More Sesame Street Love

Sometimes I show Penelope Sesame Street on Hulu, and she LOVES it, for a few minutes at a time, anyway. It's nice to see that some things about it are exactly the same. Even some of the old people are still on it, like the actor who plays Gordon. He was on the first episode in 1969, and he's still on it, which is crazy. The show still has lots of great cameos. In the most recent season, you can see Ricky Gervais, Matthew Fox, Jason Mraz, Adam Sandler, etc. It's kind of fun as a parent watching to recognize random folks, since the kids obviously don't know who they are. Despite the fact that I can only remember white male special guests at the moment, they have very diverse casting of adults, kids, and even muppets. They show all different ages, cultures, and abilities in every episode. The diversity extends to the little shorts they have too; from real people, to puppets, to computer animation, to classic animation and claymation, they mix it up a lot to keep kids' interest. I love that it's still entirely educational - they work on phonics, math, science, social studies concepts, music, and just general kindness and manners.

It's amazing how well this classic kids' show has stood the test of time, but also evolved with time.