The show's format consists of a combination ofcommercial television production elements and techniques that have evolved to reflect changes in American culture and audiences' viewing habits. It was the first children's TV show to use educational goals and acurriculum to shape its content, and the first show whose educational effects were formally studied. Its format and content have undergone significant changes over the years to reflect changes to its curriculum.
Shortly after its creation, its producers developed what came to be called the CTW Model (after the production company's previous name), a system of planning, production, and evaluation based on collaboration between producers, writers, educators, and researchers. The show was initially funded by government and private foundations but has become somewhat self-supporting due to revenues from licensing arrangements, international sales, and other media. By 2006, independently produced versions (co-productions) ofSesame Street were broadcast in 20 countries. In 2001, there were over 120 million viewers of various international versions ofSesame Street; and by its 40th anniversary in 2009, it was broadcast in more than 140 countries.
Since its debut,Sesame Street has garnered widespread acclaim, and it is considered one of thegreatest television series of all time. It was by then the 15th-highest-rated children's television show in the United States. A 1996 survey found that 95% of all Americanpreschoolers had watched it by the time they were three. In 2018, it was estimated that 86 million Americans had watched it as children. As of 2022, it has won 222Emmy Awards and 11Grammy Awards, more than any other children's show.[14][15]Sesame Street remains one of thelongest-running shows in the world.
Sesame Street was conceived in 1966 during discussions between television producerJoan Ganz Cooney andCarnegie Foundation vice presidentLloyd Morrisett. Their goal was to create a children's television show that would "master the addictive qualities of television and do something good with them,"[16] such as helping young children prepare for school. After two years of research, the newly formed Children's Television Workshop (CTW) received a combined grant of US$8million ($69 million in 2024 dollars)[17] from the Carnegie Foundation, theFord Foundation, theCorporation for Public Broadcasting, and theU.S. federal government to create and produce a new children's television show.[18]
Sesame Street was officially announced at a press conference on May 6, 1969. Joan Ganz Cooney, Children's Television Workshop'sexecutive director, said thatSesame Street would use the techniques of commercial television programs to teach young children. Live shorts and animated cartoons would teach young children the alphabet, numbers, vocabulary, shapes, and basic reasoning skills. By repeating concepts throughout an episode, young children's interest would be held while they learn the concepts. Guest cameos would help attract older children and adults. Cooney said that the nameSesame Street came from the saying "open sesame", which gives the idea of a place where exciting things occur. The show was given an initial six-month run to determine whether it was effective and would continue to air.[19]
The program premiered on public television stations on November 10, 1969.[20] It was the first preschool educational television program to base its contents and production values on laboratory and formative research.[21] Initial responses to the show included adulatory reviews, some controversy,[13] and high ratings.
According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s, the show had become "an American institution."[23] The cast and crew expanded during this time, with emphasis on the hiring of women crew members and the addition of minorities to the cast. The show's success continued into the 1980s. In 1981, when the federal government withdrew its funding, CTW turned to and expanded other revenue sources, including its magazine division, bookroyalties, product licensing, and foreign broadcast income.[24] Its curriculum has expanded to include moreaffective topics such as relationships, ethics, and emotions. Many of its storylines have been inspired by the experiences of its writing staff, cast, and crew—most notably, the 1982 death ofWill Lee, who playedMr. Hooper;[25] and the marriage of Luis and Maria in 1988.[26]
By the end of the 1990s, the show faced societal and economic challenges, including changes in young children's viewing habits, competition from other shows, the development of cable television, and a drop in ratings.[27] As the 21st century began, the show made major changes. Starting in 2002, its format became more narrative-focused and included ongoing storylines. After its 30th anniversary in 1999, due to the popularity of the MuppetElmo, the show also incorporated a popular segment known asElmo's World.[28] In 2009, the show won the Outstanding Achievement Emmy for its then 40 years on the air.[29]
In late 2015, in response to "sweeping changes in the media business"[30] and as part of a five-year programming and development deal,premium television serviceHBO began airing first-run episodes ofSesame Street. The episodes became available on PBS stations and websites nine months after they aired on HBO.[30] The deal allowed Sesame Workshop to produce more episodes—increasing from 18 to 35 per season—and to create a spinoff series with theSesame Street Muppets, and a new educational series.[31]
