Listener questions guide the content for this episode. Send your questions for the show to me@muppetcast.com.
Who is/was inside the “costume” of the full-body Muppet characters like Sweetums and Thog?
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Have a great week!
Steve
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On Friday, May 6, 
Even in the midst of this modernizing and digitizing, however, Sesame Workshop has not wavered from its educational focus. Kay Wilson, Sesame Workshop Sr. VP of Creative Development, said, “Our goal is what it’s always been: to engage children with compelling, meaningful content…We want new content, new characters and new creative…We look at this as being a whole new crop of Creative talent. Kids who love Sesame Street are going to love Sesame Studios, and others will find that it is different and fresh.”
About 2 months ago, I found myself in the ER for the first time in my life. 22 years old without one single trip to the hospital was quite the accomplishment. I’m all good now, but while there I found myself reverting to a state of childlike wonder with everything surrounding me. One video I used to watch as a child came to mind as I sat in the ER room with my mom and sister waiting on test results: “Sesame Street Visits The Hospital.” This 1990 direct-to-video special helped kids understand that the hospital is where you go to get better, and that it’s ok to be scared. But it’s also important to be brave and focus on getting healthy again. As a 22-year-old college student, riding the hospital bed to the X-Ray room brought back memories of watching Big Bird doing the same. I realized from watching that video as a young child, I never had any fears or worries about going to the hospital. All because of what I learned from Sesame Street.
The song “Busy Getting Better All the Time” features Big Bird meeting new friends in the hospital play room, as he begins to discover they aren’t just playing, but getting healthier as they play. One of my favorite characters in the song is the Grouch girl who is in the hospital because she’s feeling happy. The second song, titled “You Gotta Be Patient (To Be a Patient)” happens when Big Bird wants desperately to go home, so Maria and Orderly Jim explain that he needs to be patient and do what the doctors tell him, and pretty soon he’ll be able to go home.
Big Bird continues to help ease children’s fears of a trip to the hospital at the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. There, a Big Bird statue was purchased from the Briarwood Mall and donated to the University of Michigan’s children’s hospital. It’s a beautiful statue of Big Bird and a really nice nod to Big Bird’s trip the hospital. He is still helping kids feel peaceful during what can sometimes be a scary time in life.
In continuation of my series on Sesame Street helping children understand important moments in life from 
The landmark Sesame Street episode dealing with Mr. Hooper’s death aired on Thanksgiving in 1983, during the show’s 15th season. Norman Stiles, the show’s head writer, consulted with numerous child psychologists to create a script designed to help explain losing a loved one to children. The script avoided “sugar-coating” the topic, choosing not to use words children might not understand like “passed away” and instead using a direct and honest approach. Mr. Hooper’s cause of death was not discussed, nor was the process of growing old. The producers instead directed the message as, “Mr. Hooper died, he won’t be coming back, and we are all going to miss him.” Flashbacks were also rejected as it was believed kids would be confused by seeing Mr. Hooper still on their screen again. It was also important for producers that Mr. Hooper not be said to have died in a hospital, for fear it would make children afraid to go to the hospital, despite the fact that was in fact where Will Lee passed away. 
The episode’s airing on Thanksgiving was no mistake, according to actress Loretta Long, who noted during an interview on The Tavis Smiley Show, “We were very careful to do it over the Thanksgiving holiday, where there would be a lot of adults in the house to help the children.” Filming the episode was emotional for the cast and crew, all who had grown close to Will Lee during his 14 years on the show. Norman Stiles also adapted the episode into a book, “I’ll Miss You, Mr. Hooper.” Hooper’s Store has continued to serve as a landmark location on Sesame Street, with ownership changing through the years to its present owner and operator, Alan. Mr. Hooper’s death came up two other times after the episode, once in a Season 16 episode in which Big Bird and Maria reminisce about Mr. Hooper, and again in Season 28 when famous bird art collector Leo Birdelli wants to buy Big Bird’s drawing of Mr. Hooper, in exchange for birdseed. In that episode, Big Bird goes on to explain the meaning of the picture. The Daytime Emmys would go on to recognize the episode as one of the 10 most influential moments in daytime television. In a 2006 interview, Carroll Spinney recognized it as a proud achievement for Sesame Street, “The best episode we ever did was Mr. Hooper’s death. Those were real tears. Will was the sweetest man.”
Sonia Manzano retired from a 44-year career on 
Manzano discovers her abilities slowly throughout her childhood, as the oppression of everyday life makes self-realization almost impossible. She didn’t even have a fully-formed an interest in performing until her teenage years, and then through a slim opportunity earned her way into the performing arts high school which would give her confidence as an actress. It’s gratifying and illuminating to hear her tell her own story, as she earns a part in a new musical, Godspell, and returns “home” from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, to perform in New York. Her dismay comes through her words (and her voice, if you get the audiobook), as she tries to share her success with her family, who can’t understand her new life. After all, what does “achievement” look like if you can’t imagine it?
