Don’t Worry, Be Hippie
Friday, April 11
Don’t Worry, Be HippieHave I mentioned this week how cool the street stories are this season? Oh, I have. Well, then I can’t resist doing one more, cause this is tremendous.
The Big Bad Wolf is chasing the Three Little Pigs around Sesame Street, and everybody’s getting angry. He huffs and puffs and blows down a sign, and Luis’ piles of mail, and then Elmo and Rosita’s blocks. Y’know. Bad Wolf stuff.
Then along comes Big Bad’s brother, Leonard Wolf. Leonard is a gentle soul, with glasses and a wispy mustache. When he approaches Elmo and Rosita, they scream at him: A WOLF! A WOLF! Go away! Gina asks why they’re being so unfriendly, and Elmo and Rosita explain that they know what wolves are like: They huff, and they puff, and they blow down things!
But Leonard protests: “I am a wolf, but I don’t huff and puff like my brother does! Just because one wolf huffs and puffs, it doesn’t mean all wolves do.” Gina chimes in that there are different kinds of wolves, just like there are different kinds of monsters. Leonard agrees: “I don’t always do the same thing as my brother! I’m not a huffer and puffer. Why, I don’t even chase pigs! I do play canasta with them every Thursday. And that’s not all! On Tuesdays, I practice the violin. On Wednesdays, chess — followed by tai chi! Yes, there’s lots of things to do if you’re not so busy huffing and puffing.”
Then they all get together to sing a jumpy song about how there’s all different kinds of wolves: “If you’ve seen one wolf, you’ve not seen them all!”
Pretty soon, everybody’s friends, and Leonard is confronting his brother on his huffing and puffing behavior. Leonard tells Big Bad that he’s blowing down the monsters’ blocks, which is making them feel bad. It’s like a wolf intervention.
So I personally have a new Sesame Street hero, and I just got my last one like two days ago. This whole story is beautiful; it just hits every note perfectly. It makes me incredibly happy to know that in 2003, there’s still a kids’ TV show that’s doing funny metaphors for prejudice, and trying to teach kids to appreciate each person as an individual.
They got money troubles over at Sesame Street; I mentioned that before. There’s only 26 episodes this season, which is cut way down from what it usually was. PBS has to sell ad space to pay the bills. But despite all that, they keep turning out these gorgeous shows. I’ve done a My Week column for three Sesame Street seasons so far, and I have to say that these are the tightest, funniest, most emotionally satisfying Sesame episodes I’ve seen.
The thing that impresses me most this season is how amazingly thoughtful everything seems. The producers and writers are really thinking very hard about the messages they’re putting out to pre-schoolers, and they’re trying to make sure that their stories are positive and real.
Cookie Monster was unjustly accused, and he stood up for fair treatment. Leonard Wolf is being stereotyped. Grover travels around the world and learns about other cultures. The whole cast learns that if they get together, they can create their own music, and make a happier world. Everybody is still a hippie on Sesame Street.
Pop culture — even kid culture — is kind of depressing these days. Maybe I’m becoming an old man, but everything on TV seems dark and sad, like murder and greed and drugs are “real,” and everything else is fake. It makes me feel warm and good to know that in one corner of kids’ television, it’s still 1972.
Hey, Sesame Street folks: The kids you raised up back in the 70’s, who value cooperation and fairness and the letter Z… we’re still here. Some of us have our own kids now, and we want them to have Sesame Street too. Please, just keep going. You’re doing great.
by Danny Horn
