Sesame Street Old School DVD's: Not For Kids

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I'm sure that most reasonable parents wouldn't want their children copying those aspects of Sesame Street either. Poor social skills can harm someone as badly as a poor diet, yet no one's seen Bert sing to Ernie about minding his manners...or Charlie sing to Grover about treating customers respectfully.

The thing is, it's not wrong to show TV characters occasionally acting badly. That's what makes a good story. It helps the real life audience connect with the characters. The important thing is whether the overall character teaches something good in the end. The answer is not to make a "Stepford Street" where everyone's happy and cheerful all the time.

Still, it bothers me that parents notice one problem and blame Sesame Street for it--yet ignore other problems that could have triggered the same response.

"We must blame them and cause a fuss before somebody thinks of blaming us!"

 

[Boober_Gorg]

"We must blame them and cause a fuss before somebody thinks of blaming us!"

THANK YOU for quoting the South Park movie. Seriously. This board needed it.

 

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THANK YOU for quoting the South Park movie. Seriously. This board needed it.

Aw, no problem! I completely agree; it was a fantastic movie. I used to judge South Park (like a lot of people did) as being vulgar and stupid. But when I finally sat down to watch it, I realized it was one of the most intelligent things I've ever seen on TV. I'm not saying 8 year olds should be watching it, lol. But it definitely should not be held responsible for the degredation of society.

 

[wwfpooh]

Aw, no problem! I completely agree; it was a fantastic movie. I used to judge South Park (like a lot of people did) as being vulgar and stupid. But when I finally sat down to watch it, I realized it was one of the most intelligent things I've ever seen on TV. I'm not saying 8 year olds should be watching it, lol. But it definitely should not be held responsible for the degredation of society.

But as intelligent as it is, it sure isn't changing things for the better in how crude it is, either.

 

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Well again, I definitely don't think kids should be watching South Park. It's not the proper audience and they wouldn't understand what was going on anyway.

I definitely respect your opinion, I just feel like PC issues such as crude language are overshadowing deeper ones. South Park expresses legitimate and thoughtful opinions on important social issues. And that is something that is desperately needed on Television (and in society) today.

But I don't want to go too much off topic now.

 

[wwfpooh]

Whilst what you said rings true, this doesn't mean the show must contain foul language to get said point across. Heck, as we know, Old-School Sesame crossed that border several times without truly ever crossing too many controversial lines. It is just that in today's modern PC-protective world, even vintage Sesame is dogged for being too risque when it was eventually accepted for its time period.

 

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It is just that in today's modern PC-protective world, even vintage Sesame is dogged for being too risque when it was eventually accepted for its time period.

Which is a big reason why I don't think PC is the way to go.

You're right, South Park does not need to use foul language (though again, it's not for children). And definitely, not everyone has to like it. However personally, I think they do it in a humorous and well placed manner and not just "for the heck of it." They even did an episode that said people shouldn't curse every other word.

And sadly, there are TV shows that don't use any curse words, but then have no message at all (or at least not helpful ones). I'm just saying cursing is not the biggest problem we have.

And ultimately, people young and old should know better than to shape their behavior and personality solely off a TV show. It needs to begin in the home. And while I think TV should provide a good example, it should not be expected to raise children.

"Let us...recognize that we are bound together
In our desire to see the world become
A place in which our children
Can grow free and strong."

(That's a song called "Shed a Little Light" by James Taylor. It was written for Martin Luther King, but sung for Richard Hunt at his memorial.)

 

[ISNorden]

I've heard of some over-zealous parents complaining about Cookie Monster's language in a recent "Letter of the Day" sketch. The offending phrase? He said "What the hey..." before giving in and eating the letter cookie. Worrying about a mild, not-so-obvious expression like that goes beyond political correctness or "Stepford Street" ideals; it's just plain ridiculous.

 

[wwfpooh]

VIOLENT/TRASH VIDEO GAMES where they kill people and just commit violence!

Hey, even we had our Mortal Kombat back in the day and as we've seen, we've turned out pretty good. As noted before, learning and teaching really does start in the home, for if parents don't do their job (in instilling some crucial ideals into their children's heads early on), don't do it well, or leave TV/games as the "babysitter", it is bound to sometime bite them in the backside, and this is because even the most wholesome of shows would have its times of misery.

Heck, look at Fraggle Rock! As much as that beloved series showed the kindness and loving care that we all should strive for through music and likeable characters in a way that only Jim could do, it also--through things like Doc's constant belittling of Sprocket, the Fraggles' constant sacrifice of going into the Gorg garden just to sustain their livelihood, and Boober's often depressing nature on the whole--dealt with its harsh times as well, even as far as to threaten the very existance of the core characters in episodes such as "The Bells of Fraggle Rock".

 

[Drtooth]

- The fact that Cookie Monster is addicted to cookies.

- That fact that Oscar permanently lives in a trash can, and is never affable.

- The fact that Ernie is seen in the bathtub (from the waist up!) (*gasp* Implied puppet nudity! Not to mention that when Bert is in the same scene, it might send the message to the children that it's ok to walk in on someone when they're naked! Highly doubt that.)

I call bullhonkey on all counts. Cookie still eats cookies (and buildings and foam rubber letters). Oscar living in garbage was never an issue, and heck, Oscar acted pretty out of character in 2 skits from 1970 (refer to this thread. And as for Ernie's Bathtub? Well, they've shown Do the Rubber Duck and the new version of Rubber Duckie since. Again... no complaint.

I think multiple problems stem from the need to get the youngest possible audience and having to incorporate kids who don't get any benefit from television. I mean, if a child is less than 2 years old, they aren't going to take anything away from anything. No matter how many cheap oven mitt "Puppets" Disney makes for the Baby Einstine videos.

Here is a review of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (note: this is posted purely for the sake of argument and ties in with what I'm about to say-any critique of that show is best left to another thread). That pretty much summs up 90% of children's programming since Blue's Clues. I can't even say dumbed down.

It's a shame SS has to sink to that level, but hey... remember they wanted to air the show when they would not have competition. That was 1969... long before rich suburban parents with cable. Now they have nothing but competition. Bad ones. More of these rich suburbanites would rather their kids watch that garbage than Sesame anyway.

As for role models... well, I'm sick of people saying Dora is a role model jut because she's Latina. The character has zero personality. Rosita, however, is a character... she speaks full fluent Spanish at a real world level (not slow and repeating one word she said in English in Spanish). But no one ever pats SS on the back for her.