How Do You Get to Shame Street?

Once I was introduced to the window to the world, a.k.a. television, it was impossible for anyone to keep me away. I hogged that screen like it was life support. Many of my fondness memories growing up were the characters that bounced on and off the screen. Between shows like Mysterious Cities of Gold and Sesame Street I gorged myself in all the shows my parents would let me watch during my pre-school age.

Now, apparently the old season of Sesame Street that my young life pretty much rotated around has been deemed as inappropriate for the today’s pre-school-ers. When I first read this story I went back to the beginning just to make sure I hadn’t read it wrong: Sesame Street – for adults only? Was there some weird puppet on puppet porn I didn’t pick up on?

According to the New York Times, the early seasons of Sesame Street “modeled bad behavior”, such as a skit of “Monsterpiece Theater” where Cookie Monster had a pipe – and then ate it. Right – bad behavior -- just wait till they’re old enough to watch MTV’s The Real World.

First of all, I don’t think anyone could literally swallow down a pipe, dirt maybe, but a whole pipe? Cookie Monster may not have been the best role model in the world – but I don’t think that was his intended purpose. Looking back at Sesame Street and a lot of the old kid shows I used to watch – the reason I liked them so much was they had a variation of characters. They weren’t saints, but they were the most well-rounded and entertaining thing on television at the time.

If you compare Sesame Street to a lot of the other shows airing today – you could probably say most of the shows today are sugarcoated and badass boring blandness.

According to TV.com the highest rated kids show of all time weren’t necessarily the most sanitary of the bunch. Sure, they weren’t targeted at pre-school generation but you’re still in that impressionable age range. The list includes shows such as: So Weird, Are You Afraid of the Dark, Salute Your Shorts, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Fraggle Rock, Sesame Street, Muppets Tonight and Ghostwriter. Considering so many of the shows that aired way back then weren’t as tidy and sanitized as the parental agenda might like – I personally believe a lot of these shows were the best kids shows – EVER, and it is a sad shame that those shows are no longer being aired today.

Even if a lot of these shows aren’t quiet PC most of us probably don’t notice till way later in life. My little naïve self will contest to that.

-- Eming Piansay