After 40 years, kids still flock to 'Sesame Street'

Carol-Lynn Parente, the show’s executive producer Rosetta Stone outlet since 2005, poses with some Muppets. Sunny daysSee all11 photosat full size Tune in“Sesame Street” has its 40th season premiere Tuesday featuring Michelle Obama. It’s slated to air at 7 a.m. on KCET, the local PBS affiliate that is generally Channel 10 or 28 in Ventura County, and will repeat at noon Wednesday.“Sesame Street” generally airs at 7 a.m. and noon weekdays, and 7 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays, on KCET.For more on the show, visit sesameworkshop.org. As it turns 40 this week, “Sesame Street” remains a special place in our hearts and minds, that still-happenin’ urban neighborhood where the lovable and indelible puppets Big Bird, Bert and Ernie and that latecomer Elmo never get old.Its season premiere Tuesday comes exactly 40 years from its Nov. 10, 1969, debut. First lady Michelle Obama will help ring in the milestone when she appears on a segment about the benefits of planting a garden and eating vegetables.Though armed with updated animation and graphics and always mindful of a fresher look, “Sesame Street” remains recognizable today, Executive Producer Carol-Lynn Parente noted recently in a phone interview from New York during a short break in the show’s shooting schedule.A lot of its curriculum hasn’t changed, though it’s added things such as the “Healthy Habits for Life” initiative aimed at the growing problem of childhood obesity. That, she added, dovetails nicely with Obama’s vegetable lesson on the season opener. But contrary to popular reports, the Cookie Monster has not caved to the political correctness that rules the day and sworn off eating his namesakes. (More on that later.)“Sesame Street” works, Parente Rosetta Stone Arabic said, because of its well-created and distinctive characters, and writing that’s aimed at kids and adults. It’s also lasted, she said, because “it was a phenomenal idea at its inception.”Suddenly, counting to 20 and doing arithmetic seemed hip, fun and funny. From the get-go, “Sesame Street” was good-natured, quick-cutting, fast-paced, repetitive and laced with catchy songs that stuck the lessons in the brain.Something clicked. For millions of Americans, it and its cast of lovable puppets were and still are a core part of childhood. Its characters have a deep-rooted, pop-icon identity — and commercial tie-ins — rivaled only by some Disney characters and the “Peanuts” gang.“Sesame Street” has won 122 Emmys, the most of any show in history. Syracuse University pop Rosetta Stone French culture professor Robert Thompson calls it “one of the top five most important American TV shows of all time,” right up there with “60 Minutes” and “All in the Family” — programs that altered the landscape of American culture.“Sesame Street,” he said, was a place where amusing puppets and viable curriculum ideas could mix, [Rosetta Stone] educational TV in the truest sense.It also decided that “if Madison Avenue could use a hyperkinetic, infectious style in commercials to sell America” everything from candy to toiletries, then “Sesame Street” could use the same concept to do its thing. “They used it to sell the letter H,” he noted.It’s also endured criticisms, the chief one being that its style helped to create short attention spans among children.