wouldn't even have the conflict of whether to show the sin of alcohol consumption cause i don't think there are any real bars left in the neighborhood (though you could probably get a 6 dollar bud light/10 dollar white zinfandel at cali pizza kitchen)
I had the same kind of experience lb, so much so that when I did finally move to a city I would get oddly nostalgic when I would happen upon an urban blacktop playground.
Oh Man. Good memories. Cookie Monster was by far my favorite character. It was always my dream to be one of those kids that got to be the show. Anyone remember Mr. Snuffleupagus?
that article has to be a joke, i had as white and suburban an early upbringing as one could get and I fuckin' loved sesame street. Maybe subconsciously that's why I want to move to Brooklyn.
so much so that when I did finally move to a city I would get oddly nostalgic when I would happen upon an urban blacktop playground.
ME TOO, EXACTLY!!!!!!!!
I even have a prized picture I took of a playground I came across in Paris that reminded me of the urban blacktop type playgrounds I used to see in Sesame Street. I was OBSESSED with those as a child, obsessed with a city where a kid was free to roam down the street all by herself, because she had to take her llama to the dentist, and obsessed with the ability to simply stop by the grocer's shop on the way home from wherever and have a nice chat with the grocer out on the sidewalk. Oh man oh man. I remember when living in Boston I used to think, particularly in fall, this is just like living in Sesame Street!
The new episodes BLOW. They are like technicolor crazyland, and elmo gets like 99% of the airtime, and he talks AT THE KID'S LEVEL OR BELOW. How is that supposed to help a kid grow?!?! To listen to some other babytalking nonsense? Ugh. I'm so glad the originals are on DVD, now my problem of what to show my future children (I actually, truly, have thought about this) is solved!
As Daddytypes pointed out, there is one early Sesame Street that shows a mother breastfeeding; Big Bird asks what she's doing, and the mom very frankly explains that mommies feed babies with milk from their breasts.
Wow, they showed that?! I am suprised about that one. Not that I find it wrong, or anything, just that they showed it on tv, period, when many tv married couples still didnt sleep together.
And just so the argument isn't started.... I liked Sesame street, and never wanted to live in a city. Maybe I'm jsut not easily swayed by the media. Kidding.
Voice: In the early days of the West, the peaceful town of Sniddler's Gulch was threatened by one of the meanest desperadoes of all time, Cowboy X, a man who left his mark everywhere!
(Cowboy X comes riding into town with a branding iron in one hand marked with the letter X.)
Frightened Looking Man: It's Cowboy X!
Cowboy X: Letter X! Letter X! Yipee!!! (he stamps an X)
Voice: Cowboy X left X's everywhere - on the houses, on the streets, in the schoolhouse, X's on the horses, X's on the town hall, even on the good citizens of Sniddler's Gulch themselves!
Cowboy X: (in the distance) X! X! Yipeeee!
(Rides off, leaving a trail of X's)
Voice: The citizens finally decided that Cowboy X had to be stopped.
(Crowd noises)
Man 1: Throw him in jail!
Man 2: Run him out of town!
Little Boy: (crowd dies down) Wait, what if we just ASK Cowboy X to please stop marking up our town with X's?
Man 3: The kid's got an idea!
Man 4: It's so crazy it might work.
Woman: Here comes Cowboy X now.
Cowboy X: X! Woohoo! X! Yiiiiiipee -- X!
(Cowboy X screeches his horse to a halt and stamps an X on the boy's hat.)
Little Boy: Cowboy X, would you please stop marking X's all over our town?
Cowboy X: Why, sure ah'll stop! (laughs)
Town: Aaaaahhhhh!
Cowboy X: From now on, ah'll be known as Cowboy O! (horse neighs) Yiiiipeeeee!!!
(Rides off, leaving O's all over the place.)
Voice: And the citizens of Sniddler's Gulch lived happily ever, because they really weren't very smart!
i can't believe the labels they put on the dvds were for any purpose but to get my generation excited to buy them. whatever reasons of contemporary sensitivity they may have cited, old sesame street is good stuff and i'm sure they weren't meaning to disown or disparage it.
think what good marketing it's been for these dvds that they marked it as they did! we might not otherwise have heard that 'old school' was released!
despite our fond memories of the old stuff, i bet there are certain decidedly non-urban parents that will be put off by the celebration of urban culture in old sesame street episodes. i mean who uses spray fountains at parks anymore?! (besides all of the people in my neighborhood and the urban neighborhoods that surround us, that is.)
i was actually much more of a muppets fan (gonzo and animal) than a sesame street fan, but i did love the count. my daughter is crazy about cookie monster and, yes, elmo. (i swear his stupid red fur and little voice must be like crack for toddlers.)
