Buffy Sainte-Marie is cool ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

Buffy Sainte-Marie is a well-known singer and musician who was a regular on 'Sesame Street' from 1976 to 1981.

Her music was the target of U.S. government censorship in the '60s and '70s because of her political views. Radio stations blacklisted her, and entire shipments of her records mysteriously vanished.

'Sesame Street' was likely at its peak in the late '70s. Instead of overplaying the same bland segments, each episode always featured a healthy dose of new material alongside creative recurring sketches rotated in an unpredictable fashion. The Number Painter and "'B' Is For Bubble" still made frequent appearances.

Folks cite Buffy Sainte-Marie as central to the show's late '70s dominance. For instance, everyone enjoys this 1977 musical appearance:



That segment was so popular that viewers waited for months on end for 'Sesame Street' to rerun it so they could record it with a tape recorder.

I'm pretty sure I saw this segment once when I was about 4. I was so impressed by that twangy instrument that I was inspired to try to build one. One day, while digging in the dirt behind my house, I found a small piece of a broken clay flowerpot that I planned on using as the pick. When I had to go inside for dinner, I promptly lost my pick. I think I accidentally flushed it down the toilet, because it was never found.

You'd never see a segment like this on 'Sesame Street' today, unfortunately.