But this new show was different from all the others. It was on PBS, which meant people all over the country were watching the same thing. This new show included all kinds of children, not just little white children. This new show also included all kinds of neighbors. The adults in this new show didn't talk DOWN to children; they talked TO children, and not just about childish things, either. I was so engrossed by this new Sesame Street show that I wrote my very first term paper about it!
Children are forced, as are we all, to live in a world populated by all sorts of people, and in which all kinds of things happen - good and bad. A typical kid show of the era spoke only of good things, and the themes were usually some variation of "behave yourself" or "use good manners" - legitimate lessons, to be sure, but not what's foremost on a child's mind most days.
But this new show - this Sesame Street - it fascinated me. It was. . . . interesting, even to a college gal.
Then, a few years later, I had kids of my own. Every morning of the world, my daughter sat in her tiny little chair in front of our tiny little TV and watched - mesmerized - as children, adults, and puppets talked, sang, asked questions, got good answers, danced, and taught lessons most elementary teachers have been trying to teach for a million years. Not only that: these lessons were LEARNED and REMEMBERED!
This fabulous DVD collection - which includes a small hardbound book that's also full of history and fun - was such a walk down memory lane for me. . . I'm loaning it to my daughter next week so she can sit - this time in a big chair - and remember these things, too.
We LOVED Buffy St. Marie and her tiny son; the scene where she was dipping him in the water and singing to him as she bathed him remains to this day one of our mutual favorites.
We loved how the adult relationships developed. When Mr. Hooper died, this sad occurrence was dealt with rationally and wisely: people die, and we have to deal with it even if we're just little children. Big Bird's grief was everyone's grief. "You know, I'm gonna miss you, Mr. Hooper." And so we all did. And do.
(I did not know before that the wonderful Will Lee (Mr. Hooper) had been on Broadway and in many films and TV shows before being blacklisted during the infamous McCarthy era!) (Makes me love him even more!)
On Sesame Street, as on every street in every neighborhood in every state in every nation, things changed and things stayed the same. People grew up. People got married. People died. People quarreled. People made up, or didn't. Sesame Street told it like it was, the bad as well as the good, in ways a child could understand and relate to.
I can remember LONG ago when Jim Henson and Kermit appeared on the Tonight Show. It was the first time most people had ever seen either of them. How awesome that such wondrous things were born from such a humble beginning!
This two-disc DVD set has made me cry and laugh out loud and THINK. It's sent me down memory lane with a vengeance.
You don't have to have kids to love Sesame Street. And if you DO have kids - even if they're grown and gone - you still need Sesame Street: 40 years of Sunny Days. It'll make you young again. Seriously.
