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Sesame Street |
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Sesame Street has been a fixture in children's television since 1969. It is an hour long show for preschool age children that educates and entertains at the same time. The show was originally created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett and has recorded over 4,000 episodes.
Story
Sesame Street ran for many years using a magazine type format where there were a number of skits, songs, stories, and other types of entertainment throughout the show. This changed in 1998 when "Elmo's World" was introduced where there were still a series of skits, animation, muppets, etc. but the different scenes all followed the same story line. Today the entire show is run more this way. There is still a lot of variety, but there is generally a lot of repetition and a narrative that tie the different aspects of the show together.
Characters
Sesame Street uses a combination of real human characters combined with puppets and animated characters. It is mostly known for the puppets, which are called Muppets and were created by Jim Henson. Here is a list of some of the more famous Muppets from Sesame Street:
- Bert - Bert is Ernie's best friend. Together they are a comic duo on the show providing a lot of good laughs. Bert is more uptight than Ernie and is interested in pigeons and paper clips.
- Big Bird - Big Bird questions everything that happens. He was the first Muppet to appear on Sesame Street and is an 8 foot 2 inch tall yellow bird.
- Cookie Monster - Cookie Monster is a blue monster that has one interest…eating cookies!
- Elmo - Elmo is a young three and ½ year old little red monster. He has a high voice and hosts the last 15 minutes of Sesame Street called Elmo's World.
- Ernie - Ernie is lighthearted and happy, unlike his tense best friend Bert. He is most famous for his song "Rubber Duckie".
- Grover - Grover is a lovable, cute, and furry blue monster. He is known for the way he talks because he almost never uses contractions. Grover has a superhero identity called SuperGrover.
- Kermit the Frog - Kermit is a calm, intelligent and somewhat adult frog. He would later become famous as the host of the Muppet Show.
- Oscar the Grouch - Oscar is the negative grouch of the show. He shows that its okay to offer your own opinion, even if others don't agree. Oscar lives in a trashcan.
- Rosita - Rosita is a turquoise colored Muppet who can speak both English and Spanish. She was the first bilingual Muppet.
- Snuffleupagus - Snuffleupagus is the largest Muppet of them all. He looks like a Wooly Mammoth and is friends with Big Bird. For a long time he was considered Big Bird's imaginary friend.
- Telly Monster - Telly Monster is a dark pink colored Muppet who is obsessed with television.
- Zoe - Zoe is a three year old orange girl monster. She likes ballet and loves to dance.
Fun Facts about Sesame Street
- It is the longest running TV show for kids.
- The opening theme song is "Can You Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street?"
- The first episode aired November 10, 1969.
- The show has been broadcast in over 120 countries.
- Over 5,000 Muppets have been built for Sesame Street since the start of the show.
- Four first ladies (president's wives) have appeared on the show including Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama.
- The first celebrity to appear on Sesame Street was James Earl Jones.
- Cookie Monster has 5 fingers, but he is the exception. The rest of the Sesame Street Muppets have four fingers.
Other kids TV shows to check out:
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