The Count gets mail ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

Greetings!

Because the mere mention of 'Sesame Street' sends you into helpless fits of hee-hawing, today is yet another 'Sesame Street' Wednesday!

Back in my day, the ol' Ses was much edgier. Oscar was meaner. Cookie Monster was hungrier. Big Bird was dumber.

And the Count was the scariest little guy you ever saw on children's TV.

These days, the Count looks and acts like a marshmallow in a box of Kaboom cereal. He's barely even a vampire anymore. He's more like a soft news reporter.

But when I was being raised up in the '70s, the Count was scarier, edgier, smarter, and more entertaining. And he was always eager to remind people that he was called the Count because he has a number fetish.

In this 1972 sketch, the Count mails himself many sacks full of letters just so he can count them:



Do the Count's later appearances even have the clap of thunder while he counts? Or are the producers of 'Sesame Street' afraid it might scare some exurban "values voters"?

The Count may think he has no friends, but he's got the diehard readers of The Online Lunchpail.