New Sesame Street Programming and Initiatives
Emmy Award Winning Educational Entertainment For Children
November 10, 1969 is the day that the first Sesame Street episode aired on television. From the beginning, the television show presented a diverse ethnic and gender based set of characters from which children could learn how to spell, count and negotiate their way through human relations.
Sesame Street Begins to Shape a Child’s Life
According to Sesame Street’s official website, “The show creators initially intended the Muppets to be bit players who supplemented the humans' scenes, but their enchanting effect on viewers meant that they quickly became central to the program.” Characters spotlighted during early episodes were Gordon, Susan, Bob, and Mr. Hooper. The shows early regular Muppets were Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch.
Focus was initially meant to be placed on the popular children show’s human characters. However, it wasn’t long before Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch and later Ernie, Bert and the Cookie Monster began to garner the attention of children around the United States.
Many children and parents associate Elmo with Sesame Street. Yet, he did not make his appearance on the show until the 1980s, over a decade after the show first aired. Elmo became so popular with viewing audiences that in 1998, the show added “Elmo’s World” as a regular segment. Sesame Street continued to add popular Muppets to the television show lineup. Abby Cadabby, Count Von Count, Rosita, Telly Monster and Zoe are other fan favorites.
Workshops, Live Stage Performances and Amusement Park
Sesame Workshop, Street Live and Sesame Place, an amusement park located in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, are extensions of the original company initiatives and offerings. There is an online blog that parents and children can access to learn how they can strengthen their health and wellness, emotional vigor and how to respect and understand others.
Lead danger awareness, meeting the challenges of asthma and gaining an appreciation for science are topics covered during the workshop. Sesame Street workshops also focus on nurturing literacy, coping with economic downtimes, helping military families with life in the service and dealing with emergency situations.
Street Live is sponsored by the Vee Corporation. The program is a live stage performance that spotlights the television show’s popular characters. Musical songs and skits are presented during the live theatrical performances. Parents can find out about upcoming live shows by visiting Sesame Street’s official website and selecting Street Live.
As of 2009, Sesame Street is watched weekly around the globe in 140 countries such as Ireland, Egypt, India, Australia, Mexico, Russia, Jordan, Germany and South Africa. Nearly eight million children and adults regularly view the television show.
To expand its virtual presence, Sesame Street offers videos and online games, such as Greetings From Grover, Letters to Big Bird, Musical Rooms Nursery and Dress Elmo For Fall, that children can play and learn from. Videos like Can Read, Bert & Ernie Read Together and Doug E. Doug and Elmo, teach children how to read while they listen to entertaining lyrics and music and watch some of their favorite Sesame Street characters interact with one another. At the 36th Emmy Awards Sesame Street received a Lifetime Achievement Award for its educational and entertaining programming.
Sources:
Sesame Street Official Website. 4 October 2009.
Sesame Street for Children
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