Generation NeXt Parenting

Early Sesame Street...not for the faint of heart...

Very interesting article in The New York Times about how Sesame Street (and more importantly our society/culture) has morphed over the years...

Say what? At a recent all-ages home screening, a hush fell over the room. “What
did they do to us?” asked one Gen-X mother of two, finally. The show rolled, and
the sweet trauma came flooding back. What they did to us was hard-core. Man, was
that scene rough. The masonry on the dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street,
where the closeted Ernie and Bert shared a dismal basement apartment, was
deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a fast track to diabetes. Oscar’s
depression was untreated. Prozacky Elmo didn’t exist.

Nothing in the children’s entertainment of today, candy-colored animation hopped up on computer tricks, can prepare young or old for this frightening glimpse of simpler times. Back then — as on the very first episode, which aired on PBS Nov. 10, 1969 — a pretty, lonely girl like Sally might find herself befriended by an older male
stranger who held her hand and took her home. Granted, Gordon just wanted Sally
to meet his wife and have some milk and cookies, but . . . well, he could have
wanted anything. As it was, he fed her milk and cookies. The milk looks
dangerously whole.

Read the rest here...


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posted by Tricia Goyer @ 12:05 PM