International co-productions of Sesame Street
Encyclopedia
Shortly after the debut of the educational children's television program, Sesame Street
, in the US in 1969, television producers, teachers, and officials of several countries approached the show's producers and the executives of Children's Television Workshop (CTW) about the possibility of airing international versions of Sesame Street. Creator Joan Ganz Cooney
hired former CBS
executive Mike Dann to supervise the initial productions in Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, the Philippines, France, Israel, Germany, and several Caribbean nations.
The producers of these shows developed them using a variant on "the CTW model", a flexible model of production based upon the experiences of the creators and producers of the US show. The model consisted of the combination of producers and researchers working together on the show, the development of a unique curriculum, and extensive testing of the shows. The shows came to be called "co-productions", and they contained original sets, characters, and curriculum goals. Different versions were produced, depending upon each country's needs and resources, from dubbed versions of the original show to independent co-productions that reflected the needs, educational priorities, and culture of each country. The first HIV
-positive Muppet, Kami
, was created in 2003 to address the epidemic of AIDS
in South Africa
, and was met with controversy in the US.
By 2006, there were 20 co-productions in countries all over the world. In 2001, there were over 120 million viewers of all international versions of Sesame Street, and by the show's 40th anniversary in 2009, they were seen in more than 140 countries.
on PBS in the US, producers from Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and Germany requested that the Children's Television Workshop (CTW) create and produce versions of Sesame Street in those countries. Creator Joan Ganz Cooney
was approached by German public television officials approximately a year after the US version debuted. Many years later, she remarked, "To be frank, I was really surprised, because we thought we were creating the quintessential American show. We thought the Muppets were quintessentially American, and it turns out they're the most international characters ever created". She hired former CBS
executive Mike Dann, who left commercial television to become her assistant, as a CTW vice-president. One of Dann's tasks was to field offers to produce versions of Sesame Street in other countries. Dann's appointment led to television critic Marvin Kitman stating, "After he [Dann] sells [Sesame Street] in Russia and Czechoslovakia, he might try Mississippi, where it is considered too controversial for educational TV". (In May 1970, the Mississippi state commission on educational television decided to ban the show.)
By summer 1970, Dann had made the first international agreements for what CTW came to call "co-productions". Thirty-eight Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
television stations broadcast Sesame Street to Canada's English-speaking provinces. The Armed Forces Radio and Television Network agreed to air the first 130 of the US-made show for children of military personnel serving in 16 countries, including Iceland, Greece, Ethiopia, and South Korea. During his tenure at CTW, Dann also made agreements with several Caribbean nations, Mexico, Australia, Japan, the Philippines, France, Israel, and Germany. He later stated to author Michael Davis, "I was aggressive and I knew people around the world". During the same period there were discussion about broadcasting the US version or even producing a British version of Sesame Street but British broadcasters found the show too controversial and rejected the idea. The American version was broadcast on a limited basis starting in 1971, but went off the air in 2001.
In 2001, the Workshop introduced Sesame English
, a series focused on teaching children and their families the basics of the English language and on familiarizing them with some aspects of American culture. As of 2009, it aired in several countries, including Japan, Korea, and Italy. In 2003, in response to the epidemic of AIDS
in South Africa
, the co-producers of Takalani Sesame
included the first preschool AIDS/HIV curriculum. They created the first HIV
-positive Muppet, Kami
, to confront the stigma of HIV and AIDS in South Africa. According to the documentary, The World According to Sesame Street
, the reaction of many in the US surprised Sesame Workshop. Some members of Congress attacked Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop (the former Children's Television Workshop), and PBS. According to co-producer Naila Farouky, "The reaction we got in the US blew me away. I didn't expect people to be so horrible ... and hateful and mean". The controversy in the US was short-lived, and died down when the public discovered the facts about the South African co-production, and when Kofi Anan and Jerry Falwell
praised the Workshop's efforts.
As of 2006, there were 20 active "co-productions". CTW vice-president Charlotte Cole,, in 2001, estimated that there were over 120 million viewers of all international versions of Sesame Street, and by the show's 40th anniversary in 2009, they were seen in more than 140 countries. In 2005, Doreen Carvajal of The New York Times
reported that income from the co-productions accounted for US$96 million. As Cole also stated, "Children's Television Workshop (CTW) can be regarded as the single largest informal educator of young children in the world". Studies conducted on the effects of several co-productions (Mexico in 1974, Turkey in 1990, Portugal in 1993, and Russia in 1998), found that viewers of these shows gain basic skills from watching them. According to Cooper Wright, the Sesame Workshop's vice-president of International Co-Productions in 2006, their "mission" was to "help children reach their highest potential". The producers of the international co-productions were further galvanized to accept this goal after the events of 9/11. Cooney stated, "Our producers are like old-fashioned missionaries. It's not religion they're spreading, but it is learning and tolerance and love and mutual respect".
