I am and always have been a huge fan of Jim Henson. His work evokes happy childhood memories (and maybe a little nostalgia for a time with a little less bling and flash)-Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal (which totally creeped me out when I was a kid), The Muppet Show and of course, Sesame Street.

When browsing through the movies at Netflix, I came across the Sesame Street “Old School” DVD. This ‘Old School’ DVD features the very first episode from 1969 with some ‘classic cuts’ and the original sales pitch of the show to PBS.  I thought, Oh-the original episodes! Nostalgia aside, I’d rather have her watch those older episodes than the newer ones if only for the toned down, less cracked-out nature.

I then started reading the reviews for the DVD:

“It’ll remind you how different the show is”

Then came the mention of a disclaimer:

“The series starts off with an animated character, Bob, who announces these episodes are aimed at adults (those who watched the series as a kid) and that the said episodes may not meet the needs of today’s pre-school children”

Yeah, what? As soon as I read that, I Netflix’d it just to see if there really was a disclaimer that said that. Sure enough, when I got it in the mail and popped it in the player, there was “Bob” at the beginning lamenting about the show-”back in my day” and such.  And then, there it was! The disclaimer as told by Bob. The one that says these episodes may not be suitable for today’s pre-schoolers.

Isn’t the point of Sesame Street? That it’s for kids?

I can understand that some of the material on the older episodes would be dated by today’s standards. Fine, that’s to be expected. Things change. But I also understand that some, if not all, of the older material is totally un-PC,  possibly “inappropriate” and that is unsuitable for today’s kids by some people’s standards. Oscar too grouchy? Cookie Monster too unhealthy? You remember when they tried Cookie Monster to eat more veggies?

It’s interesting to see how the show started in ‘69 and evolved-or devolved-to what it is today. It is indeed different today. Disney bought some parts of the Muppet empire back in 2004. Jim Henson was actually in the process of selling the rights to Disney back in 1989, just before his death, with the “hopes of being able to handle the creative side of things” while Disney “handled the business side of things”.

Disney, why must you ruin everything?

Bottom line: Old Sesame Street episodes will be happily watched in this household, disclaimer or not, nostalgia aside, because the girl enjoys them.