Talk:Sesame Street

First Co-Prodution

I Don't Know wich one was the first International version of Sesame Street. So Many pages say that the origanal Co-Production was another one. Does any one Know the First Co-Production?SesameStreet'sBIGGESTFAN 21:38, March 11, 2010 (UTC)

Orange haired, not Farley

Anyone remember any orange-haired characters on the show, other than Farley? Page 53 of a New York Magazine from 1987 mentions a "punk" Muppet made it to air, but Cooney saw the show in her apartment, and ordered him cut. -- Zanimum 18:28, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

It doesn't say it was cut, just that the character was "gone," which could just as easily mean they dropped the character from further use. It sounds a bit like Nick Normal. Hair color is more brown than orange, but it fits the time period and, as an MTV spoof, the "punk" influence is definitely there. Passing throwaway anecdotes like this, especially not in Cooney's own words, are neat but can easily be mistaken, or her memory could have been off that day, and so on. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 21:49, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Guest Stars

I was just wondering, would anybody object to this page having a section about celebrity guests, if the section were interesting enough? The show has had many celebrities over the years, and they are semi-important to the show (Sesame Street Unpaved and Jim Henson: The Works both have sections on the celebrities who appeared on this show, and many recent DVD releases seem to promote whatever celebrities appear on the packaging). --Minor muppetz 22:28, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

It depends on what you have in mind. This article could use some expansion in general (its roots as a Wikipedia cut and paste are still evident, only the info is now more accurate and directly relevant to Muppet Wiki), but the overview already mentions them in passing ("Over 200 notable personalities have made guest appearances on the show, beginning with James Earl Jones in a December 1969 broadcast, and ranging from performers like Stevie Wonder to political figures such as Kofi Annan.") That sentence could maybe be beef up slightly, but it's a general summary and the celebrities have their own category (and in contrast to The Muppet Show, they're less relevant to the overall structure and many appeared in isolated inserts or otherwise apart from the Muppets). So if you're talking about just listing names and so on, I'd say no. *However*, if you can find, for example, quotes from folks involved in the show about the use of celebrities (i.e. why and how they've made use of them), critical reactions, which celebrities were cast for appeal to adults or children or both, it could work. Unpaved has a nice section, but it mostly just lists names and shows photos and includes a few random quotes, but nothing substantial outside of the fact that a lot of guests have shown up. If you can access it, Gerald S. Lesser's Children and Television: Lessons from Sesame Street (I don't own a copy myself, but the library has one) has a few very useful quotes on some of the early guests and how they approached and used them and why. That would be interesting

Another approach, which requires less research, would be to discuss Sesame and its use of pop culture in general, including not just celebrties but the spoofs (also touched on in the overview), references, musical styles, and so only celebrities). There are probably other ways to do so as well, but just listing names or noting that DVD packaging mentions celebrities would be a bit redundant, in my opinion. Feel free to sandbox, park ideas and drafts here, or be bold and start a section and someone else will no doubt fix. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 23:02, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

I'll have to think about this. I like the idea of a section focusing on both celebrities who appeared on the show and the show's use of pop culture parodes, though I'd have to think of a good section title (I've been thinking maybe "Adult Appeal"). I didn't intend on mentioning in the section itself that the packaging for many recent DVD releases acknowledge/ draw attention to which celebrities make appearances. --Minor muppetz 02:52, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. If you need any help, feel free to ask! There's a good quote, already on Batman, how some celebs were booked to appeal to the kids (how Batman and Robin have "unassailable authority" with four year-olds), but on the other hand, the likes of Pat Paulsen were clearly cast for adult recognition. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 03:06, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Creators

Who would you personally deem to deserve "Creator" status for Sesame Street. Someone added Edward L. Palmer to my list on Wikipedia of Joan Ganz Cooney, Jim Henson, and Jon Stone.

