Sesame Street Censored

Hey all,

I just read this on IMDB.com.


Copied from IMDB.com

"DVDs of early seasons of Sesame Street bear a warning to parents that they may not be appropriate for small children, the New York Times observed today (Monday). Carol-Lynn Parente, executive producer of Sesame Street noted that in the early days of the show, a regular feature was a parody of Masterpiece Theater, featuring Alistair Cookie, played by Cookie Monster, who appeared with a pipe. "That modeled the wrong behavior," Parente observed. Oscar the Grouch appeared too grouchy. "We might not be able to create a character like Oscar now," she said. The Times also noted that in the DVDs (Volumes 1 and 2) Cookie Monster can be seen "in his former inglorious incarnation: a blue, googly-eyed cookievore with a signature gobble ('om nom nom nom')."


I swear this PC bullshit is out of control. You know, I watched Sesame Street growing up and I don't smoke, nor has Oscar the Grouch seem to "grouchy" to me. It's his frickin' NAME for God sake. The fact that the Cookie Monster now has cookies as a sometimes snack just further heralds the imminate fall of creative freedom on televison and the further advancement of poor programming for young people. We will have sterile shows that do not allow for different views.

To be fair, I am OKAY with putting a warning on the pipe smoking thing, but censoring and calling Sesame Street innaprpriate is riduclous. It's not as if children are watching material that promotes stereotypes, obviously films like Fall of a Nation and The Jazz Singer, while appropriate at the time they were made, send clear cut messahes of racism and intolerance now. Oscar the Grouch simply reiterates what happens when you act like an ass. It's also not like smoking is illegal, many kids have parents that smoke. Smoking is something a parent needs to have an active role in teaching children. Both of my parents and grandparents smoke, along with my brother and a good friend, yet I don't. I don't think you have to say a program that educated so many children is no longer apprpriate because a puppet smokes a pipe and eats cookies.Do that when you catch a kid watching Caligula or any movie with Rob Scheider, then you have a problem.

End of Line.
Gerrad!