Back in 1969, one can be forgiven for not necessarily thinking that puppets and inner city life would make for a compelling combination, but here we are, forty years later, still singing the praises of Sesame Street, which could still safely be called the most revolutionary program to ever be put on television. For those still in doubt, the program Sesame Street: Twenty Years and Still Counting (a program originally broadcast on the show’s twentieth anniversary in 1989) makes the case a little more solid, laying out in clear detail what the show had been doing up until that time, and what no one had done previously. But for such a watershed program, Twenty Years doesn’t seem quite equal to the moment it was celebrating. It’s entertaining, for sure, and it understands the things that the show did that were so important, but never quite bottles the energy or excitement that defined the lives of the puppets who lived in pre-Guiliani New York.
Hosted in roughly equal parts by Bill Cosby and Kermit the Frog, Twenty Years looks back on the preceding twenty years on Sesame Street, covering in intimate detail the different characters and events that had passed through the show’s history. Cosby spends a good deal of time walking down the street interacting with Oscar, Big Bird, and others, and then telling us about the various advances that Street made in children’s programming, such as integrating its cast (this is 1969 after all), incorporating major breakthroughs in child psychology, and actually making sure that children knew how to read (it’s actually kind of scary to think about how nobody had come up with these various things for a television format before Sesame Street). Meanwhile, Kermit the Frog does his man-on-the-street reporter bit, asking people what how to get to Sesame Street while being plagued by perpetual irritant Grover. There are also short musical performances by Ray Charles and Placido Domingo.
In a way, that kind of feels like the problem with 20 Years: the celebrity appearances are brief, Cosby’s narration is often dry and academic-sounding, and all of the best footage comes from old episodes of the show (most of it featuring Muppets interacting with kids too young to be reciting lines). It’s quite possible that back in 1989, the Sesame Workshop simply didn’t realize exactly what they could pull in for a show like this. In the following years, they would pull in huge names for shows like Elmopalooza, only to have them do little other than interact with Muppets. That is, of course, one of the major appeals of the show, as there are few pleasures in life that quite compete with seeing multimillionaire recording artists cut down to size by the likes of Oscar the Grouch. The other great appeal is, naturally, the well-developed cast of characters that the show has built up over time, which really only bears comparison to The Simpsons in terms of scope and depth. It’s kind of comforting to know that Bert and Ernie, no matter how long that they’ve been doing this, are still going to be interacting in the exact same way that they always have, but that it will feel familiar rather than repetitive.
This feels like a harsh criticism of 20 Years, but it’s not meant to. The program is perfectly entertaining, but it frequently feels like a retrospective when it should feel like a party. Cosby is, as always, a fun and welcoming host, but his tone is informational rather than goofy, so it’s unclear just exactly who he is supposed to be speaking to. As with every Sesame Street program, it will probably find fans among both adults and children, but it’s unlikely that either group will be able to look back on this particular program and think of it as “theirs” in the way that both tend to with regards to Sesame Street.
DVD Bonus Features
There are none.
"Sesame Street: 20 Years and Still Counting" is on sale July 20, 2010 and is not rated. Children & Family. Starring Bill Cosby, Placido Domingo, Ray Charles.
