'' is an
American educational
Children's Television Series for
Preschoolers and is a pioneer of the contemporary educational television standard, combining both
Education And Entertainment . ''Sesame Street'' is well known for its
Muppet characters, created by the
Puppeteer Jim Henson . As of 2007, 4,146 episodes of the showThe first season included 130 episodes, but season 36 had only 25. have been produced in 38 seasons. ''Sesame Street'' is one of the
Longest-running U.S. Television Shows in
History .
''Sesame Street'' is produced in the United States by non-profit organization
Sesame Workshop , formerly known as the
Children's Television Workshop (CTW), founded by
Joan Ganz Cooney and
Ralph Rogers . It premiered on
November 10 ,
1969 , on the
National Educational Television network, and later that year it was moved to NET's replacement, the
Public Broadcasting Service .
As a result of its positive influence, ''Sesame Street'' is one of the most highly regarded educational shows for children in the world.Karen Barss ''et al.'', "
Enhancing Education: A Children's Producer's Guide: Sesame Street: Case Study ", Corporation for Public Broadcasting (accessed
2006 . millions more have watched around the world, as have their parents.
Sesame Street uses a combination of
Puppet s, animation, and live actors to teach young children letter and word recognition, mathematics (numbers, addition and subtraction), as well as geometric forms, and classification. Since the show's inception, other instructional goals have been basic life skills, such as how to cross the street safely, proper hygiene, healthy eating habits, and social skills.
The show displays a subtle sense of humour that has appealed to older viewers since it first premiered; this was devised as a means to encourage parents and older siblings to watch the series with younger children, thus becoming involved in the learning process, rather than having ''Sesame Street'' act as a babysitter. A number of parodies of popular culture appear, especially ones aimed at the
Public Broadcasting Service , the network that broadcasts the show. For example, the recurring segment
Monsterpiece Theatre once ran a sketch called "Me Claudius". Children viewing the show might enjoy watching
Cookie Monster and
The Muppets , while adults watching the same sequence may enjoy the spoof of the ''
Masterpiece Theatre '' showing of ''
I, Claudius '' on PBS.
]]
Several of the character names used on the program are puns or cultural references aimed at a slightly older audience, including Flo Bear (
2006 . Annan was actually on his way to Norway to accept the 2001
Nobel Peace Prize . By making a show that not only educates and entertains kids, but also keeps parents entertained and involved in the educational process, the producers hope to inspire discussion about the concepts on the show.
- --- found that 81% of kids under the age of six own a ''Sesame Street'' toy or game, and 87% own a book based on the series.''Sesame Street Live'' Press Kit, Minneapolis MN: Vee Corporation, 2004.
,
Big Bird ,
Zoe (in front of Big Bird),
Grover ,
Bert ,
Ernie ,
Cookie Monster (behind Ernie).]]
- --- Grammy Awards, most recently for 2001 release ''Elmo and the Orchestra''.
See Also: History of Sesame Street
The show's format called for the humans to be intermixed with the segments of animation, live-action shorts and
Muppet s. These segments were created to be like commercials—quick, catchy and memorable—and made the learning experience much more like fun. The format became a model for what is known today as
Edutainment -based programming.
CTW aired the program for test groups to determine if the revolutionary new format was likely to succeed. Results showed that test watchers were entranced when the ad-like segments aired, especially those with the jovial puppets, but were remarkably less interested in the street scenes. Psychologists warned CTW against a mixture of fantasy and reality elements, but producers soon decided to mix the elements. A simple dose of cartoon-like characters lets the humans deliver messages without causing viewers to lose interest.David Borgenicht, ''
Sesame Street Unpaved ''. Hyperion, 1998.
''Sesame Street'', along with several other
Sesame Workshop -produced shows (such as ''
The Electric Company '', which was produced for six seasons, when Sesame Workshop was still known as CTW) were all taped in
New York City . Originally they were shot at the
Teletape Studios at 81st and Broadway in Manhattan, but to make room for the incoming production of "Search For Tomorrow", Sesame Street moved first to another Manhattan studio that was formerly WNET's "Dick Cavett" studio at 9th Ave. and 55th St in 1982. With the bankruptcy of Teletape's parent company Reeves Entertainment in 1986, operation of "Sesame Street"'s studio was taken over by Unitel Video NY in that year. In 1992, the production moved again to
Kaufman Astoria Studios in neighboring
Queens where it is to this day.
