Christopher Cerf | |
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| Born | (1941-08-19)August 19, 1941 (age 84) |
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| Alma mater | Harvard University |
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Christopher Cerf (born August 19, 1941) is an American writer, composer-lyricist, voice actor, and record and television producer. He has contributed music toSesame Street, and co-created and co-produced the PBS literacy education television programBetween the Lions.
Cerf's father wasRandom House co-founder, publisher, editor and TV panelistBennett Cerf. His mother was journalist and children's book publisherPhyllis Fraser. Cerf attended theDeerfield Academy and graduated fromHarvard College. He was married to Geneviève Charbin who is a Catholic of French descent. Cerf andKatherine Vaz were married on June 21, 2015.[3] After his father's death, his mother married ex-New York City mayorRobert F. Wagner Jr.[4]
In the early 1960s, he was involved as a writer and performer on musical satires released byThe Harvard Lampoon. Since its first season in 1969, Cerf has played a role in the creation and production of theSesame Street television program, most notably as a regular contributor of music and lyrics, and as the producer of many of its music albums. In the process, he has won twoGrammy Awards and threeEmmy Awards for songwriting and music production. Since writing and performing his first song forSesame Street, "Count It Higher" (1973) in Season 5, Cerf has written or co-written over 200 songs featured on the program, including "Put Down the Duckie", "The Word Is No", "Dance Myself to Sleep", "Monster in the Mirror", and such parody songs as "Born To Add", "Letter B", "Wet Paint", and "Furry Happy Monsters". Cerf also played a role in the ongoing funding ofSesame Street, founding and serving as the original editor-in-chief ofSesame Workshop's books, records, and toys division.
In addition to his contributions toSesame Street, Cerf's musical material has appeared onSaturday Night Live,The National Lampoon Radio Hour,The Electric Company,Square One Television,Between the Lions, and in numerousMuppet productions, and his songs have been performed byPaul Simon,Ray Charles,Johnny Cash,R.E.M.,James Taylor,Tony Bennett,Dixie Chicks,Tracy Chapman,Carol Channing,Randy Travis,The Four Tops,Melissa Etheridge,Smokey Robinson,Bonnie Raitt,Wynton Marsalis,Little Richard,B.B. King,Jimmy Buffett,Bart Simpson, and theMetropolitan Opera'sJosé Carreras. The blond, curly-haired Muppet character fromSesame Street is his namesake and the lead singer of the rock group "Chrissy and the Alphabeats."
Before joiningSesame Street, Cerf spent eight years as a senior editor atRandom House (co-founded by his father in 1927), where he worked with authorsGeorge Plimpton,Andy Warhol,Abbie Hoffman,Ray Bradbury,Richard Fariña, andDr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel). In 1993, Cerf renewed his ties to Random House when he assumed the role of Chairman of theModern Library's Board of Advisors.[citation needed]
Cerf edited and produced theMarlo Thomas & Friends'Free to Be... a Family book, album and TV special. The book reached No. 1 onThe New York Times bestseller list within a week of its publication in 1989, and the show received a prime-time Emmy as the year's outstanding children's special.[5]
Cerf and Thomas collaborated again, co-editing and co-producingThanks & Giving: All Year Long, a book and CD about generosity and sharing (and their polar opposites, selfishness and thoughtlessness). Royalties from the project, for which Thomas and Cerf won a 2005Grammy Award, go toSt. Jude Children's Research Hospital, founded by Thomas' father,Danny Thomas, in 1962.[6]
Cerf served as Executive Producer, and Music and Audio Producer, ofBetween the Lions, the children's literacy series that his company, Sirius Thinking, Ltd., created for PBS.Between the Lions has twice won the Television Critics' Award as the nation's outstanding children's television program, and won tenEmmy Awards.[7] In two independent studies, conducted by theUniversity of Kansas andMississippi State University, the program has also demonstrated success in helping children – including those at the highest risk of literacy failure – to learn how to read.[8]
In 2008, Cerf served as co-creator (withNorman Stiles and Louise Gikow), Executive producer and writer of thePBS Kids seriesLomax, the Hound of Music. The show, which debuted in the winter of 2008, is a children's series featuring "a good-natured, melody-obsessed puppet pooch named Lomax, his fluffy feline sidekick Delta, and their human companion, Amy, on a tune-filled train ride crisscrossing the musical landscape of America. With the help – and full participation – of real kids on the train, on location, and the viewers at home, Lomax and his friends doggedly pursue their mutual passion: tracking down the wonderful songs that form the heart of our nation's diverse musical heritage."[9]
The show had educational credentials. Aware that many American children do not receive any formal musical education, Cerf, Stiles and Gikow basedLomax on the music education curriculum created by the music educator John Feierabend, PhD, proven to increase children's musical ability and intelligence. It included appearances byLarry Campbell andTom Chapin.Lomax ran for only one season.[10]
Cerf also worked as an author and satirist. In 1970, he helped launch theNational Lampoon, serving as a Contributing Editor from its first issue until the mid-1970s, and in 1978, he co-conceived and co-edited withTony Hendra,George Plimpton and Rusty Unger the journalistic parodyNot The New York Times.[11]
The Experts Speak, the "compendium of authoritative misinformation" that Cerf co-authored withVictor Navasky in 1984, has recently been reissued. In 1986, Cerf collaborated withNational Lampoon colleagueHenry Beard onThe Pentagon Catalog: Ordinary Products at Extraordinary Prices, which offered readers the historic opportunity to obtain a free hex nut—valued at $2,043 by theMcDonnell Douglas Corporation—with every copy they purchased. (The book has a die-cut hole in its front cover and first few pages: the book was sold in clear plasticshrink wrap with a steel hex nut inside this hole, slightly less than flush with the cover. The shrink wrap displayed the hex nut and prevented it from falling out before the book was purchased.)The Official Politically Correct Dictionary, also written with Beard, first appeared in 1992.[citation needed]
In 2008, to commemorate the fifth anniversary ofGeorge W. Bush's victory speech aboard theU. S. S.Lincoln, Cerf again collaborated with Victor Navasky to produceMission Accomplished!: Or How We Won the War in Iraq based on America's military presence in Iraq.[12]
In December 2008, the Associated Press reported that various musicians were coordinating their objections to the use of theirmusic as a technique for softening up captives.[13]The songs used were primarilyheavy metal, but included songs fromSesame Street. The Associated Press reported that Cerf "was horrified to learn songs from the children's TV show were used in interrogations".As a consequence, he researched how music is being used for military purposes and published his findings in the documentary movieSongs of War.[14]
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