At its 50th anniversary in 2019,Sesame Street had produced over 4,500 episodes, two feature-length movies (Follow That Bird in 1985 andThe Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland in 1999), 35 TV specials, 200 home videos, and 180 albums.[15] Beginning that year, digitized versions of the show's full archive of episodes were donated to theAmerican Archive of Public Broadcasting, viewable on site at the library's locations, with five episodes available for viewing online.[32][33] ItsYouTube channel has over 24 million subscribers.[34] It was announced in October 2019 that first-run episodes will move to HBO Max beginning with the show's 51st season in 2020.[35] In August 2022, HBO Max removed 200 older episodes of the series from its library after initially offering around 650 episodes.[36] On December 13, 2024, it was announced that Max would not be renewing their contract to make episodes ofSesame Street, meaning 2025 would be the last year for episodes made with Max. Episodes will be in the HBO Max streaming library until 2027. A spokesperson for Sesame Workshop stated: "We will continue to invest in our best-in-class programming and look forward to announcing our new distribution plans in the coming months, ensuring that 'Sesame Street' reaches as many children as possible for generations to come."[37]
On May 19, 2025, it was announced thatSesame Street would begin to air new episodes onNetflix worldwide and would once again premiere episodes on PBS, with new episodes being released on both platforms on the same day, as well as past seasons. This move would also include the acquisition of 90 hours of older episodes by Netflix.[38][39][40] Season 56 ofSesame Street premiered on Netflix and PBS on November 10, 2025.[41] Beginning in January 2026, under a new agreement, the official YouTube channel is expected to host the largest collection of older library episodes.[42]
From its first episode,Sesame Street's format has utilized "a strong visual style, fast-moving action, humor, and music," as well as animation and live-action short films.[43] When it premiered, most researchers believed that young children did not have longattention spans, and the show's producers were concerned that an hour-long show would not hold their attention. At first, its "street scenes"—the action recorded on its set—consisted of character-driven interactions. Rather than ongoing stories, they were written as individual, curriculum-based segments interrupted by "inserts" of puppet sketches, short films and animations. This structure allowed producers to use a mixture of styles and characters, and to vary its pace, presumably keeping it interesting to young viewers. However, by season 20, research showed that children were able to follow a story—and the street scenes, while still interspersed with other segments, became evolving storylines.[44][45]
We basically deconstructed the show. It's not a magazine format anymore. It's more like theSesame hour. Children will be able to navigate through it easier.
— Executive producer Arlene Sherman, speaking of the show's restructuring in 2002[28]
On recommendations bychild psychologists, the producers initially decided that the show's human actors and Muppets would not interact because they were concerned it would confuse young children.[46] When CTW tested the new show, they found that children paid attention during the Muppet segments and that their interest was lost during the "Street" segments.[47] They requested that Henson and his team create Muppets such asBig Bird andOscar the Grouch to interact with the human actors, and the Street segments were re-shot.[48][49]
Sesame Street's format remained intact until the 2000s when the changing audience required that producers move to a more narrative format. In 1998, the popular "Elmo's World," a 15-minute-long segment hosted by the Muppet Elmo, was created.[50] Starting in 2014, during the show's 45th season, the producers introduced a half-hour version of the program.[51][52][53] The new version, which originally complemented the full-hour series, was broadcast weekday afternoons and streamed on the Internet.[51] In 2017, in response to the changing viewing habits of toddlers, the show's producers retired the full-hour version across all its broadcast platforms. The new half-hour version featured fewer characters, reduced pop culture references "once included as winks for their parents", and focused "on a single backbone topic."[54]
On October 30, 2023,The Hollywood Reporter announced thatSesame Street would be reimagined by completely dropping the half-hour magazine-style format of the long-running children's show in favor of a longer narrative-driven style and more live action Muppet puppet characters. The new format took effect in Season 56, which premiered on November 10, 2025, alongside a new animated series,Tales from 123.[55]
