Elmo was obliterated last week, and it’s about time. Larry David gave the red monster a good face grabbing on NBC’s Today which seemed to come as a shock to some of the anchors. More importantly, when the fluffy red marketing tool asked on X how everyone was doing, it was very clear nobody is ok. But is Elmo at fault? The very show that taught us what TV could be if it loved people may have turned its back on America and is now selling to you instead with marketing.
According to Morris and Nielsen data, in 1966 children were watching 54 hours of TV a week. But what they were watching was non-educational, and had an end goal of selling toys or products. Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett set out to change this and advance children of the inner city. Combined with a small team, including Jim Henson and producer/director Jon Stone, they developed Sesame Street. It not only had the muppets but it also educated children with songs, live actors, and short sketches with claymation/hand-drawn animation.
Once the format was nailed down and the show made it to air it was an instant hit. In Cooney’s own words (found in several documentaries) “the phone was ringing off the hook.” The calls were from toy makers. The show wasn’t for marketing toys but for education. Viewers were excited to learn about “Who are the people in your neighborhood,” we mourned when Mr. Hooper died, and in the early 2000’s felt the pain of Big Bird losing his nest due to a storm. Yet emotional moments like this, which teach children how to grow, are missing from today’s Sesame Street.
Muppets with definitive personalities, like Snuffalufagus, Forgetful Jones, and Oscar the Grouch have either been retired, forgotten about, or given minimal airtime (respectively). These key characters and moments have been replaced by a self-centered 3-year-old red monster and his fairy friend, Abby. Both make great marketing tools but teach very little about growing up and how to be a better person.
Designed in 1979, Elmo was a generic background monster. He was tossed from muppeteer to muppeteer because no one wanted him. Dubbed “Baby Monster”, Elmo represents children going through the terrible threes, except he never grows up. Like 3-year-olds who are only concerned about their own needs, Elmo’s character never develops an emotional range of understanding. It even shows in the way Elmo speaks, because he is the only character who calls himself by his name. The more Elmo took up the show, the less educational and emotional growth children experienced. The news media, however, loved Elmo because, like Elmo, the news media loves itself.
Children deserve more than Elmo. In the “Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street” documentary, Lloyd Morrisett defined why Oscar the Grouch is so important saying, “Oscar the Grouch was created to show even someone with a completely different point of view could become your friend.” Something adults and children alike need to be reminded of today.
Forgetful Jones teaches children not only is it ok to forget but also how to be kind to someone when they do forget. Snuffalufagus and his relationship with Big Bird is key because it shows how to stand up for what (or who) you believe in, even if people can’t see it with their own eyes.
This brings us to Big Bird, who was, and still should be, the most important muppet on Sesame Street. At 8 feet 2 inches tall and just 6 years old, Big Bird acts as children should by the end of their tenure for watching the show. The importance of understanding and developing coping mechanisms when death or tragedy strikes is essential to Big Bird’s character and is missing from modern-day storylines.
The marketing ploy of today’s Sesame Street is very blatant and brazen. Producers of Sesame Street today no longer feel the importance of holding up the integrity of the show. They are instead only interested in maintaining the integrity of their own social justice pursuits. Conversely, Stone, Henson, and their music producer Joe Raposo could not spend enough hours of the day maintaining the show’s integrity. The pursuits of what was then considered progressive programming always came in a distant third to integrity and education.
While the news media of yesteryear applauded the hard work and educational value of the show, today, news media lauds the history and feelings it invokes for adults, not the quality of content it is providing children.
Krystina Alarcon Carroll is a news media columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