The brownstone architecture of ''Sesame Street'', a fictional
Neighborhood in
New York City , as well as the concept of neighbors from different backgrounds living in the same area and sharing their life experiences, was loosely based on Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn—where several of the founding producers were living at the time.
The show is broadcast worldwide; in addition to the U.S. version, many countries have locally-produced versions adapted to local needs, some with their own characters, and in a variety of different languages. In
Canada , beginning in 1970, 15-minute shows called ''Canada's Sesame Street'' were broadcast, and by 1972 an edited version of the one-hour American program was airing but with specially filmed Canadian segments, which featured the
French Language . In 1995 the American version was replaced by a half-hour long all-Canadian version of the series entitled ''
Sesame Park ''. Since the original ''Sesame Street'' was still accessible to Canadians, and more familiar, the format change didn't find acceptance with audiences and was taken off the air in 2002. Broadcasts in
New Zealand and
Australia began in 1971.
In the
United Kingdom its introduction was controversial. The
ITV network company
London Weekend Television first showed the series in the
London region in the early
1970s to much criticism (generally regarding its ''Americanism''). In time the show was subsequently broadcast by other
ITV regions in the early 1980s, after which it moved to
Channel 4 , where it was a lunch-time fixture for many years through to the early 2000s. Later broadcasts of the show featured the hour-long episodes in a format of two half-hour episodes. 120 countries have aired the show, many of which partnered with Sesame Workshop to create local versions.
In recent years ''Sesame Street'' has made what area educators consider to be critical advances in its international versions. In the late 1990s versions appeared in
China and
Russia as these countries shifted away from communism. There is also a joint
Israel i-
Palestinian -
Jordan ian project, called ''Sesame Stories'', which was created with the goal of promoting greater cultural understanding.
The show has also spawned the spin-off series ''
Play With Me Sesame '',
ESL program ''
Sesame English '', the "classics" show ''
Sesame Street Unpaved '', and the segment-only series ''
Open Sesame ''. ''
Elmo's World '' and ''
Global Grover '', both of which are segments of ''Sesame Street'', have been distributed as individual series. Jennifer Monier-Williams, Vice President, Worldwide Television Distribution at Sesame Workshop commented "The expansion of the ''Sesame'' brand through wonderfully interactive shows like ''Play With Me Sesame'' and ''Elmo's World'' give children around the globe new ways to experience fun and learning in the way Sesame does it best.""
Sesame Workshop expands opportunities for kids to play with their ''Sesame Street'' friends ", Sesame Workshop press release, 21 August 2006.
has criticized PBS for allowing
McDonald's and
Laser Quest as sponsors, as they can be linked to
Childhood Obesity and
Violence , respectively. In general he dislikes corporate sponsorships, as "'Sesame Street' is not Main Street." He had appeared on the show in the 1988 special ''
The Sesame Street Special '', with the character Bob, singing "
People In Your Neighborhood ".]]
Funding for season 37 of ''Sesame Street'' is provided by a
Ready To Learn grant in partnership with the
No Child Left Behind Act , the
McDonald's Corporation ,
Beaches Family Resorts ,
Pampers and EverydayKidz.com from
Astra Zeneca . Major funding for ''Sesame Street'' is provided by
The Corporation For Public Broadcasting (did not fund from 1972–1992, or from 1998–2000) and by contributions to PBS stations from "
Viewers Like You ." Previous donors of funding for ''Sesame Street'' included
Chuck E. Cheese's , the
Ford Foundation ,
Discovery Zone ,
AOL (2002),
U.S. Department Of Education , and the
Carnegie Corporation Of New York .
Occasionally, local businesses and organizations fund local telecasts of ''Sesame Street'' on PBS stations throughout the U.S. For example, the
W. M. Keck Foundation underwrites the broadcast of Sesame Street on
KCET in Los Angeles.
