Where were you when Mr. Hooper died?

[GCrites]

Sesame St. is an un-numbered road.

Yes but did it carry any highways that were realigned prior to the 1960s?  That lack of signage continuity could be a contributing factor on why so many people ask "can you tell me how to get to Seasame Street?"  Could have been a parking lot if Mr. Meanie had his way, then what pertaining to "roadgeekry" would we have?

Makes sense. That's why it was so run down and grimy in the '70s and '80s before being fixed up in the 2000s. They took away its U.S. Route designation for the bypass. Then they built a mall out there in 1969 which pulled much of the local private sector economy into its orbit. Mr. Hooper's shop hadn't turned a profit in the 10 years before he died. Formerly the crown jewel of the city, Sesame Street filled with minorities and misfit monsters.

[roadman]

Sesame St. is an un-numbered road.

That appears to have a different "secret" numbered designation every episode.  What do you think "Sponsored by the number ..." really means.

[Max Rockatansky]

Sesame St. is an un-numbered road.

Yes but did it carry any highways that were realigned prior to the 1960s?  That lack of signage continuity could be a contributing factor on why so many people ask "can you tell me how to get to Seasame Street?"  Could have been a parking lot if Mr. Meanie had his way, then what pertaining to "roadgeekry" would we have?

Sesame St. is an un-numbered road.

That appears to have a different "secret" numbered designation every episode.  What do you think "Sponsored by the number ..." really means.

Makes sense. That's why it was so run down and grimy in the '70s and '80s before being fixed up in the 2000s. They took away its U.S. Route designation for the bypass. Then they built a mall out there in 1969 which pulled much of the local private sector economy into its orbit. Mr. Hooper's shop hadn't turned a profit in the 10 years before he died. Formerly the crown jewel of the city, Sesame Street filled with minorities and misfit monsters.

Might explain some of the urban decay tropes in he show.  Oscar is the neighborhood bum, Cookie Monster "Sid" is the drug addict, Big Bird is the neglected child, the Count is the local vice lord slash possible pimp, the list can go on for almost every character.  Pretty soon Sesame Street will become the hipster neighborhood and Mr. Hooper's will be converted into a Tea Den or Coffee Shop.

Maybe they got down graded to a Lettered County Route like California?  From I remember the sponsors were always a number and a letter...wasn't there something else?

Incidentally if anyone wants to have a good time regarding all things The Count search "song of the count censored" on Youtube. 

[Rothman]

Incidentally if anyone wants to have a good time regarding all things The Count search "song of the count censored" on Youtube. 

That is indeed hilarious.

I [beep] slowly, slowly, slowly getting faster...

[roadman]

I always viewed the Count as CTW's answer to Boris Badenov.

[GCrites]

Maybe if Sesame St. was at least designated as the Business Route of the bypass it wouldn't have gotten so bad in the '70s.

[bandit957]

I always thought Sesame Street wasn't really a street. It was more like an alley.

[Max Rockatansky]

I always thought Sesame Street wasn't really a street. It was more like an alley.

Supposedly it is meant to represent a street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  Specifically the show takes place at the address "123 Sesame Street" itself. 

[1995hoo]

I always thought Sesame Street wasn't really a street. It was more like an alley.

Supposedly it is meant to represent a street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  Specifically the show takes place at the address "123 Sesame Street" itself. 

In the Christmas Eve special a few of the characters were getting on the subway. IIRC it was the 86 Street IND stop. One of the few times Oscar the Grouch's feet were visible.

[DTComposer]

Like many others, I aged out of Sesame Street before both the Mr. Hooper and Snuffleupagus episodes, but heard a lot about them when they happened.

I now have a son who is watching Sesame Street, and it is interesting to see the changes. Sometimes they'll show a "classic" episode (which my wife and I will both remember), and one of the most striking differences is how much slower the pacing was then. Not just the length of the segments, but the acting.

Some comments upthread question the quality/worth of PBS compared to other networks at the time. I would have a hard time questioning the influence that Sesame Street, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, The Electric Company and 3-2-1 Contact had on all children's programming that followed. Our family watched Washington Week in Review and Wall Street Week over Friday dinner. At the Movies with Siskel and Ebert; Masterpiece Theatre (still remember watching Danger UXB)...and PBS was my first exposure to Monty Python. Sure, there was lots of painting and yoga shows in between, but all the networks back then struggled to fill their programming day.

This makes me sound like a PBS nut...far from it. My favorite shows of the time were The A-Team, The Dukes of Hazzard, and the Top 20 Video Countdown. I loved The Match Game (even if I didn't get all the jokes). Would watch old Little Rascals and Abbott and Costello movies on the local independent station. Point is, the best of what PBS broadcast compared more than favorably to the network fare - it seems like people have a problem with their funding model (that's a totally valid opinion) and therefore dismiss the quality of the product.

[GCrites]

The private sector only supplies traffic reports and judge shows during the times kids watch TV.

[1995hoo]

I don't have any kids, so this comment is entirely secondhand, but from what I've heard from people at the office who talk about their kids watching TV, the biggest changes on Sesame Street seem to them to be how noisy the show has become. They blame the producers for letting Elmo take over the show.

