Sesame Street: Not For Children!
You might expect a DVD set for South Park or Law & Order: SVU to carry a warning that the show is not intended for children, but a DVD set for Sesame Street?
The DVD set (containing episodes from 1969 through 1974) was released this week, and has (according to a TV reporter) a tag on the video where "Bob" warns viewers that the content is intended for grown-ups and may not meet the needs to today's pre-school child. The same reporter did some investigating and speculation, and uncovered reasons for this warning. Such as: some of the things the children engaged in (like playing in a junkyard) would be considered "unsafe", and today's innocent children may have their mind's blown by certain incongruities between today's version and the episodes on the DVD's, (like having Oscar the Grouch appear in his original orange form, rather than the more familiar green).
Groan! Where to begin? How overprotective of a society are we going to create? The whole point of the show was to help pre-school children get a leg up on learing letters, numbers, etc. But now we would set that aside, because we are "afraid" that one segment showing someone playing in a junkyard will cause more harm that 5 episodes loaded up with educational information.
My whole generation grew watching those episodes, junkyard footage included, and I think it's safe to say we weren't "harmed" by Sesame Street. But let's set all that common sense and practical experience aside, and let fear of the unknown and unknowable rule our lives. We will protect you from these shows, our children, because we have an irrational fear that they will somehow harm you, although we cannot determine how this harm will come about. We just "feel" like something bad will happen. What a great message to send children.
Or maybe they don't want kids to watch it because the parents will have to do some explaining about the "special" relationship between Ernie and Bert.
The DVD set (containing episodes from 1969 through 1974) was released this week, and has (according to a TV reporter) a tag on the video where "Bob" warns viewers that the content is intended for grown-ups and may not meet the needs to today's pre-school child. The same reporter did some investigating and speculation, and uncovered reasons for this warning. Such as: some of the things the children engaged in (like playing in a junkyard) would be considered "unsafe", and today's innocent children may have their mind's blown by certain incongruities between today's version and the episodes on the DVD's, (like having Oscar the Grouch appear in his original orange form, rather than the more familiar green).
Groan! Where to begin? How overprotective of a society are we going to create? The whole point of the show was to help pre-school children get a leg up on learing letters, numbers, etc. But now we would set that aside, because we are "afraid" that one segment showing someone playing in a junkyard will cause more harm that 5 episodes loaded up with educational information.
My whole generation grew watching those episodes, junkyard footage included, and I think it's safe to say we weren't "harmed" by Sesame Street. But let's set all that common sense and practical experience aside, and let fear of the unknown and unknowable rule our lives. We will protect you from these shows, our children, because we have an irrational fear that they will somehow harm you, although we cannot determine how this harm will come about. We just "feel" like something bad will happen. What a great message to send children.
Or maybe they don't want kids to watch it because the parents will have to do some explaining about the "special" relationship between Ernie and Bert.
posted by Beukey @ 5:54 AM
2 Comments:
At 7:16 PM,
David said…
Hmmm, another tiresome rant about how American society has become so overprotective of children and how we had it so much tougher when we were kids. Have I stumbled into Bluey's World by mistake?
At 6:03 AM,
Bluey said…
Damn, I knew there was a reason why I liked playing in junk yards as a kid!
I actually think that we had life easier as kids. Life was much simpler. These kids today have to deal with an insane amount of ridiculous parental meddling that is counterproductive and confusing. Kids today may have better toys but we had much more freedom to explore our real world, something today's kids rarely do.
Instead of legislating a whole set of rules and standards for children, why don't we go back to a simpler time where an adult had no problem with another adult yelling at his/her children for doing something stupid (like playing in a junk yard)?
The problem is the "my kids would never do that" mentality that parents have. They think that if their kids are in the junkyard that somehow it's the government's fault and will petition to legislate a 12 foot fence around all junkyards and a 24 hour security team instead of just smacking their kid in the ass and telling tham that if they ever find them there again, they'll be sorry.
I'm sick of the "Johnny, you know that Dad and I love you..." discipline that some kids are getting. Some things are just black and white, like touching the hot stove.
For more tiresome rants, go to Bluey's World!
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