It’s All New and Better Than Ever as Sesame Street turns 40!

The world’s favorite furry monsters get ready for a big splash to mark a brand-new season and celebrate four decades on Sesame Street

There’s no resting on their well-earned laurels for the Sesame Street Muppets: after 40 years of broadcasting, an amazing 122 Emmy Awards, and shows in more than 140 countries, the longest-running program in the history of children’s television is coming to you on November 10 with an all-new look and format that will knock your socks off.

“When you turn on your TV on November 10,” says Executive Producer Carol-Lynn Parente, “you’ll see a brand-new and spectacularly beautiful opening sequence. We’re also launching an entirely new format for the show—the magazine format of Sesame Street, which has been evolving over the years, has been officially replaced with what we’re calling a ‘block’ format. And it’s just wonderful.”

One of the reasons Sesame Street has remained relevant over the last four decades is that its producers have kept up with current technology and have changed the show’s format to reflect the viewing needs of each new generation of preschoolers.

The new block format emulates children’s current television experience, Parente explains. “When the show first started [on November 10, 1969], we followed what was on the air at the time, so we used the techniques of commercials and variety shows to teach children. These days, however, there are entire networks devoted to preschool programming, and our show is an hour long, which is unique in preschool programming. So we thought, our hour really is a block of preschool programming, so let’s look at it that way.”

ABBY CADABBY BLAZES A NEW TRAIL

One of the show’s “blocks” — or “anchors” — features Abby Cadabby in “Abby’s Flying Fairy School.” Abby now has her own format with a cast of new characters, all created in 3-D CGI (which is shorthand for “three-dimensional computer-generated imagery”). Many of the characters in “Abby’s Flying Fairy School” were created by Peter de Séve, who designed the characters in Ice Age.

“We really wanted to keep the texture of the puppets,” Parente explains, “so even though the characters are new, Abby exists in the show as a puppet and in CGI form. We could remain faithful to the characteristics of the puppets because we worked with a wonderful company, called Speakeasy, to create real movie-quality animation. It’s unbelievable.”

In Abby’s school, characters have to solve problems without using magic and without the help of a teacher, explains Rosemarie Truglio, Vice President of Education and Research at Sesame Workshop. “This is really an opportunity to model critical-thinking skills, think out of the box and work collaboratively. And it is important in the context of our new focus on 21st-century skills: what does it mean to be prepared for this century? To solve problems, we have to work with others—we can’t solve them alone. We need to see the teacher as a facilitator, not just someone who gives you the answer.”

A CELEBRITY IS COMING TO YOUR SCREEN

Another way Sesame Street keeps up with the times is by featuring the hottest celebrities on the show.

“The new season will be star-studded,” Carol-Lynn Parente says. “We have Cameron Diaz in our premiere episode, Adam Sandler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kobe Bryant, Eva Longoria, Christina Applegate, Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, and more—we have over 30 celebrities this season. And we also have First Lady Michelle Obama!”

While maintaining an emphasis on the importance of literacy and numeracy, the new season kicks off “My World is Green & Growing,” a two-year science initiative designed to increase positive attitudes towards nature, deepen children’s knowledge about the natural world and encourage behavior that shows respect and care for the environment.

“It being a special season, we wanted to pick a special curriculum focus,” Parente says. “We spent a lot of time talking about a green curriculum and what that would mean for our audience. Working with our advisors, we learned that a green curriculum for our audience is really a nature curriculum. We want to get children out and exploring their environment, and, hopefully, if they do that, they’ll grow up to be adults who want to take care of it.”

Bob McGrath, who has played himself on the show since the very first episode of Sesame Street, applauds the new “green” curriculum.

“This season the show is very new. I’m very positive and I think it’s great that they’ve been able to make these changes and keep up with what’s happening in the world. This season’s first show is quite terrific; it has a lot of soul to it. The nature curriculum is a wonderful thing to instill in kids at an early age.”

40 YEARS YOUNG

So, what is the secret to Sesame Street’s longevity?

“It is a combination of a lot of things,” McGrath says. “It’s the most well-researched show in television history. We have great writers and a great research staff and directors and cast. And the cast is really like a real family. Nothing is taken for granted from one year to the next. It’s been an incredible 40 years!”

 

Sesame Street's Mad Men Parody from Season 40

“I really think that part of it is that we refresh ourselves every few years to make sure we are meeting the needs of our audience,” Parente adds. “And those needs have changed over the years. Keeping up with the times is definitely the secret to our longevity. And I also think that the characters have survived over the years because they were just brilliantly created.”

Sesame Street’s big anniversary is being marked by a number of events across the country.

New York City has proclaimed November 10 “Sesame Street Day” and this year will unveil a proclamation and announce a temporary street naming (at Columbus Avenue and 64th Street) in honor of the program’s permanence and everlasting impact on New York City’s history and four generations of children across the country.

Also on November 10, an exhibition of photographs—entitled “Sesame Street: The Longest Street in the World”—will be unveiled at Washington, D.C.’s Union Station; the Smithsonian’s Discovery Theater will throw a birthday bash for the show on November 15; and the Brooklyn Public Library will honor Sesame Street with a three-month-long exhibition of the show’s memorabilia.

The whole country is celebrating 40 years, and Bob McGrath describes it as a dream come true.

“[The beginning] was like a magic carpet ride,” he says. “It was a tremendously exciting time. It was just one of total exhilaration. None of us anticipated that it was going to have the impact around the world that it has had. We didn’t have any long-term outlook. It was just a very joyous thing from the get-go. But I think we all had a good gut feeling after that first year that we were on to something special. It was an extraordinary experiment that’s worked out miraculously.”

 

 

10/30/2009