Alex Weisman and Chris Costa in “Sesame Street”.
Coming to recognize Pride Month and Father’s Day this year, children’s television channel, Sesame Street, celebrated by welcoming an openly gay couple of fathers to the show.
The episode “Family Day”, which premiered June 18 on HBO and PBS, saw iconic characters from the series, including Big Bird and Elmo, host a garden party to celebrate their family. This included the introduction of gay dads Frank (Alex Weisman) and Dave (Chris Costa) and their daughter, Mia (Olivia Perez). Most of the episode revolved around Big Bird worried that this grandmother wouldn’t be able to attend the celebration. The other characters went to great lengths to keep it a secret that she had indeed come to the party to surprise him.
Related: Our Friends From “Sesame Street” Have A Message To The World: Happy Pride
As for the inclusion of same-sex parents, the show treated their introduction with factual candor. At one point, Frank explains, “There are all kinds of different families, but what makes us a family is that we love each other. No one seemed to need more explanation than that.
For the creative minds behind Sesame Street, the presentation of gay dads marks a turning point in the show’s 51-year history. “I am so honored and humbled to have co-directed this important and landmark episode,” wrote Alan Muraoka, who directed the episode. “Love is love, and we are very happy to add this special family to our Sesame family. Good pride everyone!”
Sadly, we couldn’t see the original Sesame Street gay couple Bert & Ernie sporting the pride flag, or chatting with Frank and Dave about Lil Nas X… although we do like to imagine they had all compared notes off camera.
Sesame Street began addressing LGBTQ issues in 2017 when a flippant narration mentioned that some people may have two dads on a Father’s Day episode. That same year, a lesbian couple also appeared on the series as characters. The following year, we here at Queerty interviewed former series writer Mark Saltzman, who admitted to the world that Bert and Ernie are indeed a gay couple.