, the producers of the co-productions repeated the "experiment" accomplished by the original US show, but adapted it to each specific situation. In 1969, the producers of the original show depended upon government and foundation funding, but as Sesame Workshop CEO Gary Knell stated in 2009, the US funding model would not necessarily be effective in countries with different economic and political structures.
Imitating what the producers of Sesame Street did in the late 1960s, the need for preschool education in each country was accessed through research and interviews with television producers, researchers, and educational experts. Then they convened the experts in a series of meetings, held in the individual countries, to create and develop a curriculum, the show's educational goals, and its set and characters, as also was done in the summer of 1968 for the US show. Finally, they held a series of meetings, both at the CTW offices in New York City and in the individual countries, to train the co-production team in the CTW model. Writing seminars were also held in New York.
In recent years, US cast members Kevin Clash
and Marty Robinson have cast and trained the international puppeteers. Muppet builder Kermit Love
, and in later years, Jim Henson's
Creature Shop, constructed the puppets for the new shows in the US. The producers of Sisimpur
, the Bangladesh
co-production, created their own traditional puppets because their puppet-making craft is thousands of years old and an important part of their culture. The producers of each co-production developed and built their own sets, live-action videos, and animations in-country. After they developed, produced, and aired the new show, they conducted research to ascertain whether their curriculum goals were met, just as was done in the US after the first season of Sesame Street. According to producer Nadine Zylstra, they faced unusual challenges rarely experienced in the US. For example, riots and conflicts between Serbs
and Albanians
in 2004 delayed production of the Kosovo
co-production for three months. In 2005, a nationwide strike in Bangladesh
temporarily stalled production of their show.
The co-productions consisted of unique characters, sets, and curricula designed to meet the needs of their own children. Cole reported that the goal of the co-productions was to provide children in each country a program that reflected their country's culture, local values, and educational priorities. She also stated that this "cultural specificity" was the reason for the co-productions' success, popularity, and educational impact. The co-productions were able to combine universal curriculum goals that were common around the world with educational content that specifically addressed the needs of children in each country. Another goal of the international co-productions of Sesame Street was, as executive producer Lutrelle Horne stated in 1987, the improvement of "the overall quality of a country's television". She also stated, "We give a country a model of how television can be used effectively to address people's needs".
When countries were not able to afford the expenses of creating an original co-production, the Workshop provided what author Louise Gikow called other "creative" alternatives to air their own versions of Sesame Street. They created Open Sesame, a series with no specific cultural references in it, and with, as Horne described, "universally acceptable material". The show was also broadcast in US military bases. The Workshop's library of Muppet skits, short films, and animations were sold to many countries and either broadcast in English or dubbed in the local language. According to Gikow, it often served as the basis for the creation of new material for their own co-productions. As of 2009, the Workshop opened its entire library of episodes, short films, and animations created all over the world so that poorer countries could use and adapt them for their purposes.
Vila Sésamo
, which first aired in 1972 and had an initial run of two years. Its set, or "street", consisted of an open plaza
. The Muppet Garibaldo was "the centerpiece" of the Brazil co-production and remained popular with viewers when the show was revived in 2007. Garibaldo's performer, Fernando Gomes, became a puppeteer because of the show's influence. It was broadcast in Portuguese
. Also in 1972, Plaza Sésamo
was produced in Mexico
. This co-production has also been broadcast in Puerto Rico
and in Spanish
-speaking Latin America
since 1973, and has aired on Spanish television stations in the US since 1995.
In 1973, Germany
, one of the first countries to approach CTW, began airing Sesamstrasse. It has been continually produced since. At first, this co-production incorporated original German animation and live action segments into the US version. Starting in 1978, its producers began using puppets filmed in their own studio in Germany. The Netherlands'
version, Sesamstraat
, began in 1976. This show has aired in both Dutch
and Flemish
. In its early years, Belgium
television participated in its production, so it also aired there. France
aired Open Sesame in the early 1970s before creating its own co-production. One version, created in 1974, Bonjour Sesame, was fifteen minutes long and had no street scenes. 5, Rue Sésame
, the most recent French version, began in 1976. Its set consists of a courtyard of a building in a small French town.
The final two co-productions of the 70s, both made in 1979, occurred in Kuwait
and Spain
. The Kuwaiti show, Iftah Ya Simsim
, was the first of its kind in the Arab
world. It used Modern Standard Arabic, and was broadcast in 22 Arab countries. Barrio Sésamo
, made in Spain, featured a snail character who was able to hide a thousand and one things in her shell.
version of Sesame Street, Svenska Sesam
(1981–1983), was originally a single season full co-production, but didn't integrate puppets. Dubs have aired before and after. Israel
filmed its co-production, called Rechov Sumsum, in 1983; it exposed Israeli children to children from different cultures. Its counterpart of Big Bird was a hedgehog
named Kippi.
