Star Trek Meets Sesame Street

Star Trek Meets Sesame Street · 5 December 2015

My wife, The Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi, thinks that Star Wars is Star Trek meets Sesame Street.

Now, before you get up your ire against her (or me), let me assure you that I do not share her point of view. Not totally. I love Star Wars. And Star Trek. And Sesame Street. So even if my wife was right about the apparent merger, I would still like Star Wars.

My wife’s complaint about Star Wars is that there are Muppets. (She does not like shows with animation and real people together either, but that is another story.) I am not sure what her complaint is except that she says she did not grow up with Sesame Street so she does not know what the big deal is about Muppets anyway.

Personally, I love Muppets. Kermit The Frog, Miss Piggy, and Fozzie Bear (who sounds a lot like Yoda doing stand up, waka waka) were always great in The Muppet Show. And Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird were two of my favorites in Sesame Street. So I have never had a problem with Muppets interacting with people. I have seen it my whole TV-watching life.

Unfortunately, that was not the case for The Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi. Apparently, she did not have Sesame Street to help her on her way to functional and cultural literacy. (Do not tell her I said that.) So when she says that Star Wars is Star Trek meets Sesame Street, I feel sorry that she did not know Oscar the Grouch like I did.

Still, the more I think about my wife’s perspective, the more heretical I get about Star Trek and Star Wars. After all, it would not be hard to imagine Gene Roddenberry writing an episode of Star Trek where Captain Kirk and the crew travel to a planet teeming with seven-foot yellow birds roaming around with huge smiles on their beaks. Or I could even see an episode called A Piece of the Action where Oscar the Grouch is one of the bosses of the world, running the place from his garbage can on the stoop. And I could see Star Wars with Fozzie Bear being Yoda’s long lost, albeit inept, nephew who tries to use the force when telling his audience, “This is the comedian you laugh at. Waka! Waka!” (Of course, that would be Star Trek meets The Muppet Show not Sesame Street, but nobody is really keeping track, right?)

At any rate, I was at first indignant when The Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi suggested that Star Wars was not the classic movie that I have loved since it first appeared on the big screen in my teenhood. Then, I thought better of it and embraced the notion. Two of my favorite shows, Star Trek and Sesame Street combining to make an instant hit in a classic good versus evil saga. That was okay by me. Great even.

I am not so sure that the history of Star Wars, Star Trek, and Sesame Street have much in common (I am sure Oscar is not grouchy because he was rejected as a Jedi Knight), but these three beloved institutions mean a lot to me. After all, I grew up watching Kermit the Frog, Captain Kirk, and Yoda. So while I was surely upset when she first suggested it, I am no longer indignant that my wife thinks Star Wars is Star Trek meets Sesame Street.

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