Cooney and David D. Connell were the first exec. producers, with Stone, Samuel Y. Gibbon, Jr., and Matt Robinson, but the last one obvious wasn't around during the real creation period. Dr. Edward L. Palmer was Director of Research. -- Zanimum 20:10, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

This doesn't affect the Muppet Wiki article, but personally, I wouldn't try to mess with singling out "creators" in that way. It was clearly a group development effort. The initial idea and general overseer was Cooney, definitely; Henson oversaw the Muppet elements but otherwise wasn't that involved in the overall creation, at least in the initial stages, judging from meeting transcripts and so on. Stone developed aspects of the street along with Dave Connell and others, Palmer did the pedagogical research, Virginia Schone is given credit with coining the name, Gerald S. Lesser developed the CTW Model and other aspects, and Robinson was certainly around during the "real creation period" (just not as Gordon, but as a director/producer of inserts and so on). Plus scores of other consultants, advisors, writers, and so on were involved with bits and pieces which finally gelled into a whole, as evidenced by CTW archive documents and the book Sesame Street and the Reform of Children's Television. Even Big Bird owes a good deal, in general rough concept, to a Mr. Fluster character proposed by Harvard psychologist Sheldon White. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 22:52, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, I wouldn't call Henson a "creator" of Sesame Street. The Muppet contributions weren't even considered essential to the show in the early days. I have a memo from the CTW archives dated May 21, 1969, where Ron Weaver tells Henson's management that they may not be able to use Muppets on the show because they won't be able to pay the requested salaries for the puppeteers. The production staff wanted to use the Muppets very much, but it was a strong possibility that the show could go on without the Muppets.

The Muppets weren't considered principal cast members, like Matt Robinson or Loretta Long; they were insert performers, like Buddy and Jim. Obviously, the Muppet presence on the show grew between the pilot programs and the premiere, and continued to develop until they become the dominant feature of the program. But that wasn't the original intention at all. Henson was a contractor, not a creator. -- Danny (talk) 23:03, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

I am the person who added Edward L. Palmer to the list of creators for Sesame Street. Edward L. Palmer was my father, and he recounted to me many stories of the creation of Sesame Street. As I understand it, it was a co-ordination of work between 4 people, with Joan Cooney being the initiator who reached out to others with experience and drive to bring together the Children's Television Workshop. Surely there were many other people involved in the later years, but the core group of people included those four people. --MPalmer, 09:54, February 24, 2008

Closed captioning

Anyone else notice the show's closed captioning habits? Maybe they should be noted. Tyrekecorrea 03:00, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Not really relevant on this Wiki. --MuppetVJ 03:13, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Resident typeface

What is the name of the typeface that has been used for most of the show’s history? It looks like Futura, but it is slightly different, particularly in the shape of the numbers and the lack of lines of varying thickness that it uses. Peace. —MuzikJunky 06:29, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

Name origins

I know Danny and the other folks who have visited the CTW Archives have come upon a list of a million different names suggested for CTW's children's show in 1969. There's not much we could possibly do with that, except to maybe point out some of the more interesting or funny ones (a subjective process), but I also notice that we don't really mention the naming process at all. In the Sesame Street 35 Years Anniversary Game, it's said that Sesame Workshop doesn't really know what the origins of the name Sesame Street are, but that it's commonly theorized that it harkens to to the magic and power of the "open sesame" phrase used to reveal hidden objects and open doors, meant to imply inspiration. This topic is discussed in one of the Sesame Street Pilot Episodes. Given the smattering of information available, we might be able to come up with a way to fit this into the article. —Scott (talk) 03:57, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Articles and Subcats

Appologies for mixing them. But I was wondering, would it be possible to have a way of getting from this article over to Sesame Street catagories easily? I only did it because if you just type Sesame Street into the search one tends to be taken to this article - which is fair enough. But the Sesame Street catagory is such a useful place to go to get to anywhere else on the wiki dealing with Sesame Street. I understand if you'd rather not mix it up with this article, I was only trying to make it more useful. Sorry Emma 22:21, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

An understandable assumption. That's what the "See Also" is for, for links to categories and so on. Although lately we have been re-arranging how we organize things (as with Category:The Muppet Show, so it's not as consistent anymore. So this could go either way, I guess (I'll leave it to Danny or someone to decide), but for now, I just put a see also to the larger category. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 22:28, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Well I think that is definitely an improvement. Very much what I was trying to achive. Emma 22:37, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Actually, I have been putting the lead article into its parent category, for the reason that Emma said. I think it's a good exception to make, because it's silly for people to be on The Muppet Show and not be able to get to the TMS category. I was planning to do that for all of the articles, but I guess I forgot to follow through. I'll see what else I've missed, and make it all consistent. -- Danny (talk) 01:08, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Child Actors

