The producers of Sesame Street pulled the plug on a planned weeklong series dealing with the Tea Party, citing potential criticism for wading into a political issue. The first episode, dubbed “Oscar the Tea Party grouch” was to air Monday.
Gary E. Knell, President and CEO of Sesame Workshop, which produces the series, said news of the upcoming episode leaked ahead of time and the company decided it would be better if the episode didn’t air.
He denied getting pressure from Tea Party funders the Koch brothers, who have extensive energy interests and donate to the PBS show Nova.
“In hindsight this probably wasn’t the best way to educate kids about the Tea Party or current events, but even PBS gets a small portion of its budget from the government. We feared the Tea Party might force Congress to put Big Bird on the chopping block. In fact, that episode was set for Thursday,” Knell said. “The Tea Partiers were already mad at us for teaching kids about sharing and being nice to each other.”
In Monday’s episode, which was made available to The Chicago Dope, Oscar announced that he joined a Tea Party group and called for an end to government expenditures on virtually everything—including public television and Sesame Street itself.
“I know this would put me in the unemployment line but so be it, this whole street should be condemned anyway. After all, I do live in a trash can,” Oscar said in the episode. “Here’s a lesson for you kids—life stinks.”
The same episode also introduced two new characters, the Coal Brothers—two wealthy lumps of coal that represent energy and other interests. The two brothers issued talking points to Oscar and got him to do their bidding, such as supporting tax breaks for coal people, through their group Sesame Street Americans for Prosperity.
The pair also tried to dig under Big Bird’s nest for the mineral rights underneath it, but were thwarted when Elmo and Mr. Snuffleupagus waged a “sit on” protest and refused to budge from the spot.
While most Sesame Street characters rejected Oscar’s new ideology, he convinced the overly nervous Telly Monster that the government was evil and that the destruction of the entire country was at stake.
“While Sesame Street usually stays away from political issues, this really did fit in with these two monsters’ characters. Oscar doesn’t like anybody and he uses Telly’s paranoia to his advantage all the time,” Knell said. “We thought that was a nice metaphor for the Tea Party, especially with PBS funding at risk because of the tea party fervor for budget cuts.”
A Sesame Street source, who asked not to be identified, said additional episodes would’ve featured a new character called Uncle Teapot, an old and cracked teapot Muppet who came to Sesame Street via a bus provided by the Coal Brothers, along with Muppet icons Statler and Waldorf.
“Me no like tea, me like cookies. Me can no have cookies with Tea Party, only tax cuts,” the source said. “Coal brothers, they take all the cookies. Me so sad.”
Marcus Manfred is an enigma. A simple and complex man who was raised by wolves in the lower upper part of the eastern west. He is more than you think and less than you know. He is the solution to every question you have ever asked, as long as the answer is three. 
