PBS; HBOSesame Street is going to be more than TV soon.
It's going to be HBO.
While the classic family favorite isn't leaving PBS anytime soon, Sesame Workshop announced today that HBO and its various platforms will be showing the next five seasons of Sesame Street, allowing producers to make nearly twice as much content that, after a nine-month window, will be free for PBS affiliates. (So if that alone means fewer between-programming telethons, we're on board.)
Remember, Fraggle Rock originated on HBO back in the day, so this isn't quite as strange as it sounds when you first hear it.
But of course the premium-cable network has certainly evolved since 1987, and is known now more than ever for super-intense, violent dramas and wickedly profane comedies—with all sorts of nudity sprinkled among both genres!
So while Sesame Street was certainly doing OK in its purely-for-public-broadcasting format, collecting 159 Emmys over the past 46 years, here is our vision of what we can expect when Elmo, Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Grover and more take up residence at their fancy new address:
We Get the Sesame Street We Deserve: Grover and Telly, strange bedfellows at first because the blue one is always spouting Groverisms, both undergo soul-shattering transformations when they become entangled in more numbers and letters than any god-given creature is supposed to be able to handle in a day.
World Minus 2 Percent Equals...: The only peace Police Chief Elmo has these days—a time to process his thoughts and wonder what happened to the kids who just one day, poof!, were gone after their families moved away—comes during his daily jogs.
One, One Last Week Tonight, Hah ah ah ah ah...: Count von Count will be bringing his uniquely Transylvanian perspective to the s--t show that is government policy and social services that are staggering under the weight of bureaucratic ineptitude and income inequality.
The Nest: Ever since Mr. Hooper's store became a front for an elaborate seed-smuggling operation, Big Bird and McSnuffy won't rest until they've untangled all the threads and put a name on all the faces (and there are so many more these days than there used to be). It's just so hard to get a warrant from the Jim Henson Company. And Bob told them that eavesdropping was bad manners.
Bert, Present. Ernie, Present: They had been roomies for so long, they figured they may as well start a band.
Me Want Bootleg: It was so much easier when there was just one cookie runner in town, but now New York and Philly want in on the action. And don't get him started on that Capone.
Felt in the City: In a neighborhood that for decades ostensibly belonged to the boys, at least the girls have always had each other. It's murder trying to find Louboutins in Muppet sizes, though.
Game of Cans: Happily, no Muppets must die.