It's that time of year again...

Not only is Sesame Street officially 39 years old, but tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of Mr. Hooper's death announcement on the show. Although Will Lee--the actor who played Mr. Hooper--died in December of 1982, CTW had two good reasons not to write off the character until a year later. First, each season of Sesame Street used to begin in November; the 1982-83 episodes had already been taped, and included footage of Will Lee while he'd been alive. Second, the producers wanted to schedule the death episode on Thanksgiving Day so that parents would be at home to explain the situation to their preschool-age children. (I personally doubt that CTW had thought the schedule over thoroughly enough. How many TV-watching parents are going to pass up the traditional parades and ball games, just so the kid can see Big Bird grieve on TV?)

Despite that problem, the "death episode" of Sesame Street hit a whole generation hard emotionally. I never saw the show until many years later, but was surprised to hear local news mention both Lee's death and CTW's decision to discuss the situation openly. As far as I know, no other TV program or fictional character has attracted that kind of attention in mainstream newscasts.

Even today, the story of Big Bird mourning for Mr. Hooper attracts curious fans of vintage TV. Adam Koeppe recently posted an essay about his reaction to the scenes; like most latter-day viewers, he reacted more strongly than you'd think. (Not that this is a bad thing, of course...)