Sesame Street is officially 40 years old today!  I grew up on Sesame Street, like a lot of kids did.  I just did it before a lot of my friends from school did.  I'm cool with that.  I've seen a lot of people sharing their favorite moments, and I dunno if it's a hormonal thing or if it's because I finally scheduled my surgery, but the first thing to come to my mind was the show in 1982 that dealt with the death of Mr. Hooper.

Saddest.  Scene.  EVER.  It is truly amazing, though.  That's one of the awesome things about Sesame Street.  They didn't write him out of the show or gloss over it - they laid it out on the table.  Shit happens, folks.  It's one of the only times they had the entire adult cast in one scene, too.  It was shot in one take - the first take - because they were all very upset.  It was devastating.  It's STILL devastating.  I have to say...my Mom died in 2001.  Cam was too young to understand, so I got off pretty easy, figuratively speaking.  Our dog died 2 years ago...that was awful.  I was upset, but the first thing I thought of was, "ohmygod, what do I tell Cam?!"  He couldn't sleep by himself for 3 nights, and still cried every night for a week after that. Brutus died this past year...it was awful, too.  He did better with that, I think because he knew what to expect.  He gets misty-eyed sometimes at night still.  That shit is hard.  Props to Sesame Street, and to every one of those actors!  Watch the, "Oh crap...what do we do?" pass from one to the other.  I read somewhere this episode was nominated for an Emmy.  I hope they got it!  Video below the cut.

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