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In part two of DefunctTV’s Jim Henson series, the origins of Sesame Street, the Muppetland specials, and the failed Muppet pilots are discussed.

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49 thoughts on “DefunctTV: The Curse of Sesame Street

  1. Ahoyhoy There, Fellow YouTuberinos. These early Sesame Street/Muppet characters like Gonzo look pretty cleaned up, like they weren't all the way from the 1960s. They must have had great archivers to have something from that many decades ago look so new.

  2. Even though both classic and modern Sesame Street are a bit different this show remains the goat of Children's Preschool Television and one of my favorites growing up while watching ABC Kids here in Australia

  3. Sesame Street was never shown in Denmark, since it was obviously in English and aimed at a completely different audience. Instead we got our own children shows inspired by amongst others Jim Henson's work. One of these featured 'Kaj og Andrea', a puppet frog and parrot who sometimes interacted with humans, and varied between being skits and edutainment. Big Bird was the obvious inspiration for 'Kylling', a very similar giant yellow bird, who first appeared alongside 'Bamse', a big teddybear, as side characters on a kid's show called 'Døren går op…' (translates to "The door opens" with an implied "and then"), which was pure entertainment and mostly served as lead-in and -out for various cartoons and other programs, like the various Astrid Lindgren series. These two characters became very popular amongst preschoolers, so the show evolved into 'Bamse's Billedbog' ("Bear's picture book") which despite being popular amongst the smallest kids, was a terrible and stupid show – literally everything Sesame Street set out not to be. The show became infamous amongst parents and older kids for making kids dumber, largely because they failed to speak proper Danish – thus kids learned incorrect grammar and non-existent words which severely hurt their school performance – and everything that happened on the show was dumb skits completely void of any educational value. Despite of the harsh criticism the show carried on for many more years than it deserved before it was finally dropped when it was decided they shouldn't spend money on producing entertainment for kids. These shows were all produced by the national Danish television as before 1987 it was illegal for anyone else to broadcast television in Denmark. It's worth noting that while all this went on we also had the Muppet Show and Fraggles on TV

    The most interesting part of this is that these Danish puppet shows were aimed at older kids – teens and pre-teens – while the people sized characters were aimed at the youngest kids, which somewhat fit with Jim Henson's idea that the muppets should target an older audience. For some reason Danish television felt kids were incapable of assimilating knowledge before they were 10, so the little kids' show was void of intelligence, while the show for older kids taught you science and explained rather complex principles.

  4. Just finished your one for the Disney Channel theme music where you ponder about being a documentarian versus a content creator. I immediately thought of this series. There are some heavy parallels I think between you and Jim with the embrace of where the culture is trending to while minting certain ethics and morals. Now back to arguably the best Henson career biography

  5. I watched as a kid. I remember many characters from my childhood and they are still around today. As well its cool to think that every Sesame Street puppet character is a Muppet too.

  6. The important thing you failed to mention about the history of Sesame Street is that “the children” who couldn’t read where black and Hispanic kids in NY city. They were falling behind with reading and math and life skills. That’s why the cast was so ethnic, it was made FOR the ethnic children in New York. That’s why it got so much backlash

  7. ok that square space ad in the start was actually very fucking good. I usually hate sponsor ads (I don't hate on youtubers for doing them tho, gotta chase that bag and yaknow, be able to eat), but this one was short, sweet, and completley fits the video.

  8. An excellent telling. Thanks. I remember Sesame Street. I wanted to watch “ captain Scarlett “ in SuperMarionation”. I had a younger brother & sister. My Mother instructed the Muppets. “ because it’s educational “

  9. i love the clips shown, i think the muppets are brilliant for an adult show. there’s definitely a way to do it right and i wish it could be a thing today- i think it would be better accepted too.

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