This past weekend I was in Washington DC, on some unrelated business, when Sesame Street came to town. In celebration of 40 years in broadcasting, the Sesame Street media frenzy landed squarely on the Washington DC mall in all of its feathered and tethered wonderfulness. Leading up to this rich pageant, I was repeatedly reminded of this upcoming anniversary through the coverage of First Lady Michelle Obama’s appearance on the anniversary show, as well as all the requisite reflections on the legacy of Sesame Street. Considering the fact that Sesame Street was born around the same time as yours truly and, while my contribution to the larger culture is still in question, Sesame Street has unequivocally raised the bar on educational television and made a significant impact on pop culture over the past 40 years (try to find a grown adult that doesn’t hold some fondness for the show), I thought, why not join the fray, and take a longer look at the show everyone loves to love.

With its premiere on November 10, 1969, Sesame Street changed the children’s television game for good. In a televisual landscape that was dominated by the likes of Howdy Doody and Davy and Goliath, Sesame Street was more than an electronic babysitter, it was a both public service addressing the needs of the underserved and a wake up call to mediocre children’s programming. It was innovative, educational, and engaging where other shows were just rote entertainment, and revealed that television had the power not just to amuse and divert, but to engage and foster a deeper understanding (an interesting side note, the initial concept behind the show was to develop educational programming for underprivileged and poor children who were unable to afford suitable preschool, thus giving them some of the advantages of their more affluent counterparts).

Anyone that has scrolled through one of my posts knows that I am hardly a champion of children’s television. For the most part, I think children would be fine without any TV for the first 6 years of their life, at least. However, Sesame Street is more than an exception, it is a cultural benchmark and a phenomenal one at that. It has helped teach successive generations of children to count, identify colors, letters, shapes, and work with essential concepts (tolerance, sharing, etc). It is broadcast in 125 countries around the world, and routinely tackles (at least in an age appropriate sort of way) troubling and/or thorny issues, including AIDS, cancer, death, and disease.

Sure Sesame Street has had its critics and detractors, like the Mississippi State Commission, which in 1970 voted to ban Sesame Street, stating that “Mississippi was not yet ready” for the show’s integrated cast. And then there is the recent mock criticism offered by Stephan Colbert of The Colbert Report, in which Colbert took the show to task as “the most insidious socialist brainwashing program in our nation’s history.” However, for the most part, Sesame Street is widely loved (or, at least, thought of fondly) and often heralded as the watershed event in public television (New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell championed the show and claimed, “Sesame Street was built around a single, breakthrough insight: that if you can hold the attention of children, you can educate them”).

So sure it is a bit indulgent, but what has been your experience with Sesame Street? Both as a child, and as a parent? Has the show retained its vision and integrity over the past forty years? Is it still relevant in today’s 24-hour children’s programming glut? Favorite memories or video links you would like to share? Here is one of mine:

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