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Mr. Hooper is Dead

I stumbled upon this video posted at The Retroist and it had a profound effect on me in more ways than I would've imagined. I remember seeing it when I was just 5 years old and I remember having been deeply affected by it then as well.

It's the episode in Sesame Street soon after Will Lee, who played Mr. Hooper, died in real life. The regular "human" Sesame Street crew is sitting around and talking, when Big Bird comes over showing some pictures he drew of everyone. The final picture he shows is that of Mr. Hooper. It's at this moment that the crew has to reexplain that Mr. Hooper was dead and wouldn't be coming back.

There are many reasons why this video hits such a spot with me at 31 years old:

• It reminded me of the incredible dignity with which the Sesame Street writers and producers behaved and of the responsibility they took upon themselves to teach children about death. They didn't have to address it, but they did. And they did it effectively and tastefully.
• It reminded me of the mindnumbing crap they serve on television to kids today, and of how much more socially-awkward, unfocused, and sheltered children are nowadays.
• It reminded me of a time when parents didn't use television as a substitute for their responsibility, but rather as a supplement, wherein sometimes television programs (not "TV shows") and the characters whom the kids trusted, could help them to understand difficult-to-comprehend things in their own terms; things that perhaps weren't so easy for parents themselves to explain.
• I didn't think the explanations that Maria, Bob, Gordon, and others gave were perfect. In fact, there are things I'm sure I might've done better, but in the flaws and the awkwardness it became real and they took a very difficult topic and explained simply and effectively.
• This moment in television was how I'd learned about death in the way I would have finally understood it. And I'm proud to have learned it this way.

This moment in television speaks of a time when I was proud to be a kid in the US, when parents were parenting, when kids had attention spans, when television served not as a distraction, but as a responsible source of information, education, and enlightenment. I'm not sure we'll ever get back there, but it's fun to relive my past through when emotions were real and education and responsibility were dignified.

PS - Most incredibly is what they're discussing when the video starts. Are. You. Kidding. Me. Awesomeness.