Can you tell me "what the f#$@!". . .

Dear Children's Television Workshop,

Until this past year it had been a long time since I watched an episode of Sesame Street. My days as a Sesame Street kid were circa 25 years ago. Sesame Street taught me numbers, letters, some spanish, and some of the core values I still carry today.

Now, I'm returning to the Street as a parent. It is just as good as I remember. I am so happy to see a lot of the same characters I remember, even the humans. My son is little, but he lights up when he sees all his Muppet friends—Cookie is his favorite. One of his first hand full of words has been "Big Bird," normally when he's looking at his yellow friend on his Pampers during diaper changing, but also when he sees him in a book or on TV. We watch the show and sing and dance along to the fun songs. . . we all love "Murray Had a Little Lamb." We need more Murray. We TiVO and watch every episode, even repeats.

Sure, I'd rather have Bert and Ernie as Muppet's only and not as stop motion characters, and Baby Bear's lisp makes my wife, a teacher, cringe. Still, Sesame Street is the gold standard for children's programing. It's wonderful.

Then we hit minute 35-37 and our TV is attacked by a little, red, furry monster. In short Elmo's World is awful. It talks down to children in a way Sesame Street never does. . . It feels like a marketing tool to sell more talking dolls (which we received for Christmas and already had to send back, not your fault, but annoying still). I know one person griping—especially and adult—isn't going to stop this juggernaut. It's just makes me sad to see my childhood memories being jackhammered out by that little, red piss ant. . .

That's harsh. Elmo with the rest of the cast is OK. I even like that you have him getting annoyed with Zoe for thinking Rocko is a real pet. He's got real personality there, but once you remove him to Elmo's World it goes downhill.

Anyway, keep up the (mostly) good work. I hope my son stay interested for a long time. I find most adults I get along with have a solid Muppet upbringing. Maybe we'll get the DVDs of the first few seasons.

Sincerely,

I'm Not Skippy!