My favorite Ernie and Bert story goes like this: Ernie is sitting in front of a plate and seems content. Next to him is a second plate with a large piece of chocolate cake. Now Bert comes along and asks in his bureaucratic voice where the other piece of chocolate cake went. Ernie says he doesn’t know what we’re talking about. Well, the other piece of chocolate cake, says Bert.
I don’t know what you mean, says Ernie. Then Bert looks at the plate in front of Ernie and says there are chocolate crumbs on it. Ernie says: That’s right, those are chocolate crumbs. Bert asks how they got there. Ernie says: I don’t know, but maybe a monster came and ate the chocolate cake. Possibly, Bert says and walks away. Now the cookie monster comes, eats the second piece of chocolate cake and disappears. Ernie says into the camera: Oh man, no one believes me! Bert returns. Ernie says a Cookie Monster ate the piece of chocolate cake. Bert doesn’t believe him and leaves.
The first “Sesame Street” on ARD was shown in January 1973. The children saw a street that is probably supposed to be in a less affluent part of New York City but looks like an alley in Naples. Here live the mythical creatures Oscar, Bibo and Grobi and human supervisors like Gordon, who apparently have no home. You stand in doorways, sit on stairs or in garbage cans and ride scooters – an idyll that every German child longed for.
The German “Sesame Street” did not trust the anarchy of the original
Count Zahl, Virginia Virginia, Bennett Snerf and Lefty, The Salesman (in the German version: Schlemihl) appeared in unforgettable farces, all characters from Jim Henson’s doll factory. There was also the frog Kermit and a character called Muppet.
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The German version was soon run by two legal guardians, Lilo Pulver and Henning Venske, who supervised the shaggy bear Samson and the annoying Tiffy, and were likable but never reached the magic of the American fantasy realm.
And why was that? Because the German “Sesame Street” wanted to be didactic. Instead of doubling down on children’s anarchy like “Sesame Street”