Where were you when Mr. Hooper died?

[empirestate]

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.)

Oh, OK. I did not understand that distinction.

[Otto Yamamoto]

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.)

Oh, OK. I did not understand that distinction.

Alas poor Hooper, I knew him well

XT1254

[spooky]

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.

I was watching an episode just recently with my daughter where a famous bird art collector comes to Sesame Street and offers Big Bird frst one, then five, then ten, then 100 bags of birdseed for his picture of Mr. Hooper. Big Bird briefly accepts the 100 bags but changes his mind before the transaction is completed, talking about how much he loved and misses Mr. Hooper. (He called him Hooper when talking about him, but acknowledged that he often called him by the wrong name.)

[DTComposer]

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.)

I think (though I could be mistaken) that the intention of the OP was less "where were you" (as in "where were you when JFK was shot/Challenger exploded/etc.") and more "did this culturally significant event (and considering it had national press coverage at the time, it was significant) affect you personally." It seems most responses understood this and wrote accordingly - they remember it but had aged out of the show, they never watched the show so it didn't impact them, it caused them sadness, etc. So yes, badly worded thread title, but the intent seems to have been understood.

That said, there are some differences between this and your Hamlet example: Hamlet is one singular work vs. Sesame Street which is now well past 4,000 episodes (NOTE: not comparing the artistry of Shakespeare to Muppets). Your analogy would work if the "episode" in which Hamlet kills Polonius came in the 15th season of "Hamlet," and then we asked people who would have been around during that season (so, around 1615) what they remember about that plot wrinkle.

An audience member or reader's exposure to Polonius before his death is a couple hours of theatre, or a couple days of reading - not years and hundreds of episodes as was the case with Mr. Hooper. Plus, "Hamlet" is not being read by three-year-olds, so the potential emotional/psychological impact of his death is different (and that impact is why I believe this thread was started).

Your example is closer to a student in the year 2400 reading the Collected Works of George Lucas and discovering that Vader is Luke's father.

[hbelkins]

I dunno ... I think it was a question more along the lines of, "were you watching when...?"

Change the question to "Where were you when J.R. Ewing was shot?" and is it any different?

[Max Rockatansky]

I dunno ... I think it was a question more along the lines of, "were you watching when...?"

Change the question to "Where were you when J.R. Ewing was shot?" and is it any different?

Sitting in the living room wondering why my parents loved that stupid Dallas show.  Little did we all know Nintendo would borrow the plot line for Super Mario Bros 2 in America later in the decade. 

[Rothman]

Change the question to "Where were you when J.R. Ewing was shot?" and is it any different?

HA!  The whole "Who Shot J.R.?" thing happened when I was young.  Remember it being a big thing, but not totally on my radar.

Strange thing is that I do remember when they wiped out an entire season by having it be a dream.  Saw the episode when it was broadcast where she wakes up and Patrick Duffy was...alive!

[empirestate]

I dunno ... I think it was a question more along the lines of, "were you watching when...?"

Change the question to "Where were you when J.R. Ewing was shot?" and is it any different?

Now that's a case where I wasn't the right age to be interested, so I haven't any memory of it happening. But I subsequently became aware of it as a pop culture landmark, so my initial ignorance of it wasn't permanent. (And I guess your initial ignorance of Mr. Hooper has now finally ended, so it's indeed the same!)

[Otto Yamamoto]

I dunno ... I think it was a question more along the lines of, "were you watching when...?"

Change the question to "Where were you when J.R. Ewing was shot?" and is it any different?

I was still floating around the West Pacific/Indian Ocean in a large grey boat 😜

XT1254

[Scott5114]

Little did we all know Nintendo would borrow the plot line for Super Mario Bros 2 in America later in the decade. 

Wait, what?

[Max Rockatansky]

Little did we all know Nintendo would borrow the plot line for Super Mario Bros 2 in America later in the decade. 

Wait, what?

It was all a dream, all your hard fought battles through the invading hordes of Sub-con by the Minions of Wart were for nothing:

The lies only continued in Super Marios Bros 3 when it turned out to be just a play....

[Scott5114]

Ah, right, I forgot the "it was just a dream" ending common to both. I thought you were trying to say there was an actual plot that I wasn't aware of, that happened to be cribbed from Dallas...

[Max Rockatansky]

Ah, right, I forgot the "it was just a dream" ending common to both. I thought you were trying to say there was an actual plot that I wasn't aware of, that happened to be cribbed from Dallas...

I doubt the former has much hand in the latter but it is still odd timing considering I want to say that season of Dallas was on in 1986.  All of the sudden Super Mario Bros 2 comes out in 1988 with the same twist at the ending.  I guess in Doki Doki Panic the plot revolved around kids being sucked into a book and the whole thing was changed when it was converted to a Mario game.

[sparker]

Interestingly, my at-that-time-11-year-old daughter called from NJ, where she was living with her mom -- her yearly call on or near my birthday -- and the Hooper demise came up in the conversation.  She herself basically shrugged it off, saying "people die -- that's just normal!" (typical of her), but she thought the subject was inappropriate for the below-7 crowd because one of her young cousins was quite traumatized by the storyline (I've always got to give her credit for never running short of empathy!).  I've always had mixed feelings about exposing young children to life's various downsides -- may be beneficial in theory but varyingly problematic in practice, dependent upon both the child and the environment.  I always meant to watch the episode just to see what she was talking about, but as 33 years have passed it's just something that slipped through the cracks.  Maybe next year................   

[spitball]

I turned 15 in 1983, so the Hooper passing was a bit after my time....but if he had died in the 70s, I'm sure I would have been pretty bummed out.  I'll have to try to Youtube it.

BTW, my girlfriend bumped into Sonia Manzano (a.k.a. Maria) somewhere in NJ a couple years back.  She enjoyed a brief conversation with her.