I alwasy liked 'Muppet babies.' In case no one remembers, they were cartoon versions of the muppets, and always used their imaginations for play. They rocked.
Myriam-
To get really specific, there were a couple playgrounds in the North End of Boston that made me feel that way. A couple in JP too. There's an awesome one near my sister's in JP. It is full of toys left by the neighboring families, so there are ride-on toys galore. Very cool, teaching socialism from the beginning!
Nov 21, 07 12:52 pm ·
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Cookie Monster is dead to me.
Sunny days! The earliest episodes of “Sesame Street” are available on digital video! Break out some Keebler products, fire up the DVD player and prepare for the exquisite pleasure-pain of top-shelf nostalgia.
Just don’t bring the children. According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, “Sesame Street: Old School” is adults-only: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”
Cookie Monster
1969 - 2005
Requiescat in Pace
Yeah, I saw this on daddytypes.
So I watched Sesame Street daily from age 2 -in 1969, when it started - to probably 6 or so. I am certain that it had a strong influence on my desire to live in a city, because the Street was so, so cool-looking to me: fun, lots of people close by, everyone hanging out together. I desperately wanted those surroundings, even as a child, not the suburban neighborhoods we always lived in.
So there you go: Sesame Street is dangerous because it lets kids see other ways of living, including people of many races being friends in close quarters. Not to mention two men living together.
PS Elmo is a dork.
I wanted to live in a big city to, because i thought from watchinf it everyone hung out having fun on the stoop - Ive tried to watch the new stuff with my nieces and nephews and wtf? Its like tv for methadone clinics
elmo is a dork. long live the cookie monster.
those cookies never went down the hatch...bulemia?
Wait, what?!
put your head phones on
sesame street
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z93Kvl3YMWQ
deniro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmbiji_uP6c&feature=related
ghetto boys.......hahahahahahaha
the problem is sesame street is now crate and barrel, disney store, and california pizza kitchen on one side and on the other an entire block of 30 foot tall cold, sparse, underdesigned, devoid of people (except for security guards), office/condo lobbies surrounded by back painted glass covered with 'retail for lease' signs
stoops, garbage cans? not that i've ever seen
no cookies but perhaps a cheesecake factory could move in for the cookie monster
hell sesame street wouldn't even have the conflict of whether to show the sin of alcohol consumption cause i don't think there are any real bars left in the neighborhood (though you could probably get a 6 dollar bud light/10 dollar white zinfandel at cali pizza kitchen)
Just sayin
Stevie with the tightest band ever on the Street!
I had the same kind of experience lb, so much so that when I did finally move to a city I would get oddly nostalgic when I would happen upon an urban blacktop playground.
my top 3 of Sesame Street - shit top 5 -
5. Bert
4. Ernie
3. Cookie Monster
2. Oscar The Grouch
1. Grover/Super Grover
Bert and Ernie names come from "It's A Wonderful Life"
I like the Count too....
Oh Man. Good memories. Cookie Monster was by far my favorite character. It was always my dream to be one of those kids that got to be the show. Anyone remember Mr. Snuffleupagus?
my top
1. the swedish chef
2. beaker
3. the cool saxaphone guy
4. animal on the drums
5. the little rat dude...hahah
i'm sure my list will change once i start seeing the characters again
b
uh...cryz, that's not Sesame Street, that's the Muppets...
My top Five Muppets characters:
1 Beaker (one of my cat's is named after him)
2. The Swedish Chef
3. The two cranky guys in the balcony
4. Animal
5. Fozzy Bear
hahahah....fuck......
damn......
umm....
top 5....
1.grover
2.-----
3.------
4.------
5.<>
that article has to be a joke, i had as white and suburban an early upbringing as one could get and I fuckin' loved sesame street. Maybe subconsciously that's why I want to move to Brooklyn.
ME TOO, EXACTLY!!!!!!!!
I even have a prized picture I took of a playground I came across in Paris that reminded me of the urban blacktop type playgrounds I used to see in Sesame Street. I was OBSESSED with those as a child, obsessed with a city where a kid was free to roam down the street all by herself, because she had to take her llama to the dentist, and obsessed with the ability to simply stop by the grocer's shop on the way home from wherever and have a nice chat with the grocer out on the sidewalk. Oh man oh man. I remember when living in Boston I used to think, particularly in fall, this is just like living in Sesame Street!