Canadian authorMalcolm Gladwell has said that "Sesame Street was built around a single, breakthrough insight: that if you can hold the attention of children, you can educate them."[56]Gerald S. Lesser, the CTW's first advisory board chair, went even further, saying that the effective use of television as an educational tool needed to capture, focus, and sustain children's attention.[57]Sesame Street was the first children's show to structure each episode, and the segments within them, to capture children's attention, and to make, as Gladwell put it, "small but critical adjustments" to keep it.[58] According to CTW researchers Rosemarie Truglio and Shalom Fisch, it was one of the few children's shows to utilize a detailed and comprehensive educational curriculum, garnered fromformative andsummative research.[59]
Sesame Street's creators and researchers formulated bothcognitive andaffective goals for the show. They initially focused on cognitive goals, while addressing affective goals indirectly, believing it would increase children's self-esteem and feelings of competency.[60] One of their primary goals was preparing young children for school, especially children fromlow-income families,[61] usingmodeling,[62] repetition,[63] and humor.[57] They adjusted its content to increase viewers' attention and the show's appeal,[64] and encouraged older children and parents to "co-view" it by including more sophisticated humor, cultural references, and celebrity guests; by 2019, 80% of parents watchedSesame Street with their children, and 650 celebrities had appeared on the show.[15][65][66]
First LadyBarbara Bush participates withBig Bird in an educational taping ofSesame Street at United Studios, 1989First LadyMichelle Obama participates in aLet's Move! andSesame Street public service announcement taping withBig Bird in the White House Kitchen, 2013Deputy Secretary of StateAntony Blinken meetsGrover to discuss refugees at the United Nations in New York City, 2016
DuringSesame Street's first season, some critics felt that it should address more overtly such affective goals as social competence, tolerance ofdiversity, and nonaggressive ways of resolving conflict. The show's creators and producers responded by featuring these themes in interpersonal disputes between its Street characters.[67] During the 1980s, the show incorporated real-life experiences of its cast and crew, including the death ofWill Lee (Mr. Hooper) and the pregnancy ofSonia Manzano (Maria).[25] In later seasons, it addressed real-life disasters such as theSeptember 11 terrorist attacks andHurricane Katrina.[68]
In its first season, the show addressed its outreach goals by focusing on the promotion of educational materials used in preschool settings; and in subsequent seasons, by focusing on their development. Innovative programs were developed because their target audience, children and their families in low-income, inner-city homes, did not traditionally watch educational programs on television and because traditional methods of promotion and advertising were not effective with these groups.[69]
Starting in 2006, Sesame Workshop expanded its outreach by creating a series of PBS specials and DVDs focusing on how military deployment affects the families of servicepeople.[70] Its outreach efforts also focused on families of prisoners, health and wellness, and safety.[71] In 2013, SW started Sesame Street in Communities, to help families dealing with difficult issues.[72]
Funding
As a result of Cooney's initial proposal in 1968, the Carnegie Institute awarded her a $1 million grant to create a new children's television program and establish the CTW,[16][18][73] renamed in June 2000 to Sesame Workshop (SW). Cooney and Morrisett procured additional multimillion-dollar grants from the U.S. federal government,The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, CPB, and theFord Foundation. Davis reported that Cooney and Morrisett decided that if they did not procure full funding from the beginning, they would drop the idea of producing the show.[74] As Lesser reported, funds gained from a combination of government agencies and private foundations protected them from the economic pressures experienced by commercial broadcast television networks, but created challenges in procuring future funding.[75]
AfterSesame Street's initial success, its producers began to think about its survival beyond its development and first season and decided to explore other funding sources. From the first season, they understood that the source of their funding, which they considered "seed" money, would need to be replaced.[76] The 1970s were marked by conflicts between the CTW and the federal government; in 1978, theU.S. Department of Education refused to deliver a $2 million check (equivalent to $9.64 million in 2024) until the last day of CTW's fiscal year. As a result, the CTW decided to depend upon licensing arrangements with toy companies and other manufacturers, publishing, and international sales for their funding.[24]
In 1998, the CTW acceptedcorporate sponsorship to raise funds forSesame Street and other projects. For the first time, they allowed short advertisements by indoor playground manufacturerDiscovery Zone, their first corporate sponsor, to air before and after each episode. Consumer advocateRalph Nader, who had previously appeared onSesame Street, called for a boycott of the show, saying that the CTW was "exploiting impressionable children."[20] In 2015, in response to funding challenges, it was announced that premium television service HBO would air first-run episodes ofSesame Street.[30] Steve Youngwood, SW's Chief Operating Officer, called the move "one of the toughest decisions we ever made."[77] According toThe New York Times, the move "drew an immediate backlash."[31] Critics claimed that it favored privileged children over less-advantaged children and their families, the original focus of the show. They also criticized choosing to air first-run episodes on HBO, a network with adult dramas and comedies.[31][78]
