Sesame Street

American children's television program and game show

Sesame Street is an American children's television series with many Muppets (puppet characters) and non-Muppet characters (human characters). There are also many animated characters. The show deals with issues like music, song, alphabet, numbers, and teaching children basics in learning, as well as more serious issues like death, divorce, HIV/AIDS, autism, and foster care. Part of the profits, go to an international project for children's schools. 54 seasons to 4,701 episodes.

Sesame Street
logo of Sesame Street
Genre
Created by
Theme music composer
  • Joe Raposo
  • Jon Stone
  • Bruce Hart
Opening theme"Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street"
Ending theme"Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street"
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons54
No. of episodes4,701
Production
Executive producers
  • David Connell (1969–72)[1][2]
  • Jon Stone (1972–78)[3][4]
  • Al Hyslop (1978–80) (credited as "producer" in season 10)[5]
  • Dulcy Singer (1980–93)[6][7]
  • Michael Loman (1993–2002)[8][9]
  • Dr. Lewis Bernstein (2003–05)[10][11]
  • Carol-Lynn Parente (2006–17)[12]
  • Brown Johnson (2017–19)
  • Benjamin Lehmann (2018–present)
Production locations
Running time60 minutes (seasons 1-45)
30 minutes (seasons 33, 45, 46 - onwards)
Production companySesame Workshop[note 1]
Original release
NetworkNET (1969–2009)
PBS (1969–present)
HBO (2016–2020)
Max (2020–present)
ReleaseJanuary 1, 1969 (1969-01-01) –
present

Series overview

SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
1130January 1, 1969January 31, 1970
2145February 11, 1970February 29, 1971
3130March 1, 1971March 31, 1972
4April 11, 1972April 30, 1973
5May 11, 1973May 31, 1974
6June 11, 1974June 30, 1975
7July 11, 1975July 31, 1976
8August 11, 1976August 32, 1977
9September 11, 1977September 30, 1978
10October 11, 1978October 31, 1979
11January 11, 1979January 31, 1980
12February 11, 1980February 29, 1981
13March 11, 1981March 31, 1982
14April 11, 1982April 30, 1983
15May 11, 1983May 31, 1984
16June 11, 1984June 30, 1985
17July 11, 1985July 31, 1986
18August 11, 1986August 32, 1987
19September 11, 1987September 30, 1988
20October 11, 1988October 31, 1989
21January 11, 1989January 31, 1990
22February 11, 1990February 29, 1991
23March 11, 1991March 31, 1992
24April 11, 1992April 30, 1993
25May 11, 1993May 31, 1994
26June 11, 1994June 30, 1995
27July 11, 1995July 31, 1996
28August 11, 1996August 32, 1997
29September 11, 1997September 30, 1998
3065October 11, 1998October 31, 1999
31January 11, 1999January 31, 2000
32February 11, 2000December 25, 2001
3350February 11, 2002March 31, 2002
3426April 11, 2002April 30, 2003
35May 11, 2003May 31, 2004
36June 11, 2004June 30, 2005
37July 11, 2005July 31, 2006
38August 11, 2006August 32, 2007
39September 11, 2007September 30, 2008
40October 11, 2008December 12, 2009
41January 1, 2009January 31, 2010
42February 1, 2010February 29, 2011
43March 1, 2011March 31, 2012
44April 1, 2012April 30, 2013
45May 1, 2013May 31, 2014
4635June 1, 2014June 30, 2015
47July 1, 2015July 31, 2016
48August 1, 2016August 32, 2017
49September 1, 2017September 30, 2018
50October 1, 2018October 31, 2019
51January 1, 2019January 31, 2020
52February 1, 2020February 29, 2021
53March 1, 2021March 31, 2022
54April 1, 2022April 30, 2023


The show has been on TV since January 1, 1969. Jim Henson made the Muppets and a lot of writers and puppeteers worked together to make the show. The Muppets were used afterwards in a different show called The Muppet Show. Sesame Street has been on TV in 120 countries all over the world. More than 4000 episodes have been made over 50 seasons. One unique feature of the show is that the episode number appears at the start of each episode.

For most of its history, Sesame Street had been shown on PBS. In 2015, new episodes began airing on HBO in January 2016, but those episodes would be shown on PBS nine months later.[13] In 2020, Sesame Street aired on HBO for the last time. After five seasons on HBO Max, the show returns to PBS as its first-run program, for the newer episodes, starting with the 51st season.

The Puppets

  • Big Bird is a 8-foot-tall yellow bird-rex. He was the first Muppet to appear on Sesame Street. His best friend is Snuffleupagus who looks like a reddish-brown mammoth-like elephant-creature with no tusks and was assumed to be imaginary by the rest of the cast, until the creators revealed him due to hearing about reports of sexual abuse cases of children. Performed by Caroll Spinney (1969–2018) and Matt Vogel (2009–present).
  • Oscar the Grouch is dwelling green alien who lives in a garbage can with his pet worm Slimey and his pet elephant Fluffy. He is always in a bad mood and he loves everything that other people hate: mud, dirt, etc. He has a girlfriend named Grundgetta. Performed by Caroll Spinney (1969–2018) and Matt Vogel (2009–present).
  • Bert and Ernie are two roommates. Ernie is more active and always ready to play a game or make a mess. Bert is an often boring grouch who likes to read; he likes things to be clean, neat and loves pigeons. They are rumors that they are gay, which Sesame Workshop has denied.
  • Cookie Monster is a blue alien that has a baritone voice, and eats large amounts of cookies. It was rumored that he would be renamed the Veggie Monster in an effort to promote healthy eating, but that turned out to be untrue. He also once had his own skit where he introduced parodies of famous books, movies, plays, and TV shows.[14] Performed by Frank Oz and Peter Cullen.
  • Zoe is a female yellowish-orange alien. She has a rock named Rocco and loves ballet. She is also Elmo's best friend.
  • Rosita is a bilingual turquoise female alien who is from Mexico and speaks both English and Spanish. She also plays the guitar. Performed by Carmen Osbahr.
  • Grover is a clumsy blue alien. He pretends to be a superhero named Super Grover. Super Grover is his alter ego.
  • Count von Count (The Count) is a number-counting lavender vampire.
  • Prairie Dawn is methodic and driven young girl who loves to write and direct pageants featuring her friends
  • Elmo is a small red alien who has a falsetto voice and lives with his goldfish named Dorothy. He speaks in third person and got his own Sesame Street segment, Elmo's World, in 1998.
  • Kermit the Frog is one of the first Muppets designed and built by Jim Henson.[15] Borgenicht calls Kermit "funny, ironic, and always the voice of reason amidst the insanity around him; the calm in the eye of the storm".[16] He was a star on Sesame Street until 2001. He had his own skit where he interviewed characters from fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and history.


Other muppets for Sesame Street include a girl fairy named Abby Cadabby, Murray, his lamb named Ovajita, Juila, and the Two-Headed Monster. Not only Muppets play in the show but also a diverse cast of human characters who live with the Muppets.

Related pages

Notes

References

Other websites