Happy birthday 'Sesame Street!'

Today’s blog is brought to you by the letter S.

That’s right, it’s “Sesame Street’s” 40th anniversary next week. It’s been 40 years of the curmudgeonly Oscar the Grouch, the insatiable Cookie Monster and the questionable relationship of Bert and Ernie.

Happy birthday “Sesame Street!”

We love “Sesame Street” in our house. Well, actually, we love Plaza Sesamo, which is the Spanish-language version of “Sesame Street” wherein Big Bird is a rainbow of neon green, pink and orange. It’s a weird place, but my daughter loves it, and like all other children, has fallen in love with Elmo.

But Elmo wasn’t around in the early years. He was added into the program 10 years later and didn’t really become “Elmo” until 1985.

In fact, a lot has changed on “Sesame Street” since it first streamed into homes in 1969. A CNN article recalls how the original show was targeted at inner-city children with a grimier set and rougher characters than today’s version. The Grouch was truly mean and the Cookie Monster even smoked a pipe once. He also ate cookies, whereas he now opts for a more balanced diet with cookies as a “sometimes food.”

I’m all for positive messages in kiddie TV shows, but I wonder if such sanitization of “Sesame Street” is really necessary. Are kids today so sensitive (and parents so overprotective) that we’ve had to clean up something as innocent as “Sesame Street?”

I still love “Sesame Street” — that flying Grover still gets me every time. Even polished up for today’s standards, it’s a great educational show and has great messages. It’s definitely more worthwhile than a lot of the shows marketed to kids these days.

What do you think. Does putting a positive, sanitized spin on everything for kids help or hurt them in the long run? Are there any children’s programs today that you and your kids love or hate? Has children’s programming changed for the better or the worse in the past 40 years?