Producer Joan Ganz Cooney has stated, "Without research, there would be noSesame Street."[79] In 1967, when she and her team began planning the show's development, combining research with television production was, as she put it, "positively heretical."[79] Its producers soon began developing what came to be called the CTW Model, a system of planning, production and evaluation that did not fully emerge until the end of the show's first season.[80][note 3] According to Morrow, the Model consisted of four parts: "the interaction of receptive television producers andchild science experts, the creation of a specific and age-appropriate curriculum, research to shape the program directly, and independent measurement of viewers' learning."[80]
Cooney credited the show's high standard in research procedures to Harvard professorsGerald S. Lesser, whom CTW hired to design its educational objectives; andEdward L. Palmer, who conducted the show's formative research and bridged the gap between producers and researchers.[81] CTW conducted research in two ways: in-house formative research that informed and improved production;[82] and independent summative evaluations, conducted by theEducational Testing Service (ETS) during the first two seasons, which measured its educational effectiveness.[21] Cooney said, "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."[83] She characterized the collaboration as an "arranged marriage."[79]
Writing
Sesame Street has used many writers in its long history. As Peter Hellman wrote in his 1987 article inNew York Magazine, "The show, of course, depends upon its writers, and it isn't easy to find adults who could identify the interest level of a pre-schooler."[25] Fifteen writers a year worked on the show's scripts, but very few lasted longer than one season.Norman Stiles, head writer in 1987, reported that most writers would "burn out" after writing about a dozen scripts.[25] According to Gikow,Sesame Street went against the convention of hiring teachers to write for the show, as most educational television programs did at the time. Instead, Cooney and the producers felt that it would be easier to teach writers how to interpret curriculum than to teach educators how to write comedy.[84] As Stone stated, "Writing for children is not so easy."[84] Long-time writer Tony Geiss agreed, stating in 2009, "It's not an easy show to write. You have to know the characters and the format and how to teach and be funny at the same time, which is a big, ambidextrous stunt."[85]
The show's research team developed an annotated document, or "Writer's Notebook," which served as a bridge between the show's curriculum goals and script development.[86] The notebook was a compilation of programming ideas designed to teach specific curriculum points,[87] provided extended definitions of curriculum goals, and assisted the writers and producers in translating the goals into televised material.[88] Suggestions in the notebook were free of references to specific characters and contexts on the show so that they could be implemented as openly and flexibly as possible.[89]
The research team, in a series of meetings with the writers, also developed "a curriculum sheet" that described the show's goals and priorities for every season. After receiving the curriculum focus and goals for the season, the writers met to discuss ideas and story arcs for the characters, and an "assignment sheet" was created that suggested how much time was allotted for each goal and topic.[86][90] When a script was completed, the show's research team analyzed it to ensure that the goals were met. Then each production department met to determine what each episode needed in terms of costumes, lights, and sets. The writers were present during the show's taping, which for the first twenty-four years of the show took place inManhattan, and after 1992, at theKaufman Astoria Studios inQueens to make last-minute revisions when necessary.[91][92][93][note 4]
Early in their historySesame Street and the CTW began to look for alternative funding sources and turned to creating products and writing licensing agreements. They became, as Cooney put it, "a multiple-media institution."[96] In 1970, the CTW created a "non-broadcast" division responsible for creating and publishing books andSesame Street Magazine.[97] By 2019, the Sesame Workshop had published over 6,500 book titles.[34] The Workshop decided from the start that all materials their licensing program created would "underscore and amplify"[98][99] the show's curriculum. In 2004, over 68% ofSesame Street's revenue came from licenses and products such as toys and clothing.[100][note 5] By 2008, theSesame Street Muppets accounted for between $15 million and $17 million per year in licensing and merchandising fees, split between the Sesame Workshop and The Jim Henson Company.[101] By 2019, the Sesame Workshop had over 500 licensing agreements and had produced over 200 hours of home video.[15][34] There have been two theatrically releasedSesame Street movies,Follow That Bird, released in 1985, andElmo in Grouchland, released in 1999. In early 2019, it was announced that a third film, a musical co-starringAnne Hathaway and written and directed byJonathan Krisel, would be produced.[102] In November 2019, Sesame Street announced a family friendlyaugmented reality application produced by Weyo in partnership withSesame Workshop in honor of the show's 50th anniversary.[103]
Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets, owned thetrademarks to those characters, and was reluctant to market them at first. He agreed when the CTW promised that the profits from toys, books,computer games, and other products were to be used exclusively to fund the CTW and its outreach efforts.[76][104] Even though Cooney and the CTW had very little experience with marketing, they demanded complete control over all products and product decisions.[98] Any product line associated with the show had to be educational and inexpensive, and could not be advertised during the show's airings.[105] As Davis reported, "Cooney stressed restraint, prudence, and caution" in their marketing and licensing efforts.[105][note 6]
Director Jon Stone, talking about the music ofSesame Street, said: "There was no other sound like it on television."[106] For the first time in children's television, the show's songs fulfilled a specific purpose and supported its curriculum.[107] In order to attract the best composers and lyricists, the CTW allowed songwriters likeJoe Raposo,Sesame Street's first musical director, to retain the rights to the songs they wrote, which earned them lucrative profits and helped the show sustain public interest.[108] By 2019, there were 180 albums ofSesame Street music produced, and its songwriters had received 11Grammys.[15][34] In late 2018, the SW announced a multi-year agreement withWarner Music Group to re-launch Sesame Street Records in the U.S. and Canada. For the first time in 20 years, "an extensive catalog ofSesame Street recordings" was made available to the public in a variety of formats, including CD and vinyl compilations, digital streaming, and downloads.[109]
Sesame Street used animations and short films commissioned from outside studios,[110] interspersed throughout each episode, to help teach their viewers basic concepts like numbers and letters.[111] Jim Henson was one of the many producers to create short films for the show.[110] Shortly afterSesame Street debuted in the United States, the CTW was approached independently by producers from several countries to produce versions of the show at home. These versions came to be called "co-productions."[112] By 2001 there were over 120 million viewers of all international versions ofSesame Street,[113] and in 2006, there were twenty co-productions around the world.[114] By its 50th anniversary in 2019, 190 million children viewed over 160 versions ofSesame Street in 70 languages.[15][115] In 2005, Doreen Carvajal ofThe New York Times reported that income from the co-productions and international licensing accounted for $96 million.Sesame Street the Musical opened atTheatre Row off Broadway on September 8, 2022.[116][117]
In 2015,HBO acquired the production rights to the show, which included an agreement of exclusive rights for nine months at which point the episodes were to be given away free of charge to other networks (e.g.PBS). In December 2024, HBO announced it would part ways withSesame Street.[118]
Shortly after the CTW was created in 1968, Joan Ganz Cooney was named its first executive director. She was one of the first female executives in American television. Her appointment was called "one of the most important television developments of the decade."[119] She assembled a team of producers, all of whom had previously worked onCaptain Kangaroo.Jon Stone was responsible for writing, casting, and format; Dave Connell took over animation; and Sam Gibbon served as the show's chief liaison between the production staff and the research team.[120] Cameraman Frankie Biondo has worked onSesame Street from its first episode in 1969.[121]
Jim Henson and the Muppets' involvement inSesame Street began when he and Cooney met at one of the curriculum planning seminars in Boston. Author Christopher Finch reported that Stone, who had worked with Henson previously, felt that if they could not bring him on board, they should "make do without puppets."[18] Henson was initially reluctant, but he agreed to joinSesame Street to meet his own social goals. He also agreed to waive his performance fee for full ownership of theSesame Street Muppets and to split any revenue they generated with the CTW.[101] As Morrow stated, Henson's puppets were a crucial part of the show's popularity and it brought Henson national attention.[122] Davis reported that Henson was able to take "arcane academic goals" and translate them to "effective and pleasurable viewing."[123] In early research, the Muppet segments of the show scored high, and more Muppets were added during the first few seasons. Morrow reported that the Muppets were effective teaching tools because children easily recognized them, they were stereotypical and predictable, and they appealed to adults and older siblings.[124]
Sesame Street is best known for the creative geniuses it attracted, people like Jim Henson and Joe Raposo and Frank Oz, who intuitively grasped what it takes to get through to children. They were television's answer to Beatrix Potter or L. Frank Baum or Dr. Seuss.