In "The Humans" section there is no mention of child actors. While not properly listed in the credits of each show they're an integral part with many speaking roles. I was one of the actors in the early 80's and would have liked to find a list of child actors here, if it can be collected. I haven't been able to find a list anywhere on the net. It would also be interesting to note their interaction with the muppets and how they help the children watching at home relate. Thanks! 30 Jan 2007

You may be interested in Category:Muppet & Kid Moments and The Kids. — Scott (talk) 23:14, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Names

Hi Everyone! I've got an idea, but maybe it already exists and I just haven't searched well enough. What about a list with the names of Sesame Street in all the different countries? Kemical 16:29, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

International Sesame Street -- Wendy (talk) 16:31, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. ;) Kemical 11:39, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Marc Petrosino

Was he every a background puppeteer?[1] -- Zanimum 16:46, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Quite possibly yes. According to his Little Shop of Horrors biography, he was.Theatrefreak25 02:27, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Accurate

Can anyone identify if this addition is accurate? [2] I can't see why anyone would create fake employees for the page, but if anyone can confirm or deny at least on of these people, I'd be mighty grateful. -- Zanimum 14:49, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Exec Producers and Head Writers

Does anyone have a list of Executive Producers and head writers for the show? I think that would be a useful thing -- for this page, and then for the various producer/writer pages. -- Danny (talk) 13:33, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

It isn't complete, esp. with head writers, but it does seem to have all the exec producers... w:Crew of Sesame Street -- Zanimum 18:53, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

I've routed through all of the bios in Category:Producers, and all of the season pages, here's what I've found. I don't know who was exec producer from 2002 to 2004, though. -- Zanimum 14:45, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

• Joan Ganz Cooney (1969-1970, executive producer)
• Jon Stone (1969-1970, executive producer)
• David D. Connell (1969-1970, producer)
• Samuel Y. Gibbon, Jr. (1969-1970, producer)
• Matt Robinson (1969-1970, producer)
• David D. Connell (1969-1973, executive producer)
• Jon Stone (1973-1982, executive producer)
• Robert Cunniff (1973-1974, producer)
• Dulcy Singer (1982-1993, executive producer)
• Lisa Simon (1982-1992, producer)
• Arlene Sherman (1982-1987, associate producer)
• Arlene Sherman (1991-1992, coordinating producer)
• Karin Young Shiel (1991-1992, associate producer)
• Carol D. Mayes (1991-1992, associate producer)
• Michael Loman (????-2002?, executive producer)
• Arlene Sherman (2001-2002, co-executive)
• Dr. Lewis Bernstein (-2006, executive producer)
• Tim Carter (co-producer, 2005)
• Carol-Lynn Parente (2006-, executive producer)
• Melissa Dino (????-????, ??? producer)

umm... someone just edited the Wikipedia list to this new list. It might be more accurate, it might be less. -- Zanimum 16:40, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

• Joan Ganz Cooney (1969-1970, executive producer)
• Jon Stone (1969-1973, producer)
• Samuel Y. Gibbon (1969-197?, producer)
• Matt Robinson (1969-1970, producer)
• David D. Connell (1969-1973, executive producer)
• Jon Stone (1973-1982, executive producer)
• Robert Cunniff (1973-1974, producer)
• Dulcy Singer (1982-1993, executive producer)
• Lisa Simon (1982-1992, producer)
• Arlene Sherman (1982-1987, associate producer)
• Arlene Sherman (1987-1995, coordinating producer)
• Karin Young Shiel (1991-1992, associate producer)
• Carol D. Mayes (1991-1992, associate producer)
• Michael Loman (1993-2002, executive producer)
• Arlene Sherman (2000-2002, co-executive)
• Dr. Lewis Bernstein (2003-2005, executive producer)
• Carol-Lynn Parente (2006-, executive producer)
• Tim Carter (co-producer, 2004)
• Melissa Dino (producer, 2001-)

