(ahem) On a lighter note, when I read the beginnings of this thread a couple of days ago, I remembered checking some of these videos out of my library when my urchins were just we'uns. The series, by the way, is called "Who's Afraid of Opera?" I remembered Dame Joan Sutherland, but not the puppets, so I looked and, sure enough, the library still owns some of the videos - including the one with Faust. So I reserved them (they haven't come in yet for me, so I can't report on the quality of the productions). I mentioned to my (now 19 year old) son that I was sending for the tapes, and why, and he happily exclaimed, "Oh, I remember those! Since it was called 'Who's Afraid of Opera' I thought that the puppets were afraid of opera, and the point of the show was to reassure the puppets! I always wondered why a bunch of puppets would be afraid of opera..."
(We pause now while I nearly busted a gut laughing) Time and again I see kids picking up anything but the intended lesson from this sort of thing. I love it.