10 November: Sesame Street

Today is Sesame Street Day, celebrating the first episode of the long running children’s TV show. Here are 10 things you might not know about Sesame Street:

1. It all came about thanks to a question somebody asked at a TV producer’s dinner party. "Do you think [television] can teach anything?" somebody asked, and the rest is history.
2. It was originally going to be called 123 Avenue B, but the name was changed when it was discovered that was a real address in New York City. As well as the issues around using someone’s actual address, the producers didn’t want the show to be seen as specific to New York. However, in 2019, for the show's 50th anniversary, the intersection of West 63rd Street and Broadway in Manhattan was renamed Sesame Street.
3. Among the well-loved characters is the 8'2" tall Big Bird. The Big Bird suit has around 4,000 feathers. The person inside the suit cannot actually see out of it and has to navigate using a monitor.
4. There has been much speculation as to what species of bird Big Bird actually is. Big Bird himself insists he’s a lark, while Oscar has said he’s more of a homing Pigeon. Many people think however, that he’s actually a moa, an extinct flightless bird which was native to New Zealand. Moas could grow to be 12 feet tall.
5. For 15 years, Big Bird had a friend which only he and the audience could see. This was Mr Snuffleupagus, the woolly mammoth (whose first name, by the way, is Aloysius). Which meant most of the characters dismissed Mr Snuffleupagus as a figment of Big Bird’s imagination. The running joke ended with concerns that it was reinforcing an idea that adults didn’t believe things children told them, which was a concern in cases of child abuse, so they made Mr Snuffleupagus visible to everybody.
6. Before appearing on Sesame Street, the Cookie Monster appeared in a TV advertisement for crackers. His real name, according to an episode which aired in 2004, is Sid. He also has a cousin who lives in Britain, whose name is Biscuit Monster.
7. In the first series, Oscar the Grouch was Orange, but somewhere along the line between that and season two, Jim Henson decided he should be green. The colour change was explained by the story that Oscar went on holiday to a swamp and that turned him Green.
8. As well as teaching kids about numbers and the alphabet, there have been occasions when more challenging issues, like HIV or 9/11 have been covered. The most famous was when the actor who played Mr Hooper died, and the producers decided not to gloss over the fact he was no longer there, but to make the character’s death a feature of the show, complete with a funeral, which aired on Thanksgiving Day in 1983. That date was specifically chosen because families were more likely to be together and kids were less likely to be watching on their own.
9. Conspiracy theories are everywhere and even Sesame Street isn’t completely immune to them. One theory says that the theme song, Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street? Is actually a code which, if memorised, and all the actions performed, can actually transport you there. Another is that the Sesame Street community is a rehab for monsters trying to kick the habits of being scary and eating people. Several characters, when you think about it, could be diagnosed with mental disorders – Cookie Monster is a binge eater, for example, Oscar has Antisocial personality disorder, and the Vampire character The Count has severe OCD, manifesting as constantly counting things. Furthermore, one Sesame Street fan theory says the reason the cast of children on Sesame Street changes so frequently as that the Count lures kids with his number games and then eats them. The grown-ups are under a vampire spell which means they turn a blind eye to it all.
10. Sesame Street has become a worldwide phenomenon with 150 different versions in 70 languages produced around the world, although changes have been made to some of them due to cultural differences. In Israel, for example, the Oscar character is called Moishe Oofnik, the last name meaning “grouch” in Hebrew. In Afghanistan the show is called Baghch-e-Simsim (Sesame Garden). Most of the characters are there, but Oscar and the Count were sidelined because of cultural taboos around vampires and rubbish.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book