Sesame Street jumped the shark when

[yvr girl]

everyone could see Snuffleupagus.

[ThomCat]

1. Yes

I agree

[cheezus]

2. and when mr hooper died

:cry:

[yvr girl]

3. he really died

it wasn't a creative choice they made.

I miss Mr. Hooper.

[trotsky]

4. Oh I dunno about that.

That frustrated the hell outta me as a little kid - Snuffleupagus was REAL and the adults always juuuust missed him.

Of course I was grown up by the time they switched that - did they have one particular episode where everyone finally got to see him, or what?

Personally I don't thing Sesame Street will ever jump the shark. Although when Caroll Spinney (sp?) dies, it will be very hard to replace him.

[yvr girl]

8. It totally frustrated me too

I used to scream out at the injustice of it all.

I don't know how Snuffy was revealed. I was no longer a Sesame Street regular by then. I found out by accident.

[tridim]

5. Three other possibilites

1. Elmo introduced
2. "Tickle me" Elmo turns into a corporate whore
3. Oscar stopped being a grouch

[No2W2004]

6. When Evil Bert put that contract out........

what? That wasn't real?

Not even the meetings with Osama?

[tridim]

7. Hey Bert, I really wish you wouldn't drink so much

Well, Ernie, I wish you wouldn't eat cookies in the DAMN BED!

You just gotta love "Family Guy".

[No2W2004]

9. Homicide: Life on Sesame Street

Hello? Son of a bitch. I'm on my way. Some poor bastard got his head blown off down at a place called Hooper's.
Bert, I wish you wouldn't drink so much, Bert!
Well, Ernie, I wish you wouldn't eat cookies in the damn bed!
Bert, you're shouting again, Bert.

[ghostsofgiants]

10. Quite possibly the greatest moment in Family Guy history.

And it takes a lot of greatness to be that great.

[amandae]

11. My kids like Sesame Street

and I do, too. I'm not too into the storylines they have now but they still have a lot of the cartoon/muppet segments that they had when I was a kid and my kids enjoy them too.

I like that Sesame Street also isn't brought to you by anything more than a letter or number. No commericals, no advertising ... no teaching our children to be good little consumers while they're watching television. Hell, even my daughter's school is trying to get her to buy into that crap (i.e., trying to save up for those almost 100,000 soup labels that can FINALLY buy you that computer!!!). Last year she received awards from Pizza Hut each month for reading/being read at least 10 books, worth a free single serve pizza (bring the whole family in though!). Corporations are behind so many things at schools.

Sesame Street also tries to approach subjects that are somewhat current, and keep it at a child's level, helping promote discussion. For example, we have a firefighter Elmo DVD and I can't tell you how many discussions with my kids that it has prompted about fire safety.

Nutshell, I like Sesame Street. The company may market merchandise, but no one tells your kids about it on PBS. They'd have to watch other networks or go to the store to see it. And if proceeds go to the CTW, and keep Sesame Street and other like productions going, than I'll support that.

:hi:

P.S. - I know someone who was afraid of Snuffleupagus when he was a little kid, mostly because he was imaginary and it freaked him out that no one but Big Bird could see him :)

[Taverner]

12. Elmo started taking up half the show

Stupid red puppet....doesn't even know the difference between 1st and 3rd person...

[Krupskaya]

13. Snuffleupagus' outing had a point...

It was in the mid-80s when there was a string of highly publicized child sex-abuse cases. CTW figured that if kids saw no one believing Big Bird when he told adults about Snuffleupagus, kids might be afraid that no one would believe THEM if they told adults about abuse.

So, no fun, but I think the thought behind it was valid.

<shameless blog plug!> I sent an e-mail to CTW about how I thought Sesame Street had gone downhill. If you want to see it you can go here: http://editbarn.blogspot.com/2004/06/open-letter-to-ctw.html#comments

Also, an aside, my blog is the only hit on google for "Norm Coleman" + "craven asshole."

</shamless blog plug>