Wonder if the writer got any royalties for any of those subsequent versions? Even the Sesame Street theme bares some resemblance.
Oh wow, that brings back memories! When the first season first aired in Germany (early 70ies) in its - thankfully - undubbed original form, our English teacher relegated us to watching it saying it would improve our English - he was right. It was also a cultural ambassador, I thought that is how Americans live in big cities.
Much later they created a German version of it ("Sesamstraße"), it had none of the charm. "Samson" and "Tiffy" the muppets/puppets created by Jim Henson for specifically Germany were horrible. I missed Big Bird.
And for the record: Ernie & Bert were of course gay. How could anybody ever have been in doubt about that.