Observations From Watching Sesame Street

This morning, G3 and I watched Sesame Street. Now I'm not really one to just turn on the TV and plop him down...I know this is probably rotting his brain. But there is no disputing the fact that the television entertains him, so I at least try to stick to "educational" kids programming, instead of, for example, "Beverly Hills 90210".

On to Sesame Street. It's safe to say that in the 20 (okay, 25) years or so since I've watched, very little has changed. As G3 crawled right up to the big screen TV and planted himself about 3 inches from the screen, a few thoughts crossed my mind...

1. I now understand why people thought Bert and Ernie were gay. Okay, I know they're just puppets but honestly two men who've been living together for years in striped V-neck sweaters? On today's episode they were practicing patting each other's tummies. Cute.

2. Bert has a unibrow and Ernie has no brows. Hmm, maybe they aren't gay.

3. The old staples are still there...such as "One of these things is not like the other" and song like "Rubber Ducky".

4. The SAME adults still live on Sesame Street! Maria, Gordon, Linda...and what's even more surprising, none of them appear to have aged! Well, I suppose you probably rake in enough income to afford Botox when your show has been on the air for fifty years.

5. They still have letters and numbers of the day. This is good, since the other day Gabe (self proclaimed genius with and IQ of 154--so he says) was heard talking to our son about "the letter 8". Next week's lesson will be "the number Q."

6. I never liked the Count, and I still don't. His scenes are boring.

7. The Elmo on TV is not nearly as grating as the live "Tickle Me Extreme" version that inhabits our basement and screams wildly "YOU TICKLED ELMO!!! AHHHH HAHAAA HAAA" and flails about on the ground seizure-like. No wonder G3 was scared of it for the first 2 months we had it.

8. Elmo's goldfish's name is Dorothy. This is just cute. He also opens his window shade and there's a guy behind it named Mr. Noodle who looks like he should be in Srgnt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and does funny things like plays with big nets and runs imaginary basements while Elmo narrates in his cute voice. Its clear now why Elmo, a relatively minor part of SS in my day, has risen to extreme fame. Elmo also kisses a baby in today's episode. The "awwwww" factor is pretty high.

9. Big Bird seems like a big dummy. Was he always? I think he was my favorite.

My overall general observaion is that Sesame Street wins out over the one dinky Baby Einstein video we have...I guess if you're entertained by a crew of puppets you might as well stick with some proven winners, right?