Thursday Thirteen: Sesame Street
Holy shit, I’m old. When an icon like Sesame Street is younger than you are, you are OLD. Maybe my dear friend Toby is right and I AM older than dirt.
Or maybe I’m lying about my age.
Doesn’t really matter. What matters is that Sesame Street turned 40.
I have vivid memories of:
1. Mr. Hooper. What a funny thing to think of first.
2. The street itself. The dirty, gritty street that was clearly not the TV set. I always knew it was shot somewhere else. The streets of New York? Didn’t matter. Those city streets were very different from my own suburban white-bread upbringing.
3. Oscar. Man, I love that grouch. Maybe there’s part of him in Trevor.
4. Cookie Monster! I remain envious at the sheer number of cookies that muppet has access to. In my next life, I want to be Cookie Monster.
5. The Count and his organ. I think I liked the organ better than I liked the counting. (See? Music junkie at a young age!)
6. Gordon and Maria. They were so nice. I think the lessons of their different ethnicity were lost on me. Or maybe that explains why I don’t get the fuss about people of other ethnic backgrounds.
7. Bert and Ernie. Gay? Fuck no. Best friends.
8. Big Bird. Big, yellow, feathered … and while others may say he’s a true innocent, I always sort of thought he wasn’t that smart.
9. Grover. I never really got Grover. I just sorta tolerated him, the way you tolerate a goofy friend.
10. “Sh..” “..eep” Remember those word mashes? And the lips that spoke them?
11. MUPPETS. Oh, man. Nothing on that show impacted me more than the muppets did. I adore the muppets. I adore all they stand for: making life a party, and laughing, and caring. Dance your life away, worries for another day… or however the Fraggle Rock song goes. I shouldn’t even be singing it ’cause it wasn’t on Sesame Street.
12. Hi-ho! Kermit the Frog here! Those of you who recall my character of Kermitt Ladd, intrepid rock reporter, will maybe, hopefully, finally get the joke.
13. Rubber Duckie. Enough said.
Happy birthday, Sesame Street. Here’s to 40 more years of you raising our kids right. Assuming you all think I came out right…
I remember when Sesame Street was new. It was a big deal from the very beginning. People who complain about merchandise tie-ins to popular shows and movies forget that they did it with Sesame Street almost from Day One.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:27 ambunnygirl´s last blog ..Monday Bunday: Sleeping In
Oooh! Count von Count & Big Bird were always my favorites! I used to watch this and Electric Company every day.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:30 amNever really “got” Grover? Just tolerated him? Oh Susan…
November 12th, 2009 at 2:22 amRobin´s last blog ..Cactus Jack
Hmm, I know most of the characters so I must have watched the show a couple of times, but it wasn’t my favorite. Was Miss Piggy on Sesame Street as well? I always liked her on The Muppets.
November 12th, 2009 at 5:52 amShelley Munro´s last blog ..Spice Up Your Life
I am older than Sesame Street too, but I never thought of myself as old as dirt (although there are those who would say I probably should). I loved Sesame Street. My kids never got into it the way I was.
November 12th, 2009 at 7:48 amAnne´s last blog ..What the Hell? Hair, Mice, and the 80s
Wow does things bring back a couple flashbacks. My personal favorite is Animal, the drummer.
Happy T13!
November 12th, 2009 at 9:17 amAdelle Laudan´s last blog ..
Grover was way cool
Loved your list this week.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:06 amhttp://iamharriet.blogspot.com/2009/11/does-bubble-gum-lose-its-flavor-on.html
Love your TT list! I loved Fraggle Rock and the Muppets! I tried getting my kids to watch Fraggle Rock not too long ago and they laughed at me. LOL
November 12th, 2009 at 10:48 amI never did get to watch much Sesame Street (my dad had strange tv rules…) but I remember how happy the opening credits were (the new ones aren’t as good) and I, too, loved Cookie Monster and would like to be allowed in the room where his cookie stash is hidden!
Grover was annoying, and you are right about Big Bird too….I never got the whole Elmo thing (although my daughter did love him when she was younger)I liked Gordon and Maria, and Bert and Ernie were definitely best friends!
