Melanie is no longer appearing on Sprout.

There was always something odd about Melanie. She was too pretty, artificial. I guess she was the actress for the job because the Good Night Show was sort of a kids version of the other genre she appeared in—the perfect fantasy of someone you could go to bed with, no strings attached. Not like a real parent who might not want to read you a story tonight because he has a headache. 😉

I think the only actress PBS could cast successfully is maybe Simone.

Sprout’s production ethic seems to be to erase any evidence of there being real people running a television network. It’s an interesting concept, but maybe not a good one.

It’s also not how it used to be. Remember when Mr. Hooper died? Sesame Street was the seminal PBS kids show and they didn’t pretend that the world was without problems. Nor did the local affiliates, whose pledge drives would teach us that our favorite characters didn’t just appear out of the ether; they depended on hard-working adults at a nearby TV station.

Kids (and adults) need to known that actors are real people with grown-up lives, and that what you see on TV depends on factors beyond your screen. Sprout needs to start teaching kids that pretend is pretend. Maybe if they had introduced Melanie Martinez as a real-life mommy and actress who worked at a TV station this wouldn’t have been so difficult to handle.

By the way, I hope all the people who are outraged about this actually contribute to their local PBS stations.