Although the producers decided against depending upon a single host forSesame Street, instead casting a group of ethnically diverse actors,[126] they realized that a children's television program needed to have, as Lesser put it, "a variety of distinctive and reliable personalities,"[127] both human and Muppet. Jon Stone, whose goal was to cast white actors in the minority,[25] was responsible for hiring the show's firstcast. He did not audition actors until Spring 1969, a few weeks before the five test shows were due to be filmed. Stone videotaped 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.[128] For example,Loretta Long was chosen to playSusan when the children who saw her audition stood up and sang along with her rendition of "I'm a Little Teapot."[128][129] Stone stated that casting was the only aspect of the show that was "just completely haphazard."[99] Most of the cast and crew found jobs onSesame Street through personal relationships with Stone and the other producers.[99] According to puppeteerMarty Robinson in 2019, longevity was common among the show's cast and crew.[34]
According to the CTW's research, children preferred watching and listening to other children more than to puppets and adults; as such, they included children in many scenes.[130] Dave Connell insisted that no child actors be used,[131] so these children were non-professionals, unscripted, and spontaneous. Many of their reactions were unpredictable and difficult to control. However, the adult cast learned to handle the children's spontaneity flexibly, even when it resulted in departures from the planned script or lesson.[132] CTW research also revealed that the children's hesitations and on-air mistakes served as models for viewers.[133] According to Morrow, this resulted in the show having a "fresh quality," especially in its early years.[131]
WhenSesame Street premiered on November 10, 1969, it aired on only 67.6% of American televisions, but it earned a 3.3Nielsen rating, which totaled 1.9 million households.[134] By the show's tenth anniversary in 1979, nine million American children under the age of 6 were watchingSesame Street daily. According to a 1993 survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, out of the show's 6.6 million viewers, 2.4 million kindergartners regularly watched it. 77% of preschoolers watched it once a week, and 86% of kindergartners and students in first and second grade had watched it once a week before starting school. The show reached most young children in almost all demographic groups.[135]
The show's ratings significantly decreased in the early 1990s, due to changes in children's viewing habits and in the television marketplace. The producers responded by making large-scale structural changes to the show.[136] By 2006,Sesame Street had become "the most widely viewed children's television show in the world," with 20 international independent versions and broadcasts in over 120 countries.[137] A 1996 survey found that 95% of all American preschoolers had watched the show by the time they were three years old.[138] In 2008, it was estimated that 77 million Americans had watched the series as children.[137] By the show's 40th anniversary in 2009, it was ranked the fifteenth-most-popular children's show on television, and by its 50th in 2019, the show had 100% brand awareness globally. In 2018, the show was the second-highest-rated program on PBS Kids.[139][115] In 2021, however, the Sesame Street documentary "50 Years of Sunny Days," which was broadcast nationally on ABC, did not fare well in the ratings,[140] scoring only approximately 2.3 million viewers.[141]
As of 2001[update], there were over 1,000 research studies regardingSesame Street's efficacy, impact, and effect on American culture.[81] The CTW solicited theEducational Testing Service (ETS) to conduct summative research on the show.[142] ETS's two "landmark"[143] summative evaluations, conducted in 1970 and 1971, demonstrated that the show had a significant educational impact on its viewers.[144] These studies have been cited in other studies of the effects of television on young children.[142][note 7] Additional studies conducted throughoutSesame Street's history demonstrated that the show continued to have a positive effect on its young viewers.[note 8]
Sesame Street [is] perhaps the most vigorously researched, vetted, and fretted-over program on the planet. It would take a fork-lift to now to haul away the load of scholarly paper devoted to the series...
