40 years ago, a show premiered on PBS that essentially gave birth to the concept of television for children. "Sesame Street" sought to cram a handful of lessons about numbers, words, sharing and tolerance by depicting a slightly fantasized life for a group of kids living in an inner-city setting. Using humor, animation and music, "Sesame Street" proved that television could be used as an educational tool and still hold the attention of hyperactive kids. (It could easily be argued that no show has ever done it better.)

"Sesame Street" also provided the leg up that Jim Henson needed that turned the Muppets into household names. Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch and a cast of dozens more not only became well-known to children but also entered into the greater pop culture lexicon. The remarkable thing about the Muppets remains their total integration into the normal human world (like Cookie Monster appearing as a guest on "The Martha Stewart Show" or Lady Gaga bringing Kermit the Frog as her date to the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards).

The show has also become a conduit for other branches of pop culture. (They say you haven't really made it as a star until you're a guest voice on "The Simpsons," but the "Sesame Street" cameo is also worth a fortune in cultural caché.) Plenty of musical acts have appeared next to Big Bird, some of whom seemed to come from way outside of the box: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Backstreet Boys, Beyoncé, R.E.M., Gene Simmons, Ice-T and the late Michael Jackson have all appeared on the show in some form or another. The best musical cameo of the past few seasons was when Feist appeared to sing a slightly tweaked version of her hit "1234" (sample lyric: "One, two, three, four/ Penguins who were by the door"). Really, it's remarkable that the original song wasn't written expressly for the show.

· The upcoming 39th season of "Sesame Street" will rock with a drop-in from Feist. The Canadian songstress will sing "Songs" with Elmo on August 11, joining a roster of guests that also includes Jack Black, Jessica Alba, David Beckham, Heidi Klum, Neil Patrick Harris and Jenny McCarthy.

· First he brushed the dirt off his shoulder in homage to Jigga. Now presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has given a shout-out to Weezy at a town-hall meeting in Powder Springs, Georgia. Obama delivered a speech about high school dropout rates and told teens that they were better off staying in school than wishing for NBA or hip-hop glory. "You are probably not that good a rapper. Maybe you are the next Lil Wayne, but probably not, in which case you need to stay in school," he said.

· It will probably take another month for Michigan authorities to determine what caused the deaths of a 33-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man at last weekend's inaugural Rothbury Festival, which featured sets from Snoop Dogg, Dave Matthews and John Mayer. Initial autopsies showed no sign of foul play.

· The Smashing Pumpkins are celebrating their upcoming 20th anniversary by playing a series of mostly smaller venues in August, with the promise of "unique sets and songs." The only date announced so far is an August 9 gig in Hammond, Indiana. In November, the band will play anniversary shows in New York, Los Angeles and their hometown of Chicago.

· Ludacris has reportedly signed a multimillion-dollar deal with AT&T to be their spokesperson and appear in commercials beginning next month. Somewhere, Bill O'Reilly is changing phone companies.

· Amnesty International is launching a campaign called the Small Places Tour in which bands will play hundreds of shows across the globe to help raise money and spread the word about global human rights issues on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The spokesmen for the tour are U2's the Edge and Peter Gabriel, and acts are encouraged to sign up on MySpace for a single gig or a full-blown tour.

Ok, ok, ok...I'm tempted to make some half-hearted joke about LL Cool J and his penchant for smacking his lips (for serious, that dude is constantly licking, puckering, and smacking his lips - pause - during interviews) and the way it makes him look like a Muppet but I just don't have it in me today. Sorry.

But look! LL Cool J on "Sesame Street"! I still get a kick out of seeing rappers do things like this. And so does super-lovely MTV News super-producer, Vanessa White Wolf, who was on the set of the children's show yesterday getting a sneak peek at LL's stint as host. She writes:

Well, it happened. I’ve finally learned just how to get to "Sesame Street." Turns out you gotta go to Queens. Yesterday our crew (Dee, Brendan, Kara, myself) headed to Kaufman Astoria Studios to shoot the one and only LL Cool J while he filmed a segment for “Sesame Street.”

Oh, Todd.

Another picture, after the jump.

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