Coming up next: Sesame Street for adults | News.com.au
US broadcaster PBS is collaborating on an adult version of Sesame Street.
The news comes in the wake of this week's Katy Perry Sesame Street debacle, and as a new Sesame Street clip inspired by steamy soap True Blood was released.
"We are designing Next Avenue to be a virtual life coach for baby boomers," Twin Cities Public Television president Jim Pagliarini said.
The adult version of the show is to be called Next Avenue. The series - and corresponding website - aims to help teach baby boomers how to handle their lives now they've reached middle age, much the way the preschool TV show teaches kids their A-B-Cs, the New York Post reports.
Twin Cities Public Television, in conjunction with American Public Television and PBS, has already put together $5 million in grant money for the series, which is due to launch next year.
"It will also challenge them to see the opportunities life holds after 45."
Yesterday, it was revealed a Katy Perry/Elmo duet planned for broadcast New Year's Eve was pulled from Sesame Street after complaints that Perry's outfit - a low-cut yellow dress and wedding veil - was inappropriate for a children's program.
It's not the only adult-themed episode Sesame Street to have raised eyebrows this week.
The show is also planning a parody of HBO's steamy soapie True Blood, replacing vampires with Grouches in a skit called True Mud.
In a clip released on Youtube, Bill is a grouch instead of a vampire, and he has a deep craving for some True Mud.
He goes to the Sesame Street version of Merlotte's bar and is served in proper fashion by the muppet version of Sookie Stackhouse, and tries his best to get himself some of that True Mud.
Adult themes are not new for the popular puppet program. For the first five years of Sesame Street in the early '70s, the program was considered adult-only material.
Well I'll be... didn't know it was considered adult only back then.... then again I was born in 1980, so I guess I missed the good stuff.
But I'm curious as to how this will work for baby boomers and how it's all going to be done?
FIVE!
FIVE YEARS LEFT IN YOUR LIFE..... AAAAHHHH AAAAHHHH AAAHHHHH!!!!! *thunder and lightening strikes*
