Cross-posted from LiveJournal, originally posted 11/4/2009. Still valid today.

I read today an interesting and disturbing article about the evolution of Sesame Street over the last 4 decades, written to coincide with the show’s 40th anniversary. According to Katie McLaughlin of CNN, “In the early days of “Sesame Street” — that is, B.E. (Before Elmo) — Sesame Street was a pretty grimy place.” It was designed that way, in order to reach inner-city kids and bring both facts and a thirst for learning into a milieu that they could relate to.

The Cookie Monster smoked a pipe, which he ate on occasion, along with anything else that he hallucinated looked like a cookie; Oscar was a mean S.O.B., kids rode bicycles without helmets, and kindly neighbors invited little girls into their apartments for milk and cookies.

The only way to re-live the Sesame Street of the 60’s is on DVD, where the episodes are preceded by some mealy-mouthed attorney’s caveat: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.” By Mogg’s adamantium claws, that is so disingenuous it makes me want to puke myself.

Miss Katie goes on to say, “For better or worse, today’s preschooler is very different from the 1969 version. And children’s television programming simply has to reflect that.”

Horsehockey.

Today’s preschooler is exactly the same as those of 40 years ago, or those in the 1890’s, or those in 1492. What has changed is the hypersensitivity of the liberal media to anything that might offend anyone, and the capitulation of society in general to the whims of attorneys hungry for billable hours.

In my day, kids fell off of jungle gyms and out of tree houses regularly, suffered black eyes and broken arms, and nobody got sued. Watch E.T. again, and see how many of the wicked boys in that movie wore helmets as they ripped and tore around the hills on their BMX bikes. S̶e̶x̶ ̶e̶d̶u̶c̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶a̶r̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶r̶a̶m̶m̶a̶r̶ ̶s̶c̶h̶o̶o̶l̶ ̶c̶u̶r̶r̶i̶c̶u̶l̶u̶m̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶p̶r̶e̶g̶n̶a̶n̶c̶y̶ ̶r̶a̶t̶e̶s̶ ̶w̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶f̶r̶a̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶d̶a̶y̶. [I have been corrected regarding this claim] Kids who used bad language or were disrespectful to their elders developed a severe drug problem: they were ‘drug’ to the woodshed, or ‘drug’ to the bathroom to have their mouths washed out with soap.

No, it’s not the preschoolers who have changed, but the society around them. And if you ask me, having a show as freshly original as Sesame Street (designed for those who needed it most and had access to the very least) “power washed” to conform to the sensibilities of the toffee-nosed elite is a sin, a shame, and a crime.