Happy Birthday Sesame Street!

Forty years ago a new show hit the airwaves and it was unique in several ways. It specifically addressed preschoolers, particularly underprivileged children, in an effort to prepare them for school. It starred big furry monsters, but of a most benevolent type, and the show was considered by its creators somewhat of an experiment. Well, the experiment worked and Sesame Street has enthralled generations of children, who have learned their ABCs and 123s, all the while being entertained by the lovable, fun-loving Muppets, such as Big Bird, Grover, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch and, of course, Elmo.
Scott Chambers, the VP and general manager of worldwide media distribution at Sesame Workshop, explains the longevity and international appeal of Sesame Street.

To watch a video about the history of Sesame Street, click here.

***Sesame Street Video***

TV KIDS: What is the legacy of Sesame Street?
CHAMBERS: We have been educating children with media for 40 years, and we are very protective of this incredible legacy. In fact, the most important piece of that legacy is the trust that we’ve built with parents, who perhaps grew up with the show, or today’s grandparents who watched their children grow up with the show. And we are very vigilant with ensuring that we don’t harm the trust that we have built with parents.

TV KIDS: Compared to 40 years ago, children today are growing up with many different types of media. How has Sesame Street been refreshed to address children today?
CHAMBERS: We’re really excited about our 40th season and we’ve made more changes to the show in the U.S. this particular season than we’ve made in any recent season.

It’s exciting. We’ve done a number of things. We have altered the structure of the show, so we consider it more of a hosted block now. It’s an hour-long show, but we are changing it to elevate a few Muppet characters. Murray, for example, is a Muppet we introduced a few seasons ago with an ongoing [segment] called What’s the Word in the Street?; which is all about vocabulary. Murray will act as a host of this hour-long block and within it we have a number of new elements. We’ve got a CGI series called Abby’s Flying Fairy School, which is just beautiful and stars Abby Cadabby, who was a new character last season and she is really resonating with kids, both boys and girls.

***Scott Chambers***We have a number of other new segments within the show and we are also introducing a new curriculum, and it’s all about appreciating nature. We are calling it a green curriculum because it is meant to introduce the beauty of nature to children and that theme is woven in the 26 episodes of the 40th season.

TV KIDS: Sesame Street has not only been enjoyed by American children, it has also traveled the world over. In how many territories has it aired and how have broadcasters welcomed it?
CHAMBERS: We are in 140 countries around the world and we are in two different types of broadcast shows. One is a co-production model. Almost at the inception of the U.S. show, we started talking to international broadcasters about things that we could do outside the U.S. Some countries, like Germany, the Netherlands and Mexico, were very interested right away, decades ago, in what Sesame Street could bring to educational media in their territories.

In many countries we have a co-production model in which we apply the model of Sesame Street in the U.S., which is basically taking a hard look at ***Vintage Sesame Street***what preschoolers need from an educational perspective, developing a curriculum around those needs, and then developing a show around that curriculum. So in those co-production territories, the shows are very unique and in many cases they truly feel local. They have some common characters and Muppets, but they also have some completely unique characters. That is one category of show.

The other is a more traditional dubbed or semi-localized show where we can introduce a local character that can host a block of Sesame Street content that can be dubbed in the local language.

All combined we are in 140 countries and going strong and I’d say the reception of Sesame Street is still incredible. We are clearly a world-recognized brand and show and our recognition comes from all the hard work we’ve put into maintaining that trust and building an educational media platform for young children. And that is a need that we as global residents will always have. It’s comforting and an honor to be part of the Sesame Street project because we are still received with open arms in almost any territory we go to.

***Vintage Sesame Street***

TV KIDS: Forty years ago, Sesame Street saw the need to prepare children for school, especially underprivileged children, whose homes may not have had many books, or who didn’t have the chance to go to the library. What issues are important for Sesame Street to address today?
CHAMBERS: I think all those issues are just as important and we like to consider our curriculum what we call our whole child curriculum, which means we don’t lose sight of any of those critical needs that children still have today that they had 40 years ago.

Having said that, there is always a change in the environment, whether it’s changes in technology or social and cultural changes. So our research and education department likes to think of our show as an experiment every single year. They look at how kids’ needs are changing every year and they build new curricular subjects that try to address new challenges that kids are facing. Some of them involve respect and appreciation of others with all the cultural changes that the world has been facing over the last few years. It has been [a priority] to try to introduce preschoolers to that, especially in territories like Northern Ireland, where we have a co-production with the BBC and we have developed a series that specifically addresses respect and appreciation of others, but does it in a fun and engaging way.

The introduction of our green curriculum in the U.S. is another example. It’s something that we feel is important and that we can do probably better, if not at least differently, from everybody else. We want to introduce children to their natural environment, not in an alarming way, but in a beautiful, wonderful way. That is another theme that is worthy of looking at, but we haven’t lost sight of any of the original needs that kids had because they still exist today.

TV KIDS: How does Sesame Workshop use various media to reach out to children?
CHAMBERS: The TV show is only one platform that we use to distribute our educational media, because today there are an endless number of platforms and they are changing every day. We are very active in exploring digital platforms and mobile platforms. We are working closely with Apple to distribute weekly video podcasts, which have been very successful. They are 5-minute episodes that focus on various themes, like health and wellness.

We also try to address other media that are sometimes maybe old media, for example, radio in South Africa, where television screens aren’t necessarily available in the communities that we want to reach with our educational content.

We are also exploring different type of media, whether it’s mobile video or other digital forms that kids might be engaged in, even with their parents, because Sesame Street has always maintained that it’s the co-viewing experience and it’s the parent-child interaction that’s really the most valuable aspect of learning at this age. So we are always focused on different techniques that can engage the parent and not only the child, whether it’s using a mobile phone or an iPhone or using some other media form that you wouldn’t necessarily think is ready for a preschooler’s use. It might be for their caregiver who can interact with the child and the media, so the child can learn.