Also in 1983, the Philippines
created the first fully bilingual (Tagalog
and English) version of Sesame Street. The series broke off its relation with CTW after one season, continuing under the name Batibot
until 2002; it was revived, still unlicensed, in 2010. The series In 1989, Susam Sokağı
, a co-production filmed in Turkey
, featured various Big Bird
s and an "exuberant little-girl Muppet host" named Simi. There have been three versions of Sesame Street in Portugal
, including one co-production created in 1989. Rua Sésamo was also broadcast in the Portuguese
-speaking nations Angola
, Mozambique
, Guinea
, Cape Verde
, and São Tomé
. Play with Me Sesame
is the title of the current version.
Norway's
co-production, entitled Sesam Stasjon
, began filming in 1991. Russia's
version, Ulitsa Sezam
(Улица Сезам), debuted in 1996. No longer on the air, one of its curriculum goals was to prepare Russian children to live in a "new open society". Two further co-production launched in 1996, with Canada's
Sesame Park
and Poland's
Ulica Sezamkowa
. The first program furthered the local content shown, while the latter program has been since replaced by dubs of various Sesame Workshop program under the name Sezamkowy Zaketek.
Canadian public broadcaster CBC Television
's half-hour version was called Sesame Park
. The series featured a polar bear, otter, female bush pilot, and a girl in a wheelchair. This replaced previous broadcasts of the US version of Sesame Street, with local content substituted, running as Sesame Street Canada (1972–1996); a French dubbed version was shown in 1975.
In 1998, the Chinese
co-production of Sesame Street, Zhima Jie
, was created. An auto mechanic became the head writer of this show, broadcast in Mandarin Chinese, because there were few people with experience in writing for children in the country. It has aired in 40 local markets, comprising 40% of all Chinese homes. Its curriculum emphasized aesthetics
. The Chinese puppeteers were trained by Kevin Clash
and Caroll Spinney
. Also in 1998, a fifteen-minute version of the Israeli show was dubbed in Arabic and renamed Shara'a Simsim
; this Palestinian
co-production promoted children's sense of national identity.
co-production, entitled Alam Simsim
(عالم سمسم), began to air throughout the Arab World and was broadcast in Arabic. South Africa
aired Takalani Sesame
in 2003; it focused on AIDS
education with the creation of the first HIV
-positive Muppet, Kami
. The goal of Hikayat Simsim
in Jordan
, according to its producers, was to "promote respect in the face of conflict". Afghanistan
created its version of Sesame Street, called Koche Sesame
in 2004; it was developed in Egypt and dubbed in Dari
.
In 2005, Sisimpur
aired in Bangladesh. This co-production's goal was to improve school achievement and decrease drop-out rates for grades K-3. This difficult co-production, which was beset by political difficulties and severe flooding that delayed production, was depicted in the 2006 documentary, The World According to Sesame Street. Also in 2005, the producers of the Kosovo
co-production (Rruga Sesam/Ulica Sezam) pioneered a format called the "visual dictionary". Instead of showing individual words on the screen, children were encouraged to label words verbally. It gave a fair representation of all the languages in the region—Albanian
, Romani
, Serbian
, and Turkish
—and introduced children to each language. The Workshop worked in conjunction with UNICEF to produce this show, to aid in the peace process between Albanians and Serbs. One of its goals was to demonstrate to Albanian and Serbian children that their counterparts were like them.
In 2008, Cambodia
produced Sabai Sabai Sesame
, a dubbed version of the original US show, and Northern Ireland
produced Sesame Tree
, which was set in and around a whimsical tree. Denmark
created Sesamgade in 2009, which contained elements of Play With Me Sesame and locally produced segments with Elmo
.
produced its own version of Sesame Street, called Sesame Square
, in 2010. Previously, they aired the US version. Funded in part by a grant from the US government, the show focused on AIDS, malaria nets, gender equality, and yams. It also featured the HIV-positive Muppet Kami from the South African co-production.
After an absence of ten years, and almost thirty years after the 1983 movie Big Bird in China
, 53 eleven-minute episodes of Sesame Street’s Big Bird Looks at the World, filmed in Mandarin Chinese, debuted in early 2011 in China
to a big success.
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
, in the US in 1969, television producers, teachers, and officials of several countries approached the show's producers and the executives of Children's Television Workshop (CTW) about the possibility of airing international versions of Sesame Street. Creator Joan Ganz Cooney
Joan Ganz Cooney
Joan Ganz Cooney is an American television producer. She is one of the founders of the Children's Television Workshop , the organization famous for the creation of the children's television show Sesame Street. Cooney received her B.A...
hired former CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
executive Mike Dann to supervise the initial productions in Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, the Philippines, France, Israel, Germany, and several Caribbean nations.
