Sesame Street's Big Bird is now 40 years old. Who knew? Google knew. In fact, today the Google doodle on the search engine's banner is the bottom half of Big Bird -- mostly legs.
To mix it up a little, Google had different banner doodles, depending upon the country served. Below is the doodle for Mexico.
And for Belgium and the Netherlands it's the banner below.
If you're older than 40 (I'll say a little prayer for you and all your body parts), the kids' TV shows you watched were Howdy Doody, Ding Dong School, The Mickey Mouse Club and Captain Kangaroo.
MOST VIEWED KIDS' SHOW IN WORLD
Today, Sesame Street is the most widely viewed children's television show in the world, with 20 independent international versions and broadcasts in over 120 countries.
History was first made on December 12,1970, when First Lady Pat Nixon greeted Big Bird in the White House for a children's Christmas party. She's got a hold on one of his feathers (pictured right).
CURRICULUM INCLUDED ETHICS
Pretty soon Sesame Street's curriculum for pre-schoolers expanded from letters and numbers to include affective topics such as relationships, ethics, and positive and negative emotions.
However, the show that's won 118 Emmy's has had its detractors.
AFRICAN AMERICANS
"In May 1970, a state commission in Mississippi voted to ban the show," according to Wikipedia. A member of the commission leaked the vote to the New York Times, saying that "Mississippi was not yet ready" for the show's integrated cast.
STRONG, SINGLE WOMEN
Later the New York Times Magazine reported that Sesame Street was criticized for the presence of strong single women on the show.
SHOW CAUSES EPILEPSY
In the believe-it-or-not category, there were critics who said the show's fast pacing caused epilepsy in its preschool audience.
HIV-POSITIVE MUPPET
More recently, in 2002, Sesame Street introduced a new Muppet character -- an HIV-positive girl, designed to help children learn how to deal with AIDS, as reported by Global Ethics Newsline. The character debuted on the show's South African version in an attempt to de-stigmatize AIDS and promote discussion in a nation where 4.7 million people -- one in nine -- are infected with HIV.
LOUISIANA-STYLE BLACKMAIL?
Just six years ago, Republicans in Congress warned PBS that the Muppet of an HIV-positive little girl was not welcome on U.S. television. The lawmakers, led by U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La), pictured left, fired off a letter to PBS president Pat Mitchell advising such. All of the conservative representatives who signed the letter were members of the House Commerce Committee and reminded Mitchell that their panel had budgetary oversight of PBS's parent company. Mitchell soon reassured Tauzin that while the new Muppet may show up in other nations, she would stay far away from U.S. viewers.
FORMER CONGRESSMAN TAUZIN NOW LOBBYIST
A joint ProPublica/CBS News investigation recently listed Louisiana's Billy Tauzin, former Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, now as a lobbyist trying to persuade former colleagues in Congress to protect the lucrative system during the health care reform negotiations.
by Sharon McEachern
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