ruining my childhood, one wikipedia entry at a time

Did you guys know that for the first 14 years of Sesame Street, Snuffleupagus was Big Bird's imaginary friend? Big Bird was always talking about Snuffy to his human friends, but they couldn't see Snuffy and dismissed his existence despite Big Bird's protests. The reason to reveal him?

"In an interview on a Canadian telethon that was hosted by Bob McGrath, Snuffy's performer, Martin P. Robinson, revealed that Snuffy was finally introduced to the main human cast mainly due to a string of high profile and sometimes graphic stories of pedophilia and sexual abuse of children that had been aired on shows such as 60 Minutes and 20/20. The writers felt that by having the adults refuse to believe Big Bird despite the fact that he was telling the truth, they were scaring children into thinking that their parents would not believe them if they had been sexually abused and that they would just be better off remaining silent."