{"id":4126,"date":"2007-11-18T23:18:23","date_gmt":"2007-11-19T07:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2007\/11\/18\/oscar-the-adults-only-grouch\/"},"modified":"2019-12-23T08:02:35","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T16:02:35","slug":"oscar-the-adults-only-grouch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2007\/11\/18\/oscar-the-adults-only-grouch\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar the Adults-Only Grouch"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:5752,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/gp\\\/redirect.html%3FASIN=B000H6SY8C%26tag=djwudicom-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=\\\/o\\\/ASIN\\\/B000H6SY8C%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/gp\\\/redirect.html?ASIN=B000H6SY8C&amp;tag=djwudicom-20&amp;lcode=xm2&amp;cID=2025&amp;ccmID=165953&amp;location=\\\/o\\\/ASIN\\\/B000H6SY8C%3FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:5753,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/gp\\\/redirect.html%3FASIN=B000UNYJTK%26tag=djwudicom-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=\\\/o\\\/ASIN\\\/B000UNYJTK%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/gp\\\/redirect.html?ASIN=B000UNYJTK&amp;tag=djwudicom-20&amp;lcode=xm2&amp;cID=2025&amp;ccmID=165953&amp;location=\\\/o\\\/ASIN\\\/B000UNYJTK%3FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:5754,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.nytimes.com\\\/2007\\\/11\\\/18\\\/magazine\\\/18wwln-medium-t.html?_r=1&amp;ref=magazine&amp;oref=slogin&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20250711194139\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.nytimes.com\\\/2007\\\/11\\\/18\\\/magazine\\\/18wwln-medium-t.html?_r=1&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-08 14:01:05&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-28 11:33:02&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 14:20:44&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:true,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 14:20:44&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:5755,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/gp\\\/redirect.html%3FASIN=B0009ULBGS%26tag=djwudicom-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=\\\/o\\\/ASIN\\\/B0009ULBGS%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/gp\\\/redirect.html?ASIN=B0009ULBGS&amp;tag=djwudicom-20&amp;lcode=xm2&amp;cID=2025&amp;ccmID=165953&amp;location=\\\/o\\\/ASIN\\\/B0009ULBGS%3FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:5756,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/slashdot.org\\\/article.pl?sid=07\\\/11\\\/18\\\/180249&amp;from=rss&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/slashdot.org\\\/article.pl?sid=07\\\/11\\\/18\\\/180249&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>The original Sesame Street episodes are being released to DVD (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html%3FASIN=B000H6SY8C%26tag=djwudicom-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=\/o\/ASIN\/B000H6SY8C%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002\" title=\"'Sesame Street - Old School, Vol. 1 (1969-1974)' (Sesame Street)\">Vol. 1<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html%3FASIN=B000UNYJTK%26tag=djwudicom-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=\/o\/ASIN\/B000UNYJTK%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002\" title=\"'Sesame Street: Vol. 2 - Old School (1974-1979)' (Sesame Street)\">Vol. 2<\/a>)&#8230;just <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/11\/18\/magazine\/18wwln-medium-t.html?_r=1&amp;ref=magazine&amp;oref=slogin\" title=\"New York Times: Sweeping the Clouds Away\">don&#8217;t show &#8217;em to your kids<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, \u201cSesame Street: Old School\u201d is adults-only: \u201cThese early \u2018Sesame Street\u2019 episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today\u2019s preschool child.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  I asked Carol-Lynn Parente, the executive producer of \u201cSesame Street,\u201d how exactly the first episodes were unsuitable for toddlers in 2007. She told me about Alistair Cookie and the parody \u201cMonsterpiece Theater.\u201d Alistair Cookie, played by Cookie Monster, used to appear with a pipe, which he later gobbled. According to Parente, \u201cThat modeled the wrong behavior\u201d \u2014 smoking, eating pipes \u2014 \u201cso we reshot those scenes without the pipe, and then we dropped the parody altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>  Which brought Parente to a feature of \u201cSesame Street\u201d that had not been reconstructed: the chronically mood-disordered Oscar the Grouch. On the first episode, Oscar seems irredeemably miserable \u2014 hypersensitive, sarcastic, misanthropic. (Bert, too, is described as grouchy; none of the characters, in fact, is especially sunshiney except maybe Ernie, who also seems slow.) \u201cWe might not be able to create a character like Oscar now,\u201d she said.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;ll freely admit to leaning to the left politically and socially, but this level of &uuml;ber-sensitive, overwrought &#8216;Political Correctness&#8217; is absolutely ridiculous.<\/p>\n<p>Were I ever to have kids (or spend some time babysitting any nieces or nephews &#8212; consider yourselves warned, Kev and Emily, Noah&#8217;s in trouble with me!), I&#8217;d be <em>more<\/em> than happy to give &#8217;em a full dose of Sesame Street and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html%3FASIN=B0009ULBGS%26tag=djwudicom-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=\/o\/ASIN\/B0009ULBGS%253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002\" title=\"'The Muppet Show - Season One (Special Edition)' (Philip Casson, Peter Harris)\">the Muppets<\/a> both (that is, during one of the few times we plopped &#8217;em down in front of the TV instead of with a book or a game or outside play or other such things).<\/p>\n<p>This world just gets weirder and weirder some days.<\/p>\n<p>(via <em><a href=\"http:\/\/slashdot.org\/article.pl?sid=07\/11\/18\/180249&amp;from=rss\" title=\"\/.: Sesame Street DVD Deemed Adult-Only Entertainment\">\/.<\/a><\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, &#8216;Sesame Street: Old School&#8217; is adults-only: &#8216;These early \u2018Sesame Street\u2019 episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today\u2019s preschool child.&#8217;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2037],"tags":[13,1783,8],"class_list":["post-4126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tv-and-films","tag-life","tag-sesame-street","tag-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}