In my never-ending, tireless, four day quest to completely categorize Sesame Street (read my previous features here, here and here), it seems I have completely missed one.
Mental Floss Magazine has tapped a hidden but flowing resource of Muppets who have actually been fired from Sesame Street, characters I almost completely had erased from my memory like musician Don Music, Professor Hastings and Bruno the Trashman.
Who knew that Muppets could also fall victim to the horrors and uncaring hands of a mighty economic recession? I suppose that living in a garbage can makes you financially bulletproof.
It's not surprising that a colorful and lively show like Sesame Street, one devised by the genius that was Muppets creator Jim Henson, was at heart a comedy. What is surprising is that so many adults who grew up with the show still find it so damn funny (or maybe that has more to do with the rise of marijuana use, but beggars can't be users, er, choosers).
In fact, a recent box set of the show's earliest episodes came with a disclaimer that the episodes contained within it were "not for kids." That's also because it contained the rare lost episode from the early 1970s when Grover and Prairie Dawn accidentally wandered into the Plato's Retreat swingers club where they learned the difference between "top" and "bottom".
The point is adults can find just as much to laugh at as their kids do and here are the biggest chortle-makers.
As any child of the 80s knows, there is a slew of great mini-cartoons and animation shorts from Sesame Street that belong on yesterday's list of the greatest shorts. Unfortunately, word space and time are cruel mistresses.
There was a sixth I wanted to include but had to go: the famous Baby Climbs the Stairs short. It deserves special mention because it's more emotional teaching than just concrete concepts like numbers or letters. It was also created by W. Lee Savage, the father of Mythbusters host and special effects guy Adam Savage.
Sit a kid in front of a TV for an hour a day and a parent is bound to find something that offends them, other than the fact that plopping impressionable minds in front of a TV unsupervised is considered "good parenting."
Sesame Street is no stranger to controversy. Critics, cynics and crybabies have called out the show on everything from questionable behavior to the ambiguous situations...of puppets. Of course, all of these complaints and cackling criticisms just scratch the surface of a much bigger issue that has largely gone unaddressed: the total loss of our sanity and grasp on reality.
So as we look back at the last 40 years of television's greatest children's show, we see some speed bumps along the way. These are the ones that caused the greatest loss of tire pressure.
Everyone on Sesame Street is cheery and happy and beaming with cheery happiness, but all that internal sunshine has blinded from the reason why Oscar is such a grouch.
Finally, Oscar finds the gumption to tell everyone on Sesame Street why he's such a big ol' grouch.
WARNING: This video contains language some people might find offensive. So if you're within ear shot of your boss and don't like it when he gets all mad and fires you, use the headphones, please.
This week marks the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, the greatest and most celebrated kids' show in the history of the known universe.
Its cast of colorful character and innovative use of the medium have made it more than just entertainment for the young ones. It's a children's show that has educated the growing minds of children all over the world. It's a show that has shaped a generation into curious and innovative people. It's a show that could kick the ass of any other children's show on the planet if the two were in some sort of a weird battle to the death, provided that no weapons were involved and Justice League doesn't count as a kids' show.
To celebrate this momentous day in television history, I'm compiling the most interesting moments, memories and characters from the show's 40 years into four special lists for their anniversary week (Why four? Because 40 would break the last ounce of my spirit), starting now with the show's best short cartoons.
Forty years ago today, a little show called Sesame Street first took to the airwaves. You may have heard of it. If not, please find the nearest child and ask them about it. Be sure to keep your guard up from the inevitable dolt-slap the child will give you.
We here at TV Squad have something special planned for this historic milestone in TV history. Until then, here's an interesting preview of the show discovered by the neat folks at Neatorama.
Poor Oscar the Grouch. Not even PBS' ombudsman will cut him a break. No wonder he's so grouchy. Well that and he lives in a garbage can. That would make me more than a little perturbed.
A clip of a two-year episode of Sesame Street popped up on YouTube thanks to conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart's on his Big Hollywood blog in which Grundgetta, Oscar's girlfriend, makes a crack about "POX News" that sounds very close to "FOX News." PBS' ombudsman Michael Getler said while the name could be construed as a "clever and appropriate title" to the "Grouch News Network," the joke about the reference "should have been resisted.
I was shocked when I saw it. Oscar the Grouch has a frigging girlfriend?!?
The Internet's never ending "series of tubes" were circulating rumors that I thought had already been addressed years ago by TV Squad, The View and even the monster's own mouth.
Rumors started circulating earlier this morning that Sesame Street's Cookie Monster would drop the "Cookie" on his business card and replace it with "Veggie." It became the top Google search this morning and fueled rumors that the character would make the official change on the show's 40th Anniversary on Nov. 10th.
A show rep said Cookie Monster will remain as such, even if he considers cookies a "sometimes food." That's good ol' Cookie Monster, teaching kids the value of nutrition while sacrificing the value of good grammar.
History was made at the Daytime Emmys last night... twice. The Bold and the Beautiful won as the top Daytime Drama and the hosts of The View finally were winners. Good for B&B, the last of the half-hour soaps, coming off a terrific year. And it was great for the ladies of The View, who were probably starting to feel like getting the gold was an impossible dream. Unfortunately, they weren't there -- not one of them -- to accept.
