November 3, 2023 – Sesame Street

After more than 50 years, Sesame Street will be changing its format in 2025! The show will be getting a makeover when it returns for its 56th season, favoring more episodic storytelling rather than short segments.
Sesame Street was conceived in 1966 during discussions between TV producer Joan Ganz Cooney and Vice President of the Carnegie Foundation, Lloyd Morrisett. At the time, TV programs created for children were criticized for being too violent and having little regard for education or cultural diversity. Kids were already watching a ton of TV, so their goal was to do something positive with the time they spent in front of the screen.
After completing 2 years of research, the newly formed Children’s Television Workshop received $8 million in grants to create a new educational children’s TV show. The original title of the show was “123 Avenue B” but they scrapped that idea because it was an actual address in New York City. They came up with the name Sesame Street from the saying “open sesame”, which they thought gave the idea of a place where exciting things happen.
They approached Jim Henson about creating a cast of muppets for the show. Henson and his team became very involved in the show in the following years. They created muppets that could interact with the human actors, specifically Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. Big Bird is a towering 8’2″ tall. His suit weighs 10 pounds and it’s covered in about 4,000 feathers. Oscar was based on a real person, a rude restaurant owner that Henson knew. His voice was based on a New York City taxi cab driver who drove Oscar’s puppeteer to the studio. In the first season, Oscar was orange. They explained the color change by Oscar saying he vacationed in Swamp Mushy Muddy and turned green overnight.
Celebrity guests have always been part of the show, as a way to attract older children and adults. The first celebrity guest was James Earl Jones! By 2019, 650 celebrities had appeared on the show. Sesame Street is one of the longest running shows in the world. It’s estimated that 86 million Americans watched it as children. As of 2022, Sesame Street has won over 200 Emmy Awards and 11 Grammys, more than any other children’s TV show. Learn more here.