I am a child of the original Sesame Street era. Now, decades later as a librarian, I hold an even greater appreciation for the legacy of children’s educational programming and its essential service helping little learners question and discover. For the Water Library this morning, I fell down the splendid rabbit hole that is the Sesame Street YouTube Channel to search its clip archive for skits, animations, and short films about water. In doing so, it’s clear what a gift the Children’s Television Workshop (now the Sesame Workshop) has been—especially for low-income families—in the effort to share knowledge about everything from water properties, ecology(ies), economies, climates, consumption, and infrastructure. And it has done so with such remarkable tenderness, wit, silliness, sadness, and joy. The following fifteen Sesame Street snippets remind us of classic public broadcast television at its best, that we were never the poorer for its fewer pixels, lower-definition, and spare aesthetic. This is also a special nod to the late Jim Henson, my hero as a little kid, and even more so as a big one.
THE MARTIANS (and the leaky faucet) | Skit
SWIM LIKE SEA LIONS | Film & Song
BERT & ERNIE GIVE NEPHEW BRAD A BATH! | Skit
LUIS LOOKS FOR AGUA | Skit
EXPLORE A FISHING BOAT | Film
FAUCET WORKINGS | Animation
KERMIT SINGS “ON MY POND” | Skit & Music
SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN WITH GROVER | Skit & Song
SWIM LIKE A FROG | Film & Song
WASTING WATER | Animation
GOLDFISH IN A BOWL | Animation
WHALES BRUSHING TEETH | Film & Song
“CRIPPLE CREEK” SONG | Skit & Song
KERMIT’S ABC’s OF THE SWAMP | Skit & Song
“I DON’T WANT TO LIVE ON THE MOON” | Skit & Song
Water(B)logged is a series we bring to you this July/August 2017 as a departing project of an adoring Wisconsin Water Library library assistant who wishes to celebrate her favorite things about water and this most special of special libraries.