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Melissa Dimick
Professor Penny Nolte
ENG-0121-VM01
04/12/2013
Blue’s Clues VS. Sesame Street
Although Malcolm Gladwell’s theory states: Blue’s Clues is a better children’s
Television program than Sesame Street. (The Tipping Point Pg111) My theory supports that
Sesame Street is the better of the two. The reason why I feel that Sesame Street is better than
Blue’s clues is because Blue’s Clues does these things: They haveshorter shows, repetitive
showings, different format, and instilled self- esteem into children. These are positive additions
that were contributions to their show, but Sesame Street performed better learning habits by:
teaching the alphabet and numbers, expressing equality, and improving their shows format over
the course of several showings. TheDown-falls of Blue’s clues and Sesame Street are, Blue’s
Clues didn’t do any addition research to keep their shows running, this is why they didn’t last
more than 10 years, but you can still view re-runs. Sesame Streetincorporated humor that only
the parents understood.
Blue’s Clues has strong points to entice children to watch their show. Blue’s Clues
started repetitive shows in 1996. When three decades had past they were able to look back on
Sesame Street’s features and prosper from them. Blue’s Clues format is mostly animated with a
live host named Steve. The animated objects include: blue an animated girl dog, a pail, toaster,
salt & pepper shaker, Magenta Blue’s cousin, and a chair. This is a whole different scene unlike
Sesame Street. Anything new to a child becomes exciting, and Sesame Street’s format was
different from Blue’s Clues which included puppets like the Cookie monster, Oscar the grouch,

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etc., and with culturally diverse hosts. With Blue’s Clues keeping the show repetitive, children
knew what to expect. I know when my children were young; they had to be really interested to
sit more than thirty minutes. Blue’s Clues show is thirty minutes shorter in length Than Sesame
Street. Although through research it has been determined that children can sit longer than half an
hour if interested enough in what they are watching. (Global New York Times) Steve the host of
the show focuses on delivering self-esteem through every episode. I remember when my kids
were between the ages of 2-5 and they would watch Blue’s Clues and Sesame Street. With
Blue’s Clues they would become really excited when they found the objects before the end of the
show, and with Sesame Street they learned counting by following along with the puppets
showing the numbers, and repeating after the puppets sounding them out. Blue’s Clues gives
children excitement: when they find the object on the TV screen even if they anticipated the
moment. This did not allow the children to do any guessing on their own. Blue’s Clues aired for
ten years but they didn’t do any additional research of their own to better the show; although you
are still able to view re-run.
When Sesame Street started in 1969 it was a fresh beginning. Sesame Street had no other
show to learn from. Their show started out being an hour long and the format wasn’t structured
to well. Sesame Street found when teaching kids the alphabet they were more enticed with the
puppet they were using than the actual letter. To fix this Sesame Street made sure the letter or
numbers that were being taught would be in the middle of the TV screen. What comes to my
mind when thinking about Sesame Street and their repetitive teaching is, a clapping song from
when I was young, and it goes like this: “ Miss Merry Mack, Mack, Mack, all dressed in black,
black, black, with silver buttons, buttons, buttons, all down her back, back, back, she asked her
mother, mother, mother, for fifty cents, cents, cents, to see the elephants, elephants, elephants,

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jump the fence, fence, fence, they jumped so high, high, high they reached the sky, sky, sky, they
never came back, back, back until the fourth of July, July, July.”
Sesame Street from the start of their show has incorporated multiculturism. I feel this is
very important to teach children everyone is equal. A children’s show that once was an hour long
with everything being about the same thing, has changed to six lessons within their original time
frame all being about something different. (Global New York Times) Sesame Street has
managed to structure it about a child’s world; unlike when it started it was of adult and child.
What if Sesame Street did their format differently and they didn’t include people
of multiculturism? Instead they made it a judgmental program; I don’t believe their show would
have run very long. The reason I say this is because parents that were trying to introduce equal
values into their children would no longer view. Another reason: people’s feelings are a big part
of keeping a customer. Sesame Street wants the viewer’s to know all races are welcome; whether
it be celebrities or workers every person is treated equal. Years ago racism was heard about far
more than it’s today, but cases still go on. (BB&B pg.37) Discrimination can be a number of
things: if you’re over weight, bullying, etc. Sesame Street instilled learning values into our
children, and they have improved the show for lifelong values hopefully they will carry with
them such as: when they changed one of the character’s into the vegetable monster instead of the
cookie monster it was to enforce healthy eating habits.
Cartoons that are of this generation: some are for adults and others are for children.
Although some parents do not limit what their children view, they don’t care about the contents
the children are viewing. Some of the shows that I have viewed and found bad for a child to
watch are: Boondocks, within the first 5 seconds of the show there was violence, Afro Samurai:

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this cartoon is full of action swords fighting guns, blood, death, and decapitation of body parts.
The Ren & Stimpy Show: this show illustrates inappropriate behavior. The other day my
husband’s son and grandson came to our house, the discussing was about my husband’s son
grandson being able to watch whatever he wants. I do not feel this is a healthy environment. Our
world is becoming very corrupt. This is a quote from The Tipping Point: “You can reach a lot of
people through television, but it doesn’t educate.” (The Tipping Point Pg. 90) I feel there is just
enough entertainment in the bad cartoons that children view to have it stick so that it becomes a
bad educational program; unlike Sesame Street which for many decades have encouraged
learning values to our youth.
This is my conclusion to why Sesame Street is better than Blue’s Clues. The reasons as I
have stated previously, improving the shows format over several showings, teaching children the
alphabet, numbers, and equality. Along withSesame Street has been around for 40 years. They
have thrived to better their show format, and in doing so they have improved literacy and
numeracy all over the world.