History of Sesame Street

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sesame Street title card since 2009, taken from Episode 4187, the first episode of the show's 40th season, which aired on November 10, 2009.

Sesame Street premiered on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) on November 10, 1969, with a combination of Jim Henson's Muppets, animation, live shorts and cultural references; responses included adulatory reviews, some controversy, and high ratings. By its 40th anniversary in 2009, even the U.S. government recognized Sesame Street as "the most widely viewed children's television show in the world",^[1] with twenty independent international versions and broadcasts in over 120 countries.^[1]

The show's inception started in 1966 with initial idea by television producer Joan Ganz Cooney to create a children's television show. The idea arose during discussions with Carnegie Foundation vice president Lloyd Morrisett and other attendees of a dinner party in Manhattan, in which they explored ways to "master the addictive qualities of television and do something good with them",^[2] such as helping millions of young children prepare for school. After two years of research, the newly formed Children's Television Workshop (CTW) received a combined grant of $8 million from Carnegie, the Ford Foundation, and the U.S. federal government to create and produce a new children's television show.

Sesame Street has gone through significant changes in its 40-year history. The creativity and effectiveness of the show in reaching millions of children solidified in the 1970s. By the middle of the decade, Sesame Street was in "full flower", and by the end of the decade it was "an American institution".^[3] By its tenth anniversary in 1979, nine million American children under the age of six were watching Sesame Street daily. The show's success continued into the 1980s, an era of deregulation. In 1981, the federal government withdrew its funding, so CTW turned to other sources, such as its magazine division, book royalties, product licensing, and foreign income. Sesame Street's curriculum expanded to include more affective topics such as relationships, ethics, and positive and negative emotions, and many of the show's storylines were taken from the experiences of its writing staff, cast, and crew.

In recent decades, Sesame Street has faced societal and economic challenges, and in response to changes in viewing habits of young children, the show has made structural changes, including the creation of the "Elmo's World" segment. It was the first show of its kind to include a curriculum "detailed or stated in terms of measurable outcomes".^[4] The show has won eight Grammys and over a hundred Emmys—more than any other children's show.

[edit] Pre-production (1966-1969)

[edit] Beginnings

Television up to the late 1960s, according to author David Borgenicht, was "unproven" as an educational tool and "a revolutionary concept".^[5] Joan Ganz Cooney called children's programming a "wasteland"; it been widely criticized for being little more than cartoons that depicted violence, and for reflecting commercial values.^{[5][6][note 1]} Many children's television programs ^{[note 2]} were produced by local stations, and portrayed their creators' visions and agendas.^[7] According to children's media experts Edward Palmer and Shalom M. Fisch, children's television programs of the 1950s and 1960s duplicated "prior media forms".^[7] For example, they tended to show simple shots of a camera's-eye view of a location filled with children, or they recreated storybooks with shots of book covers and motionless illustrated pages. Palmer and Fisch called the hosts of these programs "insufferably condescending".^[7] An exception was Captain Kangaroo, which reflected the sensibilities of its creator and host, Bob Keeshan.^{[8][note 3]} Television historian Cary O'Dell declared that children's television was "in a sad state".^[9]

We knew that young children watched a great deal of television in the years before they went to school. We knew also that they liked cartoons, game shows, and situation comedies; that they responded to slapstick humor and music with a beat; and above all, that they were attracted by fast-paced, highly visual, oft-repeated commercials.

—Joan Ganz Cooney^[5]

Cooney was producing talk shows and documentaries at educational television station WNDT, and in 1966, had won an Emmy for a documentary about poverty in America.^[10] In early 1966, Cooney and her husband Tim hosted a dinner party at their apartment in Manhattan; the Cooneys' friends, experimental psychologist Lloyd Morrisett, who has been called Sesame Street's "financial godfather",^[11] and his wife Mary were among the guests. Cooney's boss, Lewis Freedman, and colleague Anne Bower also attended the party.^[12] As a vice-president at the Carnegie Institute, Morrisett had awarded several million dollars in grants to organizations involved in the education of preschool children, especially from poor and minority backgrounds. Morrisett and Cooney's other guests felt that even with limited resources, television could be an effective way to reach millions of children.^[13] A few days after the dinner party, Cooney, Freedman, and Morrisett met at Carnegie's offices to discuss and outline how to "master the addictive qualities of television and do something good with them".^[2] The group, financed by Carnegie, hired Cooney in the summer of 1967 to visit experts in child development, education, and media across the US and Canada. She researched their ideas about the viewing habits of young children and wrote a report on her findings.^[14][15]