The producers of these shows developed them using a variant on "the CTW model", a flexible model of production based upon the experiences of the creators and producers of the US show. The model consisted of the combination of producers and researchers working together on the show, the development of a unique curriculum, and extensive testing of the shows. The shows came to be called "co-productions", and they contained original sets, characters, and curriculum goals. Different versions were produced, depending upon each country's needs and resources, from dubbed versions of the original show to independent co-productions that reflected the needs, educational priorities, and culture of each country. The first HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
-positive Muppet, Kami
Kami (Takalani Sesame character)
Kami is a character on Takalani Sesame and Sesame Square, the South African and Kenyan versions respectively of the children's television program Sesame Street....
, was created in 2003 to address the epidemic of AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, and was met with controversy in the US.
By 2006, there were 20 co-productions in countries all over the world. In 2001, there were over 120 million viewers of all international versions of Sesame Street, and by the show's 40th anniversary in 2009, they were seen in more than 140 countries.
History
A few months after the 1969 debut of Sesame StreetSesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
on PBS in the US, producers from Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and Germany requested that the Children's Television Workshop (CTW) create and produce versions of Sesame Street in those countries. Creator Joan Ganz Cooney
Joan Ganz Cooney
Joan Ganz Cooney is an American television producer. She is one of the founders of the Children's Television Workshop , the organization famous for the creation of the children's television show Sesame Street. Cooney received her B.A...
was approached by German public television officials approximately a year after the US version debuted. Many years later, she remarked, "To be frank, I was really surprised, because we thought we were creating the quintessential American show. We thought the Muppets were quintessentially American, and it turns out they're the most international characters ever created". She hired former CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
executive Mike Dann, who left commercial television to become her assistant, as a CTW vice-president. One of Dann's tasks was to field offers to produce versions of Sesame Street in other countries. Dann's appointment led to television critic Marvin Kitman stating, "After he [Dann] sells [Sesame Street] in Russia and Czechoslovakia, he might try Mississippi, where it is considered too controversial for educational TV". (In May 1970, the Mississippi state commission on educational television decided to ban the show.)
By summer 1970, Dann had made the first international agreements for what CTW came to call "co-productions". Thirty-eight Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
television stations broadcast Sesame Street to Canada's English-speaking provinces. The Armed Forces Radio and Television Network agreed to air the first 130 of the US-made show for children of military personnel serving in 16 countries, including Iceland, Greece, Ethiopia, and South Korea. During his tenure at CTW, Dann also made agreements with several Caribbean nations, Mexico, Australia, Japan, the Philippines, France, Israel, and Germany. He later stated to author Michael Davis, "I was aggressive and I knew people around the world". During the same period there were discussion about broadcasting the US version or even producing a British version of Sesame Street but British broadcasters found the show too controversial and rejected the idea. The American version was broadcast on a limited basis starting in 1971, but went off the air in 2001.
In 2001, the Workshop introduced Sesame English
Sesame English
Sesame English is a television/video series developed as a collaboration between Sesame Workshop and Berlitz International. Launched in 1999, with Taiwan and China as the debut markets, the series differs from the typical international versions of Sesame Street in that it was devised as a...
, a series focused on teaching children and their families the basics of the English language and on familiarizing them with some aspects of American culture. As of 2009, it aired in several countries, including Japan, Korea, and Italy. In 2003, in response to the epidemic of AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, the co-producers of Takalani Sesame
Takalani Sesame
Takalani Sesame is the South African version of the children's television program Sesame Street. Co-produced by Sesame Workshop and South African partners, Takalani Sesame is now in its 10th year...
included the first preschool AIDS/HIV curriculum. They created the first HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
-positive Muppet, Kami
Kami (Takalani Sesame character)
Kami is a character on Takalani Sesame and Sesame Square, the South African and Kenyan versions respectively of the children's television program Sesame Street....
, to confront the stigma of HIV and AIDS in South Africa. According to the documentary, The World According to Sesame Street
The World According to Sesame Street
The World According to Sesame Street is a 2005 feature-length documentary created by Participant Productions, looking at the cultural impact of the children's television series Sesame Street, and the complexities of creating international adaptations...
, the reaction of many in the US surprised Sesame Workshop. Some members of Congress attacked Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop (the former Children's Television Workshop), and PBS. According to co-producer Naila Farouky, "The reaction we got in the US blew me away. I didn't expect people to be so horrible ... and hateful and mean". The controversy in the US was short-lived, and died down when the public discovered the facts about the South African co-production, and when Kofi Anan and Jerry Falwell
Jerry Falwell
Jerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator from the United States. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...
praised the Workshop's efforts.