Within the context of the show, and before the actual underwriting announcements, it is announced that "Sesame Street is brought to you by" the letters and numbers of the day, as though they too were sponsors.
As a result of its success in revolutionizing the standards of children's television, ''Sesame Street'' inadvertently diminished its own audience share. According to PBS Research, the show went from a 2.0 average on
Nielsen Media Research 's "people meters" in 1995–1996 to a 1.3 average in 2000–2001. Even with this decrease, ''Sesame Street'''s viewership in an average week came from roughly 5.6 million households with 7.5 million viewers. This placed ''Sesame'' at 8th place in the overall kids' charts, as of 2002. The program fares better among mothers age 18–49 who had children under the age of 3, taking second place.
A format change helped the show's ratings, boosting them up 31% in February 2002 among children age 2–5, in comparison to its ratings in 2001. As of 2005, ''Sesame Street'' and three other PBS shows are in the top 10 shows for children ages 2 to 5.
1 As of season 36 in 2005, there were 8 million viewers daily.
Sesame Workshop: Sesame Street Season 37 Press Kit
]]
,
Elmo ,
Count Von Count ,
Oscar The Grouch ,
Kermit The Frog , Biff, and
Telly Monster ]]
See Also: List of Sesame Street characters
''Sesame Street'' is known for its
Multicultural element and is inclusive in its casting, incorporating roles for disabled people, young people, senior citizens, Hispanic actors, Black actors, and others. While some of the puppets look like people, others are animal or "monster" puppets of different sizes and colors. This encourages children to believe that people come in all different shapes, sizes, and colors, and that no particular physical "type" is any better than another. Jim Henson commented that "The only kids who can identify along racial lines with the Muppets have to be either green or orange."Phylis Feinstein, ''All About Sesame Street''. 1970."
In harmony with its multiculturalist perspective, the show pioneered the idea of occasionally inserting very basic Spanish words and phrases to help young children become acquainted with the concept of a foreign language, doing so almost three decades before
Dora The Explorer made her debut on
Nickelodeon . Perhaps in response to the popularity of Dora, the recently revamped format gives
Rosita , the bilingual muppet who "emigrated" in 1993 from the Mexican version of the show, more time in front of viewers, and also introduced the more formalized "Spanish Word of the Day" in every episode.
Each of the puppet characters has been designed to represent a specific stage or element of early childhood, and the scripts are written so that the character reflects the development level of children of that age. This helps the show address not only the learning objectives of various age groups, but also the concerns, fears, and interests of children of different age levels.
Big Bird is an 8-foot 2-inch-tall yellow bird who lives in a large nest on an abandoned lot which is located in 123 Sesame Street's garbage heap. Big Bird is often visited by his friend
Aloysius Snuffleupagus , who is a very large, brown woolly elephant-like creature and is known more popularly by his nickname "Snuffy". Various other Snuffleupaguses have appeared on the show from time to time, most notably Snuffy's little sister Alice and his unnamed mother. Initially, Snuffy showed up when no one but Big Bird was around, leaving the rest of the neighborhood to think he was imaginary. In the mid-1980s, however, Snuffy was revealed to be "real" and incorporated into the regular cast of the show.
Oscar The Grouch lives with his pet worm
Slimey and his pet elephant
Fluffy in a garbage can in the heap.
Bert And Ernie , two of the most-recognized Muppets, are roommates who share the basement apartment of 123 Sesame Street, and regularly engage in comic routines which showcase their odd-couple personalities. Ernie's flowerbox was once a hotspot for
Twiddlebugs , a colorful family of insects.
The Bear Family , which is identified as the bears of ''
Goldilocks And The Three Bears '', resides in ''Sesame Street''. This family, headed by
Papa Bear and
Mama Bear , welcomed their second child
Curly Bear , and
Baby Bear became a good friend of the monsters
Telly and
Zoe , Mexico-born
Rosita , and the furry, red preschooler
Elmo . Elmo has his own segment near the end of each episode, in which viewers explore topics in ''
Elmo's World ''. New to ''Sesame Street'' is
Abby Cadabby , a
Fairy -in-training who attends Storybook Community School with Baby Bear.
