What were you doing when you watched the episode of 'Sesame Street' where Mr. Hooper died?
I was 10 when they first aired this episode, so I was otherwise too old for 'Sesame Street'. It aired on Thanksgiving Day 1983.
We had to watch it on the small TV set in the den, because my mom didn't want us Sessifying the living room. Like I said, I was too old for it, and my mom just thought it was beneath my maturity level if I used the bigger TV to watch it. I was standing by the doorway of the den when this scene came on, and I remember Big Bird talking about how he was going to give to Mr. Hooper a drawing he made when he came back from being dead. It was Thanksgiving, so I think I was getting ready to go to my grandparents' house. Strangely enough, I don't remember the kids at school ever talking about this episode.
Mr. Looper, you are a hero to us all.
I was at home and remember my sister was watching it. Freaked her out from what I remember. If only we knew then what horrors Elmo would wrought in the next quarter century we would have stopped him then.
I was somewhere in the West Pacific or Indian Ocean on a large grey boat.
XT1254
Who?
I have no clue who Mr. Hooper is (was) or that he was dead.
Quote from: hbelkins on December 13, 2016, 04:26:25 PM
Who?
I have no clue who Mr. Hooper is (was) or that he was dead.
He was the old man who ran the store on 'Sesame Street'. They killed off his character when the actor Will Lee died.
Quote from: bandit957 on December 13, 2016, 04:29:34 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on December 13, 2016, 04:26:25 PM
Who?
I have no clue who Mr. Hooper is (was) or that he was dead.
He was the old man who ran the store on 'Sesame Street'. They killed off his character when the actor Will Lee died.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Hooper
Nope. But I remember when Hangin' With Mr. Cooper got cancelled though. I was more of a Pinwheel guy.
I was too old for the show by then and did not see it until many years later.
I heard his voice this past weekend, though. Back in the mid-1970s one of my grandmothers gave us a Sesame Street Christmas LP. I still have it and usually play it at some point during December for nostalgia and entertainment value (I know the lyrics to their "Twelve Days of Christmas" better than the real ones....."Four wooly bears/Three footballs/Two baby frogs/and One delicious cookie"). Mr. Hooper narrates a send-up of the old "Gift of the Magi" story.
I was 8 and had recently graduated from Sesame Street to cartoons. Remember hearing about it in the news. Brought back memories of watching and the vinyls I used to listen to of Sesame Street
I hadn't watched Sesame Street for a few years by 1982-83, and I didn't know about his death for a few years after that. The things you overhear in middle school, you know.
That still would have made him probably the first entertainer I'd known (from their performances) to pass away.
Doing baby stuff, probably, as I was an infant a the time.
I was 9 then. I believe I heard it on the news 1st. Then a couple of months later I caught that episode as a rerun.
I was 7 or 8.
The bigger deal for me was when Mr. Snuffleupagus was finally revealed to be real, despite my being-too-old for Sesame Street by then. When I heard about that, that was life-changing.
They finally revealed Snuffeupagus because they feared that parents would not believe their children if they were reporting abuse. Big Bird represents a child's POV, so the Sesame Street adults didn't believe him when he talked about his invisible friend.
Quote from: BamaZeus on December 14, 2016, 11:15:19 AM
They finally revealed Snuffeupagus because they feared that parents would not believe their children if they were reporting abuse. Big Bird represents a child's POV, so the Sesame Street adults didn't believe him when he talked about his invisible friend.
Even though Mental Floss repeated this story, I still wonder if it is true. Still sounds like a stretch to me.
Quote from: BamaZeus on December 14, 2016, 11:15:19 AM
They finally revealed Snuffeupagus because they feared that parents would not believe their children if they were reporting abuse. Big Bird represents a child's POV, so the Sesame Street adults didn't believe him when he talked about his invisible friend.
The explanation I heard is that they feared children would think their parents wouldn't believe them.
Quote from: hbelkins on December 13, 2016, 04:26:25 PM
Who?
I have no clue who Mr. Hooper is (was) or that he was dead.