[bandit957]

BTW, my girlfriend bumped into Sonia Manzano (a.k.a. Maria) somewhere in NJ a couple years back.  She enjoyed a brief conversation with her.

Gordon used to regularly visit Florence Mall here in northern Kentucky. One day, we went to the mall, and Gordon was singing in one of the seating areas out in the corridor, as children gathered around him. But I was about 16, so I was too old for 'Sesame Street'.

[kphoger]

I've always had mixed feelings about exposing young children to life's various downsides -- may be beneficial in theory but varyingly problematic in practice, dependent upon both the child and the environment.

This is why I try to keep a conservative mindset when it comes to exposing children to ... things.  Even though I might personally decided that my child can/should be exposed to something at a certain age in his development, that doesn't mean every other parent should think the same about his or her child.  In fact, I find myself deciding things differently between one of my own children and the next:  every child is different, and we should always defer to the parents' judgment first whenever possible.

This has come up between us and our friends regarding the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings movies that my wife and I have watched with our children.  The violence, scare factor, death, openness about evil, etc make watching the movies with children a serious decision.  We and our friends have had some serious conversations about this stuff, as well we should.  Even watching The Passion with children is a big decision, it depicting Jesus' suffering quite graphically.

[formulanone]

I've always had mixed feelings about exposing young children to life's various downsides -- may be beneficial in theory but varyingly problematic in practice, dependent upon both the child and the environment.

That's where parents need to have an open discussion with their children about subjects like these: only the truly lazy wouldn't engage in some sort of conversation after an episode like that. Granted, there might have been a few daycare centers and the like which probably had that episode of Sesame Street on the tube at the time, and were probably a little unprepared for that moment. There may have been children who dealt with death and loss before that episode aired, and others in which it had never occurred. You can prevent your kids from seeing lots of things, but it's impossible to shield them from everything that's out of the ordinary to them.

Sometimes our children might see things on the news that could be upsetting - they're 5 and 10 - usually they have no interest in news programming, except weather. But sometimes they'll stop by unexpectedly...on rare occasions we'll change the channel if there's something really gruesome or difficult to explain. But usually, we give them an explanation and usually the older one can begin to understand without irrational fear.

As for TV and movies, we watch very little in the way of TV programming (they're more apt to enjoying Seasons 1-10 of The Simpsons, but only with parental supervision) and most movies they see are animated movies, which are the only ones we'll let them see without supervision. We've let them watch the Star Wars series, which might have intense scenes, but there's no bloodshed*. We watched with them beforehand and let them ask questions. Naturally, the older daughter can handle a few more movies that our 5-year-old can't really process (like the Harry Potter series which my daughter enjoys, the five-year-old says he's "bored" more than scared because he has no idea what's going on).

Topics do come up from time to time in real life (pregnancy, illness, scandal, death) well as in the media and arts; we deal with most of them as they come, and prepare beforehand as necessary (strangers, personal safety, thieves, et al).

* except for a single early scene in The Force Awakens.

[sparker]

Even watching The Passion with children is a big decision, it depicting Jesus' suffering quite graphically.

Back when that film came out (I believe it was about 2004 or so) I accompanied my cousin, definitely a woman of faith, to a showing at a local theater in Redlands, CA, where both of us were residing at the time.  There were plenty of entire families attending the showing -- but afterwards it seemed like the adults were substantially more traumatized than the kids! -- and during the more gruesome parts several adult voices could be heard talking to the screen to the effect of "they can't do that to my Jesus".  Obviously seeing biblical lore played out graphically in 70mm was shocking to some folks (my cousin & I had read the reviews and synopsis in Variety, so we were forewarned).  So traumatization isn't necessarily a function of childhood alone; in some instances it certainly carries over into the adult years.

[empirestate]

We've let them watch the Star Wars series, which might have intense scenes, but there's no bloodshed*.

[...]

* except for a single early scene in The Force Awakens.

Um, you might want to review the Star Wars series...

[ColossalBlocks]

Missed it by a few years, since I was born '97.

[Max Rockatansky]

Even watching The Passion with children is a big decision, it depicting Jesus' suffering quite graphically.

Back when that film came out (I believe it was about 2004 or so) I accompanied my cousin, definitely a woman of faith, to a showing at a local theater in Redlands, CA, where both of us were residing at the time.  There were plenty of entire families attending the showing -- but afterwards it seemed like the adults were substantially more traumatized than the kids! -- and during the more gruesome parts several adult voices could be heard talking to the screen to the effect of "they can't do that to my Jesus".  Obviously seeing biblical lore played out graphically in 70mm was shocking to some folks (my cousin & I had read the reviews and synopsis in Variety, so we were forewarned).  So traumatization isn't necessarily a function of childhood alone; in some instances it certainly carries over into the adult years.

What if you swap out the Romans for Mario and Luigi? 

[sparker]

Even watching The Passion with children is a big decision, it depicting Jesus' suffering quite graphically.

Back when that film came out (I believe it was about 2004 or so) I accompanied my cousin, definitely a woman of faith, to a showing at a local theater in Redlands, CA, where both of us were residing at the time.  There were plenty of entire families attending the showing -- but afterwards it seemed like the adults were substantially more traumatized than the kids! -- and during the more gruesome parts several adult voices could be heard talking to the screen to the effect of "they can't do that to my Jesus".  Obviously seeing biblical lore played out graphically in 70mm was shocking to some folks (my cousin & I had read the reviews and synopsis in Variety, so we were forewarned).  So traumatization isn't necessarily a function of childhood alone; in some instances it certainly carries over into the adult years.

What if you swap out the Romans for Mario and Luigi? 

No -- more like Itchy & Scratchy!!!!!