He would get frustrated as anyone would but often would respond with a quiet “Hmm…” to indicate he wasn’t happy with something, so when Kermit got angry, it was a great way for him to channel his impatience in an exaggerated form and in character. Jim himself was always known to be a very patient man. He really goes off on Cookie here, and it’s just hilarious. For one, I’m pretty sure it’s the first time in this chronological watch that I’ve seen the usually-calm-and-controlled Kermit really lose his temper with another Muppet, which is always a delight to behold. Such as in this first example, in which Kermit is trying to illustrate the concept of “happy” to the kids at home, when Cookie appears out of nowhere and devours the happy face Kermit had drawn, which instead makes Kermit mad: As with his early scenes with Ernie, Cookie would often appear as the monster devouring things in the background of Kermit’s “lectures” on various subjects, the joke being that, in messing up Kermit’s plans, he often ended up inadvertently illustrating or enhancing the point the green guy was trying to make. Next up, we have two Kermit and Cookie Monster clips. They constantly and deliberately modified the show to keep it relevant to the times. But as uncomfortable as this may all be to see today, it remains a fascinating cultural relic, and an example of how not all of Sesame Street remains timeless.

Not even factoring in divorce or out-of-wedlock pregnancies, what about death? Is a widow not a mother? This would never appear on Sesame Street today, and neither would the fact that a mother’s job, according to the song, is to cook, bake, sew, do laundry, and tend to her children and husband.Īnd the children’s song is possibly even more troubling, with the daughter’s “job” being to play with dolls, help her mother cook and sew, and dress beautifully, while a the son’s is to run around, play ball, get messy, and to “grow up to be 6 feet tall”. The mom starts off by saying, “To be a mother, you have to have a husband,” which is just wrong on so many levels. I was also able to find the accompanying “Mother’s Song” and “Children’s Song,” which may be even worse. For, you see, a father’s job is to fix things around the house, work long hours to provide for his wife and children, and to care for them as king of the house: Next, I watched some clips that were posted on the official Sesame Street YouTube account, including one called “Father’s Song,” which comes across as so uncomfortably patriarchal and traditional-gender-role-reinforcing today that it’s almost creepy. As I mentioned before, it was actually in one of these that Cookie gained his love for cookies in particular and, thus, his name. This is just one of many Ernie and Cookie Monster sketches from the early days. The third is Ernie singing the classic song, “If I Knew You Were Coming, I’d’ve Baked a Cake” while frenziedly baking a cake for a hungry Cookie Monster, who immediately devours it once he’s finished. Again, we see little Brian Henson here, finding only 1 penny in his piggy bank. The second is another “baker” film, this time for the number 1.

Batman catches a criminal in a high-up apartment by tossing a boomerang tied to a rope up and through a window, where it wraps around the baddie.

One is another Batman cartoon, this one teaching the concepts of up, through, and around. The next few clips I watched were from the Sesame Street: 40 Years of Sunny Days DVD set, many of which overlapped with Old School, but three of which were new to me. The final Season 1 clips on the set are the legendary Lou Rawls singing another song about the alphabet with kids on the street, Bob and Susan singing a song about body part pairs (eyes, ears, etc.) called “I’ve Got Two”–not one of the show’s greater musical efforts–and a cartoon about a boy attempting to fish but simply catching letters of the alphabet instead, until he finally decides to just make alphabet soup, which I vaguely recall from childhood.

Little bird sesame street