This, as much as any political statement I've ever heard, illustrates the experiential divide that is so apparent between segments of our population, but yet we so often forget exists. I bet H.B. would be no less surprised to hear that I'm at an equally complete loss regarding any references from "Hee Haw". :-)
Remember, much of Appalachia didn't have all the channels that other areas did. My grandma in Eastern Ohio only got CBS and and NBC station that would go ABC if it had an important sporting event -- both of which were Wheeling stations. My '80s G.I. Joe and Transformers jokes fell flat on my classmates at Marshall. That's where and when I learned not to use pop culture references as a crutch in making conversation. It has served me well since I spend less and less time around people around my age each day.
Quote from: GCrites80s on December 14, 2016, 02:12:38 PM
Remember, much of Appalachia didn't have all the channels that other areas did. My grandma in Eastern Ohio only got CBS and and NBC station that would go ABC if it had an important sporting event -- both of which were Wheeling stations. My '80s G.I. Joe and Transformers jokes fell flat on my classmates at Marshall. That's where and when I learned not to use pop culture references as a crutch in making conversation. It has served me well since I spend less and less time around people around my age each day.
I guess in northern Kentucky we could reliably pick up 5 over-the-air stations in the mid-'70s, and 7 stations in the early '80s. We never got cable until 1983. I think one of the big cultural divisions here had to do with the fact that Cincinnati's leading pop radio station in the '80s had a very short playlist and refused to regularly play a lot of songs that I heard on 'American Top 40', MTV, or a small station. So if I mentioned some song that was a big national hit in the '80s, a lot of people around here who are my age won't remember it. (The big station around here refused to play a lot of David Bowie and Duran Duran songs that were big hits.)
Reporting on the truth about the cover-up. Live with your eyes closed if you want.
Wheeling has had a PBS, actually 2, one wasting Ohio taxpayers money and the other wasting West Virginia taxpayers money for many decades. WV's worst governor's wife was, and still is, a bigwig with PBS and in many places in WV the only station you can get OTA is a repeater of WV PBS. Poor roads, poor schools, poor policing, poor everything, but unlimited $$ to pour down the PBS rathole.
If I have HB's biography right, he would have had access to Kentucky's version of PBS. He, like myself, is just too old to have cared about the show referenced.
I remember when TV equaled three channels for me (Fox was not yet launched, we did not get CBS). We considered it to be 2 channels, because nothing of merit was ever on PBS. I remember when, first, sat delivered channels came to cable, and then, even better, home sat dishes became affordable. What a great invention. It fundamentally meant rural people had access to the mainstream of entertainment.
Quote from: SP Cook on December 14, 2016, 03:07:23 PM
I remember when TV equaled three channels for me (Fox was not yet launched, we did not get CBS). We considered it to be 2 channels, because nothing of merit was ever on PBS.
You don't like 'Sesame Street', 'Mister Rogers', and 'The Electric Company'?
Quote from: GCrites80s on December 14, 2016, 02:12:38 PM
Remember, much of Appalachia didn't have all the channels that other areas did.
I do remember; that's precisely what I'm referring to. Although
Sesame Street amounted to an institution of my upbringing, along with all of those around me, there is still always the occasional surprise of hearing from somebody else that it wasn't. Still, even for those who weren't heavily exposed to it, I would assume it to be a relative rarity to actually have no clue as to the characters and basic circumstances of the show. But, when you look at some other aspects of life and find that what's absolutely fundamental to one person's experience is completely alien to another's, and juxtapose that fact with the notion that both people are members of the same supposedly unified culture, that's when you're reminded of the constant effort that's always been required to preserve that unity.
I was —7 at the time.
"Where were you when this thing in 1983 happened" may not be the best subject for a thread on this forum.
Quote from: empirestate on December 14, 2016, 02:02:59 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on December 13, 2016, 04:26:25 PM
Who?
I have no clue who Mr. Hooper is (was) or that he was dead.
This, as much as any political statement I've ever heard, illustrates the experiential divide that is so apparent between segments of our population, but yet we so often forget exists. I bet H.B. would be no less surprised to hear that I'm at an equally complete loss regarding any references from "Hee Haw". :-)
I liked Hee Haw a great deal and still do. It was probably one of the best of the variety shows on TV.
XT1254
Quote from: empirestate on December 14, 2016, 03:59:41 PM
But, when you look at some other aspects of life and find that what's absolutely fundamental to one person's experience is completely alien to another's, and juxtapose that fact with the notion that both people are members of the same supposedly unified culture, that's when you're reminded of the constant effort that's always been required to preserve that unity.
