Sesame Street "Old School:" for Adults Only

Growing up in the 1970's, I was exposed to all sorts of negative social messages: Fred Flintstone lighting up a cigarette with a stone lighter with sticks as flints; we rode bicycles without helmets; I sat in the front seat without a seat belt. Who knew that of all the social ills to which I would have been exposed Sesame Street could have been one of the biggest offenders. I'm sure my parents would have blushed and quickly turned away from the flatulence jokes of "Shrek," and sexual innuendo of prime time television, but never would have questioned the bastion of wholesome television.

With the advent of Digital Video Discs or "DVD's," the entire library of our old favorite televisions shows fit nicely in boxed sets of discs. We can relive the Sleestacks terrorizing Will and Holly trapped in "The Land of the Lost," Greg and Marsha Brady negotiate their way through high school, and now all the "horrible-ness" that was the Sesame Street of our youth.

With the release of Sesame Street: Old School Volume 2 comes the Sesame Workshop warning that the early episodes of Sesame Street are "for adults only" and that they "may not suit the needs of today's preschool child."

No, Gordon isn't smoking a half pack and Guy Smiley doesn't hawk erectile dysfunction medication, but Cookie Monster does hold (and subsequently eat) a pipe (as "Alistair Cookie") and Snuffleupagus does evade detection from all but Big Bird.

It speaks so loudly to how society has changed in how we look at ourselves and others. And it's a sad thing.

I'm constantly barraged by spam email and internet scams. My family was looking for an inexpensive car recently and in so doing was met with a scam looking something like this: "I'm a sergeant in the US military and have been deployed over seas. We'll escrow the purchase price and I will ship the car to you..." and so it goes. We're constantly being reminded that strangers frequently have ulterior motives. So, when, in the November 10, 1969 series premiere, Gordon "shows Sally around," we and our children should be weary and avoidant of Gordon's overt kindness. Clearly, this older man MUST have some prurient interest in the little girl.

While experts tell us a child's invisible friend is a normal part of development, we also associate people talking to invisible people as a symptom of Schizophrenia. So in 1975, when we learn that "Nobody Sees Snuffy" other than Big Bird, we're left with the question of the state of his mental health.

As I raise my own children, I find Elmo cloying and something about Count Von Count just no longer seems "right." I suppose the modern Sesame Street may be an emotionally safer place for today's children - not having to rectify some of the incongruities between the world in which they're growing and the world in which I grew up - but somehow the "Old School" Sesame Street episodes speak to an innocence I wish we could allow our children to keep. The creators of Sesame Street were not concerned with pedophiles and childhood obesity, they were concerned with teaching kids how to read and get along with others.

Somehow, my children growing up with Shrek expelling gas in a mud hole is more acceptable than a googly-eyed monster with pica shovelling cookies into his mouth, while drinking whole milk, no less. Afterall, childhood obesity can be seen as a much bigger problem than a lack of social grace.

The fact this collection carries a parental advisory speaks more to where society has come than to what this collection is. I'm looking forward to re-watching some of these old episodes and sharing them with my children.

Sesame Street: Old School: 1974-1979, Volume 2 is available November 27, 2007. Old School: 1969-1974, Volume 1 is available December 18, 2007.