As of 2006, there were 20 active "co-productions". CTW vice-president Charlotte Cole,, in 2001, estimated that there were over 120 million viewers of all international versions of Sesame Street, and by the show's 40th anniversary in 2009, they were seen in more than 140 countries. In 2005, Doreen Carvajal of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reported that income from the co-productions accounted for US$96 million. As Cole also stated, "Children's Television Workshop (CTW) can be regarded as the single largest informal educator of young children in the world". Studies conducted on the effects of several co-productions (Mexico in 1974, Turkey in 1990, Portugal in 1993, and Russia in 1998), found that viewers of these shows gain basic skills from watching them. According to Cooper Wright, the Sesame Workshop's vice-president of International Co-Productions in 2006, their "mission" was to "help children reach their highest potential". The producers of the international co-productions were further galvanized to accept this goal after the events of 9/11. Cooney stated, "Our producers are like old-fashioned missionaries. It's not religion they're spreading, but it is learning and tolerance and love and mutual respect".
Production
The earliest international versions were what then-CTW vice-president Charlotte Cole called "fairly simple", consisting of dubbed versions of the show with local language voice-overs and instructional cutaways. Dubbed versions of the show continued to be produced if the country's needs and resources warranted it. They utilized a variant of the flexible model called "the CTW model", developed by the producers and creators of the original show, to create and produce independently produced preschool television shows in other countries. The Workshop recognized that the production model developed in the US, which reflected its needs and culture at the time, served as a framework for other countries that wanted to repeat it. According to the 2006 documentary, The World According to Sesame StreetThe World According to Sesame Street
The World According to Sesame Street is a 2005 feature-length documentary created by Participant Productions, looking at the cultural impact of the children's television series Sesame Street, and the complexities of creating international adaptations...
, the producers of the co-productions repeated the "experiment" accomplished by the original US show, but adapted it to each specific situation. In 1969, the producers of the original show depended upon government and foundation funding, but as Sesame Workshop CEO Gary Knell stated in 2009, the US funding model would not necessarily be effective in countries with different economic and political structures.
Imitating what the producers of Sesame Street did in the late 1960s, the need for preschool education in each country was accessed through research and interviews with television producers, researchers, and educational experts. Then they convened the experts in a series of meetings, held in the individual countries, to create and develop a curriculum, the show's educational goals, and its set and characters, as also was done in the summer of 1968 for the US show. Finally, they held a series of meetings, both at the CTW offices in New York City and in the individual countries, to train the co-production team in the CTW model. Writing seminars were also held in New York.
In recent years, US cast members Kevin Clash
Kevin Clash
Kevin Jeffrey Clash is an American puppeteer and voice actor whose characters include Elmo, Baby Sinclair, Clifford, Splinter and Hoots the Owl...
and Marty Robinson have cast and trained the international puppeteers. Muppet builder Kermit Love
Kermit Love
Kermit Ernest Hollingshead Love was an American puppeteer, costume designer, and actor in children's television and on Broadway...
, and in later years, Jim Henson's
Jim Henson
James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...
Creature Shop, constructed the puppets for the new shows in the US. The producers of Sisimpur
Sisimpur
Sisimpur is the Bangladeshi version of the children's television series Sesame Street.The first season of the series featured 26 episodes, and a second roster of 36 episodes was in production as of 9 February 2006...
, the Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
co-production, created their own traditional puppets because their puppet-making craft is thousands of years old and an important part of their culture. The producers of each co-production developed and built their own sets, live-action videos, and animations in-country. After they developed, produced, and aired the new show, they conducted research to ascertain whether their curriculum goals were met, just as was done in the US after the first season of Sesame Street. According to producer Nadine Zylstra, they faced unusual challenges rarely experienced in the US. For example, riots and conflicts between Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
and Albanians
Albanians
Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
in 2004 delayed production of the Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
co-production for three months. In 2005, a nationwide strike in Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
temporarily stalled production of their show.
The co-productions consisted of unique characters, sets, and curricula designed to meet the needs of their own children. Cole reported that the goal of the co-productions was to provide children in each country a program that reflected their country's culture, local values, and educational priorities. She also stated that this "cultural specificity" was the reason for the co-productions' success, popularity, and educational impact. The co-productions were able to combine universal curriculum goals that were common around the world with educational content that specifically addressed the needs of children in each country. Another goal of the international co-productions of Sesame Street was, as executive producer Lutrelle Horne stated in 1987, the improvement of "the overall quality of a country's television". She also stated, "We give a country a model of how television can be used effectively to address people's needs".
When countries were not able to afford the expenses of creating an original co-production, the Workshop provided what author Louise Gikow called other "creative" alternatives to air their own versions of Sesame Street. They created Open Sesame, a series with no specific cultural references in it, and with, as Horne described, "universally acceptable material". The show was also broadcast in US military bases. The Workshop's library of Muppet skits, short films, and animations were sold to many countries and either broadcast in English or dubbed in the local language. According to Gikow, it often served as the basis for the creation of new material for their own co-productions. As of 2009, the Workshop opened its entire library of episodes, short films, and animations created all over the world so that poorer countries could use and adapt them for their purposes.
