happy 40th anniversary, sesame street! xoxo!

SS.OscarCakeFood Network’s Challenge Sesame Street Cake

As Sesame Street celebrates its 40th Anniversary, Time Magazine wonders whether President Barack Obama is our first president from Sesame Street.

“The President is every bit as much a product of the show, but it’s not just his age and mastery of the alphabet that make Obama the first Sesame Street President,” writes Nancy Gibbs in Time, in the cleverly titled “Tickle Me Obama: Lessons from Sesame Street.” “The Obama presidency is a wholly American fusion of optimism, enterprise and earnestness — rather like the far-fetched proposal of 40 years ago to create a TV show that would prove that educational television need not be an oxymoron.”

Meanwhile, in Newsweek, Lisa Guernsey gives us the story of “The Show that Counts: How Sesame Street Changed the World.”

“It is, arguably, the most important children’s program in the history of television,” writes Guernsey. “No show has affected the way we think about education, parenting, childhood development and cultural diversity, both in the United States and abroad, more than Big Bird and friends. You might even say that Sesame Street changed the world, one letter at a time.”

Guernsey goes on to give a wonderful detailed history of the development of the show, from its days created by the Childrens Television Workshop to now, and the spectacular effect it’s had on the ability of television to be both an entertainment and education vehicle.

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Today’s kids have Big Bird in common with their parents and possibly their grandparents. That kind of thing may only be possible on “Sesame Street.”

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GOOGLE CELEBRATES SESAME STREET’S 40th ANNIVERSARY


thank you, kermit

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omg. the tears. i got teary reading the title of the first video below.  i clearly remember the day that jim henson died.  i was 13.  i was standing in the kitchen of the home i’d been born into.  (i was born in the hospital, but i mean this is where they brought me after that.) i could hear, but not see the tv.  and i heard someone say it on the news. maybe it was breaking news.  and i was sure i’d heard incorrectly, so i timidly peeked out into the living room at the tv and i saw his picture and dates and i knew what that meant, so i leaned back into the kitchen and desperately tried to un-know this horrible thing that i knew that i knew.  and it was just so sad and it seemed like time stopped for a second and everything changed.  i know that sounds a little dramatic, but i’m sticking to it.  jim henson is so special.  still.