In spite of Cooney's lack of experience in the field of education,^[16] her study, titled "Television for Preschool Education",^[17] spelled out how television could be used as an aid in the education of inner-city preschool children.^[18][19] Early childhood educational research had shown that when children are prepared to succeed in school, they earn higher grades and learn more effectively. In the late 1960s, however, children from low-income families had fewer resources than children from higher income families to prepare them for school. Research had also shown that children from low-income, minority backgrounds tested "substantially lower"^[20] than middle-class children in school-related skills, and that they continued to have educational deficits throughout school.^[17]

In the late 1960s, 97% of all American households owned a television set and preschool children watched an average of 27 hours of television per week,^[13] making an educational programming equally accessible to children of all socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds.^[20] Cooney proposed that public television improve the quality of children's programming, and help young children, especially from low-income families, prepare for school. She suggested using the media's "most engaging traits",^[21] including its high production values, sophisticated writing, and quality film and animation, to reach the largest audience possible. As New York Magazine television critic Peter Hellman stated, "If [children] could recite Budweiser jingles from TV, why not give them a program that would teach the ABCs and simple number concepts?"^[13]

Cooney also wanted to create a program that would spread values favoring education to nonviewers—including their parents.^[22] Parents from low-income families did not tend to encourage or participate in their children's education, so her goal was to produce a show that parents would watch with their children. She suggested that humor directed towards adults be included.^[23] As Hellman put it, "Keeping adults interested is the key to its success".^[24] In addition, cultural references, which included bringing celebrities to appear in the new show, would encourage parents and older siblings to watch.^[16]

[edit] Development

Jim Henson, (1989), creator of the Muppets. Henson was initially reluctant to become involved with a children's show.^[25]

As a result of Cooney's initial proposal, the Carnegie Institute awarded her an $8 million grant to create a new children's television program and establish the Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) in 1968.^[18][26] Cooney and Morrisett were also able to procure millions more in grant money from the US federal government, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Ford Foundation.^[2] The new show had a budget of $28,000 per episode.^[27] After being named executive director of CTW,^{[28][note 4]} Cooney began to assemble a team of producers:^[18] Stone was responsible for writing, casting, and format; Connell took over animation and volume; and Gibbon served as the show's chief liaison between the production staff and the research team.^[29] They had worked on Captain Kangaroo together, but were not involved in children's television at the time Cooney recruited them.^{[note 5]} Cooney planned at first to divide up the show's production of five episodes a week among several teams, but was advised by CBS vice-president Mike Dann to use only one team. This production team was led by Connell, who had experience with "volume production" during his eleven years working on Captain Kangaroo.^[30]

Harvard University professor Gerald S. Lesser conducted five three-day curriculum planning seminars in Boston in the summer of 1968.^[18][31] The purpose of the seminars was to ascertain which school-preparation skills to emphasize in the new show. The producers gathered professionals with diverse backgrounds and experiences, in order to obtain ideas for educational content. They reported that the seminars were "widely successful",^[31] and resulted in producing long and detailed lists of topics for possible inclusion in the Sesame Street curriculum.^[31] The producers also reported that the seminars produced more educational objectives than they could ever address. The objectives were condensed to key categories: symbolic representation, cognitive processes, and the physical and social environment.^[32][33] These seminars set forth the new show's policy about race and social issues.^[34] The seminars also began Jim Henson's involvement in Sesame Street. Cooney met Henson at one of the seminars; Stone, who was familiar with Henson's work, felt that if they could not bring him on board, they should "make do without puppets".^[18]

The producers and writers decided to build the new show around a brownstone or an inner-city street, a choice that Davis called "unprecedented".^[35] Stone was convinced that in order for inner-city children to relate to Sesame Street, it needed to be set in a familiar place.^[36] The new show was called the "Preschool Educational Television Show" in promotional materials. According to Cooney, they were "frantic for a title".^[35] They finally settled upon the name they least disliked: Sesame Street, although they initially feared that it would be too difficult for young children to pronounce.^[35] Stone was one of the producers who disliked the name, but as he said, "I was outvoted, for which I'm deeply grateful".^[37]

