Dr. Laura opened her show with this letter June 16, 2000.
Dear Dr. Laura,
I am my husband's wife and my 18-month-old's stay-at home mom. Last week my son and I
were watching an episode of Sesame Street together. In this particular episode, Bert and
Ernie had a skit in which Bert made some very disturbing remarks. I realize this is not the first
time Sesame Street has come under scrutiny for some of the lessons it teaches, but I always
believed in my heart that for the most part, CTW had the children's best interests at heart.
I grew up with Sesame Street and The Electric Company and loved the muppet characters,
as does my son. However, after witnessing this Bert and Ernie skit, I must warn parents that if
your kids watch Sesame Street, you better start monitoring it now, and closely. Who would
have thought I'd be saying this about Bert and Ernie, two of the most benign characters in
the history of children's television??!!
The skit begins, and we see Ernie holding a banana up to his ear, talking into it as you would
a telephone. Bert enters and asks Ernie what he is doing; we discover that Ernie is pretending
to talk to Gladys, the elephant at the circus. Nothing questionable here, just Ernie using his
imagination. Ernie tells Bert how much fun it is and suggests he try it. Bert, being his normal
stick-in-the-mud self, doesn't want to. At Ernie's insistence, Bert comments "I'm just not
emotionally secure enough to do this, Ernie."
Emotionally secure enough???? Maybe the writers at CTW were just attempting to make a funny
directed more to parents? While I felt that this was weird coming from Bert (or any Sesame
Street character, for that matter) and inappropriate in of itself, I had no idea what was to come.
The skit continues, and Ernie finally convinces Bert to play along and pretend to talk to Gladys.
At first Bert can barely muster a "Hello, Gladys" and "goodbye", but Ernie prompts him to "tell
her about things that you like to do." So Bert begins to rattle off what he likes: paper clips, bottle
caps, the letter W, pigeons, argyle socks, the color gray. Bert, obviously beginning to enjoy himself,
turns to Ernie and says (here's where my jaw hits the floor) "Hey, this is kinda KINKY, Ernie!" (and
he laughs). To which Ernie answers, "What'd I tell ya Bert? You have a great imagination!"
Bert, obviously feeling a bit more emotionally secure now, continues his pretend conversation with
Gladys the Elephant, asking her all sorts of questions about the circus and herself. The skit ends
with this dialogue from Bert, still talking to Gladys:
"Me? Oh, I'm about 6 foot 2, blonde hair, yeah. I don't think we should meet, no."
The end.
This is NOT the Bert I remember as a child, and it's not one I prefer my son to get to know.
How very, very sad.
P.S. Here is a statement from Children's Television Workshop, quoted directly from their website
(www.ctw.org):
"A not-for-profit company, Children's Television Workshop has been trusted by
parents for over 30 years to provide safe, entertaining, and educational programs and products."
I don't think we can trust them anymore.
Kim