More Questionable Inclusions

"The brownstone architecture of the Sesame Street set, as well as the concept of neighbors from different backgrounds living in the same area, sharing their life experiences, is purportedly based on a neighborhood in Brooklyn called Brooklyn Heights, where the creators lived when they first started the show." The statement came from the original Wikipedia version (though I added the qualifying purportedly), but nothing I've read in Lesser's book or the more recent Morrow tome on the series development mentions this (Morrow in fact specifically states that a different interior studio set, with child characters, was originally considered and some tests filmed). The fact that a vague "the creators" is included (Joan Ganz Cooney? Jim Henson? Joe Raposo? Matt Robinson, who came from Philadelphia?) also suggests that its a myth (though there is definitely a general consensus that the street was designed to resemble an inner-city area). I'm taking it out for now. Also, do we need the Wikipedia list of international versions? After all, we have a far more complete listing in our own International Sesame Street Shows category, which is already linked at the bottom. --Andrew, Aleal 04:09, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, that looks like fiction to me. "Where the creators lived when they first started the show", as if they were all living together in a New York apartment when Joan Ganz Cooney said, hey, guys, how about we make a TV show?

I agree that the international list is questionable, and I feel the same way about the list of specials and videos. -- Danny Toughpigs 04:17, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

as if they were all living together in a New York apartment when Joan Ganz Cooney said, hey, guys, how about we make a TV show? Sort of a pedagogical Friends, yeah. Lesser, who was there, says nothing about it. Incidentally, Lesser has a surprisingly witty deadpan humor about aspects of the show's conception, such as Maurice Sendak participating in early advisory panels, creating doodles which "capture many themes (sex roles, penis envy, sibling vivalry) that entered the discussions but were not included in our goals or program content" (p. 55) I wish I could find a safe way to work that into the article! Lesser even includes the doodles as illustrations, along with some rich newspaper cartoons which would be a fun way to illustrate that Sesame Street Criticism page idea we tossed around awhile back. --Andrew, Aleal 04:29, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes, please delete that brownstone bit. Some random person added it, I think I deleted it, he reverted it and asked me to comment, then got angry when I didn't immediately respond. Please delete. -- Zanimum 02:12, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

It's already gone. I've been slowly reworking through the "history" portion, using more reliable print sources. --Andrew, Aleal 02:19, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Same Sex

Include? "Same-sex parenting may be an issue to feature in future series." Link to quote. -- Zanimum 16:48, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

No. That's pure speculation on the part of the reporter. -- Danny Toughpigs 16:57, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

You sure? Just because they didn't include a quote... they didn't say it wasn't in planning for season 42. -- Zanimum 02:13, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm sure. Do you remember the flack that PBS got over featuring a lesbian couple in Postcards From Buster a couple years ago? We can look forward to seeing same-sex parents on Sesame in season 442. -- Danny Toughpigs 02:18, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

It's clearly pure speculation. Note that the reporter uses "may" and it follows after talking about how ground-breaking the show is, suggesting that's the logical result in the future. An insane right-wing conservative made the same claim in 1974 after Women's Lib petitions led to Susan getting a job. That's the only source for the suggestion, and there's no indication that the writer did any actual interviewing or research to reach that conclusion. --Andrew, Aleal 02:22, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Variations of the logo

Is someone going to put the variations of the Sesame Street street sign? Angie Y. 02:43, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Funding Removal

This page obviously needs a lot of cleanup and alteration from Wikipedia to Muppet Wiki standards (and we're obviously more exacting about accuracy re characters and content than educational impact, though even then, hard data could be incorporated. I removed the following, which I'm not even sure is from Wikipedia, an almost word for word transaction of the sponsorship closing: Funding for season 35 of Sesame Street is provided by the Ready To Learn The No Child Left Behind Act and the U.S. Department of Education, The Public Broadcasting Service, Chuck E. Cheese's, and McDonald's. Major funding for Sesame Street is provided by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from "Viewers Like You. --Andrew, Aleal 02:26, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Also, is the I-Rom Hack bit at the end necessary? It might work better in its own page or slotted into Muppet Parodies. --Andrew, Aleal 03:07, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Nah, that looks to me like it was probably added to the Wikipedia article by the guy who runs that website, trying to make himself sound important. Who cares about yet another internet Sesame slash thing?

