Sesame Workshop Unveils Development Slate

NEW YORK: The new series Abby’s Flying Fairy School is one of four shows in development from Sesame Workshop, which for the first time ever is seeing its Sesame Street muppets transform into CGI.

The CGI-animated Abby’s Flying Fairy School features fairy-in-training Abby Cadabby updated with a 3-D animated look. The nine-minute segments feature Abby and her eclectic gang of new friends attending Fairy School. They will use rhyme, reason and cooperation from viewers at home to solve problems.

Also in development, Munchin’ Impossible watches as Cookie Monster is sent out to discover healthy alternatives to his affliction for cookies. The puppet series, with live-action footage, encourages healthy-eating habits for children. The series consists of 26 five-minute episodes.

The adventure series Elmo’s Backyard features the furry red puppet exploring his own surroundings to find things like a spider web, a worm in a vegetable patch or a frozen bird bath. Viewers will be able to participate by sending in photos, drawings and videos of their own backyards. The 26×5-minute series fosters children’s science education, their ability to ask questions, make observations, form predictions, draw conclusions and share information.

An original half-hour preschool block, tentatively titled 3-2-1 Let’s Go, will feature segments from Play With Me Sesame and Global Grover. The block will also introduce children to Bert and Ernie’s Great Adventures, Sesame Workshop’s first all claymation series. Abby Cadabby will host the block, inviting the audience to play, cheer on her friends between segments and say goodbye when the block is over.

“Like its successful predecessors Elmo’s World, Global Grover and Play With Me Sesame, this new and robust slate of programming continues the 40-year tradition of taking the best of Sesame—the humor, the colorful characters and the zaniness—and creating different formats that meet the needs of the next generation of viewers,” said Miranda Barry, Sesame Workshop’s executive VP of creative. “We, like people the world over, are incredibly interested in encouraging children to believe in themselves, eat healthier, care for our environment, and discover the fun of learning. These four new shows are a positive reflection of that.”