With the tremendous amount of TV channels now available on TV, and the tens-of-thousands of niche websites out there, ever-increasing variety of activities, products, music, movies; combined expanding and varying cultural norms, the concept of "mainstream popular culture" is likely vanishing, in a way.
Each generation is probably less likely to experience the same monolithic events and so-called cultural touchstones, except on a local basis.
Quote from: SP Cook on December 14, 2016, 03:07:23 PM
If I have HB's biography right, he would have had access to Kentucky's version of PBS. He, like myself, is just too old to have cared about the show referenced.
We got two channels on over-the-air TV -- Lexington's Channel 18 (NBC) and 27 (CBS). For some reason, Lexington's ABC affiliate (at the time WBLG, Channel 62) had a signal too weak for us to be able to pick up.
We also were able to barely pick up one of the Kentucky Educational Television (the PBS affiliate) repeaters, Channel 46, when it launched. I have a vague recollection of watching the first episode of "Sesame Street" because I was an avid reader of DC Comic books and Batman and Superman were supposed to appear in that inaugural episode. But SP's pretty much right; I was too old to be the show's target audience.
We first got cable sometime in the mid-70's. Besides the two Lexington channels we already got over-the-air, the cable system added Lexington's KET and ABC (which became WTVQ, Channel 36) affiliates and what was then known as Channel 17 out of Atlanta, WTBS. It was a different cable service than what the folks in the city limits and in other areas of the county got, because they got 13 channels including ESPN and WYMT-TV, the CBS affiliate in Hazard.
My dad grew up about a mile from where I did, at a higher elevation. They had early television service and depending on which way they turned the antenna, they could either pick up Channel 3 (WAVE) out of Louisville or Channel 3 (WSAZ) out of Huntington. I know my grandmother was able to pick up the Lexington ABC affiliate over-the-air whereas we could not. She never did get cable before her death in 1992.
But no, I'm too old to have cared about "Sesame Street" and it has no meaning to me, except to wonder why public broadcasting is always begging for money when the "Sesame Street" characters make a ton of money. PBS should have demanded a cut of the merchandising rights.
Quote from: hbelkins on December 14, 2016, 06:13:19 PM
Quote from: SP Cook on December 14, 2016, 03:07:23 PM
If I have HB's biography right, he would have had access to Kentucky's version of PBS. He, like myself, is just too old to have cared about the show referenced.
[...]
But no, I'm too old to have cared about "Sesame Street" and it has no meaning to me, except to wonder why public broadcasting is always begging for money when the "Sesame Street" characters make a ton of money.
Sure, it occurred to me that age might be the explanation, and indeed, it may be quite as simple as that (especially if one didn't also have kids young enough to have been watching). But that reinforces my point: to me, the show was so fundamental to my upbringing that I am genuinely surprised when I hear that someone knows nothing about it, even when there's a perfectly logical reason. I think that same effect is what gets the general public into a lot of its disagreements over a vast array of topics: the principles that are absolutely immutable to those holding one point of view may not even be within the awareness of those holding the opposing view.
(The difficulty, of course, is in ensuring that although we may not personally have experienced something, we don't then discount it as not having occurred or being important to someone else. But that's getting off the thread...)
Quote from: bandit957 on December 14, 2016, 02:24:27 PM
Quote from: GCrites80s on December 14, 2016, 02:12:38 PM
Remember, much of Appalachia didn't have all the channels that other areas did. My grandma in Eastern Ohio only got CBS and and NBC station that would go ABC if it had an important sporting event -- both of which were Wheeling stations. My '80s G.I. Joe and Transformers jokes fell flat on my classmates at Marshall. That's where and when I learned not to use pop culture references as a crutch in making conversation. It has served me well since I spend less and less time around people around my age each day.
I guess in northern Kentucky we could reliably pick up 5 over-the-air stations in the mid-'70s, and 7 stations in the early '80s. We never got cable until 1983. I think one of the big cultural divisions here had to do with the fact that Cincinnati's leading pop radio station in the '80s had a very short playlist and refused to regularly play a lot of songs that I heard on 'American Top 40', MTV, or a small station. So if I mentioned some song that was a big national hit in the '80s, a lot of people around here who are my age won't remember it. (The big station around here refused to play a lot of David Bowie and Duran Duran songs that were big hits.)
