Eli's children. The chronicles of an unhappy family

From the beginning Sesame Street was intended to appeal to both children and adults. The idea was that one of the big obstacles facing children — particularly children from lower-income families — were that their parents didn't encourage or participate in their education. Sesame Street's creators wanted a show that mothers would watch along with their children. That's why the show is loaded with so many "adult" elements, the constant punning and pop culture references like Monsterpiece Theater or the Samuel Beckett parody "Waiting for Elmo." (The show's head writer, Lou Berger, says that the reason he applied for a job at SesameStreet was because of a Kermit sketch he saw while watching the show with his son in 1979. "It was one of those crazy fairy tales. They were looking for a princess in distress. Kermit ran out to this female Muppet princess and said" — and here Berger did a pitch-perfect Kermit — "'Excuse me, are you a female princess in distress?' And she said, 'What does this look like? A pant suit?' I remember thinking, 'That's so great. I have to work there.'") The problem is, preschoolers don't get these kinds of jokes, and the presence of the humor — like the elaborate pun on "distress" — can serve as a distraction ...»