Grover 's regular segment, ''
Global Grover '', follows the self-described "cute, furry monster" around the world as he explores local cultures and traditions. Grover has had several notable roles over the years, often as a waiter or a superhero (
Super Grover ).
Cookie Monster fights with his conscience daily during
Letter Of The Day , as he tries to control his urges to eat the letters, shown as icing on cookies.
Prairie Dawn often attempts to help Cookie Monster refrain from eating the letters, but never succeeds and always leaves frazzled.
Count Von Count has fewer problems during the
Number Of The Day segment, where he indulges in counting until the mystery number is revealed by his pipe organ.
Humphrey And Ingrid are a married couple who have a baby named
Natasha , and they are the proprietors of the hotel known as ''
The Furry Arms '', which is located near the Sesame Street Subway station. The hotel's bellhop,
Benny Rabbit , tends to be easily irritated, but begrudgingly helps out. The
Two-Headed Monster sounded out words coming together, and the
Yip-Yip aliens discovered telephones and typewriters. For two seasons,
Googel ,
Narf ,
Mel and
Phoebe hung out in the ''
Monster's Clubhouse ''.
Kermit The Frog hosted the segment ''
Sesame Street News Flash ''. In other segments, Kermit would play
Straight Man to the wacky antics of other Muppets.
Incidental characters include television personality
Guy Smiley , construction workers
Sully And Biff , the large
Herry Monster (who does not know his own strength), and
The Big Bad Wolf , who is not a terror to the Street.
Forgetful Jones , a cowboy with a short-term memory disorder, rode his trusty Buster the Horse with his girlfriend Clementine, and
Rodeo Rosie was an early cowgirl. The
Amazing Mumford tries his hardest to amaze with his magic, but his tricks always end up backfiring.
See Also: Muppets
, while Luis is the longest running
2006 .
Here Bob (
See Also: Human characters on Sesame Street
A slate of human regulars pull the zaniness of the Muppets back to reality. They were not always meant to serve this purpose. The show lost test viewers' attention during the Street Scenes, meaning Muppets needed to be added, to hide the fact it was educational.
Music teacher Bob has been on ''Sesame Street'' since its inception. He dated
Linda the local
New York Library librarian, who was the first regular deaf character on television. Linda owns
Barkley , a Muppet dog.
The Robinson Family are an African-American family that includes schoolteacher Gordon, nurse Susan, and adopted son Miles. The Puerto Rican Rodriguez Family include Maria and Luis, who ran the Fix-It Shop, which was turned into the Mail-It Shop; Maria gave birth to daughter Gabby in 1986, and her
Pregnancy was covered on the show.
General store and restaurant operator
Harold Hooper , played by actor
Will Lee , was a mainstay at
Mr. Hooper's Store . When Lee died in 1982, the producers opted to help their young viewers deal with the death of someone they loved rather than cast a new actor in the role, and the character's death was discussed in a landmark 1983 episode.While Mr. Hooper's death is considered by most as a landmark in children's television, this wasn't the first death in a children's program. Upon the 1973 death of
George Woodbridge , who played the titular character in the British series ''
Inigo Pipkin '', the third season of the show dealt with the character's passing. The series was renamed ''Pipkins'', to reflect the change in cast. Afterwards, Hooper's apprentice David took over, followed by later owners Gina, Mr. Handford, and Alan. Gina stopped running the store in the 1990s, to earn a PhD and became a veterinarian.
Famous Guest Stars ''Sesame Street'' even turned to relative star-wattage for its theme song, "(Can you tell me how to get, how to get to) Sesame Street". Harmonica legend
Toots Thielemans wrote the song in 1969, and played a harmonica solo in some versions of the sequence. and various children from New York schools and day-care centers are a constantly changing part of the cast, including children who would later become celebrities, like actor
Tyler James Williams , and rapper
GM Grimm .
Over the 37 seasons of ''Sesame Street'' hundreds, if not thousands, of people have worked on the show's cast and in their crew, producing Street scenes or segments, or working behind the scenes.
