While Sesame Street undoubtedly owes most of its success to the valuable contributions of Jim Henson’s Muppets, the show as I remember it wouldn’t have been the same without those familiar live action segments whose mellow, laid back tone helped us appreciate the beauty of a quiet moment and to ponder on things outside our front door. Today I will analyze two of my personal favorites.
Sesame Street – I Believe in Little Things
Perhaps one of Sesame Street’s smartest decisions was to utilize the brilliant talents of composer Joe Raposo, who was responsible for many of the show’s most memorable numbers. Raposo gave us, his young audience, songs that were gentle and soothing yet at the same time intriguingly melancholy. And that is nowhere more apparent than in our first clip, “I Believe in Little Things.” I can imagine lesser kid’s shows giving us some bouncy yet shallow little ditty cheering, “Hooray for little things! ::clap clap::” But not Sesame Street. Here Raposo chose the more earnest “I believe in little things” with an almost worrying edge to it, as though he’s speaking for something he fears would otherwise go tragically unnoticed or undermined.
This song is also brave enough to tell children the truth; in life “flowers die.” Not everything is happy. But it doesn’t leave us with no hope. We are comforted to know that those same flowers “will come back again whenever it’s July.” Life goes in cycles and without the bad, there can be no good. 
Sesame Street – Who Am I?
This next Sesame Street clip frequently aired during my childhood, featuring the lovely voice of the late Alaina Reed Hall (who also played Olivia on the show). Another thing I’ve always admired about Old School Sesame Street was its willingness to get out into the real world with real people (as opposed to the sterile, Stepford inspired sets of other kid’s shows). As a born and bred suburbanite, one of the few places I could be exposed to scenes of fields of grain, tractors, cows and open skies for kite flying…was Sesame Street. It reminds me of a lyric from another retro kids show, Today’s Special: “Without ever leaving, I’ve been everywhere. I’ve been to those lands cause you’ve taken me there….the things I remember, you’ve given me these. Yes you, you make my memories.” That really demonstrates the awesome power, and heavy responsibility, all kid’s shows possess.