The responsibility of casting for Sesame Street fell to Jon Stone, whose goal was to cast white actors in the minority.^[36] He did not audition actors until Spring 1969, a few weeks before five test shows were due to be produced. He filmed the auditions, and Ed Palmer took them out into the field to test children's reactions. The actors who received the "most enthusiastic thumbs up" were cast.^[35] For example, Loretta Long was chosen to play Susan when the children who saw her audition stood up and sang along with her rendition of "I'm a Little Teapot".^[38] As Stone said, casting was the only aspect that was "just completely haphazard".^[39] Most of the cast and crew found jobs on Sesame Street through personal relationships with Stone and the other producers.^[39] Stone also hired Bob McGrath to play Bob, Will Lee to play Mr. Hooper, and Matt Robinson to play Gordon.^[40]

[edit] Use of research in production

According to Palmer and Fisch, Sesame Street was the first children's television program that included a curriculum "detailed or stated in terms of measurable outcomes".^[4] Little precedent for incorporating research into television production existed before the show was first aired.^[41] The producers and writers were concerned that this goal would limit creativity, but Stone understood that there were an infinite number of ways to express the curriculum onscreen. Researchers were always present in the studio during the show's filming.^[20] A "Writer's Notebook" was developed to assist the writers and producers in translating research and production goals into televised material.^[42] The Muppet characters, for example, were created to fill specific curriculum needs. Oscar the Grouch was designed to teach children about their positive and negative emotions.^[43] As Cooney stated, "From the beginning, we—the planners of the project—designed the show as an experimental research project with educational advisers, researchers, and television producers collaborating as equal partners".^[5]

Sesame Street came along and rewrote the book. Never before had anyone assembled an A-list of advisors to develop a series with stated educational norms and objectives. Never before had anyone viewed a children's show as a living laboratory, where results would be vigorously and continually tested. Never before in television had anyone thought to commingle writers and social scientists, a forced marriage that, with surprising ease and good humor, endured and thrived.

—Michael Davis, Street Gang^[44]

The producers of Sesame Street used laboratory-oriented research to test if what they were producing held children's attention. As author Malcolm Gladwell has stated, "Sesame Street was built around a single, breakthrough insight: that if you can hold the attention of children, you can educate them".^[45] The researchers involved with the show found that preschoolers are more sophisticated television viewers than originally thought.^[46] Edward Palmer, the man Cooney credits with building CTW's foundation of research,^[47] was of the few academicians in the late 1960s who was doing research on children's television.^[48] He was recruited by the CTW to test if the curricula developed in the Boston seminars were reaching their audience effectively.^[48] Palmer's research was so crucial to Sesame Street that Gladwell asserted, "...without Ed Palmer, the show would have never lasted through the first season".^[48]

Palmer and his team utilized concepts in the field of formative research, or "research conducted to inform the process of production".^[49] For example, Palmer developed "the distractor method",^[48][50] which he used to test if the material shown on Sesame Street captured young viewers' attention. Two children at a time were brought into the laboratory; they were shown an episode on a television monitor and a slide show next to it. The slides would change every seven seconds, and researchers recorded when the children's attention was diverted away from the episode.^[41][51] They were able to record almost every second of Sesame Street this way; if the episode captured the children's interest 80%–90% of the time, the producers would air it, but if it only tested 50%, they would re-shoot it. Palmer reported that by the fourth season of the show, the episodes rarely tested below 85%.^[52]

[edit] July 1969 test episodes

During the production of Sesame Street's first season, the producers created five one-hour episodes to test if they were comprehensible and appealing to children. Not intended for broadcast, they were presented to preschoolers in 60 homes throughout Philadelphia in July 1969. According to CTW researchers Shalom M. Fisch and Lewis Berstein, the results were "generally very positive",^[53] demonstrating that children learned from the shows and that their appeal was high. However, the researchers found that although children's attention was high during the Muppet segments, their interest wavered during the "Street" segments. The producers had followed the advice of child psychologists who were concerned that children would be misled and recommended that they never show the human actors and Muppets together. As a result, the appeal of the test episodes was lower than they preferred.^[53][54]

Hal Miller, who played Gordon from 1971-1973, and Loretta Long (Susan), with Oscar the Grouch (Carroll Spinney). The producers, early in Sesame Street's history, decided to eschew the advice of experts and allow Muppets and humans to interact.