Happy TT!
November 12th, 2009 at 11:08 amMy mother bought her first TV just so I could watch Sesame Street. It was my favorite show for years. It’s also the first and only show my daughter watched for a long time.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:26 amCalicoCrazy´s last blog ..Thursday Thirteen #15
I loved Sesame Street. Bert & Ernie are best friends. I don’t think Miss Piggy joined the group until The Muppet Show, but I could be wrong.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:35 amP.S. Send the arc, please?
Ann´s last blog ..Weekend Update
Sesame Street was what I always noticed on TV when I was a kid. I especially remember Big Bird and Kermit the frog.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:17 pmHazel´s last blog ..There I fixed it
I loved Sesame Street as a kid and am so happy that my girls always ask to watch the Old School DVDs.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:24 pmIts. Only. Fourty?
Great. Now I feel old.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:31 pmAlice Audrey´s last blog ..116/365 Mr. Al Hard at Work
Welcome to the Older Than Dirt club!
My strongest SS memories: Mr. Hooper, Oscar (when he was orange!), Ernie & Bert and that crazy baker who would could down a number, then fall down the stairs carrying “four banana cream pies!”
November 12th, 2009 at 2:29 pmDawn – She is Too Fond of Books´s last blog ..Advice for NaNoWriMo participants (vlog)
Add me to the list of Muppet lovers, especially Kermit. Actually, I have my Kermit bag right here beside me.
November 12th, 2009 at 2:36 pmThe lips were from The Electric Company–not Sesame Street. That being said, I am a huge muppet fan.
November 12th, 2009 at 5:04 pmJourneywoman´s last blog ..Thursday Thirteen–Thirteen ways I’ve been saving money
Oscar the Grouch was always my favorite.
Thursday Thirteen – Me & Music
November 12th, 2009 at 7:24 pmNessa´s last blog ..Thursday Thirteen – Me & Music
I grew up watching sesame street and then my oldest watched it! what great memories – I can still sing a lot of those songs from the show!
November 12th, 2009 at 9:26 pmTina´s last blog ..Thursday Thirteen
We used to have Sesame Street Live at the theatre where I used to work, and what an experience that was. It was like a rock concert for toddlers and 3-year-olds. All of the house rules weren’t in place for this show – we could seat people throughout, and have little dancing people in the aisles. It was pure delirious rapture for two hours. I always got teary as I was seating people at the top of the show, because when I went back up the aisle, looking at the audience, the expressions of wonder and joy on the parents’ faces were even more touching than the expressions on the kids’ faces.
November 13th, 2009 at 12:18 pmJulia Smith´s last blog ..I’m blogging at Popculturedivas today
I didn’t discover Sesame Street until my eldest was born (mid 80s) although I’d heard of the muppets before then. (Muppet Show anyone? Stadler and Waldorf?)
LOL about the “Hi Ho” reference to Kermit, that evokes such a clear memory of him. Love it (and Kermit too)
November 13th, 2009 at 1:36 pmLeah Braemel´s last blog ..Happy Birthday, GG (treats for all!)
“…So you take the golden “an” and you put it in the tan van…”
Oooo! And how about the aliens who hide behind their own lips?
I love Sesame Street.
Anyway, the reason that my T13 was so short is that I’m on vacation currently, but I still have to do by blogging duties…And I was out sick the last two days before I had to leave…you get the idea. If you get bored, you can keep track of me on vacation on Twitter @calliope.
November 13th, 2009 at 2:48 pmCelticlibrarian´s last blog ..Was it a cat I saw? and Other Palindrome Madness
i started watching around the time Mr. Hooper died. I have TONS of ss memories!!
November 13th, 2009 at 3:57 pmI, too, am older than Sesame Street: by exactly one month! I remember it well, in addition to the Electric Company, with Jennifer of the Jungle (I identified …)
November 14th, 2009 at 8:50 pmJennifer´s last blog ..Away from here
[...] blogged about Sesame Street turning 40 over at the Meet and Greet last [...]
November 15th, 2009 at 6:40 pm