Recently, I’ve written how 
In 2013, Sesame Workshop produced a new video, as part of their 
While there was talk of having human characters go though a divorce on Sesame Street to highlight that important issue, it was instead decided to use Muppet characters, feeling children had grown too attached to the human characters on the show. With pregnancy, however, the idea of making a human character pregnant was more natural. Especially since star Sonia Manzano was pregnant herself at the time, which became a primary reason for introducing it into the show. They could incorporate Manzano’s own real-life pregnancy into the character of Maria. 
The story arc continued a few episodes later, when Maria’s mother came to visit Sesame Street and an ultrasound of a baby is shown to kids. It is a special device that allows the baby to be seen on a small monitor, with Maria’s doctor even pointing out the baby’s parts and Luis snapping pictures of a pregnant Maria. Maria’s mother also sings a sweet song called “My Baby’s Going to Have a Baby.” Later on in the season, Maria and Luis decorate the baby’s room with help from Big Bird, once again allowing for there to be a character in the story to whom children can relate. Another episode has dream sequences of Maria and Luis imagining what it will be like to hold their baby when it arrives, again putting special attention to the love of a parent to their child in the womb. 
Towards the end of the season, Maria goes into labor, an important moment for children to understand (including a special part where Big Bird witnesses Maria doing breathing exercises). The season finale was dedicated to the birth of Luis and Maria’s daughter, Gabi. Telly Monster helps answer an important question many children have, when he has a sweet conversation with Susan and Gordon while they read a book to their son Miles. Telly asks how they could be doing something so normal when there’s so much going on around Sesame Street, with everyone being so excited for the arrival of the baby. Susan explains to Telly that even though having a new baby around will change things, many things will stay the same, a simple lesson that many children who are anticipating the arrival of a sibling need to understand. Even Oscar gets a special part of the episode when he realizes he’s happy the baby is coming (something grouches should never be). The episode ends with the cast visiting Maria and Luis in the hospital and meeting the new baby, with Maria even saying that the experience of giving birth was an adventure. 
In Season 34, Sesame Street showed how children can adjust to having a new baby in the home, with the addition of a new character: Curly Bear, the baby sister of Baby Bear. Throughout the season, Baby Bear learns to adjust to no longer being the baby in the family, while also dealing with Curly Bear’s disinterest in porridge and her ability to growl louder than her big brother. What I love about this storyline is the sweetness of the relationship between brother and sister, with Baby Bear protective of his baby sister and Curly Bear being so fond of “Bebo” (her name for Baby Bear). It begins with a three-part episode focusing on the arrival of the baby, including Mama Bear pregnant and leaving for the hospital, and Gina taking care of Baby Bear while his parents are away. When Gina takes Baby Bear to the hospital to see his parents and new baby sister, Baby Bear sings a cute little song to his new baby sister called “I’ll Show You the World,” all about what kind of big brother he’ll be to her.
I personally love how Sesame Street approached the topic of pregnancy, and how much heart they included in helping kids understand and learn to adjust to having a new baby in the family. They used both human and Muppet characters to help highlight the story and, over the years, allowed viewers to watch Gabi and Curly Bear grow up and adjust to the challenges of going from baby to child and, for Gabi, from teenager to adult.
This topic is extremely interesting, in that it has been attempted by Sesame Street twice as featured stories, but only once did it finally make its way to the public. I was surprised to learn the topic was brought up much earlier than I thought. In 1989, a song appeared on Sesame Street in an episode of the show’s 22nd season. The song appeared during a News Flash sketch with Kermit the Frog interviewing a bird. Besides the topic it addresses, what’s special about this sketch is that it was the last day Jim Henson spent time in the studio recording Sesame Street material. 
3 years later in 1992, 
More than 20 years later, the issue of divorce was approached again, this time successfully. Instead of focusing on how a character is going through the process, the show illustrated how a character has gotten over a divorce. The topic was featured in a new research initiative for Sesame Street called “Little Children, Big Challenges,” a multimedia outreach program that focused on helping children persevere through changes and challenges in their life. It was specially made available for the general public through various family courts, counseling services, parenting and child care programs and other similar outreach outlets. The video and research kit were both released online in 2012 and featured a current Sesame Street popular character, Abby Cadabby, explaining to Elmo, Rosita and Gordon that her mommy and daddy are divorced, while she also shares the emotions she went through during this change in her life. Kevin Clash, who also performed Elmo, directed the special episode, in possibly one of his final performances as the character before resigning from Sesame Workshop. This special also includes the same song from the News Flash sketch in 1989, “The Bird Family,” here with the little bird performed by John Tartaglia, alongside Abby Cadabby and his bird parents, performed by Kevin Clash and Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, who also performs Abby.
