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 (1969–2009) PBS (1969–present) HBO (2016–2020) Max (2020–present)
Release	January 1, 1969 (1969-01-01) – present

Series overview

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

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-rex. He was the first Muppet to appear on Sesame Street. His best friend is Snuffleupagus who looks like a reddish-brown mammoth-like elephant-creature 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 alien 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 alien 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 and Peter Cullen.
• Zoe is a female yellowish-orange alien. She has a rock named Rocco and loves ballet. She is also Elmo's best friend.
• Rosita is a bilingual turquoise female alien who is from Mexico and speaks both English and Spanish. She also plays the guitar. Performed by Carmen Osbahr.
• Grover is a clumsy blue alien. 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 alien 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.

Related pages

• Sesame Workshop

Other websites

• Muppet Central