OPENING DOORS FOR CHILDREN
Happy Birthday, ‘Sesame Street’!
Stars of the show
Did you watch “Sesame Street” when you were younger? Did your parents? Maybe you share the same favorite characters.
“Sesame Street” has been teaching and playing with kids for 40 years. It was first shown on Nov. 10, 1969. Now it is the most popular children’s TV show in the world.
In honor of its birthday, The Mini Page talked with some of the people watching over this special program.
B is for Beginning
Forty years ago, there weren’t many well-made educational children’s shows on national TV. In 1966, a group of caring people met to change that.
They were especially concerned about helping kids in families that did not have much money. These kids had fewer opportunities to learn.
This group created “Sesame Street” to help teach all kids, especially those with fewer advantages.
“Sesame Street” soon began stressing vocabulary. One study showed that the poorest kids knew about 5,000 words by the time they went to kindergarten. But children from middle-and high-income families knew about 20,000 words by then. This put low-income kids behind, and most of them never caught up.
S is fo Sesame
“Open Sesame” are magical words in a fairy tale from “The Arabian Nights.” In the story, this phrase opened the door to a cave full of fabulous riches.
A is for Adults
“Sesame Street” creators made the show fun for parents, too. They hoped parents would watch the show with their kids. Everybody in the family could talk about it together, and kids would learn the lessons even better.
“Sesame Street” has layers of meanings in each show. There are some jokes just for younger children, and some jokes for older kids and adults.
Experts say younger kids really like physical comedy, or comedy with the body. They think jokes about toes wiggling are the funniest things they’ve seen.
Older children start understanding word jokes. Adults and older kids get jokes about events in the news.
Today, all writers for “Sesame Street” have to be good comedy writers. Many of them are top writers for regular comedy shows as well.
M is for Muppets
It is hard to imagine “Sesame Street” without the Muppets. But the show’s founders didn’t plan to feature Muppets so much. Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch were the only regular Muppets during the first season. Bert and Ernie showed up once in a while.
The Muppets were created by puppet artist Jim Henson. He was putting on Muppet shows for adults when
“Sesame Street” founder Joan Ganz Cooney met him. She convinced him to work on special Muppets for “Sesame Street.” Kermit the Frog is the only Muppet who also appeared in Henson’s other shows.
People loved the Muppets so much that they became the stars of the show.
C is for Celebrity
Celebrity guests also make the show fun for kids and adults. Kids who watch a show with singer Paul Simon, for example, might enjoy his singing. But adults may have loved his music for years.
Today, “Sesame Street” itself is the celebrity. There is a long waiting list of famous people who want to appear on the program.
N is for Neighborhood
Because many low-income kids live in inner-city neighborhoods, the show’s creators decided their show should take place on a city street named Sesame Street.
The show was filled with girls and boys, young and old, and people of all races and backgrounds. Nobody had ever before featured a neighborhood full of friends from different cultures.
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