Even though many younger generations of kids know him for
being green (yellow-green?) colored, did you know that Sesame Street’s Oscar
the Grouch was originally orange in color?
By: Ringo Bones
Many television trivia themed books sold during the past 40
years has probably made it well known that Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch was
originally orange in color – as in during the first season of the iconic
children’s educational TV show during its first airing back in 1969. But Oscar
the Grouch’s transformation from orange to yellow-greenish for four decades now
may be just part of the story.
When I first saw Sesame Street during the early 1970s as a
very impressionable toddler, color TVs in my neighborhood might as well have
been a science fiction plot since most households in my neighborhood can’t
afford a color TV set – even the “cheap” Made in Japan models. But something
weird happened, when the powers-that-be at the Children’s Television Workshop
decided to transform Oscar the Grouch from (probably puke) orange to
yellow-greenish, every kid in my neighborhood noticed that Oscar the Grouch
became “less dirty looking” even though we are watching the show in our black
and white TV sets. Did my fellow toddlers back then noticed a different shade
of gray of Oscar the Grouch?
Based on these observations, will the powers-that-be ever
try to make Oscar the Grouch orange colored again? Given today’s advanced OLED
based video display screens touted to be capable of displaying colors that
1970s era Sony Trinitron color cathode ray tubes often misses to replicate, reminding today’s
kids on how Oscar the Grouch used to look during the first season of Sesame
Street might prove to be a ratings bonanza to the beloved children’s
educational show. Unless of course Madison Avenue image consultants will just
dismiss the idea as a cynical marketing ploy.
