Elmo, I Wasn't Really Familiar With Your Game
Reflections on watching "Sesame Street" with my three-year-old.
Writing about kids’ television is a rite of passage for many critics. There are so many dreadful shows for children that the good ones—like Bluey, of course—really stand out. But it’s also fascinating to gauge your kid’s interest in media that you enjoyed at their age. And, as with many things in parenting, it means accepting and admitting that you were wrong.
I was wrong about Elmo.
I was a TV kid and Sesame Street was my favorite show for years. The few toys and books that remain from my childhood are related to the show. So many of the characters were important to me—Big Bird, Grover, Bert, Ernie, and Oscar. But I aged out of the show around the same time that Elmo’s pop culture stature exploded thanks to guest spots on The Rosie O’Donnell Show and the (demonic) Tickle Me Elmo toy craze. Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, I long hated Elmo. He was annoying, oversaturated, and lowest-common-denominator.
Naturally, my toddler, who just turned three, loves Elmo. When we started watching newer Sesame Street episodes on HBO Max (now Max), I felt my son’s infatuation with the red monster was too convenient. Series producers changed episode lengths from 60 to 30 minutes in 2017. The modern version is more streamlined in plot and number of characters. But Elmo is more central than ever. Of course, he’d like Elmo, I thought. The whole damn show is Elmo now.
In the last few months, my appreciation for Elmo has grown. My son has a speech delay. His communication skills have consistently improved but at a slow enough pace that I worry every day that he won’t be able to do certain things that other kids do, or that I did at his age. But he understands Sesame Street and he understands Elmo.
I see how his time watching the show and Elmo play a key role in helping him progress on his developmental journey. Since the new year began, my son has wanted to watch Sesame Street more than ever. He’s also been making huge strides with his communication skills during that same period. I know that correlation is not causation. But when I see my son make noises with the melody and kick his legs out to dance like Elmo during “Happy Dance,” I consider that some things are more powerful than simple cause and effect.
Now I’m thrilled to turn on new episodes of Sesame Street and I don’t get annoyed when my son is bored by an episode from my childhood that focuses on Bert and Ernie instead. We’re listening to Elmo’s songs in the car while he contorts his body just enough to see the album art on the display. And we’re firing up Elmo on the Toniebox before bedtime to learn even more with the little red guy. Turns out, Elmo is really annoying but also really amazing.
This is TV Plus, a newsletter about television written by Cory Barker, a media studies professor and veteran blogger. Readers can expect dispatches on industry trends, overlooked shows, and historical antecedents to current events.
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Great read! I relate with this on many levels. I was very adamant when my son was in his early years that he was only exposed to educational television. As mentioned within your story, this doesnt necessarily mean theres a correlation. But while most moms my age put their child in front of a game of candy crush or fruit ninja, my son watched Sesame Street, Nature Cat, Wild Kratts, etc. My son, now 10, has an extensive vocabulary that amazes me, he has an extreme depth of empathy and compassion for others, and lives in a state of constant curiosity about how the world works and people engage with each other. Educational television is truly a gift. Especially when I was a young single mother, because it was offered free on local antenna stations. This experience is what led me to pursuing an internship with PBS and my son was over the moon when I took him for a studio tour. Fond moments.
A good dad builds a bridge from his experience to his child’s future. As a sommelier of television, thank you for keeping an open mind on this important subject.