Katy Perry 'Sesame Street' Skit Didn't Faze Show's Head Writer

These days, it's Katy Perry's impending wedding to Russell Brand that's creating all the buzz, but there was a time — like, a month ago — when it seemed that the only thing people wanted to talk about regarding the pop starlet was her appearance on "Sesame Street," and why it was "inappropriate" for the show's young viewers.

The skit — in which Perry sang a version of "Hot N Cold" with Elmo while wearing an outfit some parents deemed to be too revealing — was subsequently canned by the folks behind the children's program, and in the days following their decision, Brand (and Elmo) weighed in with their two cents, and Perry lampooned the situation during her September 25 appearance on "Saturday Night Live".

And then, well, everyone pretty much moved on. But that doesn't mean that some of the people involved in the "Sesame Street" sketch aren't still mystified by the controversy. In a new interview with New York magazine's Vulture blog, "Sesame Street" head writer Joseph Mazzarino says he never expected Perry's appearance to cause the commotion it did, because, as he sees it, there was really nothing wrong with it in the first place.

"I was there, and she had this mesh thing on top of it and I didn't even notice. I didn't think anything of it, and I'm pretty sensitive to things my daughter sees and it didn't even strike me as anything," explains Mazzarino. "My daughter was there on set with us and she thought [Perry] looked like a 'Barbie' doll, she thought she was beautiful and she loved to watch her. Not to say I don't see other people's point of view — I get it — but it didn't hit me at first, at all."

Mazzarino also says that it was "Sesame Street" that first approached Perry with the idea for the sketch — which was shot in Los Angeles — and suggests that the entire controversy likely would have been averted had filming not taken place where it did.

"I think we reached out to Katy and said we'd love to do something with her, and when we did, our writer Melinda Ward said, 'I'd love to do 'Hot N Cold.' I said, 'Great,' and she wrote a parody of it," Mazzarino recalls. "In terms of costumes, if it had been shot in New York, we would have done it different and costumed her. We didn't have a costume department out there [in Los Angeles], and that's one of the reasons that happened."