The Street scenes were what Palmer referred to "the glue" that "pulled the show together",^[55] so the producers knew that they needed to make significant changes. On the basis of their experience on Captain Kangaroo, Cannell, Stone, and Gibbon thought that the experts' opinions were "nonsense";^[56] Cooney agreed.^[43] Lesser called their decision to defy the recommendations of their advisers "a turning point in the history of Sesame Street".^[55] The producers went back and reshot the Street segments; Henson and his coworkers created Muppets that could interact with the human actors,^[55][57], specifically Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird, two of the show's most enduring characters.^[49] These test episodes were directly responsible for what Gladwell calls "the essence of Sesame Street—the artful blend of fluffy monsters and earnest adults".^[55]

[edit] Premiere and first season (1969-1970)

Two days before the premiere of the show, a thirty-minute preview entitled This Way to Sesame Street was aired on NBC. The show was financed by a $50,000 grant from Xerox. Written by Stone and produced by CTW publicist Bob Hatch, it was taped the day before it aired.^[58] Newsday called the preview "a unique display of cooperation between commercial and noncommercial broadcasters".^[58]

Big Bird, meeting First Lady Pat Nixon at the White House in 1970.

Sesame Street premiered on PBS on November 10, 1969.^{[note 6]} The new show was praised from the start. As Davis states, "...It became the rare children's show stamped with parental approval".^[59] The show reached only 67.6% of the nation, but earned a 3.3 Nielsen rating, or 1.9 million households. In November of the following year Time magazine featured Big Bird, who had received more fan mail than any of the show's human hosts, on its cover and declared, " ...It is not only the best children's show in TV history, it is one of the best parents' shows as well".^[27] David Frost declared Sesame Street "a hit everywhere it goes".^[27] An executive at ABC, while recognizing that Sesame Street was not perfect, stated that the show "opened children's TV to taste and wit and substance" and "made the climate right for improvement".^[27]

The effectiveness of the show was almost immediately apparent. In Sesame Street's first season, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) reported that the cognitive skills of its young viewers had increased by 62%.^[27] They found that children who watched the show learned more than less frequent viewers.^[60] The show reached 7 million children a day, the song "Rubber Duckie" was on the music charts for nine weeks, and Big Bird appeared on The Flip Wilson Show. Also in 1970, Sesame Street won a Peabody Award, three Emmys, and the Prix Jeunesse award. President Richard Nixon sent Cooney a congratulatory letter.^[27] Dr. Benjamin Spock predicted that the program would result in "better-trained citizens, fewer unemployables in the next generation, fewer people on welfare, and smaller jail populations".^[61]

Sesame Street did have its detractors, however. In May 1970, a state commission in Mississippi voted to ban the show. A member of the commission leaked the vote to the New York Times, stating that "Mississippi was not yet ready" for the show's integrated cast.^[62] Cooney called the ban "a tragedy for both the white and black children of Mississippi".^[6] The Mississippi commission later reversed its decision, after the vote made national news. New York Times Magazine later reported that Sesame Street was also criticized for the presence of strong single women on the show, and its fast pacing was said to cause epilepsy in its preschool audience.^[36]

According to Time, the producers of Sesame Street made a few changes in its second season. Segments that featured children became more spontaneous and allowed for more impromptu dialogue, even when it meant cutting other segments.^[27] Since federal funds had been used to produce the show, more segments of the population insisted upon being represented on Sesame Street. For example, Latino groups criticized the show for having no Hispanic characters during its early years.^[6] Organizations like the National Organization for Women (NOW) expressed concerns that the show needed to be "less male-oriented".^[27] For example, members of NOW took issue with the character Susan, who was originally a housewife.^[63] The show's producers satisfied these critics by making Susan a nurse and by hiring a female writer.^[27]

[edit] The 1970s

By the mid-1970s, Sesame Street, according to Davis, had "became an American institution".^[3] The ETS attempted to study the effects the show had on young children after its second season, but found that the show had become so popular that it weakened their experimental design and their research methodologies had to be changed.^{[64][note 7]} Producer Jon Stone, who "gave Sesame Street its soul",^[3] was instrumental in guiding the show during these years. According to Davis, without Stone, "there would not have been Sesame Street as we know it".^[65] Stone was able to recognize and mentor talented people for his crew. He actively hired and promoted women during a time when few women earned top production jobs in television. As a result, his policies provided the show with a succession of women producers and writers, many of whom went on to lead the boom in children's programming at Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel, and PBS in the 1990s and 2000s. One of those women was Dulcy Singer, who later became the first woman executive producer of Sesame Street.^[66]