, in a knight's armour. The puppet, as well as most of the series cast, is displayed at the
CBC Museum .]]
Some countries have co-produced their own unique versions of ''Sesame Street'', in which the characters and segments represent their country's cultures. Other countries simply air a dubbed version of ''Sesame Street'', or a dubbed version of ''
Open Sesame ''. Among various other countries, Australia has and still does broadcast the American version on the ABC and the
UK had broadcast the American show, on
Channel 4 until 2001 when it was replaced with Henson production ''
The Hoobs ''.
Dubbed versions include ''Seesamtie'' in Finnish, ''Boneka Sesame'' in Indonesian, ''Sesam Opnist Þú'' in Icelandic, ''Sesamo Apriti'' in Italian, ''Sezame, otevři se'' in Czech, and Malay ''Taman Sesame''. In 2004, one Japanese network cancelled the dubbed American ''Sesame'', while another created a local version. In . Spanish program ''
La Cometa Blanca '' also includes segments from ''Sesame Street''.
Locally Produced Adaptations of ''Sesame Street'' include:
Note that dates solely refer to the year production on the series began.
See Also: List of characters from international versions of Sesame Street
It should also be noted that popular, long-running
British children's series ''
Rainbow '' was originally conceived as a British equivalent of ''Sesame Street'',
2 however it holds no official affiliation with Sesame Workshop.
, filmmaking of
William Wegman and his
Weimaraner dogs, Big Bird conducting the
Boston Pops , or simply Telly Monster playing a triangle.]]
''Sesame Street'' has operated with a rigorous research standard since its foundation, to ensure that programming addresses its viewers' needs. The Education and Research (E&R) department of Sesame Workshop is currently headed by
Rosemarie T. Truglio , Ph.D. and
Jeanette Betancourt , Ed. D. Truglio states that the level of interaction between E&R, Content, and Production is "
They are not creating anything without our knowledge, our guidance and our review. We are involved in content development across all media platforms."[http://www.sesameworkshop.org/press_kit/pdf/Q_&_A_Susan_and_Rosemarie.pdf Sesame Workshop question and answer page. This close-knit organizational structure has been an integral part of Sesame Workshop since it began.
Writers create plots for ''Sesame Street'' scenes and segments, and the content is reviewed by the E&R team, which has authority to reject a script and force rewrites if the content is not acceptable. When a script is factually correct, but includes gray areas that may not be comprehensible to children, the writers and E&R work together to tweak everything. "A balance between content and humor" is always pursued, according to Truglio.
In a national study of American mothers with children under age six, 64% responded that they strongly believe ''Sesame Street'' is a leader and innovator in educational methods.''Sesame Street Live'' Press Kit, Minneapolis MN: Vee Corporation, 2004.
Since 1998 Sesame Workshop has provided a great deal of content on its website
Sesame Workshop Parents and others such as
Random House .
Random House: Introduction to Sesame Beginnings The content is targeted at parents and children ranging in age from birth to school-age, and includes information on dozens of topics, such as appropriate parenting techniques, dealing with children's fears, development of literacy, and maintenance of good health.
Research is funded by government grants, corporate and private donations (including, recently, The Prudential Foundation for the Sesame Beginnings program), and the profits gained from the sale of Sesame Workshop merchandise.
In 2005, ''Sesame Street'' launched its
Healthy Habits For Life programming, to encourage young viewers to lead more active and nutritious lifestyles. A major catalyst for this was data published by the US
Centers For Disease Control regarding
Obesity in children.
Health content has existed on ''Sesame Street'' for years, but to a limited extent. In one instance press kits for a project were made available, news wires latched onto the story, and literally hundreds of newspapers reported that
Cookie Monster was "going on a diet". In actuality there was no change to Cookie Monster's character. The new season featured a new segment with rapper
Wyclef Jean singing the praises of fruits and vegetables, similar to segments in the 1990s which featured Cookie doing nearly the same.
