Big Bird is unsuitable for your child

Remember the Sesame Street of yore: where Bert and Ernie were just two guys who roomed together without the assumption they were gay and Cookie Monster could eat infinite amounts of his favorite treat without the fear of obesity or the onset of diabetes? Those are the memories I hold from the show anyway. Oscar’s grouchiness was oddly loveable and Count von Count (aka The Count) taught me how to do just that.

However, according to the warning that precedes the earliest episodes of the show, now on DVD, the material is “intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.” Riiiiiight. I keep hearing horror stories of the mass outbreak of rebellious four-year olds in 1969 who smoked and then swallowed pipes, in an effort to mimic Cookie Monster.

Current Sesame Street executive produced Carol-Lynn Parente claims, “We might not be able to create a character like Oscar now.” That - for lack of a better phrase - is a load of garbage. Oscar may have possessed some standoffish characteristics, but I trust parents today are as capable as mine were back in the 80s to teach their children acceptable manners and respect. And if “Scram!” is the worst thing to ever come out of my child’s mouth, I will consider myself lucky.

The reality of the world today is even though children may not follow exactly in Cookie Monster or Oscar’s footsteps, what was once demonstrated as innocent behavior on the show, could now be harmful to children. I’m sure in 1969, producers didn’t consider the idea of Gordon taking Sally to his house for milk and cookies as suspicious, unsafe or in any way abnormal. Then again, child pornography wasn’t as rampant or instantly accessible back then either.

I had hoped to one day let my children sit down before kindergarten to giggle at the antics of the Yip Yips as I once did. Now the show that was a staple during my formative years “may not suit the needs” of my children. The times really are a-changin’.

» The New York Times