I brought Matt to my parents’ house last night for his first Passover seder ever. He’d already met my parents and my brother before, but I was looking forward to bringing him to my hometown, giving him a tour of the house in which I grew up, and introducing him to the family dog. He also got to taste my mom’s cooking for the first time. As for the seder itself, Matt was a real trooper — he wore a yarmulke and read from the Haggadah. It was so neat to expose him to all these aspects of my childhood: my parents’ house, the room that used to be my bedroom, the family photos on the walls, some of my relatives — all these things that are part of my history and that have contributed to who I am.

(I also gave him a glimpse of my mom’s huge collection of Playbills going back to the 1960s. Maybe next time he’ll be able to pore over all of them.)

At the end of the evening, my dad drove me, Matt, my brother, and my brother’s girlfriend back to the city. It was nice not being the odd one out anymore, and it was cool to casually mention to my dad that he didn’t need to drive me back to my apartment because I was going to, ahem, stay in the city. Hey — if my brother and his girlfriend can talk about it, so can I. I’ve recently realized how laissez-faire and laid-back my dad has become, after I grew up being so scared of him. Sometimes it takes the perspective of someone else — such as Matt — to remind me what a cool guy he is. I really do love my dad, particularly for being so accepting.

On Sunday night I watched a prime-time PBS special marking the 35th anniversary of “Sesame Street.” It was odd to see how much has changed since the 1970s/early 80s. Strangely, the humans are the same: Gordon and Susan, Luis and Maria, and Bob (although Bob’s deaf friend Linda seems to be gone). But now Gordon and Susan have an adopted son, Milo, and Luis and Maria are married and have a daughter named Gabriela. Milo and Gabriela both appear to be teenagers, so I’m sure they’ll get married someday. As for the muppets, Big Bird is still neurotic, Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster are still every child’s id, Grover is still ironically humorous, and Bert and Ernie still haven’t come out of the closet. (I think Bert needs to see “Avenue Q.”)

As I’m sure most “Sesame Street” afficionados know, Elmo and “Elmo’s World” have taken over the show. But that wasn’t as jarring to me as all the computerized animation the show uses today. I feel old now, and I now realize it’s true that every generation grows up taking for granted the technology that the previous generation thought was so cool.

The special included a few classic routines that I was shocked to realize had been buried in the deepest recesses of my memory. For the last couple of days I’ve been unable to get the following lyrics out of my head:

Ten eggplants —
Over easy!
That’s one of our little jokes
(Ha, ha, ha)

You can play the Sesame Street 35th Anniversary Trivia Game. That Oscar the Grouch is so mean.

Sometimes I wish I could be a kid again.

“Wonderfalls” has been cancelled. Effective immediately. Fuck!

It only lasted four episodes (and I missed the first one), but I fell in love with it the first time I saw it. I can’t believe it’s gone. I hope Caroline Dhavernas and the rest of the cast go on to other projects, because they were terrific.

Is there any place for quirky, intelligent shows anymore? Yes — on cable. The truth is that until 20 years ago, when television was still monopolized by three big networks, a show like “Wonderfalls” would never have made it onto TV in the first place. At least we no longer live in a three-network world. The big networks (and Fox, which often beats ABC in the weekly ratings, counts as a big network these days) are not the place for unusual or offbeat shows, and they never were. Three or four million weekly viewers would be a hit on almost any cable network, and that’s where people like Tim Minear and Joss Whedon should be looking to pitch their ideas, even if they’d have to deal with much smaller budgets. Due to smaller exposure, the shows probably wouldn’t get even three or four million viewers, but it would be better than nothing.

But maybe we can get it released on DVD. I want to find out why the animal objects were talking to her.

God, I’m pissed.