Bert and Ernie are a ‘Loving Couple’ Says ‘Sesame Street’ Writer

Sesame Street fans have long wondered about the relationship status of Bert and Ernie, but it’s never been confirmed by anyone connected to the TV series…until now. A former Sesame Street writer, Mark Saltzman, calls the duo a “loving couple”.

Saltzman said, “I remember one time that a column from The San Francisco Chronicle, a preschooler in the city turned to mom and asked ‘are Bert & Ernie lovers?’ And that got passed around, and everyone had their chuckle and went back to it. And I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert & Ernie, they were. I didn’t have any other way to contextualize them. The other thing was, more than one person referred to Arnie [Saltzman’s partner at the time] & I as “Bert & Ernie.”

Saltzman also talked about how his own same-sex relationship became a model for the two puppets. He said, “And Arnie as a film editor—if you thought of Bert with a job in the world, wouldn’t that be perfect? Bert with his paper clips and organization? And I was the jokester. So it was the Bert & Ernie relationship, and I was already with Arnie when I came to Sesame Street. So I don’t think I’d know how else to write them, but as a loving couple. I wrote sketches … Arnie’s OCD would create friction with how chaotic I was. And that’s the Bert & Ernie dynamic.”

But not everyone sees it that way. Sesame Workshop, which produces the show, released a statement saying Bert and Ernie “do not have a sexual orientation.” Frank Oz, film director and one of Sesame Street‘s original puppeteers, weighed in on Twitter:

Other people, however, were happy about the development and offered their thoughts.

Looks like that question has been settled…sort of.

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