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I am unsure about you, but I so dislike election time. Our streets are littered with signs, our phones are ringing off the hook with annoying unsolicited phone calls, and TV is nothing but a bunch of bashing. I listen to lot of Pandora and internet radio when it is election time and try to avoid the negative lifestyle elections try to promote. Politicians, leave puppets alone!  I have to draw the line when they bring in Big Bird and it got me thinking…

Though Big Bird is a good example of American politics as puppets are objects manipulated by someone, there is a real history behind puppets. I have read that puppetry had its birthplace in India, and thousands of years ago probably even BC. Some will argue and say it all started in China. Perhaps it started in both places and we were just not aware of it. I really do not care to be stuck in the semantics of where it all began, what we know is it began and from that, a new form of entertainment began.

Puppets have been used for many reasons. They could act out parts that humans might not have ever acted out back in “the day”. Others say puppets were created to act out an extension of one’s self. What we do know is that puppets have been used by storytellers to help tell a story. They have been used to communicate sacred text and they certainly have been used to express oneself.  What we also know is these “objects” can come to life with the help of a human and make it big in entertainment.

Many things come to my mind when I think of puppets. Yes of course Sesame Street and Jim Henson of course, and Punch & Judy who were rather sexist puppets as scenes were performed by a puppeteer on a portable stage and Punch, who dressed in jester’s clothing, would berate Judy beat her over the head with a stick. Imagine people liking this, but they did, in fact, people sucked up the puppet show.

Before television, Charlie McCarthy was the best-known person on radio who used a puppet which we call a wooden dummy and did Ventriloquism, which was when a person could “throw” their voice and send it to the “dummy”. I remember as a kid my sister got a Ventriloquist doll and I was so afraid of it because I swore its eyes followed me everywhere. I have to admit, I did not like it, and I don’t think she did either because it ended up at the top of her closet.

In 1947, Kukla, Fran, and Ollie was a children’s show that first hit the airwaves. Puppets now were TV stars as this show became a hit with her clever cast of characters. The Howdy Doody Show, hosted by “Buffalo Bob” another children’s hit show that aired from 1947 through 1960. Puppets were taking over the airwaves and soon Danny O’Day puppets appeared on TV doing TV commercials like  Nestle’s Quik.

Many of us remember Lamb Chop who was a sock puppet sheep. This little sock was the master mind of comedian and ventriloquist Shari Lewis in 1957. During the 1960s, Lamb Chop appeared on Lewis’s musical-comedy television show. In 1992, Lewis created Lamb Chop’s Play-Along, a children’s show for PBS that won five Emmy Awards.

Of course, nothing changed puppets like Jim Henson and his Muppets. It began in 1963, Jim moved to New York City, where he formed Muppets, Inc. The rest is history, well if you don’t know the history, his  first big break was in 1966, when he started working on Sesame Street for PBS and in 1974 he quit the show to work on the Muppet show. After he left that show, in 1989 Henson created yet another show called The Jim Henson Hour.

So to the politicians out there let’s leave the puppets alone . Let Big Bird entertain without your input or rules. Allow fun children’s entertainment to be unscathed by politics. Let this innocent form of entertainment alone. Let us celebrate a form of entertainment that has been with us for thousands and thousands of years.

Photo Norwegian Technology Museum

I love this time of year for many reasons. The weather is cooler and the humidity is finally over. For those who have them, swamp coolers actually work this time of year. You seem to see more people out on the walking paths because it is a good time of year to walk, and when people are not walking they are glued to the tube watching the season premiers of all the TV shows, and this got me thinking…

I watched a few new sitcoms this season and as I watched them, I realized that how drastic these sitcoms have changed. The New Normal shows same sex couples having a baby. I think this is absolutely wonderful considering that in the classic comedies like Lucy, or Leave it to Beaver, the man and wife had separate beds. Now we have same sex couples having kids. I personally love it!

My parents  used to think prime time TV was wonderful and wholesome, but I will never forget how they complained when the Brady Bunch came out, I found it interesting that TV looked at blended families as well as a couple sleeping in the same bed. How dare we show anything that could possibly be related to something that is real. Imagine how they felt when All in the Family addressed racism, even though all my neighbors and my family were somewhat racist, they were amazed that TV would tackle such a topic. Why it might expose people to what was really going on in the world.

