Hey, did you see the Sesame Street special Families Stand Together, which aired a couple weeks back on PBS? It was scheduled for a Wednesday night, but then Barack Obama went and decided to talk about health care or some crap like that, so it got preempted on many PBS stations. What’s the big idea, Obama? I thought you liked Sesame Street! Who do you think you are, anyway — the prime minister?!?!
But heck, who cares? Only old people still watch TV on their televisions! If you haven’t seen the special, you can click this link right here to watch it on Sesame Workshop’s website.
So, the point of the show was to help families deal with financial crisis in the recession, so I can’t make fun of it or I’d be a big jackass. (Although I have to say the title’s not very memorable — I keep calling it “Families Standing Up” or “Families Hanging Out” or “Families Falling Off the Monkey Bars.”) And anyway, it’s a very good special.
It’s hosted by Al Roker and his wife Deborah Roberts, who are hanging out on Sesame Street on the day of the big “Community Market,” which is apparently a fancy name for a flea market. I love that Elmo and Grover and Chris all act like Al Roker is their best pal whom they’ve known for years. There are many reasons I’d like to live on Sesame Street, but that’s a biggie — the fact that I’d automatically be friends with any celebrity guest who dropped by.
Speaking of biggies, Al Roker sure looks different since he lost all that weight, doesn’t he? I can’t help but feel like he’s the wrong shape somehow… he’s kind of like a Stretch Armstrong that’s lost all its elasticity. I wasn’t expecting so much Grover in this special, but it’s great to see so much of him. He has some great, Grovery bits with Chris, as he tries to buy a community at the community market and looks for a job.
Meanwhile, Elmo’s family has run into trouble: His mom has lost her job. And so, as we see in scenes interspersed throughout the special, they’re making a few changes in their lifestyle and cutting a few corners. But that doesn’t mean they can’t have a good time as a family! You know, I have to wonder how much money they’ve spent on fish food for Elmo’s goldfish Dorothy over the past 12 years. That’s one old fish.
So then there are real, human families who are not as loveable as Elmo and his parents, but who have also found themseles in tough situations after losing jobs and such. I really don’t know how a child might respond to all this stuff, but the dominant theme is always “It’s going to be okay because we’re still a family,” which is nice without being too unrealistic. It wouldn’t really do any good to tell them, “Soon we’re going to be able to take that trip to Disney World after all!” because it probably won’t happen, but telling them they’re going to be okay is probably… okay. There’s a song about that too, but unfortunately it was super-bland.
So, yeah. This was a good TV special, and thank goodness Sesame Street is around to do stuff like this (I was surprised to see that they got some help producing this show from Worldwide Pants, which is David Letterman’s company. I always got the impression Letterman didn’t even like Muppets!). Of course, it would be even better if the economy hadn’t gotten so bad and they had never had to do this special in the first place, but for all the tickle hands and silly Elmo birthday DVDs, it’s great to see Sesame still doing something so important.
Oh, but I just want to point out one thing: Toward the end of the show, the kids from one of the featured families are selling lemonade for 25 cents a cup. Al Roker pays them a quarter and takes a cup… and then Deborah takes a cup too, but they never pay for it! It’s a hot cup of lemonade! THE ROKERS STEAL LEMONADE FROM FINANCIALLY STRUGGLING CHILDREN — PASS IT ON!
Click here to update your résumé on the Tough Pigs forum!
by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com