However, amid the joyful wins and a jolly 40th anniversary salute to Sesame Street, there was a sad quality to the Daytime Emmys. Perhaps it was the over-arching reality that daytime TV is struggling, a point made clear when Betty White hosted a farewell to Guiding Light. No offense to the delightful Ms. White, but the salute was lackluster and hardly worthy of a show that has been broadcasting for 72 years! The cast appeared to receive a final ovation, but nobody spoke for the show.
Those combative ladies on The View have another bee floating around in their Marge Simpson size bonnets. This story, however, caused perhaps the most egregious and heated debate/clusterf#*$ of noise in the show's history.
Cookie Monster has been in "cookie rehab" of sorts for about three years now. The View ladies finally caught wind of it and went off on a three minute tear about it using voices that are normally reserved for members of WTO protests or people who are on fire.
How bad did it get? Elisabeth Hasselbeck was the "good cop."
(Update - 8/3: Added the pic I took with Abby, Cookie Monster, and Sonia. This will be the only time you see me be in a photo with a celebrity here. In this case, I can let my journalistic standards slide a bit.)
Here's a fun thing to help close the first week of the press tour. Before yesterday's panel on the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, Sonia Manzano, who's played Maria for the entire run, was outside the ballroom greeting people, as were three of the actors/puppeteers: David Rudman (Cookie Monster), Leslie Carrara (Abby Cadabby) and Eric Jacobson (Grover). Of course, all three brought along their characters to talk to the crowd, take pictures with the critics, and generally make everyone smile.
What I've always loved about the Muppets and the actors who give them life is that, not only are they speaking on a level that both adults and children can appreciate, but they're always so good and improvising. Think about this; it's not easy to say something funny on the spot when a reporter shoves a tape recorder in you face. And that's without a big ball of fur on your right hand. So I decided to goof around with Grover and Cookie Monster and threw them some curveballs. I also spoke to Manzano after the panel was over. All the audio is after the jump.
Get ready to see Grover in a tight suit and fedora, and Cookie Monster scarfing down glass after glass of (spiked?) milk. According to Miranda Barry of the Sesame Workshop, Sesame Street will parody Mad Men during the show's 40th anniversary season.
Barry appeared here with Dr. Rosemarie Truglio, who is in charge of the show's curriculum. They talked about the show's landmark season and what kids and their parents should expect to see. Among them: A new segmentized format, a new host, Murray Muppet, who will take kids through the various segments of the show, and a new segment featuring Abby Cadabby that's the program's first foray into CGI. The curriculum will emphasize science and nature along with the usual cornerstones this year.
Now onto the Mad Men parody. When asked how they would be able to pull it off, given the drinking, smoking, and womanizing that's a big part of the AMC show, Barry said, "You may have seen our parody called 'Desperate Houseplants.' It was about a houseplant not getting its needs met by the gardener. So it always works on two levels."
The Henson Company, along with some other entertainment companies including Singapore's BIG Communications, is teaming with PBS to create a new show called Dinosaur Train, which is intended to spark an interest from the kiddies in science and paleontology. Considering that this is the same team-up that brought us Sesame Street, hopes are high.
The series has one or two major detriments from the start. To begin, Jim Henson is long gone and it seemed that a lot of the magic died with him. All the efforts by the company since then have been a shadow of its former self. Second, the new series is CGI and not puppets. While I'm sure the kiddies pay more attention to CGI nowadays, it's still a little disappointing.
On the other hand, the Henson Company has worked with dinosaurs before. Plus, anything that gets the kids' attention that isn't owned and monopolized by Disney or Nickelodeon is fine by me.
If the very thought of the fledgling economy makes you just a little bit sad, get some Kleenex and a shoulder to cry on because you're about to bawl your eyes out.
If you are the kind of heartless bastard who won't cry at the discovery of this news, you should. Get a fork, poke yourself in the eyes, and let nature take its course.
The Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organization that created the world's greatest kids show in the history of whatever, is laying off a huge chunk of its staff.
In my never-ending, tireless, four day quest to completely categorize Sesame Street (read my previous features here, here and here), it seems I have completely missed one. 
It's not surprising that a colorful and lively show like Sesame Street, one devised by the genius that was Muppets creator Jim Henson, was at heart a comedy. What is surprising is that so many adults who grew up with the show still find it so damn funny (or maybe that has more to do with 
Sit a kid in front of a TV for an hour a day and a parent is bound to find something that offends them, other than the fact that plopping impressionable minds in front of a TV unsupervised is considered "good parenting."
This week marks the 
The Internet's never ending "series of tubes" were circulating rumors that I thought had already been addressed years ago by TV Squad, 
History was made at the 
Those combative ladies on The View have another bee floating around in their Marge Simpson size bonnets. This story, however, caused perhaps the most egregious and heated debate/clusterf#*$ of noise in the show's history. 
Get ready to see Grover in a tight suit and fedora, and Cookie Monster scarfing down glass after glass of (spiked?) milk. According to Miranda Barry of the Sesame Workshop, 
The Henson Company, along with some other entertainment companies including Singapore's BIG Communications, is teaming with PBS 
If the very thought of the fledgling economy makes you just a little bit sad, get some Kleenex and a shoulder to cry on because you're about to bawl your eyes out. 
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