Elmo wants Katy Perry back on 'Sesame' Street.

The furry red Muppet appeared on 'Good Morning America' to address the recent controversy over Katy Perry's 'Sesame Street' guest appearance on the children's show. When her 'Hot 'N Cold' duet with Elmo was released on YouTube, some viewers complained about her cleavage and the segment was cut from the TV broadcast.

"We'll have another [play date]. Elmo loves Ms. Katy and we had a good time," Elmo said. "So we'll have another play date! Yes Miss Katy, come, come, come, come -- we'll have another play date!"

'Sesame Street' executive producer Carol Lynn Parente told 'GMA' that during filming, nobody thought Perry's dress was inappropriate. She also said that parents were "very split" over Perry's appearance.

Katy Perry won't be guesting on 'Sesame Street' after all. The singer's duet with Elmo, which was shown online, caused so much controversy about her cleavage that producers decided to pull the segment from the TV broadcast.

According to TMZ, some viewers objected that Perry was showing too much cleavage. Even though the song, 'Hot N Cold,' was cleaned up for an audience of children, and Perry's assets were contained by flesh-colored mesh, the segment was deemed too risqué and will live on in YouTube-only infamy.

Ahead of the premiere of its 41st (!) season, 'Sesame Street' is trying to be relevant to current popular culture. This season the puppets will even tackle a spoof of HBO's gore-fest, 'True Blood.

Lois Lane, meet your mom, Teri Hatcher! That's right, Hatcher, the star of 'Desperate Housewives' and former Lois Lane on 'Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,' will appear on 'Smallville' as Ella, Lois' (Erica Durance) mother.

'Smallville' lore has established Lois' mom as dead, and that won't change. According to The Ausiello Files, Hatcher's Ella will appear in old videos Lois finds. Quite the casting coup for the final season of 'Smallville.'

In other casting news ...

• Jorge Garcia, Hurley on 'Lost,' has signed on to guest star in an episode of ABC's midseason comedy 'Mr. Sunshine.' Garcia will appear in the pilot episode as an employee of the San Diego arena Matthew Perry's character manages. [Ausiello Files]

• Oprah Winfrey will appear on the season premiere of 'Sesame Street' ... sort of. The daytime queen will lend her voice to an animated skit called 'The O Show.' The letter O will be the host of its own talk show. Guests include Otto the Orangutan and Ophelia the Octopus. [TV Guide]

• Emmanuelle Chriqui has joined the cast of Showtime's 'The Borgias.' Better known as Sloan on 'Entourage,' Chriqui will appear in three episodes of the period drama as Sancia, a Neapolitan princess who marries the Pope's youngest son. [TV Guide]

Katy Petty's recent cameo on Sesame Street, in which she sings a spoof of her hit "Hot and Cold" with Elmo, earned the singer the label of 'Pinhead' on "The O'Reilly Factor" (weekdays, 8 PM ET on Fox News).

O'Reilly played the clip of Perry, in a low-cut dress, dancing around the set of the beloved kid's show.

"I think Kermit almost had a heart attack," O'Reilly said, referring to how Perry chose to display her two most famous assets. He added that "some folks had a little problem with the outfit."

Every year, the Academy of Television Arts and Science hands out hundreds of Emmys in categories that cover every inch of TV minutiae except "Best use of eyebrows by a cable newscaster" and "Best catering." One major category of meta-TV awesomeness, however, has been unjustly ignored by the Academy: shows within shows.

These fictional blocks of television programming creep up in a variety of situations -- a character may work as a TV personality in the narrative, or we may just see characters watching the tube while they're chilling on couch. They may fill up just 30 seconds of screen time, but shows within shows have to be flawless in order to drive the story and serve their often-comedic purposes. So here's our attempt to recognize the best TV shows within TV shows.

May I have the envelope, please?

Children's television is different than it was four decades ago. Instead of only a few hours of programming a day, children now have the option of watching their favorite shows 24 hours a day, seven days a week through a variety of kids' only networks as well as On Demand video services.

With so many choices, it's amazing that older shows, like the long-running 'Sesame Street,' can still draw the attention of little folks. Yet, the four-decade-old program is still going strong -- so strong, in fact, that the show has garnered its highest ratings in years.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, 'Sesame Street' has reported a 60 percent increase in viewership, with a double-digit increase among 3-4 year olds from last year. The show is averaging a 3.5 rating for its core demo of 2-5 year olds, compared to last year's 2.2 rating. According to Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organization behind the show, these are the best ratings the show has earned since 2007.

Warning: Small children may want to avert their eyes. During a teaser for upcoming segments with Betty White and Sesame Street character Elmo on 'Today' (weekdays, 7AM ET on NBC), White and the three-and-a-half-year-old monster kiss several times, once directly on the lips.

At the end of the teaser, Matt Lauer mentions switching to the news desk before things between the two "get out of control." But, never fear, it all seems in harmless fun.

If you thought the music videos of Lady Gaga were a mine-field of mind-f#*$ery, then you haven't seen them...on 'Sesame Street'.

Someone out there with a computer, a backlog of 'Sesame Street' tapes and way too much time on his hands mixed the rhythmic tones of Lady Gaga's "Telephone" with the Yip-Yips aliens from the popular children's show. You might want to put down some newspaper before you watch it or the impact of your brain blowing might ruin your carpet.

Jon Stewart did his best Glenn Beck impersonation on last night's episode of 'The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.'

In the clip, Stewart mocks the conservative pundit's lively persona with a hilarious breakdown of the term "conservative libertarian," which sheds some interesting light on Bert from 'Sesame Street,' among other things.

But don't take our word for it. Watch the clip after the jump.

I didn't think it was possible for Elmo from 'Sesame Street' to sound more ridiculous than he already does, but that's just because no one thought to put his high-pitched boyish tome to "auto tune"... until now.

The red-haired one appeared on a recent episode of 'The Wendy Williams Show' and performed her techno pop theme song complete with a set of backup dancers and an auto-tune machine that could make T-Pain proud. Mark my words: the two are already working on a duets album as we speak.



[via Buzzfeed]

There are few signs in this crazy business that you have become an indelible and beloved member of the pop culture lexicon than getting a cameo appearance on an episode of Sesame Street. Case in point: Gallagher, O.J. Simpson and Kanye West have yet to appear on an episode of Sesame Street.

Well, would you want West teaching your kids the difference between "near" and "far," things that are yellow and why George Bush hates black people?

Some upcoming episodes of the long running PBS kids' show will include appearances by Christina Applegate on Jan. 25, Hugh Jackman on Jan. 27, Debi Mazar and Sarah Jessica Parker on Feb. 16 and Paul Rudd and Eva Longoria-Parker on Feb. 18.

Since 2001, there has not been a video game based on the characters in Sesame Street. This is about to change as the Children's Television Workshop has licensed Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to create games based on the franchise.

This is how my sick mind works. I'm envisioning "Call of Duty: Sesame Street" in which our beloved muppet characters have been stricken with a zombie plague and must be destroyed by a military platoon. The Count, being already undead, remains unaffected.

It's been weeks now, and still, President Barack Obama has had nothing to say about two of the greatest threats to American security.

We're speaking, of course, about Snooki and The Situation, from MTV's new series 'Jersey Shore.' Alas, according to First Lady Michelle Obama, it's a show the First Family does not watch. "I've heard about it," Mrs Obama tells People, in an interview all about the Obamas' TV viewing preferences. "Not seen it."

PBS is getting in on the ratings game.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the network has announced that it will be signing up with Nielsen Ratings, providing a weekly -- but not daily -- outlook on its programs. This will be a first for the network, which launched back in 1970.