It certainly seems that Cincinnati had a Supertramp blackout, for one. Right before the digital switch I was picking up a ridiculous number of channels in Cincinnati on the rabbit ears. I got all the Cincinnati channels including the low-power ones such as crazy Channel 25 with Dutch drag racing and the Trekkies who sat at a desk and talked politics (one called for Dick Cheney to be hung as a war criminal). Plus there were 3 Kentucky PBS channels and several Dayton channels to be pulled in. And there was Oxford PBS.
I was about to turn -16 (I was born in 1999)
Considering that I turned 3 in 1983, I was actually in prime Sesame Street viewing age. However, I have no memory of watching the particular episode where Mr. Hooper died.
I was dead :(
Channel 17 was WTCG when it first went national. It changed it is call letters later.
Quote from: SP Cook on December 14, 2016, 03:07:23 PM
Wheeling has had a PBS, actually 2, one wasting Ohio taxpayers money and the other wasting West Virginia taxpayers money for many decades. WV's worst governor's wife was, and still is, a bigwig with PBS and in many places in WV the only station you can get OTA is a repeater of WV PBS. Poor roads, poor schools, poor policing, poor everything, but unlimited $$ to pour down the PBS rathole.
If I have HB's biography right, he would have had access to Kentucky's version of PBS. He, like myself, is just too old to have cared about the show referenced.
I remember when TV equaled three channels for me (Fox was not yet launched, we did not get CBS). We considered it to be 2 channels, because nothing of merit was ever on PBS. I remember when, first, sat delivered channels came to cable, and then, even better, home sat dishes became affordable. What a great invention. It fundamentally meant rural people had access to the mainstream of entertainment.
PBS provided children's programming with structured educational content that offered an alternative to that designed primarily to induce desire for cereal, toys, or other purchases. Even into the teenage years, programs like Nova and Nature provided excellent jumping-off points for classroom lessons. PBS is the broadcast parallel for that excellent physical commitment of ours to diffusing knowledge, the public library.
Grand Rapids didn't get a PBS station until 1972, when I was in HS.
But I recall my younger sisters watching Sesame Street before that. I think it was broadcast on one of the other network stations (we had 3, although we didn't get ABC until 1962).
I was well into the workforce by the time Mr. Hooper died, but I remember hearing about it. My oldest daughter was 1, so perhaps my wife was watching it with her.
I heard a few years ago that for the then-elementary students, Viet Nam was twice as long ago as WW2 was for me when I was in elementary. Wow.
Quote from: hbelkins on December 14, 2016, 06:13:19 PM
But no, I'm too old to have cared about "Sesame Street" and it has no meaning to me, except to wonder why public broadcasting is always begging for money when the "Sesame Street" characters make a ton of money. PBS should have demanded a cut of the merchandising rights.
Sesame Street stopped making tons of money years ago when it was no longer the only game in town for kids. And the money it did get had to be split with Jim Henson Inc.
Sesame Street wasn't made by PBS...was made by then-called Children's Television Workshop who did get some gov't funding in its early years but none since 1981. They also offered the show to the Big 3 networks back when they first started and got no takers.
Today the show is funded by HBO and PBS is allowed to air new episodes after a time delay (several months) for free.
PBS had a study commissioned (http://www.cpb.org/files/aboutcpb/Alternative_Sources_of_Funding_for_Public_Broadcasting_Stations.pdf) at the request of Congress in 2012 to do what you suggest for merchandising rights, etc (as part of broader question about alternative $ sources for public broadcasting). The largest problems were that PBS didn't own the rights to start with and that the $ that would be available is only 5% of the sales price of an item (50% went to manufacturer, 45% went to the store); also, outside of Sesame Street's heyday, none of the shows actually make all that much money anyway.
I watched Sesame Street in the mid-70s and was also too old by the time Mr. Hooper passed. But that episode routinely makes lists of the best shows ever made on children's TV.
Sesame Street 2016 is almost nothing like the pre-2000 show.
Quote from: 1995hoo on December 14, 2016, 12:18:34 PM
Quote from: BamaZeus on December 14, 2016, 11:15:19 AM
They finally revealed Snuffeupagus because they feared that parents would not believe their children if they were reporting abuse. Big Bird represents a child's POV, so the Sesame Street adults didn't believe him when he talked about his invisible friend.
The explanation I heard is that they feared children would think their parents wouldn't believe them.