1970s
The first international co-production of Sesame Street was Brazil'sBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
Vila Sésamo
Vila Sésamo
Vila Sésamo is the Brazilian version of the American children's show Sesame Street. As of 2009 it airs on TV Rá-Tim-Bum.- History :Vila Sésamo is the Brazilian version of the popular American educational children’s show, Sesame Street...
, which first aired in 1972 and had an initial run of two years. Its set, or "street", consisted of an open plaza
Plaza
Plaza is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban public space, such as a city square. All through Spanish America, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cabildo or administrative center, which might be...
. The Muppet Garibaldo was "the centerpiece" of the Brazil co-production and remained popular with viewers when the show was revived in 2007. Garibaldo's performer, Fernando Gomes, became a puppeteer because of the show's influence. It was broadcast in Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
. Also in 1972, Plaza Sésamo
Plaza Sésamo
Plaza Sésamo is an educational children's television series for preschoolers, which is the Spanish-language adaptation for Latin America of Sesame Street. Both programs are pioneers of the contemporary educational television standard, combining both education and entertainment.The program was first...
was produced in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. This co-production has also been broadcast in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
and in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
-speaking Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
since 1973, and has aired on Spanish television stations in the US since 1995.
In 1973, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, one of the first countries to approach CTW, began airing Sesamstrasse. It has been continually produced since. At first, this co-production incorporated original German animation and live action segments into the US version. Starting in 1978, its producers began using puppets filmed in their own studio in Germany. The Netherlands'
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
version, Sesamstraat
Sesamstraat
Sesamstraat is a children's television show in the Netherlands, spin off the popular U.S. children's program Sesame Street. In its early days the show was broadcast in Flanders as well. It is the second longest running foreign adaptation of Sesame Street without interruptions, behind only...
, began in 1976. This show has aired in both Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
and Flemish
Flemish
Flemish can refer to anything related to Flanders, and may refer directly to the following articles:*Flemish, an informal, though linguistically incorrect, name of any kind of the Dutch language as spoken in Belgium....
. In its early years, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
television participated in its production, so it also aired there. France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
aired Open Sesame in the early 1970s before creating its own co-production. One version, created in 1974, Bonjour Sesame, was fifteen minutes long and had no street scenes. 5, Rue Sésame
5, Rue Sésame
5, Rue Sésame is a French language children's television series based on the popular U.S. children's show Sesame Street, aired by France 5. This series is the second Sesame Workshop co-production for France, the first being 1, rue Sesame....
, the most recent French version, began in 1976. Its set consists of a courtyard of a building in a small French town.
The final two co-productions of the 70s, both made in 1979, occurred in Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. The Kuwaiti show, Iftah Ya Simsim
Iftah Ya Simsim
Iftah Ya Simsim is the first Arabic-speaking version of the children's television series Sesame Street. Indoor scenes have been taken in Kuwait, while outdoor scenes were in many Arab countries and the world...
, was the first of its kind in the Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
world. It used Modern Standard Arabic, and was broadcast in 22 Arab countries. Barrio Sésamo
Barrio Sésamo
Barrio Sésamo was the Spanish version of the popular U.S. children's program Sesame Street. The show premièred in 1979...
, made in Spain, featured a snail character who was able to hide a thousand and one things in her shell.
1980s
Sweden'sSweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
version of Sesame Street, Svenska Sesam
Svenska Sesam
Svenska Sesam is a Swedish adaptation of the popular US children's series Sesame Street. The series aired at 5:30 p.m. on the channel then called TV2.-Cast:* Lill Lindfors* Magnus Härenstam* Nils Eklund* Gunilla Åkesson* Svante Thuresson...
(1981–1983), was originally a single season full co-production, but didn't integrate puppets. Dubs have aired before and after. Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
filmed its co-production, called Rechov Sumsum, in 1983; it exposed Israeli children to children from different cultures. Its counterpart of Big Bird was a hedgehog
Hedgehog
A hedgehog is any of the spiny mammals of the subfamily Erinaceinae and the order Erinaceomorpha. There are 17 species of hedgehog in five genera, found through parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and New Zealand . There are no hedgehogs native to Australia, and no living species native to the Americas...
named Kippi.
Also in 1983, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
created the first fully bilingual (Tagalog
Tagalog language
Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV and of Metro Manila...
and English) version of Sesame Street. The series broke off its relation with CTW after one season, continuing under the name Batibot
Batibot
Batibot is a children's television program from the Philippines, based on Sesame Street. Premiering in 1984, with the name Sesame!, and eventually renamed Batibot several years later. Batibot in Filipino means "small, but strong and robust"...
until 2002; it was revived, still unlicensed, in 2010. The series In 1989, Susam Sokağı
Susam Sokagi
Susam Sokağı is the Turkish adaptation of children's television program Sesame Street. It was aired on weekday mornings 9:00 a.m./8:00 central on TRT, the state television in Turkey, between late 1980s and early 1990s. It involved a street design in a studio, and original Sesame Street material,...
