"Snuffy's Parents Get a Divorce" and 3 other astonishingly inappropriate Sesame Street episodes that were filmed only never aired

If yous're anything similar me, you're unhealthily obsessed with Sesame Street in a manner only partially explained past your beingness the father of a two and a half twelvemonth quondam male child. And if you're also similar me, that pathological obsession leads you lot down some pretty weird, pretty deep internet rabbit holes involving minor characters like Big Bird'due south aunt, Cookie Monster's grandma and Babe Comport's weed dealer.

Such a lovely family! It'd be a real shame if it had to get broken or anything. 

Such a lovely family! Information technology'd be a real shame if it had to get broken or anything.

During one of my visits downwardly various Sesame Street-related rabbit holes, I discovered that in 1992 the venerable and honey children's entertainment institution filmed an episode in which the parents of pocket-size character Aloysius Snuffleupagus (better known equally Big Bird'southward pal Snuffy) get divorced. The thought was to help teach children nearly divorce just the episode never aired after it scored terribly with focus groups of children who seemed confused past it at best and borderline traumatized by it at worst.

Astonishingly, I then discovered that Sesame Street went on to motion picture iii similar episodes that also didn't air for reasons that should soon go apparent. With that in listen, here are the iv astonishingly ill-conceived episodes Sesame Street filmed, but never aired, most the implosion of the Snuffleupagus matrimony.

1. "Snuffy's Parents Get a Divorce"

Sesame Street has always had an admirable commitment to helping children deal with all of life's problems, and the complicated world of emotions, not just more than traditionally educational subjects similar math and spelling. To that finish, the show decided that it would help children better sympathize divorce with a special episode where the parents of Aloysius and Alice Snuffleupagus, Mr. and Mrs. Snuffleupagus decided to go divorced and Mr. Snuffleupagus moves out of the family cavern.

If anyone could pull off the tricky feat of making a hard and emotionally fraught subject similar divorce palatable to small children, it would seemingly be the smart, sensitive and socially conscious people backside Sesame Street. But the episode was misconceived from the very beginning.

For starters, it seems perverse to use minor, express characters like the extended family unit of a minor, limited character like Snuffy as the instrument for delivering such a heavy message. Heck, audiences didn't even really come across Snuffy's dad Daddy Snuffle at all earlier the episode, so confused kids were likely to know him only as a hirsuite version of their dad when he said he was going out for a pack of smokes and never came dorsum.

Though the writers took groovy pains to establish that but considering mommies and daddies fought didn't hateful they were getting divorced, traumatized kids took away the contrary message, and when Alice, the gratingly ambrosial babe sis character, kicked a doll in frustration, children thought she was stabbing it in rage.

When the testing results came in, they decided to never air the episode. Notwithstanding unbeknownst to anyone but me, they somehow kept making more episodes in this vein, all of which were burned in a fire, never to be seen by kid or man.

two. "Daddy Snuffle Is Having A Snuffle-fair with his Teen Intern"

The normally savvy Sesame Street stubbornly refused to larn meaningful and somewhat obvious lessons from the divorce episode boondoggle. They decided that children were confused because they did not realize that the Snuffleupagus' marriage was in problem, or that when a male person Snuffleupagus' sexual needs are not being met, his centre begins to devious.

Hello? How much to put a hit on my womanizing, piece of shit husband? 

Hi? How much to put a hit on my womanizing, slice of shit husband?

And then they introduced the character of Tawny, a nineteen-year-old, sexually experimental Snuffleupagus with daddy issues, who works every bit an intern at the Snuffle-surance company where Daddy Snuffle is employed every bit a Senior Vice President of marketing. This extremely unpopular, poorly thought out grapheme debuted in a scene where Mommy Snuffleupagus walks in on her presently-to-be-estranged married man giving his intern a particularly loud and intense "Snufflegasm", the kind she herself had never really experienced.

A xv minute screaming match ensues, and Tawny runs abroad, embarrassed. It but gets uglier from at that place. The scene where Daddy Snuffle explains to his children that if a wife isn't able to friction match the Snuffle-Sex Drive of her partner, then it'southward a Snuffle-married man'south correct to accept his sexu-snuffle needs met outside of the marriage all the same he sees fit, including prostitutes, was flagged by PBS as "astonishingly tone-deaf" and "sending out, similar, 17 of the wrong messages."

iii. "Daddy Snuffle's Divorce Leads to Snuffle-cidal Snufflepression and Snufflecaine Abuse "

When the divorce and adultery episodes were nixed, the deeply confused Sesame Street writing staff felt that the problem was that kids just didn't know enough almost Daddy Snuffle'south unhappiness for his desire for a divorce to make sense. So they wrote yet another never-to-be-aired episode chronicling the snufflecidal snufflepression Daddy Snuffle cruel into when he realized his marriage was broken across redemption and also how he became addicted to "Snufflecaine", a white, powdery substance that makes Snuffleupagus start very happy and energetic at first, and then very sad and paranoid. Also, total assholes!

Daddy has the sniffles alright (wink!) but it's not something they're gonna write children's books about 

Daddy has the sniffles alright (wink!) but it's not something they're gonna write children'south books nigh

In a scene PBS told Sesame Street they were "insane to imagine and moving-picture show" Daddy Snuffle blatantly lines up a fatty line of Snufflecaine in clear sight of his horrified children and when ii year old daughter Alice begs him to terminate, he explains that he "can end at any time" merely that he "but likes to party" and needs to "blow off steam."

This episode was peculiarly controversial due to its seeming endorsement of Daddy Snuffle's constant, sweaty assertions that he "doesn't have a problem with Snufflecaine" and that as long as he's paying the bills and shows up for work on time, no one has the correct to tell him what to put in his body, or upward his snuffle.

This episode was so horrifyingly authentic in its delineation of drug addiction that PBS asked its writer if it was based on personal experience, and he said no, of grade not, then started crying and yelling at them to stop trying to steal his thoughts.

four. "Daddy Snuffle Pressures his Snuffle-mistress to go a Snufflebortion"

This is an episode that got notes from the network similar, "What the fuck are you lunatics doing?", "Are y'all out of your goddamn minds?" and "Have y'all fifty-fifty seen Sesame Street? What the fuck show do you lot think you're putting on?"

In happier times 

In happier times

Alas, the Children'due south Television Workshop ignored the angry, enraged reception each of their issue-oriented episodes received from the brass at PBS, also as the fact that none of them aired and wrote and filmed an episode where Daddy Snuffle discovers that the cheap snufflectomy he received in Mexico didn't work when his teen mistress Tawny becomes pregnant.

Worried about his political chances (He'southward thinking virtually running for County Snufflemmissioner) if he has a child out of wedlock, Daddy Snuffle encourages Tawny to get a "snufflebortion", making vague promises of someday marrying her if she does and then, fifty-fifty though his divorce hadn't fifty-fifty been finalized yet. The episode actually consists of a single 56-minute-long argument about the Snufflebortion ghost-written by David Mamet filmed in a single, brutal long take.

The entire writing staff of Sesame Street was fired shortly after PBS looked at the episode. It was probably for the best. While Sesame Street earned justified kudos recently for its sensitive treatment of Julia, an autistic grapheme, this just seemed similar a bad idea that merely kept progressively getting worse and worse with each new never-to-air episode and surreally sick-conceived iteration.

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