<i>Sesame Street was created for two-year-olds, not bitter Internet pundits.</i><p>It may have been created for two-year-olds, but do you know what it was created TO DO for two-year-olds?<p>The article has it exactly right.  The purpose of Sesame Street was never entertainment.  Their purpose was to use TV to help preschool aged kids get a head start on academics and emotional development, while pushing a specific set of liberal social values around inclusiveness on them.  It is a matter of historical record that this was the goal.<p>In order to accomplish this goal, Sesame Street deliberately had to have enough entertainment value to keep kids watching.  And pulled in enough pop culture people to give babysitters a reason to turn it on.  (See <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=G95MA6RxJTs" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=G95MA6RxJTs</a> for an example of how they combined those two.)  But those are means to an end, not the end.  And it is very important to always push kids to do a little more than they think they can do.<p>The current dominance and role of Elmo reflects how Sesame Street has lost sight of their initial vision and confused the means (entertainment) for the end.