Sesame Street: The Lost Pregnancy Episode

Thank God for PBS Sprout on demand. Literally. I thank you, God, for ensuring its place on the Time-Warner digital cable roster. I figure if baseball players can thank you for giving them home-runs, I can thank you for giving me six episodes of Sesame Street at my beck and call while I watch my daughter.

This weekend were viewing an episode in which Telly Monster realizes his hamster Chuckie is not only a a she, she's pregnant. This revelation leads into to a nice little show themed around pregnancy and newborns, including a song about a new baby at Katie's house; show and tell with Ernie in which a 4 year-old boy brings out a pair of baby booties; and a funny little bit where Telly calls a taxi for the expecting hamster.

While the episode was charming enough, it didn't really take on the topic of pregnancy with the insight I would have liked.

Here's how I might have pitched a show with the same theme:

SESAME STREET EPISODE 10455: Knocked Up (2007)

Premise

A pregnant mom-to-be named Liz moves onto Sesame Street. The gang all gets together to throw her a baby shower, while learning about pregnancy.

Segments

-Alan stocks up on Colace in preparation for Sesame Street's newest resident.

-Special musical guest Laurie Berkner sings The Bladder Song and She Doesn't Hate You, She's Just Hormonal

-Cookie Monster eats all of Liz's cookies after which she goes ballistic and rips off his left eyeball.

-The Count counts skin tags revealing the number of the day: 137.

-While the neighborhood kids make shower decorations, Gladys the Cow introduces an animated sequence about milk production

-Maria and Zoe look through Liz's purse for items starting with the letter of the day, P. They find a pregnancy book, Pop Tarts, peanut butter cookies, Pringles crumbs, and potato skins with cheddar cheese, sour cream and bacon (which is made from pigs).

-Journey to Ernie sequence in which Ernie hides from Big Bird in Liz's bra, never to be seen again

-Oscar makes a dollhouse for the new baby from discarded items he finds in Liz's dumpster including empty tissues stained from nosebleeds, uneaten but spoiled fruits and vegetables, and discarded underwear with disturbingly stretched-out waistbands.

-Elmo's World: Elmo hears the familiar refrains of "Elmo has mail, Elmo has mail" and opens his computer to find 246 unread Babycenter weekly emails. Elmo asks a baby about meconium. Mr. Noodle and Mr. Noodle attempt to adopt a child together in a red state.


Wrap-Up

The show concludes with a big baby shower sequence incorporating the entire cast along with special guest stars Harry Connick Jr. and Charo who together sing a beautiful duet of Sunrise, Sunset. Liz opens her gifts and gets weepy when she learns her new friends made sure not to order a cake with fruit filling in it. She leaves the party early to get a head-start on her thank you note-writing, but ends up just reading blogs and taking a nap.