After the success of the show's first season, its producers began to think about its survival.^[67] They decided, after its initial funding of the show's development and first season, to explore other ways to fund the show's future seasons. This era in the show's history was marked by conflicts between CTW and the federal government; in 1978, the US Department of Education refused to deliver a $2 million check until the last day of CTW's fiscal year. As a result, the CTW decided to depend upon licensing arrangements, publishing, and international sales for their funding.^[68] Henson owned the trademarks to the Muppet characters, and he was reluctant to market them at first. He agreed when CTW promised that the profits from toys, books, and other products were to be used exclusively to fund CTW. The producers demanded complete control over all products and product decisions; any product line associated with the show had to be educational, inexpensive, and not advertised during its airings.^[69] They approached Random House to establish and manage a nonbroadcast materials division. Random House and CTW named Christopher Cerf to assist CTW in publishing books and other materials that emphasized the curriculum.^[70] In 1980, CTW began to produce "Sesame Street Live", a touring stage production based upon the show, which was written by Connell and performed by the Ice Follies.^[71]

Shortly after the premiere of Sesame Street, the CTW was approached by producers, educators, and officials in other nations, requesting that a version of the show be aired in their countries. Former CBS executive Mike Dann, after leaving commercial television to become vice president of CTW and Cooney's assistant, began what Charlotte Cole, vice president for CTW's International Research department, called the "globalization" of Sesame Street.^[72] A flexible model, based upon the experiences of the creators and producers of the US show, was developed. The shows came to be called "co-productions", and they contained original sets, characters, and curriculum goals. Depending upon each country's needs and resources, different versions were produced, from dubbed versions of the original show to independent co-productions. By 2009, Sesame Street had expanded into 140 countries;^[73] in 2005, Doreen Carvajal of The New York Times reported that income from CTW's international co-productions of the show accounted for US$96 million.^[74]

Sesame Street's cast expanded during this time, better fulfilling the show's original goal of greater diversity in both human and Muppet characters. The cast members who joined the show during this time were Sonia Manzano (Maria), Northern Calloway (David), Emilio Delgado (Luis), Linda Bove (Linda), and Buffy Sainte-Marie (Buffy).^[75] Roscoe Orman succeeded Matt Robinson, the original Gordon, and Hal Miller, in 1975.^[76] Additional Muppet characters were created during the 70s. Count Von Count was created and performed by Jerry Nelson, who also voiced Mr. Snuffleupagus, who required two puppeteers to operate. Richard Hunt, who as Jon Stone said, joined the Muppets as a "wild-eyed 18-year-old and grew into a master puppeteer and inspired teacher", created Gladys the Cow, Forgetful Jones, Don Music, and the construction worker Sully.^[77] Telly Monster was performed by Brian Muehl; Marty Robinson took over the role in 1984.^[78] Frank Oz created Cookie Monster. Matt Robinson created, as Davis called him, the "controversial" character Roosevelt Franklin.^{[note 8]} Fran Brill, the first female puppeteer for the Muppets, joined the Henson organization in 1970.^[79] Brill originated the character Prairie Dawn.

Sesame Street's original Odd Couple, Bert and Ernie, with their most-prized possessions, as they appear in the 1978 special Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.

The CTW wanted to attract the best composers and lyricists for Sesame Street, so songwriters like Joe Raposo, the show's music director, and writer Jeff Moss were able to retain the rights to the songs they wrote. The writers earned lucrative profits, and the show was able to sustain public interest. Raposo's "I Love Trash", written for Oscar the Grouch, was included on the first album of Sesame Street songs, recorded in 1974. Moss' "Rubber Duckie", sung by Henson for Ernie, remained on the Top-40 charts for seven weeks in 1971.^[80] Another Henson song, written by Raposo for Kermit the Frog in 1970, "Bein' Green", which Davis called "Raposo's best-regarded song for Sesame Street",^[81] was later recorded by Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles. "Somebody Come and Play" and "Sing", which became a hit for The Carpenters in 1973,^[82] were also written by Raposo.

In 1978, Stone and Singer produced and wrote the show's first special, the "triumphant" Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.^[83] Davis stated that the special demonstrated "how remarkable gifted were Jim Henson and Frank Oz, two real-life colleagues and friends, at playing puppetry's Odd Couple" in Bert and Ernie.^[84] (This was demonstrated in the special's O Henry-inspired storyline, in which the characters gave up their prized possessions, Ernie his rubber ducky and Bert his paper clip collection, to purchase each other Christmas gifts.) Singer reported that the special also demonstrated Stone's "soul", and Sonia Manzano reported that it was a good example of what Sesame Street was all about. By the show's tenth anniversary in 1979, nine million American children under the age of six were watching Sesame Street daily. Four out of five children had watched it over a six-week period, and 90% of children from low-income inner-city homes regularly viewed the show.^[85]

[edit] The 1980s

In 1984, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) deregulated commercial restrictions on children's television. Advertising during network children's programs almost doubled, and deregulation resulted in increased commercially oriented programming. According to Helllman, Sesame Street was successful during this era of deregulation. In 1981, the US government ceased all federal funding of CTW,^[68] but by 1987, the show earned $42 million from its magazine division, book royalties, product licensing, and foreign income—enough to cover two-thirds of its expenses. Its remaining budget, plus a $6 million surplus, was covered by revenue from its PBS broadcasts.^[13]

Mr. Hooper, whose death was explained to Sesame Street's young viewers in a landmark episode in 1983. This caricature, drawn by Carroll Spinney, was prominently used in the episode.

