Happy Anniversary to Sesame Street

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the debut of Jim Henson's Sesame Street. To honor the ground-breaking children's educational show I wanted to share some of my thoughts and memories of the show.

To the best I can remember I watched Sesame Street every day on a small television in our family's dining room. It just seemed natural I believe to watch Sesame Street in the morning, near the breakfast table. Cereal and Sesame Street.

This was a time well before the thought of Barney and Friends came to be popular, and am I ever glad I missed that era. Maybe Barney had his advantages for kids and I am sure the show taught some valuable lessons, but Sesame Street used the power of Muppets, which I was surrounded with at an early age. The Muppets were everywhere for me. Fraggle Rock, movies, animated shows, and of course Sesame Street.

My personal favorite character on Sesame Street was and always will be Cookie Monster. Who would not love a blue furry guy who loves cookies? But combine him with the classic character of Kermit the Frog and you get some classic clips, if you ask me.

After each episode of Sesame Street my local PBS aired an episode of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood (won't you be my neighbor?) and somewhere in the schedule I believe came Reading Rainbow, which I always referred to as the reading show with that guy from Star Trek (even at an early age I seem to recall Star Trek: the Next Generation being on often either at home or at my Grandmother's), but I never really watched that program.

As they did last week, today Google celebrates the gang from the show by including them in today's Google doodle.

For more links pertaining to the iconic Jim Henson creation here are some fun links:

20 Things You Didn't Know about Sesame Street - SmartCanucks.ca
Sesame Street Facts - more info on the show
Sesame Street questions, facts, and information - If you ever wanted to know how old Elmo is for instance
Bert is Evil - an oldie but goodie
Sesame Street Wiki - via the Muppet Wiki

I would share with you Dave Chappelle's thoughts on Sesame Street, but they are not what you would call "safe for work". So go ahead and Google it on your own time.

More Cookie Monster related videos over at WFY's William World News.