On November 10, 1969, sunny days swept clouds away from the airwaves of PBS precursor NET, as the debut of Sesame Street ushered in a new era of childrens’ television programming. Forty-five years later, millions of kids in more than 140 countries have been raised on the warm, energetic, and always entertaining curriculum of Sesame Street and its international counterparts—and some of those kids grew up to become the staff of The A.V. Club. To celebrate this impressive run, we’ve assembled a week of Sesame Street content, a tribute to all of the times the show has made us laugh and learn—and at least one instance when it made us cry. We’re kicking things off with an A-to-Z Inventory of Sesame pop-culture crossovers, as well as the first two entries in themed rounds of Watch This and Hear This. Stay tuned through Friday for other special Sesame Street Week presentations, like a 100 Episodes column about the show and an essay by Mythbuster Adam Savage about his father’s animation work for Children’s Television Workshop. We’ll be running a full slate of regularly scheduled articles brought to you by the letters “A” and “V,” too. It’s just that they’ll just be supplemented by pieces from a place where everything’s a-okay, one where the friendly neighbors include an 8-foot-tall yellow bird and a vampire whose only abiding urge is to count (and count and count and count some more).
In case you need a refresher on how to access The A.V. Club and Sesame Street Week, please consult the instructional video below.