Posted by Diane - November 11th, 2009
With the 40th Anniversary of Sesame Street now behind us, and this season underway, I wanted to share my thoughts about yesterday’s season premiere. Let me preface my thoughts by saying this: It’s been a long time since I watched Sesame Street from start to finish. I’ve watched segments, seen clips, and read reviews, but I hadn’t actually watched the program on TV in 15 years or more.
This was episode 4187. Yes, you read that right. The four thousand, one hundred and eighty-seventh episode. What causes a show, any show, to last that long? I think there are two answers.
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Tags: big bird, child development, curriculum, ernie and bert, google doodle, music, puppet, puppeteer, puppetry, Puppets, sesame street
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Posted by Diane - November 10th, 2009
It was 40 years ago today that a TV show was introduced to viewing audiences, although that show was more than three years in the making. It was an ambitious project. It had never been done. Television producers worked with educators and researchers to create this show. Story meetings gave way to curriculum meetings, and show segments were judged not only on their writing and humor, but on their teaching value. This show changed the way we watch television. This show was Sesame Street.
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Tags: Bert, big bird, caroll spinney, cookie monster, curriculum, Elmo, ernie and bert, frank oz, jim henson, linda bove, muppet, music, puppet, Puppets, sesame street, sesame street gang, sonia manzano
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Posted by Diane - November 9th, 2009
Count von Count, or just The Count for brevity’s sake, loves to count things! Just ask any Sesame Street viewer to count to 10 and see if you don’t get the numbers in a strangely Draculinean (is that a word?) accent, punctuated with a clap of thunder!
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Tags: ABCs, count dracula, google doodle, jerry nelson, music, parents, puppet, Puppets, sesame street
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Posted by Diane - November 9th, 2009
There are those that believe that Sesame Street “jumped the shark” when Elmo “took over.” There are those that believe that the show has lost its edge, lost what made it special, now that Elmo is a central character. Change of any kind is difficult to deal with, and Elmo is change.
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Tags: Bert, big bird, cookie monster, curriculum, Elmo, google doodle, muppet, music, puppeteer, Puppets, sesame street, snuffy
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Posted by Diane - November 9th, 2009
I always worried about how Big Bird felt when the adults on Sesame Street told him that Mr. Snuffleupagus, or Snuffy to his friends, was not real. The show had created a running gag from the time Snuffy was introduced in 1971 – Snuffy would cause Big Bird to be late for something because he was waiting for him to show up, or Snuffy would knock something over or break something. When Big Bird would tell the adults of Sesame Street that it was in fact Snuffy’s doing, they would chastise him for using his “imaginary friend” as a scapegoat. Even when Snuffy wasn’t to blame for something, whenever Big Bird would mention him there was always a gentle chiding about his “imaginary friend” or a chuckle at how cute and creative the giant canary was. This always irritated me!
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Tags: adults, big bird, educational programming, imaginary friend, imaginary friends, mr snuffleupagus, parents, puppet, Puppets, sesame street, snuffy
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Diane began performing as a puppeteer when she was only six years old. Her first marionette, Clippo the Clown, a gift from her Grandmother, accompanied Diane to school every year through college. As an adult, Diane began making and performing hand puppets. She writes the shows, fabricates the puppets and props, performs all of the puppetry, and even serves as her own lighting and sound engineer!
