Question: Why are so many episodes and segments on Sesame Street lost?
Answer: Over 4500 episodes of Sesame Street have been produced since its debut in 1969. Some of the earliest episodes have been lost for a variety of reasons, such as copies being misplaced or from some type of physical damage, though the amount is relatively small. Some segments were recycled into new episodes, while others were archived and are no longer available. HBO airs later Sesame Street episodes, though they recently decreased the number now shown by over 200. They needed to reduce the amount to free up space for other streaming programs.
Question: I've been told the creators of Sesame Street consulted with researchers on child development. Is this true?
Answer: It is absolutely true. This is from Wikipedia: "The children's television show Sesame Street...was the first show of its kind that utilized a detailed and comprehensive educational curriculum, with specific educational goals, in its content. Its goals were garnered from in-house formative research and independent summative evaluations, and its first curriculum was created in a series of five seminars in 1968."
That is how they created the show. By talking to researchers on child development.
Question: Is it true that Cookie Monster literally eats everything?
Answer: What exactly are you asking? Does he literally eat everything? No. Will he eat anything? Perhaps. Has he eaten weird things, including stuff that wasn't food? Yes, a lot of times. Through the long history of "Sesame Street", Cookie Monster has been seen eating a lot of non-food items. He'll do this for a number of reasons, generally because he's trying to get to some cookies, he's out of cookies, or he's still hungry. For example, he ate a safe that Kermit had put cookies in (in a failed attempt to keep the cookies away from Cookie Monster). He ate a plate when everyone else ate all the cookies, leaving him with none. And he ate a full size pickup truck a genie gave him when he ran out of wishes to fill the truck with a million cookies because he was hungry. The other times he eats something non-food related is because he gets overly excited, or just being silly. Of course, now Cookie Monster knows that cookies are a sometime treat and will eat healthy foods.
I'm asking if he eats anything.
Chosen answer: The general consensus is that Big Bird is a canary; however, according to Wikipedia, he's also been described as a condor as well as an ibis. The one constant factor is that regardless of his species, Big Bird is always eight feet, two inches tall and flightless.