Sesame Street 40th Anniversary!

Can it be forty years!? Google says the day is today (Wednesday, November 4). I thought it was later. Either way, it's been forty years since its premiere broadcast, and Sesame Street will kick-off its landmark 40th season on PBS next Tuesday, November 10.

How great is that? I remember when it came on the air. I was a high school senior, and already interested in radio and TV as a career. I already loved Jim Henson's Muppets from previous incarnations. He was my hero. (I was into puppetry as a child -- another story for another time.)

And then came Big Bird, Oscar, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Grover, Bert and Ernie, and all the rest. And Kermit! (How did I forget Kermit?) Each day was a whole new set of adventures, fast-paced animation, lessons, catchy songs, games and sketches.

Even though I was decidedly not part of the target audience, I was enamored. I knew that this was quality. This was meaningful. This was going to make an impact.

And it did, in so many ways. It affected the way we think about education, childhood development and cultural diversity, to name a few.

Back in the day, kids were glued to the sets, hypnotised by test patterns! Bozo the Clown and Romper Room kept us pretty mindlessly entertained in the fifties and sixties. The idea that toddlers could learn was, well, new and untested. TV largely ignored preschool children's intellect, probably reflecting the larger society which pretty much did the same.

During that first season, they tried to show that kids could count to ten. Seems incredibly simplistic now. Soon, it was clear that two and three year olds could learn to count to twenty. (Nowadays, the counting goes all the way to 100!)

When those preschoolers started showing up in Kindergarten already knowing their letters and numbers, their teachers had to change. Much of the reform we've seen in education can (arguably) be traced back in part to Sesame Street's impact. As one of the most researched shows on television, studies on Sesame Street have shown its positive effects on reading and achievement last through high school.

But the bigger impact was made through its quiet activism. It always targeted urban, lower-socio-economic kids. From the beginning, it showed kids of different races living together. And the African American kids were shown as equals to the white kids. This didn't go over real well in some parts of the South, but it also challenged the "norm" throughout America.

It's shocking that Nielsen tells us that Sesame Street ranks only 15th among the top children's shows on the air. Today's tots are more likely to recognize Dora or SpongeBob than Big Bird or Cookie Monster. They used to create 130 new episodes a year; now, only 26 each season. This is the most important children's TV program ever (with apologies to Captain Kangaroo and Mister Rogers). It would be truly sad if it fell off of the cultural landscape.

Just as a tip-of-the-hat to Sesame Street, I invite you to watch a video of "outtakes" where comedian Ricky Gervais interviews Muppet Elmo. Not quite appropriate for pre-schoolers, but good fun anyway.



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