, a co-production filmed in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, featured various Big Bird
Big Bird
Big Bird is a protagonist of the children's television show Sesame Street. Big Bird, like many of the other Sesame Street characters, is a Muppet character. He is sometimes referred to simply as "Bird" by his friends....
s and an "exuberant little-girl Muppet host" named Simi. There have been three versions of Sesame Street in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, including one co-production created in 1989. Rua Sésamo was also broadcast in the Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
-speaking nations Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
, Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
, Guinea
Guinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
, Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
, and São Tomé
São Tomé
-Transport:São Tomé is served by São Tomé International Airport with regular flights to Europe and other African Countries.-Climate:São Tomé features a tropical wet and dry climate with a relatively lengthy wet season and a short dry season. The wet season runs from October through May while the...
. Play with Me Sesame
Play with Me Sesame
Play with Me Sesame is a children's television series spun off from Sesame Street, featuring Sesame Street characters such as Bert, Ernie, Grover, and Prairie Dawn. In the United States, from April 1, 2002 until September 2, 2007, the show has aired on the Nickelodeon-owned preschooler television...
is the title of the current version.
1990s
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
co-production, entitled Sesam Stasjon
Sesam Stasjon
Sesam Stasjon was a Norwegian children's television series that ran on NRK1 based on Sesame Street. It quickly became the most popular children's show in Norway after its début in 1991, and 198 episodes were made until 1998. Unlike their predecessors from all over the world it is set in a railway...
, began filming in 1991. Russia's
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
version, Ulitsa Sezam
Ulitsa Sezam
Ulitsa Sezam is a regional version of the children's television program Sesame Street, for Russia and Bulgaria.-History:The series debuted in October 22, 1996 on TV channels NTV and ORT and was entitled in English, "Life in an open society." The Muppet characters include: a seven-foot tall...
(Улица Сезам), debuted in 1996. No longer on the air, one of its curriculum goals was to prepare Russian children to live in a "new open society". Two further co-production launched in 1996, with Canada's
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
Sesame Park
Sesame Park
Sesame Park was a Canadian version of Sesame Street. In its first format, it was referred to as Canadian Sesame Street and was a re-edited version of the American series; it adopted a new format and the Sesame Park title in 1996....
and Poland's
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
Ulica Sezamkowa
Ulica Sezamkowa
Poland gained its own version of Sesame Street in 1996 on TVP2. It was one of the few countries in Europe that did not translate the famous Sesame Street songs...
. The first program furthered the local content shown, while the latter program has been since replaced by dubs of various Sesame Workshop program under the name Sezamkowy Zaketek.
Canadian public broadcaster CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
's half-hour version was called Sesame Park
Sesame Park
Sesame Park was a Canadian version of Sesame Street. In its first format, it was referred to as Canadian Sesame Street and was a re-edited version of the American series; it adopted a new format and the Sesame Park title in 1996....
. The series featured a polar bear, otter, female bush pilot, and a girl in a wheelchair. This replaced previous broadcasts of the US version of Sesame Street, with local content substituted, running as Sesame Street Canada (1972–1996); a French dubbed version was shown in 1975.
In 1998, the Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
co-production of Sesame Street, Zhima Jie
Zhima Jie
Zhima Jie is the Chinese co-production of Sesame Street. The show was produced from 1998 to 2001, for a total run of 130 half-hour episodes. There was an unsuccessful attempt to revive it for the 2004 season, however it returned in 2010 as Zhima Jie: Da Niao Kan Shijie...
, was created. An auto mechanic became the head writer of this show, broadcast in Mandarin Chinese, because there were few people with experience in writing for children in the country. It has aired in 40 local markets, comprising 40% of all Chinese homes. Its curriculum emphasized aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
. The Chinese puppeteers were trained by Kevin Clash
Kevin Clash
Kevin Jeffrey Clash is an American puppeteer and voice actor whose characters include Elmo, Baby Sinclair, Clifford, Splinter and Hoots the Owl...
and Caroll Spinney
Caroll Spinney
Caroll Edwin Spinney, sometimes credited as Carroll Spinney or Ed Spinney , is an American puppeteer most famous for playing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on the children's television show Sesame Street.-Life and career:...
. Also in 1998, a fifteen-minute version of the Israeli show was dubbed in Arabic and renamed Shara'a Simsim
Shara'a Simsim
Shara'a Simsim is the Palestinian version of Sesame Street....
; this Palestinian
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
co-production promoted children's sense of national identity.
2000s
In 2000, Egypt'sEgypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
co-production, entitled Alam Simsim
Alam Simsim
Alam Simsim is an Arabic language Egyptian-made adaptation of the format used in the children's television series Sesame Street. Alam Simsim is Arabic for "Sesame World".The show, funded by the U.S. Government's U.S...
