Saltzman, who wrote for 'Sesame Street' from 1981 until 1990, said the duo's relationship was modeled after his own life with film editor Arnold Glassman, who was Saltzman's partner until Glassman's death in 2003. Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets™ do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation,” the workshop said in a statement to NBC News. The former Sesame Street writer reignited the are they or aren’t they debate this week causing fellow street residents to speak out on the issue. They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves. September 19th, 2018 Mark Saltzman can tell you how to get to Sesame Street, and he can also let you know that Bert and Ernie are a gay couple. “As we have always said, Bert and Ernie are best friends. Still, if Bert's trip goes well, this prank is just free drugs. Either way, that trickster, Ernie, was in for a beating whenever Bert finally came down. However, Sesame Workshop, which produces the show, denies the pair are together, saying they have no sexual orientation but are best friends. At the same time, every trip is different, so this could either turn into an amazing day for Bert, or Ernie could come back to his high-strung pal curled up in the fetal position while shrieking. The other thing was, more than one person referred to Arnie and I as 'Bert and Ernie.'' 'I didn’t have any other way to contextualize them. 'I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert and Ernie, they were,' Saltzman told Queerty.
