wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] LevineJJ from nj December 24, 2007 - 10:43AM

  Sometimes a google search result says it all (in this case, 119,000 hits and counting...):

  http://tinyurl.com/345ape

  
  
• [2] Jeremy from Manhattan December 24, 2007 - 10:50AM

  I happen to think the early episodes were far superior to anything recent. Didn't the Grimms write their fairy tales with the idea that children learn more from darkness -- melancholy, conflict, etc. -- than blandness and shallow happiness?

  
  
• [3] craig December 24, 2007 - 11:01AM

  According to "Sesame Street Unpaved" by David Borgenicht, page 107 "The character of Oscar was inspired by a nasty waiter from a restaurant called Oscar's Tavern in Manhattan. Jim Henson and former "Sesame Street" director Jon Stone were waited on by a man who was so rude and grouchy that he surpassed annoying and started to amuse both Jim and Jon. They were so entertained that going to Oscar's Tavern became a sort of masochistic form of luncheon entertainment for them, and their waiter forever became immortalized as the world's most famous grouch."

  
  
• [4] Gene December 24, 2007 - 11:37AM

  I lived on W. 81 st. when Sesame Street started taping down the street.

  The dirt, trash, rudeness, crime and drug use were actually pretty reflective of the city itself--and the West Side in particular--c. 1969.

  Presumably, the writers felt it important not to divorce their work from the realities of the time.

  W. 81 was also the fictional address of Jerry in "Seinfeld," a program in which similar themes are referenced.