Elmo, John Mayer, and Queen Latifah look to help families of soldiers on PBS
COMING HOME: MILITARY FAMILIES COPE WITH CHANGE Wednesday night at 8, PBS
Elmo and some of his "Sesame Street" pals move to prime time Wednesday night with a special to help children understand that sometimes, when Daddy becomes a soldier, Daddy can come home hurt.
Presumably that's also true for Mommy if Mommy is a soldier, but all the wounded vets who join Queen Latifah for this serious but ultimately hopeful show Wednesday night happen to be men.
Put together by "Sesame Street" and David Letterman's production company, "Coming Home" is part of a wider campaign called "Talk, Listen, Connect." As the name suggests, it urges everyone to be open and honest about how they're affected by a life-changing injury in the family.
To punctuate the point, John Mayer does an acoustic performance of the theme song toward the end of Wednesday night's program.
"Coming Home" is similar to the Linda Ellerbee specials that break down complex, grownup issues into simple terms, with a sprinkling of actual kids and a general tone of reassurance.
The show features several soldiers who suffered severe injuries in Iraq and have returned to their families. Now they are adjusting to the new rules of their lives.
The most reassuring part is that they don't feel the important things in their lives have changed. They may not be able to play wide receiver in the family pickup football game, but once they are confident they can still play with their kids, or simply pick them up and walk them across the yard, the rest seems easier to live with.
Accordingly, the most heartwarming sentence in "Coming Home" is spoken by a young girl who, when asked about her father, says, "He's the same Daddy," even though he now buckles on his leg in the morning.
Another vet talks about how he had hoped to regain function in a wounded hand. But it isn't happening, so he's going to have it amputated and replaced with an artificial model. He explains how he prepared his children for this, a process that doesn't happen with one conversation.
The tougher injuries, of course, aren't the ones that take away a limb. They're the ones that affect Daddy's behavior and demeanor, so he yells when he doesn't mean to, or you can't always tell what he's going to do next.
This special includes one vet in that situation who talks about the long path he's slowly taking to overcome that frustrating affliction.
"Coming Home" isn't all upbeat and doesn't promise all happy endings. But it does assure its audience that if they are patient and understanding, the most important pieces can usually be put back together.
dhinckley@nydailynews.com
Monday, April 6, 2009
Elmo, John Mayer, and Queen Latifah look to help families of soldiers on PBS