(عالم سمسم), began to air throughout the Arab World and was broadcast in Arabic. South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
aired Takalani Sesame
Takalani Sesame
Takalani Sesame is the South African version of the children's television program Sesame Street. Co-produced by Sesame Workshop and South African partners, Takalani Sesame is now in its 10th year...
in 2003; it focused on AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
education with the creation of the first HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
-positive Muppet, Kami
Kami (Takalani Sesame character)
Kami is a character on Takalani Sesame and Sesame Square, the South African and Kenyan versions respectively of the children's television program Sesame Street....
. The goal of Hikayat Simsim
Hikayat Simsim
Hikayat Simsim is the Arabic name for the Jordanian co-production of Sesame Street.The main Muppet characters in the Jordanian version are Juljul and Tonton. Issa Sweidan plays the lovable grandfather figure Jiddo Simsim....
in Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, according to its producers, was to "promote respect in the face of conflict". Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
created its version of Sesame Street, called Koche Sesame
Koche Sesame
Koche Sesame is a Dari language children's television series based on Sesame Street, started in 2004. The show is only shown within schools in Afghanistan, as a teaching tool....
in 2004; it was developed in Egypt and dubbed in Dari
Dari (Persian)
Dari or Fārsī-ye Darī in historical terms refers to the Persian court language of the Sassanids. In contemporary usage, the term refers to the dialects of modern Persian language spoken in Afghanistan, and hence known as Afghan Persian in some Western sources. It is the term officially recognized...
.
In 2005, Sisimpur
Sisimpur
Sisimpur is the Bangladeshi version of the children's television series Sesame Street.The first season of the series featured 26 episodes, and a second roster of 36 episodes was in production as of 9 February 2006...
aired in Bangladesh. This co-production's goal was to improve school achievement and decrease drop-out rates for grades K-3. This difficult co-production, which was beset by political difficulties and severe flooding that delayed production, was depicted in the 2006 documentary, The World According to Sesame Street. Also in 2005, the producers of the Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
co-production (Rruga Sesam/Ulica Sezam) pioneered a format called the "visual dictionary". Instead of showing individual words on the screen, children were encouraged to label words verbally. It gave a fair representation of all the languages in the region—Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
, Romani
Romani language
Romani or Romany, Gypsy or Gipsy is any of several languages of the Romani people. They are Indic, sometimes classified in the "Central" or "Northwestern" zone, and sometimes treated as a branch of their own....
, Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
, and Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
—and introduced children to each language. The Workshop worked in conjunction with UNICEF to produce this show, to aid in the peace process between Albanians and Serbs. One of its goals was to demonstrate to Albanian and Serbian children that their counterparts were like them.
In 2008, Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
produced Sabai Sabai Sesame
Sabai Sabai Sesame
Sabai Sabai Sesame, or Happy Happy Sesame in English, is the Cambodian version of the popular U.S. children's series Sesame Street. It debuted 13 December 2005 on Educational Television Cambodia, produced in association with Sesame Workshop, through a grant from the United States embassy.-External...
, a dubbed version of the original US show, and Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
produced Sesame Tree
Sesame Tree
Sesame Tree, a version of Sesame Street made entirely in Northern Ireland, is produced by Belfast based production company Sixteen South Television and Sesame Workshop. The first episode aired on BBC Two in Northern Ireland on 5 April 2008 with the first series subsequently airing nationwide on...
, which was set in and around a whimsical tree. Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
created Sesamgade in 2009, which contained elements of Play With Me Sesame and locally produced segments with Elmo
Elmo
Elmo is a Muppet character on the children's television show Sesame Street. He is a furry red monster and currently hosts the last full 15 minute segment on Sesame Street, Elmo's World, which is aimed at toddlers. His puppeteer, Kevin Clash, uses falsetto to produce his voice...
.
2010s
NigeriaNigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
produced its own version of Sesame Street, called Sesame Square
Sesame Square
Sesame Square is a Nigerian version of Sesame Street. It is West Africa's first Sesame Street adaptation. Nigerians produce and voice the series in Standard English. The show is scheduled to have three seasons, with the first containing 26 letters, one for each letter of the English alphabet. It is...
, in 2010. Previously, they aired the US version. Funded in part by a grant from the US government, the show focused on AIDS, malaria nets, gender equality, and yams. It also featured the HIV-positive Muppet Kami from the South African co-production.
After an absence of ten years, and almost thirty years after the 1983 movie Big Bird in China
Big Bird in China
Big Bird in China was a 1983 special produced by the Children's Television Workshop and CCTV. It was originally broadcast on May 29, 1983 on NBC. The special was based on the popular television series Sesame Street...
, 53 eleven-minute episodes of Sesame Street’s Big Bird Looks at the World, filmed in Mandarin Chinese, debuted in early 2011 in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
to a big success.
External links
- Sesame Workshop
- "Around the World", Sesame Workshop's section about international productions
- "International Sesame Street", on Muppet Wiki; lists co-productions by country name.