According to people from Sesame Workshop,
The Workshop formed an Advisory Board consisting of experts such as
Woodie Kessel , M.D., M.P.H., the Assistant
Surgeon General Of The United States . This board examines the research of other organizations, and also conducts pilot studies to determine which areas of research should be expanded, based on social, ethnic and socio-economic sections of the population.
Characters Elmo and Rosita filmed
2006 ; Governors Mike Huckabee (R-AR), Frank Murkowski (R-AK), Felix Perez Camacho (R-GU), Dirk Kempthorne (R-ID), Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS), Kathleen Blanco (D-LA), Jennifer Granholm (D-MI), Kenny Guinn (R-NV), John Hoeven (R-ND), Ancibal Acevendo-Vila (D-PR), Bob Taft (R-OH), Don Carcieri (R-RI) with his wife, Sue Carcieri, Jon Huntsman (R-UT), Jim Douglas (R-VT) and Joe Manchin III (D-WV).
'' shows several of Sesame Street's muppet characters]]
''Sesame Street'' is known for its extensive merchandising, which includes many books, magazines, video/audio media, and toys. A percentage of the money from any Sesame Workshop product goes to help fund ''Sesame Street'' or its international co-productions.
Sesame Workshop: Sesame Street Season 37 Press Kit
Current licensors include
Fisher-Price ,
Nakajima USA ,
Build-A-Bear Workshop (Build-An-Elmo, Build-A-Cookie Monster, And Build-A-Big Bird),
Hasbro (
Sesame Street Monopoly ),
Wooly Willy ,
Betty Crocker (Elmo Fruit Snacks),
C&D Visionary (air freshners) and
Children's Apparel Network . Former licences include
Applause ,
Child Dimension ,
Gibson Greetings ,
Gorham Fine China ,
Ideal Toys ,
Milton Bradley Company ,
Nintendo ,
Palisades Toys ,
Questor ,
Radio Shack ,
Tyco , and the
Western Publishing Company .
Creative Wonders (a partnership between
ABC and
Electronic Arts ) produced Sesame Street software for the Macintosh, since at least 1995 and on the PC since 1996;
Atari produced ''Sesame Street'' games in 1983. Before going bankrupt,
Palisades Toys was to release a line of deluxe series action figures, for adults, as part of Sesame Workshop's push to expand into retro products for teens and adults.
Tickle Me Elmo was one of the fastest selling toys of the 1996 season. That product line was and still is one of the most successful products Mattel has ever launched. Both it and its most notable successor, TMX, have caused in-store fights. Elmo starred in a
Christmas Special that year, in which he wished every day of the year was Christmas.
3, accessed in EBSCOhost.
Its fiction books are published on five continents, primarily by
Random House in North America. Over 18 million ''Sesame Street'' books and magazines were purchased in 2005.
Sesame Workshop: Sesame Street Season 37 Press Kit The books often mention that children do not have to watch the show to benefit from its publications.
.]]
Live touring show ''
Sesame Street Live '' presents costumed actors and dancers as characters from the series, in original plots. In recent years, VEE has had four touring casts, each performing a unique multi-million dollar budget show. Each season, the tours reach 160 different cities across North America, reaching 2 million people annually. Since the first production of ''Sesame Street Live'' on
September 17 1980 , 48 million children and their parents have seen the show performed, across the world.''Sesame Street Live'' Press Kit, Minneapolis MN: Vee Corporation, 2004.
Langhorne, Pennsylvania, United States, is the long-time home to ''Sesame Street'' theme park
Sesame Place .
SeaWorld Orlando started a stage show called ''Elmo and the Bookaneers'' in 2007. Another theme park, ''
Parque Plaza Sésamo '', exists in
Monterrey ,
Mexico , and
Universal Studios Japan includes a three-dimensional movie based on the show.
The
Sesame Beginnings line, launched in mid-2005, consists of apparel, health and body, home, and seasonal products. The products in this line are designed to accentuate the natural interactivity between infants and their parents. Most of the line is exclusive to a family of Canadian retailers that includes
Loblaws ,
Fortinos , and
Zehrs .
