I have now put up with about five years of entertainment aimed at kids, and I am ready to share my opinions.
Sesame Street. Worthwhile if only for the famous adult that invariably shows up (viz Margaret Cho, above). When REM performed Furry Happy Monsters, with a totally Kate-Peirson muppet, it was better than the original song.
Not that it can't be irritating until you get used to it. The gaping jaw that makes all the muppets look like mouth-breathers. Elmo and his weird scratchy voice. Zoe and her weird scratchy voice. Something of a funny-voice aficionado myself, I have noticed that ever since Jim Henson died, the muppeteers seem to prefer the elderly-sounding funny voices to the nasal (Bert), compressed (Kermit), gutteral (Cookie Monster) or simply kooky (Grover) voices.
The animations and counting shorts are still well-done, and there's a focus on kids doing things by themselves (as in, with no visible adult), which I think is more interesting for the kids who are watching.
Best of all, Sesame Street is not Barney. But now that our schedule has precluded it, I am not all that broken-up. That new muppet, Abby Cadabby, with her livid freckles and flat blue eyes, ick: that one I'm not sure I could get used to.
I'm now 43, but 20 years ago, as a burgeoning young professional in DC, I was completely freaked by the plethora of young women around me who bonded over their common interest in imitating Grover. I was just a few years older, but since Sesame St. debuted when I was already reading, etc., I didn't watch. But for these gals just 2-3 years younger, Sesame St. was obviously a seminal cultural benchmark. To be frank, however, I sense that this subset of young womanhood may have also gotton all gooey over Disney movies, such as The Little Mermaid, in their adult years...whereas I was more apt to be found in a small theater with my artist boyfriend watching a black & white Jim Jarmusch movie starring Tom Waits or John Lurie or some such. I didn't see The Little Mermaid until I borrowed the VHS from my niece during my 5-year old's toddler years. Cute, but gooey. I did like those evil prehistoric dolphin/shark hench-creatures, though.
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