Adoption

Adoption is the legal act of permanently placing a child with a parent (or parents) other than the birth parents. In the United States there were approximately 127,000 adoptions in the year 2001. [2]

Sesame Street

Miles

In 1985, Sesame Street tackled the issue of adoption when they introduced the character of Miles, son of Gordon and Susan. When Roscoe Orman's son Miles was a year old, he revisited the idea. Orman remembers, "Caroll Spinney offhandedly said one day, 'That son of yours is so cute -- he's such a great kid -- we should bring him on the show and let him be your son.' I said that I had suggested something like that years ago but it was shot down. And he said, 'Well, you know, you could even adopt him.' That really started my wheels turning and I mentioned it to [Executive Producer] Dulcy Singer."

The producers were intrigued by the adoption angle, and cast Miles in the role. "The idea is that he'll grow up on the show -- for as long as he wants to," the senior Orman said in 1986. The adoption of Miles was shown in a four part story arch in episode 2122, 2123, 2124 and 2125. The events of Miles' adoption were also presented in the book Susan and Gordon Adopt a Baby.

Marco

In 2006, Sesame Street revisited the issue of adoption with the addition of Marco, the son of Gina. Marco was adopted from Guatemala as a baby. Marco's introduction allowed the Sesame writers to deal with issues of international adoption and non-traditional families.

Executive Producer Carol-Lynn Parente said:

“Statistics show that almost a third of children are being raised in single parent households, so we felt it was important to reflect this growing family trend on our 'Street'. By using an adoption storyline to represent the single family household, it also gives us a chance to model yet another definition of what a family is.[1]”

The story of Marco's adoption was addressed in episode 4130, 4131 and 4132. Gina explained adoption stating “There’s a baby who needs love and caring for, and I want to be the person to provide those things.”