Lesser believed thatSesame Street research "may have conferred a new respectability upon the studies of the effects of visual media upon children."[146] He also believed that the show had the same effect on the prestige of producing shows for children in the television industry.[146] Historian Robert Morrow, in his bookSesame Street and the Reform of Children's Television, which chronicled the show's influence on children's television and on the television industry as a whole, reported that many critics of commercial television sawSesame Street as a "straightforward illustration for reform."[147] Les Brown, a writer forVariety, saw inSesame Street "a hope for a more substantial future" for television.[147]
Morrow reported that the networks responded by creating more high-quality television programs, but that many critics saw them as "appeasement gestures."[148] According to Morrow, despite the CTW Model's effectiveness in creating a popular show, commercial television "made only a limited effort to emulate CTW's methods," and did not use a curriculum or evaluate what children learned from them.[149] By the mid-1970s commercial television had abandoned their experiments with creating better children's programming.[150] Other critics hoped thatSesame Street, with its depiction of a functioning, multicultural community, would nurture racial tolerance in its young viewers.[151] It was not until the mid-1990s that another children's television educational program,Blue's Clues, used the CTW's methods to create and modify their content. The creators ofBlue's Clues were influenced bySesame Street, but wanted to use research conducted in the 30 years since its debut. Angela Santomero, one of its producers, said, "We wanted to learn fromSesame Street and take it one step further."[152]
CriticRichard Roeper said that perhaps one of the strongest indicators of the influence ofSesame Street has been the enduring rumors and urban legends surrounding the show and its characters, especially speculation concerning the sexuality ofBert and Ernie.[153][154]
Critical reception
Sesame Street was praised from its debut in 1969.Newsday reported that several newspapers and magazines had written "glowing" reports about the CTW and Cooney.[134] The press overwhelmingly praised the new show; several popular magazines and niche magazines lauded it.[155] In 1970,Sesame Street won twenty awards, including aPeabody Award, three Emmys, an award from thePublic Relations Society of America, aClio, and a Prix Jeunesse.[156] By 1995, the show had won two Peabody Awards and fourParents' Choice Awards. It was the subject of a traveling exhibition by theSmithsonian Institution,[157] and a film exhibition at theMuseum of Modern Art.[158]
Sesame Street is ... with lapses, the most intelligent and important program in television. That is not anything much yet.
Sesame Street was not without its detractors, however. The state commission inMississippi, where Henson was from, operated the state's PBSmember station; in May 1970 it voted to not airSesame Street because of its "highly [racially] integrated cast of children" which "the commission members felt ... Mississippi was not yet ready for."[160][161] According toChildren and Television, Lesser's account of the development and early years ofSesame Street, there was little criticism of the show in the months following its premiere, but it increased at the end of its first season and beginning of the second season.[162][note 9] Historian Robert W. Morrow speculated that much of the early criticism, which he called "surprisingly intense,"[13] stemmed from cultural and historical reasons in regards to, as he put it, "the place of children in American society and the controversies about television's effects on them."[13]
According to Morrow, the "most important" studies finding negative effects ofSesame Street were conducted by educator Herbert A. Sprigle and psychologistThomas D. Cook during its first two seasons.[163] Social scientist andHead Start founderUrie Bronfenbrenner criticized the show for being too wholesome.[164] PsychologistLeon Eisenberg sawSesame Street's urban setting as "superficial" and having little to do with the problems confronted by the inner-city child.[165] Head Start directorEdward Zigler was probablySesame Street's most vocal critic in the show's early years.[166]
