Sesame Street

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

Sesame Street
logo of Sesame Street
Genre	Children's television series Educational
Created by	Joan Ganz Cooney Lloyd Morrisett
Theme music composer	Joe Raposo Jon Stone Bruce Hart
Opening theme	"Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street"
Ending theme	"Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street"
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	54
No. of episodes	4,701
Production
Executive producers	David Connell (1969–72) Jon Stone (1972–78) Al Hyslop (1978–80) (credited as "producer" in season 10) Dulcy Singer (1980–93) Michael Loman (1993–2002) Dr. Lewis Bernstein (2003–05) Carol-Lynn Parente (2006–17) Brown Johnson (2017–19) Benjamin Lehmann (2018–present)
Production locations	Reeves Teletape Studios (1969–92) Unitel Video, Inc. (1987–93) Kaufman Astoria Studios (1993–present)
Running time	60 minutes (seasons 1-45) 30 minutes (seasons 33, 45, 46 - onwards)
Production company	Sesame Workshop
Original release
Network	NET (1969–1970) PBS (1970–present) HBO (2016–2020) Max (2020–present)
Release	November 10, 1969 (1969-11-10) – present

Series overview

Season		Episodes	Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired
	1	130	January 1, 1969	January 31, 1970
	2	145	February 10, 1970	February 29, 1971
	3	130	March 11, 1971	March 31, 1972
	4		April 1, 1972	April 30, 1973
	5		May 5, 1973	May 17, 1974
	6		June 14, 1974	June 30, 1975
	7		July 4, 1975	July 31, 1976
	8		August 14, 1976	August 32, 1977
	9		September 4, 1977	September 30, 1978
	10		October 31, 1978	January 1, 1979
	11		January 1, 1979	January 31, 1980
	12		February 10, 1980	February 29, 1981
	13		March 13, 1981	March 31, 1982
	14		April 1, 1982	April 30, 1983
	15		May 5, 1983	May 31, 1984
	16		June 14, 1984	June 30, 1985
	17		July 4, 1985	July 31, 1986
	18		August 14, 1986	August 32, 1987
	19		September 14, 1987	September 30, 1988
	20		October 31, 1988	January 1, 1989
	21		January 1, 1989	January 31, 1990
	22		February 10, 1990	February 29, 1991
	23		March 11, 1991	March 31, 1992
	24		April 1, 1992	April 30, 1993
	25		May 5, 1993	May 31, 1994
	26		June 14, 1994	June 30, 1995
	27		July 4, 1995	July 31, 1996
	28		August 14, 1996	August 32, 1997
	29		September 11, 1997	September 30, 1998
	30	65	October 31, 1998	January 1, 1999
	31		January 1, 1999	January 31, 2000
	32		February 10, 2000	February 29, 2001
	33	50	February 4, 2002	March 31, 2002
	34	26	April 1, 2002	April 30, 2003
	35		May 5, 2003	May 31, 2004
	36		June 14, 2004	June 30, 2005
	37		July 4, 2005	July 31, 2006
	38		August 14, 2006	August 32, 2007
	39		September 11, 2007	September 30, 2008
	40		October 31, 2008	January 1, 2009
	41		January 1, 2009	January 31, 2010
	42		February 2, 2010	February 29, 2011
	43		September 24, 2012	April 25, 2013
	44		September 16, 2013	March 20, 2014
	45		September 15, 2014	June 8, 2015
	46	35	January 16, 2016	October 29, 2016
	47		January 7, 2017	September 2, 2017
	48		November 18, 2017	July 14, 2018
	49		November 17, 2018	July 13, 2019
	50		November 16, 2019	July 11, 2020
	51		November 12, 2020	July 8, 2021
	52		November 11, 2021	July 7, 2022
	53		November 3, 2022	June 29, 2023
	54		November 9, 2023	July 4, 2024

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

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

The Puppets

See the main article: The Muppets

• Big Bird is a 8-foot-tall yellow bird. He was the first Muppet to appear on Sesame Street. His best friend is Snuffleupagus who looks like a reddish-brown Woolly mammoth-like Elephant with no tusks and was assumed to be imaginary by the rest of the cast, until the creators revealed him due to hearing about reports of sexual abuse cases of children. Performed by Caroll Spinney (1969–2018) and Matt Vogel (2009–present).
• Oscar the Grouch is dwelling green Grouch who lives in a garbage can with his pet worm Slimey and his pet elephant Fluffy. He is always in a bad mood and he loves everything that other people hate: mud, dirt, etc. He has a girlfriend named Grundgetta. Performed by Caroll Spinney (1969–2018) and Matt Vogel (2009–present).
• Bert and Ernie are two roommates. Ernie is more active and always ready to play a game or make a mess. Bert is an often boring grouch who likes to read; he likes things to be clean, neat and loves pigeons. They are rumors that they are gay, which Sesame Workshop has denied.
• Cookie Monster is a blue monster that has a baritone voice, and eats large amounts of cookies. It was rumored that he would be renamed the Veggie Monster in an effort to promote healthy eating, but that turned out to be untrue. He also once had his own skit where he introduced parodies of famous books, movies, plays, and TV shows. Performed by Frank Oz (1969–2004) and David Rudman (2001–present).
• Zoe is a female yellowish-orange monster. She has a rock named Rocco and loves ballet. She is also Elmo's best friend.
• Rosita is a bilingual turquoise female monster who is from Mexico and speaks both English and Spanish. She also plays the guitar. Performed by Carmen Osbahr.
• Grover is a clumsy blue monster. He pretends to be a superhero named Super Grover. Super Grover is his alter ego.
• Count von Count (The Count) is a number-counting lavender vampire.
• Prairie Dawn is methodic and driven young girl who loves to write and direct pageants featuring her friends
• Elmo is a small red Monster who has a falsetto voice and lives with his goldfish named Dorothy. He speaks in third person and got his own Sesame Street segment, Elmo's World, in 1998.
• Kermit the Frog is one of the first Muppets designed and built by Jim Henson. Borgenicht calls Kermit "funny, ironic, and always the voice of reason amidst the insanity around him; the calm in the eye of the storm". He was a star on Sesame Street until 2001. He had his own skit where he interviewed characters from fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and history.

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

Notable humans

• Alan, played by Alan Muraoka
• Bob Johnson, played by Bob McGrath
• Buffy, played by Buffy Sainte-Marie
• Gabriela "Gabi" Rodriguez, played by Desiree Casado
• Gina Jefferson, played by Alison Bartlett-O'Reilly
• Gordon Robinson, played by Roscoe Orman
• Luis Rodriguez, played by Emilio Delgado
• Mr. Noodle, played by Bill Irwin

Related pages

• Sesame Workshop

Other websites

• Muppet Central