dive into mark

As sort of a followup to this post about Sesame Street Old School…

I bought the “Old School” volume 1 box set, to complement our already-purchased “Old School” volume 2 box set. We just got to an episode where Big Bird is trying to introduce Snuffleupagus to his friends but his friends don’t see him. This was one of the “differences” in the early episodes that soulless executives were “concerned” about — Snuffleupagus was cast as a figment of Big Bird’s imagination until 1985.

I recognized what was going on and told my older son that Snuffleupagus was invisible in this story and only Big Bird could see him. Contrary to the “concerns” of the aforementioned soulless executives, this did not faze my 4-year-old. In fact, he spent the rest of the evening running around the house with his hands over his eyes saying “You can’t see me! You can’t see me!” and laughing hysterically.

Perhaps their “concern” was rooted in the fact that exposure to early Sesame Street episodes would turn our nation’s youth into the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.

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Three comments here (latest comments)

1. The image brings back a sweet memory of my literally running into Douglas Adams in Las Vegas at CES in 1985– he’d just come out with his HHG game and was handing out Don’t Panic buttons. I still have mine. Sadly we don’t have him anymore.

   Four is a great age and you’re a great dad!

   — Joely 

2. I always heard that the change happened because there was a child abuser using the name and the producers decided that the whole “secret friend that your parents can’t see” thing was potentially harmful and, at the very least, tainted by this. You may disagree, but I think calling this “soulless” is a bit much.

   — Paul 

3. Dangit, wikipedia took down the spoiler warning!
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloysius_Snuffleupagus

   — DeanG 

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