I count myself lucky to grow up where and when I did. Barnegat, NJ on the shore in the 70s and 80s. Now I know what you might think about Jersey from TV and movies, but South Jersey was a whole different world back in the day. We kept quail and rabbits in the backyard. The woods behind my house went on for about two miles before you hit the Parkway and after that you were deep in the Pine Barrens. They used to grow corn (Silver Queen) the next town down and sell it by side of rt 9. The men in my family all hunt and and most fish (not me, fishing is a good day sailing spoiled).I learned how to canoe and sail. On the other hand, in the summer, all the shoobies(local word for tourists) came to the Island and we had rides, movies and skeeball. School trips to Philly and NYC museums, shows and zoos were the norm. I think I grew up pretty well balanced.
To be fair, during my teenage years, I thought I was growing up in the ass end of nowhere and would have killed and maimed to live in NYC, London or Paris. Now, not so much (except for Paris or Munich or Lucerne, I'd kneecap someone to live there).
Nowadays, Barnegat is changed in so many ways that I barely recognize the town when I visit. The woods are gone, replaced with McMansions, less people hunt, but the deer and squirrels are everywhere, the shoobies stayed and changed the towns into tiny clones of the NY and Philly exurbs they fled.
Not sure how this all ties in with Sesame Street, I was a Captain Kangaroo and Captain Noah kid myself. But I think the branding of everything has created a tasteless homogonization of Amreican regional culture. Do you want a Chilli's in every town? Really? There seems to be a disdain in popular culture ( except for maybe country music) for making money from the sweat of your brow and having skill with your hands. Who do you see on TV doing work outside an office? Cops, firemen, soldiers and interior designers. Maybe it has to do with killing off the small manufacturing and small farm industry?
Ok rambled enough.