The new episodes BLOW. They are like technicolor crazyland, and elmo gets like 99% of the airtime, and he talks AT THE KID'S LEVEL OR BELOW. How is that supposed to help a kid grow?!?! To listen to some other babytalking nonsense? Ugh. I'm so glad the originals are on DVD, now my problem of what to show my future children (I actually, truly, have thought about this) is solved!
As Daddytypes pointed out, there is one early Sesame Street that shows a mother breastfeeding; Big Bird asks what she's doing, and the mom very frankly explains that mommies feed babies with milk from their breasts.
So cutting edge, and such high quality!
Wow, they showed that?! I am suprised about that one. Not that I find it wrong, or anything, just that they showed it on tv, period, when many tv married couples still didnt sleep together.
And just so the argument isn't started.... I liked Sesame street, and never wanted to live in a city. Maybe I'm jsut not easily swayed by the media. Kidding.
Umm, not sure i follow,
why will the dvds have adult only?
And my Top List
The Count
Big Bird
Snuffuluffugus?
Curly Bear
Grover (whom i always liked better than Elmo)
Placido Flamingo
Slimey the worm
Who can forget Cowboy X?
The scene is an old western town.
Voice: In the early days of the West, the peaceful town of Sniddler's Gulch was threatened by one of the meanest desperadoes of all time, Cowboy X, a man who left his mark everywhere!
(Cowboy X comes riding into town with a branding iron in one hand marked with the letter X.)
Frightened Looking Man: It's Cowboy X!
Cowboy X: Letter X! Letter X! Yipee!!! (he stamps an X)
Voice: Cowboy X left X's everywhere - on the houses, on the streets, in the schoolhouse, X's on the horses, X's on the town hall, even on the good citizens of Sniddler's Gulch themselves!
Cowboy X: (in the distance) X! X! Yipeeee!
(Rides off, leaving a trail of X's)
Voice: The citizens finally decided that Cowboy X had to be stopped.
(Crowd noises)
Man 1: Throw him in jail!
Man 2: Run him out of town!
Little Boy: (crowd dies down) Wait, what if we just ASK Cowboy X to please stop marking up our town with X's?
Man 3: The kid's got an idea!
Man 4: It's so crazy it might work.
Woman: Here comes Cowboy X now.
Cowboy X: X! Woohoo! X! Yiiiiiipee -- X!
(Cowboy X screeches his horse to a halt and stamps an X on the boy's hat.)
Little Boy: Cowboy X, would you please stop marking X's all over our town?
Cowboy X: Why, sure ah'll stop! (laughs)
Town: Aaaaahhhhh!
Cowboy X: From now on, ah'll be known as Cowboy O! (horse neighs) Yiiiipeeeee!!!
(Rides off, leaving O's all over the place.)
Voice: And the citizens of Sniddler's Gulch lived happily ever, because they really weren't very smart!
the 2 cranky guys in the balcony.... statler & waldorf.... hotel guys from way back....
[just to get all architectural on everyone, sorry it's 5am here]
i can't believe the labels they put on the dvds were for any purpose but to get my generation excited to buy them. whatever reasons of contemporary sensitivity they may have cited, old sesame street is good stuff and i'm sure they weren't meaning to disown or disparage it.
think what good marketing it's been for these dvds that they marked it as they did! we might not otherwise have heard that 'old school' was released!
despite our fond memories of the old stuff, i bet there are certain decidedly non-urban parents that will be put off by the celebration of urban culture in old sesame street episodes. i mean who uses spray fountains at parks anymore?! (besides all of the people in my neighborhood and the urban neighborhoods that surround us, that is.)
i was actually much more of a muppets fan (gonzo and animal) than a sesame street fan, but i did love the count. my daughter is crazy about cookie monster and, yes, elmo. (i swear his stupid red fur and little voice must be like crack for toddlers.)
I alwasy liked 'Muppet babies.' In case no one remembers, they were cartoon versions of the muppets, and always used their imaginations for play. They rocked.
what about "meet the feebles"? That is quality muppetry!
Yip yip yip yip yip..... noooo, noooo, noooo....
Myriam-
To get really specific, there were a couple playgrounds in the North End of Boston that made me feel that way. A couple in JP too. There's an awesome one near my sister's in JP. It is full of toys left by the neighboring families, so there are ride-on toys galore. Very cool, teaching socialism from the beginning!
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