Sweeping the Clouds Away

New York Times ^ | 11/20/2007 | Virginia Heffernan

[drew]

November 18, 2007 The Medium Sweeping the Clouds Away By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN Sunny days! The earliest episodes of “Sesame Street” are available on digital video! Break out some Keebler products, fire up the DVD player and prepare for the exquisite pleasure-pain of top-shelf nostalgia.

Just don’t bring the children. According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, “Sesame Street: Old School” is adults-only: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”

Say what? At a recent all-ages home screening, a hush fell over the room. “What did they do to us?” asked one Gen-X mother of two, finally. The show rolled, and the sweet trauma came flooding back. What they did to us was hard-core. Man, was that scene rough. The masonry on the dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, where the closeted Ernie and Bert shared a dismal basement apartment, was deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a fast track to diabetes. Oscar’s depression was untreated. Prozacky Elmo didn’t exist.

[Steely Tom]

The masonry on the dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, where the closeted Ernie and Bert shared a dismal basement apartment, was deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a fast track to diabetes. Oscar’s depression was untreated. Prozacky Elmo didn’t exist.

No, but Jim Henson did. Coincidence? You decide.

[Hoodlum91]

I asked Carol-Lynn Parente, the executive producer of “Sesame Street,” how exactly the first episodes were unsuitable for toddlers in 2007. She told me about Alistair Cookie and the parody “Monsterpiece Theater.” Alistair Cookie, played by Cookie Monster, used to appear with a pipe, which he later gobbled. According to Parente, “That modeled the wrong behavior” — smoking, eating pipes — “so we reshot those scenes without the pipe, and then we dropped the parody altogether.”

---

I can’t tell you how many pipes I’ve eaten because of that parody!

[Tatze]

I know. And for some reason, today, all that lead would be bad for you. Go figure!

[libertarian27]

Nanny Ping
Sesame Street DVD “Adult rated”
Cookie Monster seen holding a Pipe
...The horrors...

[PCBMan]

“Jim Henson had a wait-and-see attitude. Now look what we got. Wrong-sounding Muppets.”

- Stewie Griffin at the doctor’s office

[meowmeow]

If he was holding a condom, it would probably be okay.

[VeniVidiVici]

Just don’t bring the children. According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, “Sesame Street: Old School” is adults-only: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”

It's true! The episodes of today are so different.

The Cookie Monster, having been ostracized as an overweight, sugar industry tool, has been replaced by the Cocaine Monster. A little blow, a little dough and you're ready for a day of lounging on the couch!

Oscar is now a pimp, running Miss Piggy and Big Bird (who knew?!!) and Bert and Ernie are, well, we ALL always knew what Bert and Earnie were but today's episodes will help you celebrate it!

[meowmeow]

I heard Burt joined al queda. Something about internet photos.

[trisham]

[Eric Blair 2084]

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[libertarian27]

That’s great EB, I don’t remember seeing that before, thanks for the link back to the site.

[300magnum]

I heard Burt joined al queda. Something about internet photos.

---

[pabianice]

Liberalism is a form of psychosis.

[qam1]

Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

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[waverna]

I guess I’m old, I remember when Oscar the Grouch was orange.

[JamesP81]

I was born in 81. Only watched the show a bit, but Oscar was definitely my favorite.

[libertarian27]

I remembered him when he was a shade of Gray...B&W ;)

[444Flyer]

Woe, for a minute their I thought it was a Lion! LOL!!!

[444Flyer]

Did the cat get your?

[Lady Jag]

That was a lead pipe cinch.

[boop]

"I guess I’m old, I remember when Oscar the Grouch was orange."

I just rented this DVD. I'm old too, but I didn't remember him orange. Big Bird was a pinhead. And snuffalupagus was scary and wall eyed. I was surprised to see how politically incorrect it was. And fun, too.

[hinckley buzzard]

The real harm done by Sesame Street was that its frenetic ceaseless shifting of images to mimic TV ads probably retarded the growth of attention span for a whole generation of children, their nervous systems assaulted by over-stimulation at critical stages of cognitive development. Sesame street may have given us the ADD generation

[Lady Jag]

The earliest episodes of “Sesame Street” have just been released on DVD, just don’t let the kids watch it.

“Sesame Street: Old School” is adults-only.



Now look what you've done!

[Lady Jag]

The earliest episodes of “Sesame Street” have just been released on DVD, just don’t let the kids watch it.

“Sesame Street: Old School” is adults-only.

[444Flyer]

Turkey can be constipating. The muppets may need a laxative after the meal.

[trisham]

[Lady Jag]

You want more turkey gravy?

[waverna]

Is he orange in the DVDs? I think they changed him to green after the first season. And the muppets rarely interacted with the cast, they were like separate skits. And the big deal with Snuffy was that only Big Bird could see him, no one else believed he was real. And what ever happened to Little Bird? I guess I’ll be buying these!

[Warhammer]

Bert is Evil !

[Warhammer]

Warning! The Bert Is Evil has some stuff that is not suitable for children. (Shoulda looked closer before posting, sorry!)

[Warhammer]

Would you pull #31 and #32 please? Thanks!

[LexBaird]

Bert and Rage Boy: separated at birth.

[andy58-in-nh]

LOL! My beagle is a “Big Bird” junkie. He digs on turkey, big time (as do I). Happy Thanksgiving, Lady J!

[boop]

Yes. They run the unedited first ever episode. Gordon (the first one!) takes a little girl home to have milk and cookies with Susan. They meet the anything muppets, big bird, and the rest of the cast. Snuffy, my favorite character shows up later and is scary-looking. It used to annoy the heck out of me that nobody believed Big Bird.

[Soaring Feather]

Oh fer crying out loud!!! What BS.

[Lady Jag]

You and Beagle inviting anyone over this T-Day?

;)

Happy Thanksgiving to you, Andy!

[Lady Jag]

Why is nothing being done?

[andy58-in-nh]

Well, this year, me and the missus, along with our 11-year old little FReeper and Oliver, the Beagle Boy Wonder are heading over to my mom’s house for the annual Bacchanalian feast. I hope you have some good company with whom to share the day as well!

[NY Attitude]

Good thing they do not start on the cartoons that we used to watch as kids. And of course do not ever mention the “Song of the South”. Disney caved on that one as well.

[Soaring Feather]

Where can we start?? PC is every where - it has torn away at the fabric of Free Speech.

[Soaring Feather]

I guess it’s the go along, get along thought.

[Lady Jag]

Can you get me “Little Black Sambo”? I think I was a kid before you. Unless things have changed, you couldn’t access any unpc stuff from my childhood last time I looked. There was some great stuff back then, too, that would stand up today.

[NY Attitude]

The “Don’t make waves generation” has certainly left it’s mark. It is the bleeding heart liberals that first started promoting children into higher grades when they couldn’t perform at the lower grades. I guess they do not want to see 12 year olds in 4th grade. Then comes the excuse Johnny cannot red because he has no daddy and mommy is pregnant and can’t work. Then the illegals thing and the lawyers saying that the kid was deprived as a youth while tying up the justice system.

[Soaring Feather]

Yupper that’s it in a nutshell.

[NY Attitude]

I remember Little Black Sambo, Uncle Remus, Tarbaby and hold on, Aunt Jemimah

[NY Attitude]

Me, born in 1940.

[Lady Jag]

We're doing something similar, going to a sister's. The get together is the best part and the food is amazing.

[NY Attitude]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Black_Sambo