On the Street

From the NY Times, a review of a new book about Sesame Street:

Meanwhile, the urban street scenes at the center of the show communicated the social values of a progressive culture. Here was TV at its most sublime, but also an entrancing product of a liberal age, something Mom was happy for us to watch.

I think I've always wanted to live in the city because my grandparents lived here when I was a kid. But it occurs to me now that the reason the city appealed to me as a kid was that it reminded me of Sesame Street. It seemed realer because it seemed like the urban world I saw on the show that I watched obsessively (I used to cry when it was over, so much so that my mom bought me a shelf full of Sesame Street books to tide me over till the next time it came on).

How would things have been different if I hadn't grown up before Barney came around?:

Once revolutionary, “Sesame Street” came to be seen as a dated reminder of urban decay, while the purple dinosaur Barney took children’s television out to the clean suburban schoolyard. “None of Barney’s friends lives in a garbage can, and none grunts hip-hop,” National Review cheered.