Can You Imagine a World Without ‘Sesame Street’?

There’s no way to overstate how crucial Sesame Street has been to so many childhoods. Starting with Gen X kids, it served as a centerpiece to childhood TV viewing, a gold standard, a reason that generations to come would grow up knowing why community is important, how to remember a shopping list (“a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter”), how to live peacefully with someone quite different from oneself (please see: Bert and Ernie), the musicality of counting to 10, and how to speak just a little bit of Spanish.

Celebrating its 55^th season this year, Sesame Street—which Peabody honored with an institutional award in 2018—began as an effort to counteract violent, commercial messages on television aimed even at the youngest of viewers. Emmy-winning producer Joan Ganz Cooney established the Children’s Television Workshop with the mission of using research to determine what kinds of programming most effectively taught young viewers. She and her staff even created five one-hour episodes to test with audiences before the show aired.

Of course, it went on to become something far more than a hit show. It defined childhood for generations with its careful balance of teaching and fun, and, most importantly, its cast of puppet and human characters with whom we could relate. So for anyone who grew up with the show—which is most American adults at this time—it comes as an emotional blow to learn that Sesame Street is facing an existential crisis, as HBO/Max, its home in recent years, will not be carrying it after this season. Sesame Street has, in fact, been working hard to stay relevant to a new generation of kids that gets its programming on smaller screens and often from YouTube shorts algorithmically targeted to them.

Over its five-plus decades, the program has tackled parental addiction, autism, disability, divorce, HIV, homelessness, parental incarceration, race, covid, adoption, foster care, bullying, gender roles, and grief. But it always did so by taking its young audience seriously and putting the same amount of care into its characters and storytelling that goes into the best adult-targeted shows. So those of us who watched regularly as kids know Big Bird for his happy-go-lucky spirit, Bert and Ernie for their odd-couple dynamic, Oscar the Grouch for his soft spot for Slimy the worm. We were wrecked when the whole street grieved grocery store owner Mr. Hooper’s death.

It has survived this long by touching kids’ hearts, but also by remaining culturally relevant. Celebrities have routinely guest starred; this very season features SZA, Renee Rapp, and Noah Kahan. Countless popular musicians have appeared on the show to sing cleverly revised versions of their hit songs. Pop song parodies have been a staple, from the Beatles-esque “Letter B” back in its early days to One Direction singing “That’s What Makes U Useful.” This season is also entirely dedicated to emotional well-being, which remains a topic of great concern in a post-covid time of upheaval. Elmo has learned volcano breaths to tame his anger, and in future episodes Abby will learn self-kindness in the face of frustration, while Bert and Ernie try to reconcile their different social styles when Ernie throws a big party for Bert’s birthday, even though Bert just wants a quiet day alone with his puzzle.

Sesame Street has stayed in the cultural discussion with a strong social media presence, maintaining not just a show account but also individual accounts on multiple platforms for all of the major characters, who post in their distinctive voices. For years Count von Count has simply been counting up one number each day on X. Elmo, who has a particularly robust social presence, went viral last year for simply asking online, “How is everybody doing?” The parade of responses was devastatingly honest: “Every morning, I cannot wait to go back to sleep. Every Monday, I cannot wait for Friday to come. Every single day and every single week for life.” “Elmo I’ve got to level with you baby we are fighting for our lives.” The Sesame Street account intervened in the most Sesame Street way, providing a list of mental health resources. Elmo has made a habit of checking in with everyone ever since.

It’s clear that we need Sesame Street more than ever, adults and kids alike, despite—and perhaps even because of—our ever-evolving technologies that compete for eyeballs in the modern attention economy. Let’s hope a powerful platform steps in to bring this important institution to future generations to teach them about letters, numbers, and Spanish, sure, but more significantly, kindness and community, which are often in short supply right now.

Where to Watch: Max