Saturday, July 6, 2013

Sesame Street Episode 1: The Comprehensive Review


All fans of Sesame Street, young and old, are frequently delighted to notice the significant differences between 1969 and now.

I can assure you that things on the Street were WAY different back in 1969.  For example...





This is how it all started.

Click to view... The beginning of Sesame Street!

The first episode of a television show is never going to be the best.  You make initial mistakes, things get retooled.  So it's understandable that Ernie was apparently going to be a puppet that never left his bathtub and that Big Bird seems very freshly hatched with a brain problem.  Good thing they fixed all of that!

Another odd thing, while well-intended, was this concept of the "anything" people.




I can understand the reasoning behind it.  "You can be whatever you want to be!"  Since the Street didn't have very many well-established characters yet, the idea was that a blank-headed puppet could have any combination of eyes, hair, and whatever else stuck onto its face.  To "become" something.  This was not received very well, it was quite creepy.  Therefore the idea was quickly scrapped in favor of more PERMANENT faces like Prairie Dawn and Kermit.  Interchangeable face parts probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but children didn't like it.  Go figure. 

Another thing that didn't work out too well was Buddy and Jim.




They didn't DO anything WRONG, they just were not entertaining at all.  As opposed to this...

Click to view... Entertainment.

I'm glad that changes were made for the better.  Would anybody enjoy seeing Buddy and Jim putting faces on "Anything Puppets?"  I'm pretty sure NO.  But Bob, Gordon, Susan, Oscar, Ernie, Bert, Mr. Hooper, and what would eventually grow up to be a normal-looking Big Bird all stuck around.  Those people are the REASON everyone wants to get to Sesame Street.  Even now.

Click to view... Can you tell me?

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