S-E-S-A-M-E

I have to preface this post with an explanation that I LOVE television. Love, love, love, love it. I like just about everything--from witty comedies, to cutting edge HBO dramas, to quasi-science programs (ie, 'Man Without a Face' and 'Half-Ton Mom'), to every single one of the Real Housewives. I don't discriminate too much (well, I can't watch crime shows--occupational hazard I guess--but PEOPLE come on! There isn't a magic computer with all the DNA that will spit out the name of the killer in 32 seconds....and I can't watch crap like 'Two and a Half Men'--I do have some standards).

So, it surprised even me that I would be such a hard ass when it comes to Norah watching tv. I read quite a bit about it before she was born, and as it turns out when kids are really young their teeny tiny brains can't process the fast moving images they see on the tube. While it isn't necessarily going to cause damage, they don't get any value from the language or images. As a result of my neuroticism, Norah remained tv free for the first year of her life (I say that with a slight hesitation, as I would bet $100 she watched either football or baseball with BVZ on more than one occasion).

When she turned one, however, we introduced her to the joy and wonder that is Sesame Street. She loves it. Loves it so much that we have to spell S-E-S-A-M-E when we talk about it, because if she hears the actual words she looks at us with those big, blue, pleading eyes, climbs up on the big chair and says 'Elmo' about 9,000 times. She and Ruby watch together during their snack and are in seventh heaven.

Since my time is so limited with her now that I am back to work 80%, she doesn't watch it too much when I am around, but every once in a while we will snuggle down together and check it out. The show just celebrated its 40th anniversary and I have to say there are a lot of differences in the current show from the one that I remember and love.

There's the good:

1. The celebrity guests are awesome. The show does a great job of throwing out a little something for the adults. For example, the actor Will Arnett guest starred as a hapless magician (you will remember that he played a hapless magician on the best show ever invented--Arrested Development). Sesame even gave him the same theme song. Brilliant.

2. The show does a fabulous job of demonstrating multi-culturalism. The human characters are of different ethnicities and various cultures are routinely celebrated. There are handicapped kids as well.

3. Murray Has a Little Lamb. Murray is a monster and he and his lamb (who only speaks Spanish) go on fabulous adventures together.

4. The musical numbers. There are some great sequences with famous musicians who take one of their recognizable hits and modify the lyrics. Norah and Ruby love a Jason Mraz song, and low and behold, there is a Sesame equivalent. We watch this You Tube video very, very, very often:



But, I also have some complaints about the new show:

1. Abby Cadabby. I LOATHE Abby Cadabby. She is a 'fairy in training' and her voice kills me. She is a crazy popular character, though, so she is on all the time. There is even a segment entitled Abby's Flying Fairy School and it is animated. Animated? On Sesame Street? That totally defeats the purpose of Sesame. They are MUPPETS, not cartoons.

2. Elmo. Don't get me wrong, I like Elmo. He's super cute and Norah goes bananas for him. But he is in almost every scene, it seems. It is definitely the Elmo show.

3. Baby Bear. He's the dumbest muppet ever.

4. Claymation Bert and Ernie. I appreciate the fact that the show is trying to progress technologically, but c'mon. It's the muppets. LET THEM BE MUPPETS.

5. Lack of old school characters. It is very rare that I see Big Bird, Snuffie, Grover, Oscar the Grouch (although he's there more often than the others), Bert and Ernie, or the Count. And remember that awesome dude who used to get frustrated and bang his head against his piano??? He was awesome! And now he's nowhere to be found.

This is another of Norah's favorite videos. You can't imagine what it must be like to hear her boyfriend Elmo say her name over and over again....



So far, Sesame is the only thing that Norah has watched. I have checked out a few other shows, but I am not into any of them at all. Barney is not even an option, I think she's a little young for Yo Gabba Gabba, I am not into the religious message you get from the Veggie Tales (nothing wrong with it, just not for us) and both Dora and the Backyardigans are way too annoying. I am open to suggestions, for sure--would love to hear any ideas in the comments. I did get her a Curious George DVD this past weekend, so we'll see how that goes.

It got me thinking though, that when I was a kid the options were so much more manageable. We never had cable (oh, the injustice of it all!) and so when I was home sick it was PBS or nothing. That meant, Sesame, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, Reading Rainbow, The Electric Company, The Letter People, or that awesome show that I can't for the life of me remember the name of (it was a woman who taught lessons about the human body and health issues. One of the more traumatizing things I ever saw on television was her show on why you should never play in old refrigerators you come across at the dump--you could get caught in one! And die!) And if you didn't happen to catch them when they came on, you lost out. Now, we have On Demand and DVR and Norah will grow up believing that any one of nine million shows will always be at her immediate disposal. I never thought I would say it, but there's something to be said about rabbit ears.

I wonder how old Norah has to be to start watching the Planet Earth series? I could watch those lions take down that elephant again and again and again....

(PS. Thanks to BabyKaboom for posting this great Feist song. We had somehow overlooked that one, but thanks to Lilah it is now in the regular rotation. Norah asks for it by doing the dance Feist does with the four chickens back from the shore).