Meanwhile, nice job on the overhaul! This is a big article, and you wrestled it to the ground. Nice! Now I gotta get to work on The Muppet Show -- I wrote a lot about the show for MuppetZine, and I want to adapt those articles into a for-real TMS article. At the moment, it's kind of lame that we don't have an article there! -- Danny Toughpigs 03:16, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

It still needs work. Eventually, it might be nice to include season overviews and such and other shifts and developments. Plus, in keeping with the spirit of Muppet Wiki, I'd like to double check some of the books by educators and such on the series and replace the rather bland and trite criticism section with some of the more interesting criticisms, such as the concern (mentioned in Sesame Street and the Reform of Children's Television) that Oscar represented complacent African Americans ("That cat should get out of the trash can and start protesting," I paraphrase), some choice comments on Buddy and Jim ("You feature bumbling adults.... your two grown men have trouble putting the letter W together"), the concern about Grover objectifying Maria when he says she's pretty, and my personal favroite, the extreme right-wing reviewer from 1971, left unnamed by Lesser but with dates and sources listed (possibly anonymous), who claims parents would be better off leaving their kids with Castro than Sesame Street, that the show is clearly pro-communist because Pete Seeger was a guest star, that it "indoctrinates them into an anti-Christian, anti-national, faceless, racless one-worldism," and ends by saying that Women's Lib pressure to make Susan Robinson a nurse could only mean that since "Sesame Street is already promoting bi-racial relationships, could it not under pressure from trhe gruff-voice gals gradually 'glorify' girl girl relationships?" --Andrew, Aleal 03:27, 4 March 2006 (UTC)""

Ooh, that's fantastic. I have some nice Sesame criticism too, not quite as crackpot but in the same area. I think around 1972 the BBC refused to show Sesame because it was too middle-class, something like that. We'll have to make a Sesame Criticism page with the best quotes. -- Danny Toughpigs 04:20, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Oh, and about the article needing season overviews and everything -- hells yeah, it does, and we'll get to all of that eventually. The wiki grows and grows. We're coming up on our three month anniversary on Sunday -- three months! And we've got 6800 pages! And most of those pages have words on them! It's astonishing. -- Danny Toughpigs 04:23, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Counting Opera Singers

I remember a musical sketch from the 70's featuring Muppets singing in some sort of opera. It was based on counting to (at least) five. With each new verse, another character would join the ones on stage, at which point the group would sing about the number of people that were there. I can vaguely remember them singing, "You and you and you and you and me makes five!", but that's about all I can remember. Can anyone provide any information about this? I'd like to watch it somewhere.

"Numerical Correspondence Song" - Oscarfan 22:00, April 29, 2011 (UTC)

Thanks to Oscarfan for this information! I haven't seen or heard that song in 30-plus years! I joined this muppet wikia page specifically in the hopes of finding out what it was called and maybe even seeing it again. Thanks again!

Riding on a train

I have another segment that I barely remember that I'm trying to find. It feautred a song about riding on a train, and featured live-action footage of trains. I think it mainly involved subway trains in NY City, because the only lyrics I can remember are, "The A-train, B-train, Double-C, take you where you want to be." Does anyone have any recollection of this or know where I can find it? {{subst:unsigned|PleckyTFish}}

It wasn't "The Subway", was it? Powers 19:48, June 23, 2011 (UTC)

No, that was another segment I remember well. This one did not feature Muppets, just film footage of trains. Thanks, though!

Kid Guests in Sesame Street Specials

Do some Sesame Street specials such as Christmas Eve on Sesame Street show kid guests? Danielcelanorocks 24:00 (UTC)

Episode count

I have noticed that their isnt an offical count of episodes. this site and many others have the number above 4300,but on imdb they have only 359 listed. On IMDB many of the early seasons have large gaps. Many of the episodes are just complations of sceenes from other episodes.

IMDB is highly inaccurate on many things, including episode count. Trust us, SW has confirmed that there are 4300 episodes thus far, so what we have is correct. - Oscarfan 21:14, June 4, 2012 (UTC)

SS standard font question

What IS that standard font for the Letter of the Day/Number of the Day? It looks similar to Century Gothic, Twentieth Century and Futura, except that it's got serifs on the I and the 4 is open.

Milestones

There are some milestones that mustn't include in this article. We mustn't include the Puerto Rico and the trip to Grandma's. The Montana Day Camp may be included even if the Thursday episode is missing. User: Phineasandferbning 02:23, 17 December 2012

What Are These Sketches Called on This Site?

I found the following sketches with household sounds and would like to know what whoever runs this site calls them.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdj9HFr07u0 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQY3Hr5-hmI

Cbsteffen (talk) 21:05, March 13, 2014 (UTC)