According to Davis, Sesame Street's second decade was spent "turning inward, expanding its young viewers' world".^[85] The show's curriculum expanded to include more "affective" teaching—relationships, ethics, and positive and negative emotions.^[36] Many of the show's storylines were taken from the experiences of its writing staff, cast, and crew. In 1982, Will Lee, who had played Mr. Hooper since the show's premiere, died. For the 1983 season, the show's producers and research staff decided that instead of recasting the role, they would explain Mr. Hooper's death to their preschool audience. They also decided to honor Lee's memory, who, as Norman Stiles, writer of the episode in question stated, was "a man we respected and loved".^[36] They convened a group of psychologists, religious leaders, and other experts in the field of grief, loss, and separation. The research team conducted a series of studies before the episode aired to ascertain if children were able to understand the messages they wanted to convey about Mr. Hooper's death. Parents in the study were encouraged to watch it with their children to help explain it. Following the broadcast, parent viewers were also encouraged to watch the episode with their children. Research showed that most children understood the simple messages in the episode. Parents' reactions to the episode were, according to CTW's own reports, "overwhelmingly positive".^[86] The episode aired on Thanksgiving Day in 1983 so that parents could be home to discuss it with their children. Author David Borgenicht called the episode "poignant";^[87] Davis called it "a landmark broadcast"^[88] and "a truly memorable episode, one of the show's best".^[89] Carroll Spinney, who played Big Bird and who drew the caricatures prominently used in the episode, reported that the cast and crew were moved to tears while filming the episode.^{[note 9]}

"To look back at that period [the 1980s] is to appreciate the profound effect that life-cycle events had on the show, offstage and on. There was birth and death, love and loss, courtship, and calamity, pain and pleasure, all from a little show whose aims at first were simply to test television's ability to stimulate the brain. That it would also touch the heart was not its original intention, but as each year passed, Sesame Street became as much an emotional pathway for children as an intellectual one".

-Michael Davis, Street Gang, p. 277

In the mid 80s, the US was becoming more aware of the prevalence of child abuse, so Sesame Street's researchers and producers decided to "reveal" Big Bird's imaginary friend, Mr. Snuffleupagus, to the adults on the show in 1985.^[90] They were also concerned about the message that was being sent to children: "If children saw that the adults didn't believe what Big Bird said (even though it was true), they would be afraid to talk to adults about dramatic or disturbing things that happened to them".^[91]

Sesame Street's producers and writers began to use their cast member's personal lives and real-life experiences to cover issues they wanted to address on the show. For the 1988 and 1989 seasons, the topics of love, marriage, and childbirth were addressed when they created a storyline in which the characters Luis and Maria fall in love, marry, and have a child, Gabi. Sonia Manzano, the actress who played Maria, had married and become pregnant; according to the book Sesame Street Unpaved, published after the show's thirtieth anniversary in 1999, Manzano's real-life experiences gave the show's writers and producers the idea.^[92] Research was done before any scripts were written to gain an understanding of the previous studies about preschoolers' understanding of love, marriage, and family. The show's research staff found that at the time, there were very little relevant research done about children's understanding of these topics, and no children's books had been written for children about them.^[86] Research was also conducted by Sesame Street in order to target the areas in which children's knowledge was the weakest. Studies done after the episodes about Maria's pregnancy aired showed that as a result of watching these episodes, children's understanding of pregnancy increased.^{[93][note 10]}

[edit] The 1990s

As Davis reported, "the nineties were a time of transition on Sesame Street".^[94] Several people involved in the show from its beginnings died during this period: Jim Henson in 1990 at the age of 53 "from a runaway strep infection gone stubbornly, foolishly untreated",^{[95][note 11]} Joe Raposo from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma fifteen months earlier,^[96] long-time cast member Northern Calloway of cardiac arrest in January 1990,^{[94][note 12]} Richard Hunt of AIDS in early 1992,^[77] David Connell of bladder cancer in 1995,^[97] Jon Stone of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 1997,^[98] and Jeff Moss of colon cancer in 1998.^[99]