[Otto Yamamoto]

I always thought Sesame Street wasn't really a street. It was more like an alley.

Supposedly it is meant to represent a street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  Specifically the show takes place at the address "123 Sesame Street" itself.

Sesame Street is supposedly located in Astoria, Queens, where production takes place.

XT1254

[empirestate]

I always thought Sesame Street wasn't really a street. It was more like an alley.

Supposedly it is meant to represent a street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  Specifically the show takes place at the address "123 Sesame Street" itself.

Sesame Street is supposedly located in Astoria, Queens, where production takes place.

XT1254

Yes, and more generally it represents the typical urban neighborhood you'd find across much of outer-borough NYC. I remember feeling that the cityscape they depicted (mostly through filmed segments, which happen to be a great way to look back in time at the city) was a little foreign to me, growing up in a mid-sized Upstate city. Then I moved to the Bronx, and suddenly I was essentially living on Sesame Street. (Asphalt-surfaced playgrounds? Oh, so they do exist...)

Another side-effect of coming to the big city is that I have at least a few colleagues who actually work on the program. File that under things that would have amazed my six-year-old self.

[1995hoo]

I always thought Sesame Street wasn't really a street. It was more like an alley.

Supposedly it is meant to represent a street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  Specifically the show takes place at the address "123 Sesame Street" itself. 

In the Christmas Eve special a few of the characters were getting on the subway. IIRC it was the 86 Street IND stop. One of the few times Oscar the Grouch's feet were visible.

I was mistaken, it's the 86 Street IRT, not IND.

[Otto Yamamoto]

I always thought Sesame Street wasn't really a street. It was more like an alley.

Supposedly it is meant to represent a street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  Specifically the show takes place at the address "123 Sesame Street" itself. 

In the Christmas Eve special a few of the characters were getting on the subway. IIRC it was the 86 Street IND stop. One of the few times Oscar the Grouch's feet were visible.

I was mistaken, it's the 86 Street IRT, not IND.

Nice try, but 86 Street has tile signage.

XT1254

[1995hoo]

I always thought Sesame Street wasn't really a street. It was more like an alley.

Supposedly it is meant to represent a street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  Specifically the show takes place at the address "123 Sesame Street" itself. 

In the Christmas Eve special a few of the characters were getting on the subway. IIRC it was the 86 Street IND stop. One of the few times Oscar the Grouch's feet were visible.

I was mistaken, it's the 86 Street IRT, not IND.

Nice try, but 86 Street has tile signage.

XT1254

Heh, it's the Second Avenue Subway 86 Street stop!

[GCrites]

Hey, at least it wasn't printed out on an Apple II where the big numbers are made up of a bunch of little versions of the same number.

[Otto Yamamoto]

I always thought Sesame Street wasn't really a street. It was more like an alley.

Supposedly it is meant to represent a street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  Specifically the show takes place at the address "123 Sesame Street" itself. 

In the Christmas Eve special a few of the characters were getting on the subway. IIRC it was the 86 Street IND stop. One of the few times Oscar the Grouch's feet were visible.

I was mistaken, it's the 86 Street IRT, not IND.

Nice try, but 86 Street has tile signage.

XT1254

Heh, it's the Second Avenue Subway 86 Street stop!

I may still see that I'm my lifetime 😝

XT1254

[Max Rockatansky]

I don't have any kids, so this comment is entirely secondhand, but from what I've heard from people at the office who talk about their kids watching TV, the biggest changes on Sesame Street seem to them to be how noisy the show has become. They blame the producers for letting Elmo take over the show.

Well...the subversion and take over of Sesame Street Elmo is becoming more and more apparent over the years:

How oddly specific....Elmo knows YOUR name...also where you live:

Who knows, maybe Mr. Hooper didn't pay up and suffered the consequences?

[US 81]

I don't think I saw it at the time, but when my kids watched Sesame St, Big Bird had a framed picture of a drawing of Mr. Looper - um, I mean Hooper - hanging on the brick wall next to his nest. I liked it as a quiet, subtle tribute to the actor and character.

[kphoger]

Mr Hooper did not die.  He was a fictional character.  Unless, I guess, the actor died while actually acting out the part on camera.  Which didn't happen, as he died in a hospital from a heart attack. [/morbid]

[empirestate]

Mr Hooper did not die.  He was a fictional character.  Unless, I guess, the actor died while actually acting out the part on camera.  Which didn't happen, as he died in a hospital from a heart attack. [/morbid]

The fictional character did indeed die, fictionally. That was the entire point of the episode and what made it so important. Or perhaps I'm not understanding the distinction you're making?


iPhone

[kphoger]

My point is that there's something ludicrous about asking where people were when... something fictional "happened."

Where were you when Hamlet killed Polonius? Both events occurred in a timeless world of fiction, in which where you were has no relation to the actual world around you. (I was in English class during my senior year of high school when Hamlet killed Polonius.)

[Max Rockatansky]

My point is that there's something ludicrous about asking where people were when... something fictional "happened."

But isn't that the point of a Bandit thread?