Maybe It’s a Good Thing Sesame Street Moved to HBO

Considering everything that’s gone on in the past few days, a little Sesame Street on HBO might not be a problem after all.

Sesame Street moved to HBO last summer over some issues with financing, with the show actually making its return this month. More recently, the show sent out a press release detailing the February episodes. Yes, it may not be great that new episodes only air on Saturdays. They’re also only half an hour each.

However, each of these new episodes deals with some important things in this time or any time: using your imagination (“Saul the Ball”, Feb. 4); being patient and taking turns (“Elmo’s Sweet Ride”, Feb. 11); putting yourself into new and different roles to help others (“Dress Up”, Feb. 18); and working together to do something that seems impossible (“Lifting Snuffy”, Feb. 25, with Jason Derulo also guest starring for his own dose of Sesame Street Cred, which has a real entry on TVTropes).

Check out the sizzle reel:

Although there’s a delay between when they air on HBO and when they’ll make it to PBS, right now the fact that it airs on PBS at all may be a little up in the air. According to reports from the AV Club, our President could very well cut funding to the National Endowment for the Arts as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities and privatize the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. CPR handles PBS as well as NPR. (Never mind that the budget for those things is, ahem, relatively small.) Public TV, as noted in the article, currently gets the new Sesame Street episodes for free, but losing government funding may make it harder to keep those doors open.

Yes, having to pay extra for a channel like HBO may not be great, but HBO can keep a show that’s been teaching children for a long, long time about values like kindness, sharing, and teamwork alive and well.

Next: Leslie Knope is Real and Rebelling

We’d also like to thank Erin Lynn Jeffreys Hodges for her help with this information.