The Launch of Sesame Street

On This Day in History: November 10, 1969

Can I say “fuck” in a piece about Sesame Street? Why the fuck not?

--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: November 10, 1969--

Created by the Children’s Television Workshop and broadcast on PBS precursor National Educational Television, Sesame Street aired its first episode on November 10, 1969. And unlike fucking Caillou, it has cool characters and actual education. Like, learning numbers and shit from a vampire, a big-ass bird promoting vaccination, and normalizing homosexuality with Ernie and Bert.

I know some are gonna take issue with that last one. But imagine it’s true. Would it matter?

Anyway, the goal was to both entertain and educate, and it worked. A lot of effort went into the show’s production behind the scenes, involving pedagogical researchers and psychologists to help kids to not grow up to be psychopaths or vote Republican. Well, bit of sarcasm there, because I’m sure plenty of kids grew up to use the numbers the Count taught them to justify trickle-down Reagonomics. Regardless, Sesame Street was big on displaying empathy, tolerance of diversity, and nonaggressive methods of conflict resolution.

The show also regularly lampooned “Donald Grump” as a greedy landlord who tried to evict Oscar. Grump bragged that he owned more trash than any other grouch.

Interestingly, a 2015 study revealed that the show works just as well for early-childhood education as going to preschool, a boon for low-income households. The show has a diverse cast of characters with their own sets of flaws to help kids understand themselves and others better. As an example, the Cookie Monster isn’t just fun to laugh at because he shoves cookies in his face like the apocalypse is imminent. He’s also an example of someone with impulse-control issues who struggles to focus, and who tries and fails frequently, but also experiences successes.

Because of its progressive nature, not everyone has been a fan. In 1970 a station in Mississippi (of course) refused to air the show because it had a “highly [racially] integrated cast.” It wasn’t always smooth sailing; early on the show came under fire for its depiction of Latinos and women, and rather than be dicks about it the producers hired a more diverse cast of actors and writers to do a better job of representing a variety of groups. The show has been lauded for how it responds positively to criticism.

Sesame Street was born out of the civil rights movement, and the creators were ambitious about helping make the world a better place. It has had episodes that confront racism, normalize breastfeeding, feature a boy with Down syndrome as a recurring character, another whose dad is in jail, an HIV-positive character, a girl singing about the parts of her wheelchair, and more.

In celebration of the anniversary of this wonderful show, I do believe that I’ll bake some cookies and be unrestrained in my eating of them.

Those who cannot remember the past need a history teacher who says “fuck” a lot. Get both volumes of On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down. The holidays are coming and they make great gifts.