By the early 1990s, Sesame Street was, as Davis put it, "the undisputed heavyweight champion of preschool television".^[100] The show's dominance was challenged by another PBS television show for preschoolers, Barney & Friends, and Sesame Street's ratings declined. The producers of Sesame Street responded, at the show's twenty-fifth anniversary in 1993, by expanding and re-designing the show's set, calling it "Around the Corner,".^[101] New human and Muppet characters were introduced, including Zoe (performed by Fran Brill), baby Natasha and her parents Ingrid and Humphrey, and Ruthie (played by comedian Ruth Buzzi).^[102] The character Zoe was created to include more female Muppets on the show and to break female stereotypes.^[103] According to Michael Davis, she was also the first character created on the show by marketing and product development specialists, who worked with the researchers at CTW.^[104] (The quest for a "break-out" female Muppet character continued into 2006 with the creation of Abby Cadabby, who was created after nine months of research.)^[105] The "Around the Corner" set was dismantled in 1997.^[106] For the first time in the show's history, Sesame Street pursued funding by accepting corporate sponsorship in 1998. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who had been a guest on the show, urged parents to protest the move by boycotting the show.^[107]

Michael Jeter (in 1992), who played "Mr. Noodle's brother Mr. Noodle" in the "Elmo's World" segment of Sesame Street.

For Sesame Street's 30th anniversary in 1999, its producers researched the reasons for the show's lower ratings. For the first time since the show debuted, the producers and a team of researchers analyzed Sesame Street's content and structure during a series of two-week long workshops. They also studied how children's viewing habits had changed in thirty years. They found that although the show was produced for 3- to-5-year-olds, children began watching it at a younger age. Preschool television had become more competitive, and had shown that the traditional magazine-format was not the best way to attract young children's attention. The growth of home-videos during the 80s and the increase of thirty-minute children's shows on cable had demonstrated that programs lasting ninety minutes or more could hold young children's attention. The CTW's researchers had found that interest declined for Sesame Street's younger viewers after 40–45 minutes.^[108][109] As a result, the target age for Sesame Street shifted downward, from four years to three years, and a part of each episode targeted the developmental age of these newer viewers. A new 15-minute long segment shown at the end of each episode, "Elmo's World", used traditional elements (animation, Muppets, music, and live-action film), but had a more sustained narrative.^[110] "Elmo's World" also followed the same structure each episode, and depended heavily on repetition.^{[111][note 13]} Unlike the realism of the rest of the show, the segment took place in a stylized crayon-drawing universe as conceived by its host.^[112]

Elmo, who represented the younger audience, was chosen as the host of the closing segment because younger toddlers identified with him^[113] and because he had always tested well with them.^[111] He was created in 1979 and performed by various puppeteers, including Richard Hunt, but did not become what his eventual portrayer, Kevin Clash, called a "phenomenon"^[5] until Clash took over the role in 1983. Eventually, Elmo became, as Davis reported, "the embodiment" of Sesame Street, and "the marketing wonder of our age"^[114] when 5 million "Tickle Me Elmo" dolls were sold in 1996. Clash reported that the "Tickle Me Elmo" phenomenon made Elmo a household name and led to the "Elmo's World" segment.^[115]

The Muppet Elmo, as shown in an early "Elmo's World" segment, 1999.

[edit] The 2000s

In 2002, Sesame Street's producers went further in changing the show to reflect its younger demographic. Up to that point, the show's structure consisted of the "Street scenes" interrupted by live-action videos and animation. They decided, after the show's 33rd season, to expand upon the "Elmo's World" concept by doing what San Francisco Chronicle television critic Tim Goodman called "deconstructing"^[116] the show. They changed the structure of the entire show from a magazine format to a narrative format, and made the show easier for young children to navigate. Arlene Sherman, a co-executive producer for 25 years, called the show's new look "startlingly different".^[116] Following its tradition of addressing emotionally difficult topics, Sesame Street's producers chose to address the attacks of 9/11 during this season on its premiere episode, which aired on February 4, 2002.^[6]

