Tues Ten 111009: Brought to You by the Letter…

This week’s Tuesday 10 is brought to you by the letters W, S and E, and by the numbers 2 and 3 — just like the first Sesame Street episode which aired 40 years ago today! We were born in the same year, and the Ernie and Bert pair you see here are remnants of the love we’ve shared. While there have been several new generations of children glued to their PBS stations or DVDs and a new generation of muppets like Elmo and Rosita taking up residence at 123 Sesame Street, some things never change. Just this morning, Little Drummer Boy grabbed Bert off the toy shelf and treated him to a trip to the breakfast table. And though you couldn’t tell it by Bert’s one eyebrow and pursed gaze, I think he enjoyed his birthday pop tart brought to you by the number 40. It was an unexpected, but fitting commemoration of today’s milestone!

In celebration of this “sunny day”, I give you ten wonderful things about Sesame Street:

1. Snufalupagus is real!

2. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, tweeeelve. bop. bop. bop.

3. Sesame street was fully integrated from the beginning. And, although that may have had a differect connotation for the rest of the world in 1969, for Sesame Street, it meant that people and muppets could freely interact with one another. Something most children already know.

4. Caroll Spinney. Wow! He’s played Big Bird and Oscar since the first Sesame Street episode.

5. It was the first children’s show to include research as an integral part of content development.

6. Rubber Ducky IS the one. Ernie’s beloved bath song solidified the squeezable buddy’s status as an American icon.

7. Over 74 million Americans have watched Sesame Street since it first aired–pretty impressive for a bunch of letters, numbers and monsters.

8. “I love it because it’s trash!”

9. Sesame Street has received more Emmy awards than any other television program.

10. It still inspires dance moves for preschoolers (and Mommies) in my house!