Format of Sesame Street facts for kids
Sesame Street is a famous American children's television program. It helps young kids learn and get ready for school. The show uses fun TV tricks like music, jokes, and cool visuals. It mixes Jim Henson's amazing Muppets, cartoons, short films, and cultural references. Sesame Street first aired in 1969. It was special because it was the first show to use research to create its content and style.
The way Sesame Street was put together combined TV show ideas with teaching methods. It was also the first children's show to be set in a real-looking city neighborhood. At first, each episode was like a magazine, with different short segments. But in 1998, the show changed. They noticed kids were watching TV differently. So, they made the show more like a story. The popular "Elmo's World" segment, hosted by the Muppet Elmo, was added in 1998. This made the show easier for younger kids to watch. By 2002, the whole show followed this new story-like format.
The show's format changed as its audience changed. In the 1960s, it was for kids aged three to five. By 2002, most viewers were around two years old.
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How Sesame Street First Looked
When Sesame Street started in 1969, its creators used ideas from regular TV shows. They included music, humor, continuous action, and a strong visual style. They also used cartoons and short films with real people. The show's team filmed parts with humans and Muppets in a studio. They hired other companies to make the cartoons and short films.
Co-creator Joan Ganz Cooney suggested using short, commercial-like videos. These videos were 12 to 90 seconds long. They would repeat important ideas throughout an episode. The studio parts of the show focused on African-American children. This group was a very important part of the show's audience.
With all its raucousness and slapstick humor, Sesame Street became a sweet show, and its staff maintains that there is nothing wrong in that.
The show's creators decided to set the new show on an inner-city street. This was a very new idea for a children's show. They made the set look like real neighborhoods. It had peeling paint, alleys, front stoops, and trash cans. Director Jon Stone believed that city kids would connect with Sesame Street if it felt familiar. Even though it was a city setting, the show showed the world in a positive way. It was both realistic and how it could be. They tried to show "an ideal world of learning and play" from a child's point of view.
When Sesame Street was created, many experts thought young children couldn't pay attention for long. So, the creators worried that an hour-long show would be too long. Because of this, each episode was like a magazine. This allowed them to mix different styles, speeds, and characters. This format gave them flexibility. They could easily remove, change, or add segments without affecting the rest of the show. This approach allowed them to teach many different things. The creators found that if the segments were varied, kids would stay interested. The magazine format also helped with the show's busy production schedule.
Street Scenes: How They Changed
At first, the "street scenes" on the brownstone set were not story-based. They were individual segments linked to the learning goals. These scenes were broken up by "inserts." Inserts were puppet skits, short films, and cartoons. By 1990, research showed that children could follow a story. So, the street scenes changed to have storylines. Writers would present a story, broken up by several inserts. The story would be told over the hour-long show. Even though the stories were only 10–12 minutes long, it took 45 minutes to tell them. Adding storylines changed the show a lot.
When Sesame Street was being developed in 1968, experts advised against humans and Muppets talking directly. They worried it would confuse young children. But before the show started, the creators made five test episodes. They wanted to see if kids understood and liked them. These episodes were shown to preschoolers in 60 homes in July 1969. The results were mostly positive. However, kids paid attention during the Muppet parts but lost interest during the human-only street scenes. The street scenes were supposed to "glue the show together."
The creators re-filmed the street segments. Jim Henson and his team made Muppets that could talk with the human actors. This led to two of Sesame Street's most famous Muppets: Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird. This decision to go against the experts' advice was a big moment for Sesame Street. It created the show's unique mix of "fluffy monsters and earnest adults."
Cartoons, Films, and More
Cartoons were a very important part of Sesame Street's structure. One goal of the cartoons was to create funny, unexpected moments. The first cartoon made for Sesame Street was "the J commercial" in 1968. This cartoon was used in a study. It showed that cartoons were good at teaching kids letters and numbers. It also showed that kids could watch the same thing many times. This meant that repeating things was a good way to teach.
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Sesame Street's cartoons and live-action films were usually made by outside studios. For example, Misseri Studio in Florence, Italy made cartoons for the show for many years. Many cartoons and films, like Elmo's World, were made for specific episodes. They then became part of a library that could be used in later episodes. Other films and cartoons were regular, repeating segments. Animators and filmmakers who worked on the show often said they had a lot of creative freedom. This freedom helped them create amazing things for the screen.
Many famous animators worked on Sesame Street. These included Bud Luckey, Jeffrey Hale, and Ernie Fosselius. Some of them later worked at Pixar. Jim Henson also made short films for the show.
Sesame Street also expanded into films, videos, and TV specials. Two full-length movies have been made: Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird (1985) and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (1999). A third movie, a musical with Anne Hathaway, was announced in 2019. There have been several TV specials, starting with Christmas Eve on Sesame Street in 1978. The Sesame Street Muppets have also appeared on other shows. Home videos, which focused on specific learning goals, began in 1985.
By 2009, Sesame Workshop started a new website. It had many classic and new free video clips. It also had podcasts. In 2014, PBS started streaming full episodes online. Also in 2014, Sesame Workshop launched a streaming service called Sesame Go. By 2019, Sesame Street had produced over 4,500 episodes, 35 TV specials, 200 home videos, and 180 albums. Its YouTube channel had almost 5 million subscribers. The show had 24 million followers on social media.
How Sesame Street Changed After the 1990s
Sesame Streets format stayed the same until the 1990s. Then, other shows like Blue's Clues became popular, and Sesame Streets ratings went down. New research showed that the old magazine-style format might not be the best way to keep young viewers' attention. Also, more kids' shows were on cable, and home videos were popular.
For Sesame Street's 30th anniversary in 1999, the creators looked into why ratings were lower. They studied the show's content and structure. They also looked at how children's viewing habits had changed. They found that even though the show was made for 3-to-5-year-olds, kids were starting to watch it younger. So, the target age for Sesame Street moved down from 4 years to 3 years. By 2002, most viewers were two years old.
In 1998, a new 15-minute segment called "Elmo's World" was added. It was made for younger viewers and had a different style. It appeared at the end of each episode. "Elmo's World" used classic elements like cartoons, Muppets, music, and live-action film. But it told a story that lasted longer. It followed the same structure in every episode and repeated things a lot. Unlike the realistic street scenes, "Elmo's World" took place in a colorful, crayon-drawn world. Elmo was chosen as the host because younger toddlers loved him and connected with him.
In 2002, Sesame Street's creators changed the whole show to fit its younger, more advanced audience. They expanded the "Elmo's World" idea. They changed the entire show to a more story-like format. This made the show easier for young children to understand.
"Elmo's World" stopped making new episodes in 2009. This was because Sesame Street wanted to attract older viewers and improve ratings. Also, the show's learning goals were not designed for very young kids. The changes worked! By 2009, the number of 3-year-old viewers had increased by 41 percent. In 2012, "Elmo's World" was replaced by "Elmo the Musical." This new segment was for older viewers, but creators hoped younger kids would still like it. "Elmo's World" segments still appeared in repeats, on DVDs, and on the show's website.
In 2017, Sesame Street's 47th season began airing on HBO. "Elmo's World" returned as a new, five-minute segment at the end of each episode. Also in 2017, the show's length was cut from one hour to thirty minutes. This was because toddlers' viewing habits had changed. The show focused on fewer characters and removed jokes meant for parents. It also focused on one main topic per episode.
