Elmo obsession

I'm not sure how it happened, considering we don't watch Sesame Street and only have a few books featuring the little red Prozac mascot, but sometime in the past few months Emmeline must have decided that since she doesn't have any siblings, Elmo would make a fine substitute. In her world, Elmo is everywhere. He lives in iPods and the Apple store. He sleeps under her crib. He envisions himself as a pirate, her first mate. And he eats all manner of green, leafy things for her. If Emme had her way, Elmo would wake her up in the morning, get her dressed and teach her the ABCs. While I'd be grateful if Elmo also saved for her education, I'm wondering how on earth this happened.

Why Elmo?

In my view, Cookie Monster is a much cooler creature -- what with his wild chatter and single-track obsession with sweets (well, most sweets). Bert's perpetual sense of exasperation is almost endearing, and come on -- that unibrow is charming. Big Bird creeps me out a little bit, because I have come to believe it (he? she?) is a little too touchy, but I'd still prefer it over Elmo. Oscar the Grouch. The Count. These guys have character. Elmo is a lump of red fur and eyeballs. I don't see how this addiction developed. Read More 'Elmo obsession' »

Posted By: Mike Adamick (Email) | January 03 2008 at 03:45 PM

Mr. Noodle -- worst TV sidekick ever?

I have no problem with my kid's Elmo fixation. I'm well aware It could be a million times worse.

I would, however, like someone to immediately fire the little red monster's co-worker, Mr. Noodle. And not just fire him in a nice sorry-it-didn't-work-out-here's-your-severance-package way, but really hold him up for ridicule. I want a Star Jones-style canning.

For those who don't watch "Sesame Street," Mr. Noodle is an obnoxious mime played by Bill Irwin (his brother is played by Michael Jeter), who appears in almost every episode of "Elmo's World." With his ill-fitting clothes and complete lack of grooming, he's the type of guy would sit as far away from as possible if you were escorting your kid on Muni. But he's supposed to be a funny and charming companion for your child on TV.

He makes the mentally challenged Elmo look like a nuclear physicist by comparison. And if all of the above isn't annoying enough, for bizarre unexplained reasons he's always introduced by Elmo as "Mr. Noodle's brother, Mr. Noodle." Read More 'Mr. Noodle -- worst TV sidekick ever?' »

Posted By: Peter Hartlaub (Email, Twitter) | February 19 2007 at 06:06 AM

The slow, painful humiliation of Grover

In the history of children's programming, has anybody gotten screwed over more than Grover?

Once one of the biggest Muppets in the universe, his job was stolen practically overnight by Elmo -- a smaller, cuter and less pot-bellied monster. Even worse, he's had to watch as Elmo becomes more popular than he ever was, by basically dumbing down Grover's schtick.

In more than 60 years of network television, I can think of only one person who has endured humiliations equal to Grover's -- and that's Willard Scott. While Al Roker gets all the screen time, cookbook deals and his own featured blog, Willard gets trotted out every third or fourth day to act like a goof and show a few pictures of some old ladies. It would have been way better if they just fired him.

The treatment of Grover is especially strange, because much like KTVU Channel 2, Sesame Street has a history of respecting its elders. Big Bird shows up in the beginning of most episodes in kind of a classy elder statesman role, kind of like Ross McGowan. Oscar the Grouch (Dennis Richmond) and Cookie Monster (Mark Ibanez) have also continued to do their thing. Read More 'The slow, painful humiliation of Grover' »

Posted By: Peter Hartlaub (Email, Twitter) | January 15 2007 at 07:36 AM

W is for War: Elmo's dad reports for duty

Not to bring the holiday party vibe down, but to bring us all back to the reality that we're starting the new year off with a toddler-aged war, PBS has a special Sesame Street airing this weekend called "When Parents Are Deployed" -- which features Elmo's dad saying goodbye as he reports for duty.

The first KQED broadcast is 10:30 p.m. Friday, followed by more kid-friendly time slots including noon Sunday. It stars Cuba Gooding Jr., who will show us the military family way of celebrating the holidays. He's got a great A-list supporting cast with the Sesame Street gang.

According to the PBS folks, more than 700,000 children (under the age of 5) of military familes are separated from their mother and/or father during this holiday season. The half-hour show was created to help the kids cope with being away from their parents, they said. They're also giving out 385,000 Talk, Listen, Connect kits that you can get via www.sesameworkshop.org/tlc.

The web site also has a heartbreakingly beautiful clip of the song "Proud," sung by Elmo and his dad.

Happy New Year and hopefully PBS will have a "welcome home" song for Elmo's pop soon.

Posted By: Delfin Vigil (Email) | December 27 2006 at 04:48 PM

My child is obsessed with Elmo

I have no idea where my 20-month-old even heard about Elmo. As far as I know he had never seen "Sesame Street" as of a month ago, when he started demanding "Eh-mo! Eh-mo!" while pointing to the television.

Now he's like an Elmo junkie. At one point a week ago he ripped apart the contents of his travel bag just to find his diapers, which have pictures of Elmo on them. He carried two diapers around the rest of the afternoon, and tried to bite me when I took them away.

We're slightly alarmed at this behavior, but in a way I also feel a sense of relief. We knew he would get obsessed about something, and it might as well be a furry red monster from PBS. While Joel Stein may think Elmo is an annoying tool, as I parent I consider him the least of a great many evils.

Am I happy that given the option, my child would almost certainly choose a piece of carpet with some guy's hand shoved up its arse over me? Definitely not. But when looking at the alternatives, I think we got off pretty easy.

Here are a few television characters that my kid could have become obsessed with, which are far worse than Elmo: Read More 'My child is obsessed with Elmo' »

Posted By: Peter Hartlaub (Email, Twitter) | December 07 2006 at 07:01 AM