Sure, just come to my house at 7 a.m. It's our favorite show these days, making an amazing metamorphoses from show-they-would-never-watch. I always wanted them to be Sesame-Street kids, but for the longest while they would only watch "Elmo's World." What, not watch the Count count? Or Oscar grouch? Or Grover be loveable, Ernie be exasperating to Bert? Or their ever-changing adult cohorts (well, not totally changing--Maria, Gordon, Luis, and Bob are still there) and a menagerie of famous people signing and counting and clapping along? It's fun and smart and educational and a classic!
Now it's just the opposite. The kids love the "Word on the Street" ("why does it always start with W?" "It" being the title that says "word on the street" which they thought spelled the word itself! There just isn't as much spelling as I remember. Is that because sight words are out and phonics are in?). They sit still for the opening narrative (for those of you who haven't watched in awhile, it's not quite the series of diverse and quick-paced shorts it once was; it's structured more as a tv channel with shorts in between longer stories, introduced by Murray the monster and bunches of kids), always have questions about the goings-on at "Abby's Flying Fairy School," wait excitedly for "Murray Has a Little Lamb" introduced by a rapping monster and his Spanish-speaking sheep, and promptly get up as soon as Elmo is introduced! That's fine because we've already seen so many of them that I still have his theme song and "Jingle Bells" tunes stuck in my head.
And there are still the classics I love, from the Rubber Duckie song (which has also been turned into a rap, "Rubber Duck-Duck-Duck") to "Somebody Come and Play," from Bernice the pigeon to the pinball animation for counting to 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12, from Snuffaluffagus (who talks! I liked it better when he was a silent, invisible, mysterious type) to Mr. Hooper's store, which still retains dear Mr. Hooper's name though it is now run by Alan and staffed by Chris. The classics blend well with the new stuff, which I like, especially actual female monsters and fairies which didn't exist when I was a kid (I think the first female Muppet, Prairie Dawn, only showed up years after I was watching) and all the new animated shorts and new songs (like Norah Jones singing about the letter Y or Jason Mraz singing about the outdoors), the new kids on the block like Alan and Chris and Leela.
Funny to think that when my kids are adults, Elmo and Abby will be classics. I wonder what Sesame Street will be like then?
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