"Count it Higher" w/ Little Chrissy! On a dark day, Sesame Street brings the light.
I needed some Muppet magic this morning. I found it!
This morning with the news ever darker and our world feeling even less kind than the day before, our family found itself in the rare mode of being together, making breakfast, pulling a few things together for our lunches before heading off to work. We didn’t talk news, we didn’t talk politics. We could have, it was sitting right there, next to the mayo, just behind the OJ. Instead, somehow, we got on the topic of the song, “Count It Higher” a classic from the golden era of Sesame Street, before Kermit hosted his own variety show.
“Count It Higher”. I need that song, and I need that video, right now.
My kids are adults now, so it was even sweeter to see their eyes light up when I searched and quickly found “Count It Higher”. We made Sesame Street a part of their childhood TV education (even if it was on VHS tapes), long after it aired on PBS in the 70’s. They loved it then and remembered it today.
And if like me, you grew up on a steady diet of Sesame Street and later the Muppet Show, then surely you encountered some very fuzzy and loveable non-humans, who made TV hilariously fun. Even at age six I could appreciate the irreverence of it all, even if I didn’t know what the word meant. There was something ‘knowing’ about all this zaniness, all this inanity.
As an adult rewatching these nuggets of comic and musical brilliance, I marvel not only at the sheer audacity of it, but also the fact that PBS trusted Jim Henson and Co. to get it right, to make it kid friendly but also kid-smart. We were in on the joke and able to intuitively know that this was good. And as my son rightly pointed all, imagine being the puppeteers, all smushed together just below the camera line, bopping to and fro, making these puppets dance and sing. I am sure for them it was anything but effortless. So thank you Jim Henson, thank you to every person who stuck their hand up a puppet’s rear end and made these incredible joyful and exuberant moments come to life. They are timeless they are hilarious; they brought smiles and laughter to me and my family on an otherwise tough morning to face the world.
What’s your favorite Sesame Street bit? Let me know!