Soap was one of the first sitcoms that addressed homosexuality. I recall my parents were livid over that one. It was 1977 and I had just graduated the year before. I found it was very interesting that this topic was on prime time TV and thought it was great, however my parents forbid me to watch it and so I went over to a friend’s house to watch it.

As time went by the Andy Griffith, Lucy and Leave it to Beaver days were gone. We no longer thought that bad grades and breaking a window is what made a thirty-minute comedy funny. We entered an age where abortion, politics, racism, and homosexuality were being explored and giving the sitcom community the opportunity to explore everyday life in a somewhat comical matter.

What my parents once called dirty is what I call an innovated way of viewing life and its situations.  It is a simpler and easy way to get people engaged in conversations about everyday life. Yes, people really do sleep in the same bed, and gay people really do exist and God forbid they want to get married and have children. There really is abortion and racist people still exist. I love comedies that allow us to look at it.

I am grateful that shows like Soap, All in the Family and Maude that had us explore life on lives terms. Today I am so glad there are comedies like Modern Family, and the New Normal that has us explore so much more in our life. Yes indeed, sitcoms have come a long way and it is good to know we can look at life, and still chuckle. More important I am glad that some of the original  sitcoms made us laugh just for the sake of laughing.

A few years back I converted my old family slides into pictures on the computer. I often enjoy looking at them as I find something new it seems all the time. This morning as I was looking at these family jewels, I spotted a picture of my sister holding something that none of us has outgrown and it got me thinking…

How many licks does it really take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? As kids, we used to try to take our Tootsie Pop and try to count. I would lose count but I am sure my sister or cousin probably knows the answer to this question that has plagued man since 1930 when a fellow named Lukas R. “Luke” Weisgram invented these yummy suckers. These “suckers” made their public debut in 1932.

I was never sure how many licks it took to get to the center of the Tootsie Pop. I once counted up to 300 and then could care less. However, a student decided that perhaps they should put this licking thing to the test and this wise student from the University of Cambridge found out through studying that it took 3,481 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. That could not be and so a student from another elite college, Purdue to be exact, proclaimed it took an average of 364 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop using a “licking machine”.  Other colleges like Michigan concluded that it takes 411 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. Year after year through mechanical tongues, and machines, and real licking, it seems that we still do not know how many licks it really takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. It may have to remain a mystery to man, all I know is that it takes me about 6-8 minutes to get to the center of that tootsie pop.

What other candy has been studied so hard? This old time favorite lollypop also came with a legend. If you ever unwrap a Tootsie Pop you may come across an Indian shooting at a star on the wrapper. Back when, it was rumored if you got a wrapper with the Indian shooting an arrow at a star,  you could send it in and get a free tootsie pop. The company said it was not true but years and years ago, retail stores and gas stations would offer you a free sucker if you turned in your Indian wrapper. Some people believed that if you got that wrapper, you would have good luck, while others never knew there was an Indian on the wrapper, they were just too concerned with getting to the center of the Tootsie Pop.

Putting all that aside, I loved Tootsie Pops. I get a great piece of candy, and a tootsie roll which has always been my all time favorite candy, well besides a Tootsie Pop because I get the best of both worlds. These great suckers came in a variety of flavors such as cherry, grape, orange, raspberry and chocolate. I hear there are new flavors such as green apple, pomegranate and banana. I have also seen alternating flavors such as blue raspberry, lemon lime, strawberry, and watermelon. Banana and green apple? Really?

One of the reasons I love this classic retro candy is it is 60 calories  and is a fat-free pop, it’s the perfect guilt-free piece of candy that offers me lasting satisfaction. I have used this candy as rewards in my office, I have used them to help lose weight as in if I wanted something sweet I just stuck a sucker in my mouth, I have used the great suckers to quit smoking, and have used these suckers as a great personal treat for over 50 years.

Today Retroflections looks back at this great classic candy that thank goodness, is still around. Now here is the question I ask the readers, really how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?