When my kids were little I watched Sesame Street with them, and some of the jokes were obivously aimed at adults. I remember Cookie Monster, sitting in a big leather chair in a library, smoking a pipe and announcing, “This Is Alastair Cookie, bringing you Monster Piece Theater.” My kids didn’t know why I was laughing – that joke wasn’t in there for them.<\/p>\n
Some of the original shows have been released on DVDs, but according to this article<\/a> (sent to me by Michael Tighe of thecheapstudent.com<\/a>) they carry a warning: “\u00e2\u20ac\u0153These early \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcSesame Street\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s preschool child.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n Cookie Monsters pipe was too offensive. According to Carol-Lynn Parente, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That modeled the wrong behavior\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d smoking, eating pipes \u00e2\u20ac\u201d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153so we reshot those scenes without the pipe, and then we dropped the parody altogether.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Oscar was too grouchy. Parente said, “\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We might not be able to create a character like Oscar now,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n And the pussification of America continues. . .<\/p>\n