In spite of their commitment to multiculturalism, the CTW experienced conflicts with the leadership of minority groups, especially Latino groups and feminists, who objected toSesame Street's depiction of Latinos and women.[167] The CTW took steps to address their objections. By 1971, the CTW hired Hispanic actors, production staff, and researchers, and by the mid-1970s, Morrow reported that "the show included Chicano and Puerto Rican cast members, films about Mexican holidays and foods, and cartoons that taught Spanish words."[168] AsThe New York Times has stated, creating strong female characters "that make kids laugh, but not...as female stereotypes" has been a challenge for the producers ofSesame Street.[169] According to Morrow, change regarding how women and girls were depicted onSesame Street occurred slowly.[170] As more female Muppet performers likeCamille Bonora,Fran Brill,Pam Arciero,Carmen Osbahr,Stephanie D'Abruzzo,Jennifer Barnhart, andLeslie Carrara-Rudolph were hired and trained, stronger female characters likeRosita (1991) andAbby Cadabby (2006) were created.[171][172]
In 2002,Sesame Street was ranked number 27 onTV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.[173] Sesame Workshop won a Peabody Award in 2009 for its website, sesamestreet.org,[174] and the show was given Peabody's Institutional Award in 2019 for 50 years of educating and entertaining children globally.[175] In 2013,TV Guide ranked the show number 30 on its list of the 60 best TV series.[176] As of 2021,Sesame Street has received 205 Emmy Awards, more than any other television series.[177] In 2023,Variety rankedSesame Street #12 on its list of the 100 greatest TV shows of all time.[178]
^Season 44 (2013–2014) was the first time episodes were numbered in a seasonal order rather than the numerical and chronological fashion used since the show premiered. For example, episode 4401 means "the first episode of the 44th season", not "the 4,401st episode" (it is in fact the 4,328th episode).
^Known as Children's Television Workshop until 2000
^See Gikow, p. 155, for a visual representation of the CTW model.
^Most of the first season was filmed at a studio nearBroadway, but a strike forced their move toTeletape Studios. In the early days, the set was simple, consisting of four structures.[94] In 1982,Sesame Street began filming at Unitel Studios on 57th Street, but relocated to Kaufman Astoria Studios in 1993, when the producers decided they needed more space.[95]
^See Gikow, pp. 280–285 for a list of many of the show's products.
^According toParade Magazine in 2019, 1 million children played withSesame Street toys daily.[15]
^According to Edward Palmer and his colleague Shalom M. Fisch, these studies were responsible for securing funding for the show over the next several years.[144]
^See Gikow, pp. 284–285;"G" Is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street, pp. 147–230.
^See Lesser, pp. 175–201 for his response to the early critics ofSesame Street.
Borgenicht, David (1998).Sesame Street Unpaved. New York: Hyperion Publishing.ISBN0-7868-6460-5
Clash, Kevin, Gary Brozek, and 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.ISBN0-7679-2375-8
Finch, Christopher (1993).Jim Henson: The Works, the Art, the Magic, the Imagination. New York: Random House.ISBN9780679412038
Fisch, Shalom M. and Rosemarie T. Truglio, Eds. (2001)."G" Is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers.ISBN0-8058-3395-1
Cooney, Joan Ganz, "Foreword", pp. xi–xiv.
Palmer, Edward and Shalom M. Fisch, "The Beginnings ofSesame Street Research", pp. 3–24.
Fisch, Shalom M. and Lewis Bernstein, "Formative Research Revealed: Methodological and Process Issues in Formative Research", pp. 39–60.
Mielke, Keith W., "A Review of Research on the Educational and Social Impact of Sesame Street", pp. 83–97.
Cole, Charlotte F., Beth A. Richman, and Susan A. McCann Brown, "The World of Sesame Street Research", pp. 147–180.
Cherow-O'Leary, Renee, "CarryingSesame Street into Print:Sesame Street Magazine,Sesame Street Parents, andSesame Street Books", pp. 197–214.
Gikow, Louise A. (2009).Sesame Street: A Celebration— Forty Years of Life on the Street. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers.ISBN978-1-57912-638-4.
Gladwell, Malcolm (2000).The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. New York: Little, Brown, and Company.ISBN0-316-31696-2
Lesser, Gerald S. (1974).Children and Television: Lessons From Sesame Street. New York: Vintage Books.ISBN0-394-71448-2
Morrow, Robert W. (2006).Sesame Street and the Reform of Children's Television. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.ISBN0-8018-8230-3
O'Dell, Cary (1997).Women Pioneers in Television: Biographies of Fifteen Industry Leaders. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company.ISBN0-7864-0167-2.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
_headshot.jpg)