Wait a minute....when the hell was this? I was under the impression that Big Bird always went to hang out with Snuffy and within the "Sesame Street Universe" he was always a really entity.
Maybe Snuffy was weed.
Quote from: GCrites80s on December 15, 2016, 09:30:51 AM
Maybe Snuffy was weed.
Wouldn't that be more akin to LSD if Big Bird was seeing things and talking to beings that weren't there? I still want an explanation for the spacial vortex in Oscar's garbage can.
Speaking of Big Bird there might be some PTSD after that whole saga of Follow that Bird. First that "Feathered Friends Society" strong arms him into a family coke accident birds. After he tries to escape he's literally captured and put into slavery....literally he's painted blue and made a slave of a traveling circus. Literally it takes a high speed car chase to liberate him from his captures at the end...which almost cost Gordon his VW courtesy of Cookie Monster.
Quote from: Dougtone on December 14, 2016, 08:49:55 PM
Considering that I turned 3 in 1983, I was actually in prime Sesame Street viewing age. However, I have no memory of watching the particular episode where Mr. Hooper died.
I'd have been 7, and to be honest, I don't specifically remember watching it either. I remember the general story arc and the characters both before and after, and I'm very aware now of the episode's significance in context.
I do, however, remember the episode where Snuffy was revealed. As I recall, it was Elmo's fault; and moreover, that was pretty much the end of my viewing career with that show.
Given that I was in my senior year in high school at the time, I didn't really follow the show at all after 1972. I have no real recollection of that particular episode nor event.
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on December 14, 2016, 11:53:53 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on December 14, 2016, 12:18:34 PM
Quote from: BamaZeus on December 14, 2016, 11:15:19 AM
They finally revealed Snuffeupagus because they feared that parents would not believe their children if they were reporting abuse. Big Bird represents a child's POV, so the Sesame Street adults didn't believe him when he talked about his invisible friend.
The explanation I heard is that they feared children would think their parents wouldn't believe them.
Wait a minute....when the hell was this? I was under the impression that Big Bird always went to hang out with Snuffy and within the "Sesame Street Universe" he was always a really entity.
My years of Sesame Street were long before Snuffelupagus was revealed to the general population of Sesame Street, and I never realized he was invisible to them either.
I too have heard that his revelation to the other characters was to bolster children's confidence in telling truths they feared adults would not believe.
I guess they were doing something right if we are still talking about the ways CPB/CTW/PBS taught kids life lessons 30 years ago.
I was yet to be a thing.
This is another thread in the 'bandit957's silly things' series.
Quote from: CNGL-Leudimin on December 15, 2016, 01:22:04 PM
This is another thread in the 'bandit957's silly things' series.
It's only appropriate that a discussion of
Sesame Street occurs at AA
Roads.
He was always dead to me. I kind of wondered why the place was called Hooper's store.
Quote from: formulanone on December 15, 2016, 01:40:33 PM
Quote from: CNGL-Leudimin on December 15, 2016, 01:22:04 PM
This is another thread in the 'bandit957's silly things' series.
It's only appropriate that a discussion of Sesame Street occurs at AARoads.
Maybe the Exit 353 asked about in another current thread is the one that goes to Sesame St.
Sesame St. is an un-numbered road.
Quote from: GCrites80s on December 16, 2016, 08:25:53 AM
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?
I was in fifth grade, I don't know if I'd turned ten or not. I remember hearing about it from my parents, I didn't watch that episode. I think it was after Thanksgiving, since the radio had just started playing Christmas music.
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on December 16, 2016, 08:34:58 AM
Quote from: GCrites80s on December 16, 2016, 08:25:53 AM
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.
Quote from: GCrites80s on December 16, 2016, 08:25:53 AM
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.
Quote from: GCrites80s on December 16, 2016, 10:38:18 AM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on December 16, 2016, 08:34:58 AM
Quote from: GCrites80s on December 16, 2016, 08:25:53 AM
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?
Quote from: roadman on December 16, 2016, 11:34:31 AM
Quote from: GCrites80s on December 16, 2016, 08:25:53 AM
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. :)
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on December 16, 2016, 01:55:26 PM
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...
I always viewed the Count as CTW's answer to Boris Badenov.
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.
I always thought Sesame Street wasn't really a street. It was more like an alley.
Quote from: bandit957 on December 16, 2016, 08:12:00 PM
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.
