Remembering the Fall of the Wall

There’s been a lot of talk today about the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

I remember watching my rock Tom Brokaw bring it into my living room. I was only in high school, but I still knew what an awesome moment it truly was.

But when I think of the wall’s collapse, my thoughts don’t immediately go to Tom Brokaw. My first thought is of a cartoon—“Alvin & the Chipmunks.”

In an episode called “The Wall” which premiered nine months before the wall’s collapse, Alvin, Simon and Theodore were invited to play at the wall. But the boys got themselves into trouble and ended up on the East German side. Just when they thought they were going to be severely punished for playing rock and roll, they discovered that the East Germans were actually fans. And The Chipmunks’ music actually helped the wall collapse.

You can see their song here. What you won’t see is the end of the episode when it was revealed that Alvin was dreaming. As he looks down on the wall from his plane window he says “It was only a dream. But it doesn’t have to be.”

I know it sounds corny, but to me it was pretty heady stuff for a Saturday morning cartoon. And even after over 20 years, I still remember most of that song.

Thank goodness for YouTube, which allows us to enjoy it now…