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Gosh, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie all heading into their 40s? It's hard to believe, isn't it?
Can you imagine Ernie grumbling about arthritis, or Cookie Monster having to switch to low-fat cookies?
If Big Bird buys a little red sports car, we know we'll be in the midst of a mid-life-Muppet crisis.
Could the day come when kids learn to count by hearing about Bert's rising cholesterol numbers?
I never did watch "Sesame Street." I was way too old to worry about learning the alphabet or counting by then and that always felt unfair to me.
"Sesame Street" was always a happening place.
A virtual who's-who of celebrities appeared on "Sesame Street," from Robin Williams and Billy Joel to Alec Baldwin, Johnny Cash and Glenn Close.
Obviously, it's cool to appear on "Sesame Street."
Boy, nobody cool ever showed up on my kid shows.
Of course, the kid shows back then were both bland and weird.
Nobody really worried about our short attention spans or being entertaining and exciting.
The puppets were OK (I always liked Lamb Chop, though that's a cruel name for a sheep puppet, don't you think?), but never as much fun as the Muppets.
Kids shows were all about learning to be well-behaved and not making trouble.
Except for "Paul Shannon's Adventure Time," which was a local show that came on after school in Pittsburgh, where I grew up.
He showed lots of old "Three Stooges" episodes, which was dangerous for a kid like me. My older siblings — who will deny this but it's true — tried out Larry, Moe and Curly's moves on me.
Watching these three strange and angry men doing violence to each other was probably not healthy for any of us.
"Romper Room" was a much more gentle place, but it was strange, too.
You would sit and watch kids exercise, sing, play games and learn moral lessons (back to being well behaved and not making trouble).
It was like watching kids in a kindergarten class. Why not just do those things on your own?
Could "Romper Room" be responsible for a generation of couch potatoes?
And at the end of the half-hour, Miss Jane would get out her magic mirror and start saying, "I see Tommy and Billy and Mary … ."
She never once said my name, which made me sad. But then Miss Jane couldn't say, "I see Jane," could she? A little disappointment at the end of every show. Preparation for real life.
I never did like "Captain Kangaroo" much either. Why is he calling himself Captain and wearing a fake uniform? Sort of creeped me out.
Of course, TV wasn't as big a part of anyone's life back then. I was outside with the other kids in my neighborhood, and we were riding our bikes, skinning our knees, playing dodgeball and hide and seek, digging up bugs and building snow forts.
Our parents didn't seem to worry about us as long as we came home when the streetlights came on.
We didn't have "Sesame Street," but maybe our own street was something better.
