Like a lot of us, I got Sesame Street as a kid. And the first episodes are out on DVD. With a warning!!!!!!

*bangs head on the table*

I think most my generation turned out pretty good, even if we are bit prone to slacking and whining. So how can the Sesame street that worked for us be harmful to kids now? What, we didn't have a properly medicated rolemodel? Or is the fact that Oscar was cranky and grumpy and still a good guy once you got to know him is to scary? Or is wrong to have two friends fresh out of college sharing an apartment? Or do they think that having a guy who is fat and overweight and admits to be out of shape, but lives on junk food, is a leap of logic to large for kids?

What the *4,720 characters deleted by censors* is wrong with these people? These are the same people who put warnings in the Muppet Show DVDs- little kids still don't get the full meaning of the two dirty old coots in the balcony. You get worse in Shrek for pity's sake.

*bangs head again*
*a few more times*

OK, I'm better. But someone is still messed up.

Well, if that's the case.......

Barney isn't for little kids either. The image of a large dinosaur is too scary.

Neither is Thomas the Tank Engine, because it might make kids want to play around train tracks.

Blue's Clues isn't either, I fear children might try to pet random blue dogs.


Come on, you've got to be kidding me. I really fear for future generations. If they can't cope with a different character on Sesame Street, how are they going to cope with life? What a joke.


When I was a kid I used to watch the Three Stooges and Merrie Melodies with my dad. About as close to random senseless violence as you can get. Even with that, I think I turned out okay.

I watched the Stooges too. I do get the desire to make whooping sounds and pop someone in the forehead with the heel of my hand from time to time, but I somehow manage to control myself. So far at least.

I think that someone is always trying to make some excuse for poor parenting...

What kind of a warning?

It's a politically correct magic trick. Listen to them go on and on about Sesame Street's "bad points", and miss the fact that the PC drones haven't got a clue. About teaching, about kids, about anything.

I haven't had a TV for several years now, but what I hear about it from my coworkers is scary. But it's okay to let the kids watch that crap?

America is dipping deeply into the well of insanity.

Sue

Personally, I think it's a good thing. Those warnings are already so nearly ubiquitous that most of us have stopped paying attention to them.

Does anyone seriously think that parents are going to stop their kids watching Sesame Street because it comes with a "parental advisory"? If so, they're dreaming in technicolor.

The reason I think it's a good thing is because it may drive the final nail in the coffin of believing that paying attention to parental advisories is better than actually taking the time to find out what your kids are watching.

It's the old story - "If everything is top priority, then nothing is a priority." The people who did this are, essentially, oblivious to the obvious (to the rest of us) fact that by doing so, they have admitted that the whole "parental advisory" thing is a useless exercise that nobody pays attention to.

And nobody is going to be affected by this in any way, shape or form, as far as I can see.

Wow. If Sesame Street is bad for kids, Roadrunner and Wile Coyote must be child abuse.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/magazi...a1aN8mIVipYm/yw

Wow its got a parental advisory !!
I vaguely remember Sesame Street as a child and found it rather dull watching. We had much more psychedelic and completely wacked out childrens TV shows in the UK during the seventies such as 'The Magic Roundabout', 'Chorton and the Wheelies', 'Rhubarb and Custard', 'Rainbow' and 'Captain Pugwash'

Here's an example from Rainbow.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dyqEPgRc6IE

Hey, as far as I’m concerned, all of those children’s shows should come with a parental warning. That parental warning should read, in huge bold letters:

“NOT TO BE USED AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR ACTUAL, REAL PARENTING!”

Maybe they should even combine that with audio narration… a shrill woman’s voice screaming, as if something is on fire, the words in sync with their display might attract the appropriate attention.

Amen.

I tell you what, when they put a PW on Mister Roger's Neighborhood, it'll be time to flush the whole bloody system.

They ought to put a big circle with a diagonal line on every image of Britney, Paris, Lindsay, Nicole...the list goes on and on. Yet the media keeps these fine examples of humanity stuffed in our faces 24/7.

You sure you didn't get the X-rated version with the anatomically correct Muppets? A whole different take on Bert and Ernie. And the things Grover gets into. Don't get me started on Snuffleuppigus and what he does with his trunk/s.

Back to reality. It doesn't surprise me much. Moralizers and finger waggers can find corruption anywhere they look. Mostly because what they are seeing is the reflected corruption of their own minds. Moralizer don't eliminate their own corruption. They project it away from themselves.

Falwell thought the TeleTubbies as a gay conspiracy because they were carefree and one of the characters had a magic bag that reminded Falwell of a purse. This is a guy who once claimed that a good Christian should soap up the fixtures in the shower so you won't see yourself in the reflection. No kidding. Scary that Falwell, now safely underground, and people like him think they should guide our nation.

It wouldn't be much of a problem except you know these people are likely to sue anyone for 'corrupting the children' so everything has to get a warning label.

I love the reaction of modern parents when I tell them that the best feature of the GI Joe male action figure (He was NOT a doll ) was the removable extremities to simulate injuries.

It's amazing that kids aren't allowed to actually play and use imagination these days. We used to jump off the roof of the house (1-story) when playing paratrooper. I'm glad that houses didn't come with Parental Warnings. We also used to play "gladiator" by taking a whiffle bat, wrapping it with duct tape and calling it a sword and used a metal garbage can lid as a shield. We'd then try to beat the stuffing out of each other during the remainder of the afternoon.

Sigh -- and I wonder why my wife rolls her eyes at these stories?

[quote]We also used to play "gladiator" by taking a whiffle bat, wrapping it with duct tape and calling it a sword and used a metal garbage can lid as a shield. We'd then try to beat the stuffing out of each other during the remainder of the afternoon.
[quote]

This is very similar to an event that happened here last year.

My teenage son had to instruct/demonstrate a sport in his Gym class and he picked "Gladiator Games" to compare them to modern games (boxing, wrestling, UFC, etc). So we went to the dollars store and bought 4 wire waste baskets, 4 foam swords and 4 different colours of duct tape. We forced the waste baskets into helmets, made cardboard vest type armour and modified Rubbermaid Tote lids to be shields. All of these items were boldly decorated with a colour of duct tape to identify the combatants (e.g. Red Diamond Gladiator). My son's speech on todays Gladiators went well but when he suited-up 4 of his classmates and held a competition the class got very involved. The teacher was crowned "Emperor" and ruled on who lived or died, depending on how well they participated. The event was a big success and my youngest daughter still pulls out the costumes about once a month to play with the neighbourhood kids.

Old time fun is not lost on todays youth, it just needs a little prompting to get the imagination working.

Mike

Exactly