In 2006, The U.S. State Department called Sesame Street "the most widely viewed children's television show in the world".^[1] Over half of the show's international co-productions were made after 2001; according to the 2006 documentary, "The World According to Sesame Street", the events of 9/11 inspired the producers of these co-productions. In 2003, Takalani Sesame, a South African co-production, elicited criticism in the US when its producers created Kami, the first HIV-positive Muppet, to address the epidemic of AIDS in South Africa. The controversy, which surprised the Sesame Workshop, was short-lived and died down after Kofi Anan and Jerry Falwell praised the Workshop's efforts.^[117] Also by 2006, Sesame Street had won more Emmys than any other children's show, including the outstanding children's series award twelve times, each year it had been awarded up to that point.^[118] By 2009, the show had won 118 Emmys, and was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Emmy for its 40 years on the air.^[119] Entertainment Weekly reported in 1991 that the show's music had been honored with eight Grammys.^[120]

By Sesame Street's 40th anniversary, it was ranked the fifteenth most popular children's show on television. When the show premiered in 1969, 130 episodes a year were produced; in 2009, twenty-six episodes were made. Also by 2009, the Children's Television Workshop, which had changed its name to the Sesame Workshop (SW) in 2000,^[28] sought to remain current in the digital age by launching a website with a library of free video clips and free podcasts from throughout the show's history.

The 2008-2009 recession, which injured many nonprofit arts organizations, also affected Sesame Street; in the spring of 2009, the SW had to lay off twenty percent of its staff.^[6] Sesame Street's 40th anniversary was commemorated by the 2008 publication of Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street, by Michael Davis, which has been called "the definitive statement" about the history of the show.^[121]

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Borgenicht, David (1998). Sesame Street unpaved. New York: Hyperion Publishing. ISBN 0786864605
• Clash, Kevin and Gary Brozek & Louis Henry Mitchell (2006). My life as a furry red monster: What being Elmo has taught me about life, love and laughing out loud. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-7679-2375-8
• Cooney, Joan Ganz (2001). "Foreward". In "G" is for growing: Thirty years of research on children and Sesame Street, Fisch, Shalom M. and Rosemarie T. Truglio, eds. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. ISBN 0-8058-3395-1
• Davis, Michael (2008). Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. New York: Viking Press. ISBN 9780670019960
• Finch, Christopher (1993). Jim Henson: The works: the art, the magic, the imagination. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-6794-1203-4
• Fisch, Shalom M. and Lewis Bernstein (2001). "Formative research revealed: Methodological and process issues in formative research". In "G" is for growing: Thirty years of research on children and Sesame Street, Fisch, Shalom M. and Rosemarie T. Truglio, eds. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. ISBN 0-8058-3395-1
• Gladwell, Malcolm (2000). The tipping point: How little things can make a big difference. New York: Little, Brown, and Company. ISBN 0-316-31696-2
• Hellman, Peter. (November 23, 1987). "Street smart: How Big Bird & Co. do it". In New York Magazine, Vol. 20, No. 46, pp. 48-53.
• Lesser, Gerald S. and Joel Schneider (2001). "Creation and evolution of the Sesame Street curriculum". In "G" is for growing: Thirty years of research on children and Sesame Street, Fisch, Shalom M. and Rosemarie T. Truglio, eds. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. ISBN 0-8058-3395-1
• Mielke, Keith W. (2001). "A review of research on the educational and social impact of Sesame Street." In "G" is for growing: Thirty years of research on children and Sesame Street, Fisch, Shalom M. and Rosemarie T. Truglio, eds. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. ISBN 0-8058-3395-1
• O'Dell, Cary (1997). Women pioneers in television: Biographies of fifteen industry leaders. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-0167-2.
• Palmer, Edward L. and Shalom M. Fisch (2001). "The beginnings of Sesame Street Research". In "G" is for growing: Thirty years of research on children and Sesame Street, Fisch, Shalom M. and Rosemarie T. Truglio, eds. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. ISBN 0-8058-3395-1
• Truglio, Rosemarie T. and Shalom M. Fisch (2001). "Introduction". In "G" is for growing: Thirty years of research on children and Sesame Street, Fisch, Shalom M. and Rosemarie T. Truglio, eds. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. ISBN 0-8058-3395-1
• Truglio, Rosemarie T. and Valeria O. Lovelace, Ivelisse Seqhi, & Susan Scheiner (2001). "The varied role of formative research: Case studies from 30 years". In "G" is for growing: Thirty years of research on children and Sesame Street, Fisch, Shalom M. and Rosemarie T. Truglio, eds. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. ISBN 0-8058-3395-1
• Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard book of top 40 hits, 8th edition. New York: Billboard Books. ISBN 0-8230-7499-4

[edit] External links

• Street Gang (2008 book by Michael Davis) website
• 1970 Time Magazine cover (featuring Big Bird)
• Mr. Hooper's death (YouTube clip)