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on December 16, 2016, 08:27:12 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on December 16, 2016, 08:12:00 PM
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.
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.
The private sector only supplies traffic reports and judge shows during the times kids watch TV.
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.
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on December 16, 2016, 08:27:12 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on December 16, 2016, 08:12:00 PM
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
Quote from: Otto Yamamoto on December 17, 2016, 01:58:32 PM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on December 16, 2016, 08:27:12 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on December 16, 2016, 08:12:00 PM
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. :)
Quote from: 1995hoo on December 16, 2016, 09:48:11 PM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on December 16, 2016, 08:27:12 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on December 16, 2016, 08:12:00 PM
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.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Tv_movie_christmas_eve_oscar_legs_86th_street.jpg)
Quote from: 1995hoo on December 17, 2016, 02:15:41 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on December 16, 2016, 09:48:11 PM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on December 16, 2016, 08:27:12 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on December 16, 2016, 08:12:00 PM
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.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Tv_movie_christmas_eve_oscar_legs_86th_street.jpg)
Nice try, but 86 Street has tile signage.
XT1254
Quote from: Otto Yamamoto on December 17, 2016, 06:40:51 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on December 17, 2016, 02:15:41 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on December 16, 2016, 09:48:11 PM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on December 16, 2016, 08:27:12 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on December 16, 2016, 08:12:00 PM
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.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Tv_movie_christmas_eve_oscar_legs_86th_street.jpg)
Nice try, but 86 Street has tile signage.
XT1254
Heh, it's the Second Avenue Subway 86 Street stop!
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.
Quote from: 1995hoo on December 17, 2016, 07:41:52 PM
Quote from: Otto Yamamoto on December 17, 2016, 06:40:51 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on December 17, 2016, 02:15:41 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on December 16, 2016, 09:48:11 PM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on December 16, 2016, 08:27:12 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on December 16, 2016, 08:12:00 PM
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.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Tv_movie_christmas_eve_oscar_legs_86th_street.jpg)
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
Quote from: 1995hoo on December 17, 2016, 12:04:59 PM
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?
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.
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]
Quote from: kphoger on December 18, 2016, 05:12:05 PM
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
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.)
Quote from: kphoger on December 18, 2016, 08:51:44 PM
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?
Quote from: kphoger on December 18, 2016, 08:51:44 PM
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.
Quote from: empirestate on December 18, 2016, 10:05:57 PM
Quote from: kphoger on December 18, 2016, 08:51:44 PM
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
Quote from: US 81 on December 18, 2016, 04:54:27 PM
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.)
Quote from: kphoger on December 18, 2016, 08:51:44 PM
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.
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?
Quote from: hbelkins on December 20, 2016, 11:21:39 PM
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. :rolleyes:
Quote from: hbelkins on December 20, 2016, 11:21:39 PM
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!
Quote from: hbelkins on December 20, 2016, 11:21:39 PM
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!) :D
Quote from: hbelkins on December 20, 2016, 11:21:39 PM
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
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on December 20, 2016, 11:28:41 PM
Little did we all know Nintendo would borrow the plot line for Super Mario Bros 2 in America later in the decade. :rolleyes:
Wait,
what?
Quote from: Scott5114 on December 23, 2016, 12:47:53 AM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on December 20, 2016, 11:28:41 PM
Little did we all know Nintendo would borrow the plot line for Super Mario Bros 2 in America later in the decade. :rolleyes:
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....
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...
Quote from: Scott5114 on December 23, 2016, 01:14:44 AM
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.
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................
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.
Quote from: spitball on December 27, 2016, 08:10:24 AM
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'.
Quote from: sparker on December 23, 2016, 03:54:35 PM
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.
Quote from: sparker on December 23, 2016, 03:54:35 PM
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.
Quote from: kphoger on December 27, 2016, 11:22:34 AM
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.
Quote from: formulanone on December 27, 2016, 08:09:06 PM
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 (https://goo.gl/images/LBGkh0) the Star Wars series...
Missed it by a few years, since I was born '97.
Quote from: sparker on December 27, 2016, 08:19:38 PM
Quote from: kphoger on December 27, 2016, 11:22:34 AM
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? :)
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on April 07, 2017, 02:53:14 PM
Quote from: sparker on December 27, 2016, 08:19:38 PM
Quote from: kphoger on December 27, 2016, 11:22:34 AM
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!!!!! :biggrin: