Follow that Bird movie poster

Two feature films based on the series have been made.

Co-produced with Warner Bros., the 1985 film Sesame Street Presents: Follow that Bird revolved around a social worker forcing Big Bird into adoption. Big Bird gets homesick and tired of his adoptive parents, and heads back to New York, when he is kidnapped by evil carnival leaders (played by Dave Thomas and Joe Flaherty); the residents of Sesame Street launch a cross-country search to find him.

In the second Sesame Street theatrical film, 1999's The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, fourteen years after Follow That Bird, Elmo spends time with his favorite blanket. After Zoe accidentally tears the blanket, when Elmo refuses to share, the blanket winds up in Grouchland, ruled by the Queen of Trash (Vanessa L. Williams). Elmo ventures forth, to rescue his blanket from the villainous Huxley (Mandy Patinkin). Soon, the rest of the Sesame Street gang follow in pursuit.

According to a rumor posted on /FILM, Elmo has suggested to TVguide.com that Elmo's World might later be turned into a movie.^[33]

Criticism

Some educators criticized the show when it debuted, as it emphasized cognitive learning rather than play and activities like other children's shows at the time.^[34] In addition it was believed that it would only worsen children's attention spans. These concerns still exist today, although there is no conclusive proof of this being the case, even after more than 38 seasons of televised shows.

In a letter to the Boston Globe, Boston University professor of education Frank Garfunkel commented "If what people want is for their children to memorize numbers and letters without regard to their meaning or use—without regard to the differences between children, then Sesame Street is truly responsive. To give a child 30 seconds of one thing and then to switch it and give him 30 seconds of another is to nurture irrelevance."^[35]

Public advocate Ralph Nader appearing on the show in the 1988 special The Sesame Street Special, with the character Bob, singing "People in Your Neighborhood".

In the magazine Childhood Education, Minnie P. Berson of SUNY Fredonia asked "Why debase the art form of teaching with phony pedagogy, vulgar sideshows, bad acting, and layers of smoke and fog to clog the eager minds of small children?"

For an animation on the letter "J", the writers included "a day in jail." This drew criticism from San Francisco Chronicle columnist Terrence O'Flaherty, despite executive producer David Connell's assertion that kids are familiar with the word through shows like Batman and Superman, and that "when you're trying to come up with a lot of words starting with J, you soon run short" of words they are already familiar with.^[35]

The series also met with criticism in its attempts to help the underprivileged. Educator Sister Mary Mel O'Dowd worried that the show might start to replace "personalized experiences". "If Sesame Street is the only thing ghetto kids have, I don't think it's going to do much good. It never hurts a child to be able to count to 10 or recognize the 26 letters of the alphabet. But without the guidance of a teacher, he'll be like one of our preschoolers who was able to write 'CAUTION' on the blackboard after seeing it on the back of so many buses, and told me 'That says STOP.'"^[35]

Sesame Street has long had to contend with those who disagree with its social content. Gerald S. Lesser comments in his book Children and Television: Lessons from Sesame Street that the show faced hostility in the southern United States when it first aired because it portrayed people of various races mingling peacefully.^[36] At first the Commission for Educational Television in Mississippi refused to air the show. However, the commission had no choice but to allow their local public television stations to air the show when commercial stations in Mississippi said they would air the program themselves.^[37]

Rumors and urban legends

While many rumors have been started about the series, a few have been widely promulgated and perpetuated over the years.

It has widely been suggested that Bert and Ernie are a gay couple, as they are apparently adult human males portrayed sharing a bedroom, though with separate beds. A 1980 collection of humorous essays by Kurt Andersen, titled The Real Thing, made light of the growing rumor. "Bert and Ernie conduct themselves in the same loving, discreet way that millions of gay men, women and hand puppets do. They do their jobs well and live a splendidly settled life together in an impeccably decorated cabinet."^[38] The rumor was promulgated repeatedly, so much so that by 1993, Sesame Workshop had a prepared statement to send out to people inquiring on the topic. In a 1994 effort to get the characters banned, Rev. Joseph Chambers stated on his radio show: "Bert and Ernie are two grown men sharing a house and a bedroom. They share clothes, eat and cook together and have blatantly effeminate characteristics. In one show, Bert teaches Ernie how to sew. In another, they tend plants together. If this isn't meant to represent a homosexual union, I can't imagine what it's supposed to represent."^[39] Both Steve Whitmire as Ernie and Eric Jacobson as Bert have stated publicly that the characters are not gay.^[40] The alleged relationship has been parodied on the animated series Family Guy and by Ernest & Bertram. The latter, a 2002 short film that ran at the Sundance Film Festival, was the subject of a cease and desist order from the legal department of Sesame Workshop.^[41] The Broadway musical Avenue Q includes two characters similar to Bert and Ernie, named Rod and Nicky, one of which is gay.

The pair's relationship bears similarity to that of Laurel and Hardy, who were also occasionally shown sleeping together; this became such a comedy staple as to be adopted by Morecambe and Wise in the 1970s, all of whom were similarly asexual. The Odd Couple is another, more apposite, contemporary comparison. Some adult viewers are upset by the assertions, as in their view, Ernie and Bert act like children, teenagers at the oldest, and are no more different than brothers or cousins who share a room.

In 1990, puppeteer Jim Henson's death spurred rumors that Ernie would be "killed off" in the show, much the way the character of Mr. Hooper was after actor Will Lee's passing some years earlier.^[42] Rumor said that he would be either killed by a vehicle, AIDS, or cancer. There was no legitimacy to this rumor, but because producers took their time recasting a puppeteer for Ernie, the delay allowed the claims to burgeon. A spokesperson for the series was quoted as saying "Ernie is not dying of AIDS, Ernie is not dying of leukemia. Ernie is a puppet."^{[43][44][45][46]}

In 2002, Sesame Workshop announced that a character with HIV would be introduced to Takalani Sesame, the South African version of the show. Many conservatives and religious groups wrongly presumed that the American version would be getting a "gay Muppet."^[47][48][49] This concern came about presumably because of a perceived connection between homosexuality and HIV in the United States, but the character with HIV is only present on this international version of the show. The character, Kami, contracted HIV from a blood transfusion as an infant.

As health was blown into a phenomenon in the US, rumors circulated that the sugar-consuming Cookie Monster would be replaced with the new, health inducing, Veggie Monster. Season after season, this is proven wrong, but always lingers on the Internet and circulates every year.^{[citation needed]}

References

Wikinews has related Sesame Street news:

• October 28: Rumors false about Britney Spears on Sesame Street
• July 3: Sesame Street Live near the finish of its 27th season
• June 8: Wikinews attends appearance by Bob from Sesame Street, at Sesame Place
• May 16: Wikinews attends Christy Carlson Romano concert in Sesame Place
• May 5: Abby Cadabby debuts at Sesame Place today as a walkaround character
• July 24: Critics honor 2004-2005 best in U.S. TV
• July 17: US Congress House panel OKs big cut in public broadcasting funds
• July 11: House subcommittee approves massive cuts for public broadcasting
• July 2: Laura Bush visits Middle East in goodwill tour
• July 2: Sesame Street to promote healthy lifestyles

• David Borgenicht, Sesame Street Unpaved: Scripts, Stories, Secrets, and Songs, 1998 and 2002 reprint, ISBN 1-4028-9327-2
• Caroll Spinney, J. Milligan, The Wisdom of Big Bird: (And the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch): Lessons from a Life in Feathers, 2003, ISBN 0-375-50781-7
• Christopher Finch, Jim Henson: The Works—The Art, the Magic, the Imagination, 1993, ISBN 0-679-41203-4
• Shalom M. Fisch, Rosemarie T. Truglio, "G" Is for Growing: 30 Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street, 2000, ISBN 0-8058-3395-1

See also

Muppets Portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Sesame Street

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Sesame Street

• The Muppets
• Pop culture influenced by Sesame Street (including Wonder Showzen and Avenue Q)
• Fraggle Rock
• The Muppet Show
• Sesame Street: Old School
• Snuffy's Parents Get a Divorce
• Sesame Street internationally

External links

• PBS Kids: Official Site
• Sesame Workshop
• Muppet Wiki