Although ''Sesame Street'' characters occasionally endorse non-educational products, they rarely appear in their puppet form, to limit the suggestion to children that the characters are formally endorsing the product. The Muppets do appear in puppet form to endorse select causes. Big Bird has promoted safe seating practices and the wearing of seatbelts, for the
2002 . The characters of ''Sesame Street'' have a major presence in Washington. President
Bill Clinton 's 1997 inaugural guests included
Elmo . (
6, through EBSCOhost.)
''Barrio Sésamo'', ''Plaza Sésamo'', ''Sesamstraße'', ''Sesame English'' and ''Sesamstraat'' have all had merchandise of their local characters. ''Shalom Sesame'' videos and books have also been released.
In 2004, held the British rights to ''Sesame Street''. Its licensees included
Reed Books Children's Publishing for books. (
7)
Sesame Street's Web site was one of the first to include educational materials, for both parents and children. "There are downloadable games plus number- and alphabet-coloring pages for the children. Their parents can consult references covering everything from how to comb their baby's hair to how to play with their 4-year-old."
8, accessed through EBSCOhost. The Web site has been recommended by academic journals.
9, accessed through EBSCOhost. It receives over 1 million visitors daily.
Sesame Workshop: Sesame Street Season 37 Press Kit
'' scene with
Oscar (in garbage can) and
Big Bird at the 86th Street
New York City Subway station]]
A series of ''Sesame Street'' telefilms have featured the characters on day trips or in foreign countries. '''' (1983) saw the cast locked in the gallery overnight; Big Bird and Snuffy help a cursed boy pharaoh. NBC's ''
Big Bird In China '' (1983) followed Big Bird, Barkley, and their new friend Xiao Foo traveling through China to find Feng Huang, the
Phoenix bird. In ''
Big Bird In Japan '' (1988), the titular character gets lost. ''
Out To Lunch '' (1974) features the cast of ''Sesame Street'' and ''
The Electric Company '' taking over
ABC News . Big Bird turned six in ''Big Bird's Birthday or Let Me Eat Cake'' (1991), despite being referred to as four years old previously. ''
CinderElmo '' (1999) was a FOX special, with
Keri Russell as the princess look for her match among the kingdom. Telly fears what the
New Year will bring in ''
Sesame Street Stays Up Late! '' (1993, DVD in 2004).
Various strictly musical programs have been made.
Julie Andrews and
Perry Como performed with the Muppets on ''
Julie On Sesame Street '' (1974). Special episodes of the PBS series ''
Evening At Pops '' variety show have featured ''Sesame Street'' characters. The ''Sesame Street Special'' (1988) also included many guest performances.
Holiday special '''' (2004).
Jon Stewart is set to host a "live" retrospective on the series on ABC, but is accidentally locked in his dressing room with the tapes. Elmo attempts to salvage the show, improvised, in ''
Elmopalooza! '' (1998).
In 1987 and 1992, episodes of ''
Shalom Sesame '' were produced, focusing on introducing Jewish culture, customs, and language to
Jewish-American children. International co-productions of ''Sesame Street'' have created many of their own specials as well.
The characters have made appearance on television series including ''
Between The Lions '' (2001), ''
The Electric Company '' (1972, 1975), ''
Emeril Live '' (2005), ''
Fanfare '', ''
The Flip Wilson Show '' (1970), ''
The Frugal Gourmet '' (1992, 1995, 1997), ''
Hollywood Squares '', ''
Jeopardy! '', ''
Martha '' (2006), ''
Martha Stewart Living '', ''
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood '' (1981), ''
Soul Man '' (1998), ''
The Torkelsons '' (1991), ''
The West Wing '' (2004), ''
What's My Line? '', and numerous talk shows and mornings shows, ranging from ''
The Ed Sullivan Show '' to the ''
The Today Show ''.
Two feature films based on the series have been made.
Co-produced with '' revolved around a social worker forcing Big Bird into adoption. Big Bird gets homesick and tired of his adoptive parents, and heads back to New York, when he is kidnapped by evil carnival leaders (played by
Dave Thomas and
Joe Flaherty ); the residents of Sesame Street launch a cross-country search to find him.
