Sesame Street‘s 40th anniversary is fast approaching, and there has been a slew of birthday-related shenanigans going on all around us. Let’s take a moment to fondly remember them before Sesame Street gets old enough to need bifocals.
The most noticeable celebration has been over at Google, where Sesame Street characters have been incorporated into the Google logo every day. As of press time, we’ve seen Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie, and Oscar, as well as a handful of international characters on the international Google sites. We’ll keep on seeing more Sesame characters every day until the official anniversary on Tuesday, but who will we see next? I’m holding out hope for Herbert Birdsfoot hovering over the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button.
Pretty much every news source in the world is talking about Sesame Street this week. From New York to Chicago, all over the USA, in merry old London, and even the bizarre planet known as CNN, you just can’t get away from it. But frankly, why would you want to?
Sesame Street has finally caved in and joined the Twitter and Facebook games. And that’s pretty impressive, considering the fact that most 40-year-olds still don’t know how to turn on their computers.
Big Bird traded barbs with Jimmy Kimmel on his show last week in an interview that reminded us how great these live appearances can be. A few furry friends will be on that other Jimmy’s show (Fallon) on Monday the 9th, and on the same day Oscar will show up on Bonnie Hunt’s show, probably to mock her fake relationship with Brian Williams.
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Elmo, Abby Cadabby, and Cookie Monster showed up on The Today Show this week, most likely airing at the same time as Sesame Street on many PBS stations. What a ratings killer!
No Sesame celebration would be complete without a little controversy. A two-year-old Sesame Street clip was recently discovered by the right-wingers in which Grundgetta declares her love for trashy news show, “POX News”. Naturally, the Bill O’Reilly fan club got all up in arms because they hate all of that un-American tolerance and education and Michelle Obamas that Sesame promotes. Of course, Sesame Workshop and PBS aren’t apologizing for the joke, but they are saying that they could have made the “P” a little clearer to avoid confusion that grouches actually watch FOX News. Spoiler: Only grouches watch FOX News.
And don’t forget about the new Sesame Street anniversary book (and our interview with writer Louise Gikow, here and here), the Sesame Street: 40 Years of Sunny Days DVD, the paperback printing of Street Gang, and of course, the 40th season, which premieres on Tuesday, November 10 on your local PBS station.
Click here to count to 40 on the ToughPigs forum!