In the second ''Sesame Street'' theatrical film, 1999's ''
The Adventures Of Elmo In Grouchland '', fourteen years after ''Follow That Bird'',
Elmo spends time with his favorite blanket. After
Zoe accidentally tears the blanket, when Elmo refuses to share, the blanket winds up in Grouchland, ruled by the Queen of Trash (
Vanessa Williams ). Elmo ventures forth, to rescue his blanket from the villainous
Huxley (
Mandy Patinkin ). Soon, the rest of the ''Sesame Street'' gang follow in pursuit.
According to a rumor posted on /FILM, Elmo has suggested to TVguide.com that ''Elmo's World'' might later be turned into a movie.Peter Sciretta, "
Elmo's World: The Movie? ", 4 July 2006.
Some educators criticized the show when it debuted, as it emphasized
Cognitive learning rather than play and activities like other children's shows at the time.''Saturday Morning Censors: Television Regulation Before the V-Chip''. Heather Hendershot. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 1998 In addition it was believed that it would only worsen children's attention spans. These concerns still exist today, although there is no conclusive proof of this being the case, even after more than 35 seasons of televised shows.
In a letter to the ''Boston Globe'',
Boston University professor of education Frank Garfunkel commented "If what people want is for their children to memorize numbers and letters without regard to their meaning or use—without regard to the differences between children, then ''Sesame Street'' is truly responsive. To give a child 30 seconds of one thing and then to switch it and give him 30 seconds of another is to nurture irrelevance."
10
In the magazine ''
Childhood Education '', Minnie P. Berson of
SUNY Fredonia asked "Why debase the art form of teaching with phony pedagogy, vulgar sideshows, bad acting, and layers of smoke and fog to clog the eager minds of small children?"
For an animation on the letter "J", the writers included "a day in jail." This drew criticism from ''
San Francisco Chronicle '' columnist
Terrence O'Flaherty , despite executive producer David Connell's assertion that kids are familiar with the word through shows like ''
Batman '' and ''
Superman '', and that "when you're trying to come up with a lot of words starting with J, you soon run short" of words they are already familiar with.
11
The series also met with criticism in its attempts to help the underprivileged. Educator Sister Mary Mel O'Dowd worried that the show might start to replace "personalized experiences". "If Sesame Street is the only thing ghetto kids have, I don't think it's going to do much good. It never hurts a child to be able to count to 10 or recognize the 26 letters of the alphabet. But without the guidance of a teacher, he'll be like one of our preschoolers who was able to write 'CAUTION' on the blackboard after seeing it on the back of so many buses, and told me 'That says STOP.'"
12
Though it is widely beloved, like a number of PBS shows (notably in Mississippi refused to air the show. However, the commission had no choice but to allow their local public television stations to air the show when commercial stations in Mississippi said they would air the program themselves.
13
While many rumors have been started about the series, a few have been widely promulgated and perpetuated over the years.
The pair's relationship bears similarity to that of
Laurel And Hardy , who were also occasionally shown sleeping together; this became such a comedy staple as to be adopted by
Morecambe And Wise in the 1970s, all of whom were similarly asexual. ''
The Odd Couple '' is another, more apposite, contemporary comparison. Some adult viewers are upset by the assertions, as in their view, Ernie and Bert act like children, teenagers at the oldest, and are no more different than brothers or cousins who share a room.
In 1990, puppeteer
1997 .
In , contracted HIV from a blood transfusion as an infant.
- David Borgenicht, ''Sesame Street Unpaved: Scripts, Stories, Secrets, and Songs'', 1998 and 2002 reprint, ISBN 1-4028-9327-2
- Caroll Spinney, J. Milligan, ''The Wisdom of Big Bird: (And the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch): Lessons from a Life in Feathers'', 2003, ISBN 0-375-50781-7
- Christopher Finch, ''Jim Henson: The Works—The Art, the Magic, the Imagination'', 1993, ISBN 0-679-41203-4
- Shalom M. Fisch, Rosemarie T. Truglio, ''"G" Is for Growing: 30 Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street'', 2000, ISBN 0-8058-3395-1
