Sesame at 40
The pedagogy hasn't changed, but the look and tone of "Sesame Street" has evolved. Forty years on, this is your mother's "Sesame Street," only better dressed and gentrified: Sesame Street by way of Park Slope. The opening is no longer a realistic rendition of an urban skyline but an animated, candy-colored chalk drawing of a preschool Arcadia, with flowers and butterflies and stars. The famous set, brownstones and garbage bins, has lost the messy graffiti and gritty smudges of city life over the years. Now there are green spaces, tofu and yoga.
The show's original intent was to present enjoyable and beguiling preschool education to poor children who did not have access to decent preschools while bringing diversity to children's programming. "Sesame Street" wasn't the only children's show with a social message. (Rocky and Bullwinkle are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. Some of the earliest cartoons, back when the show was still known as "Rocky and His Friends," were way ahead of the times; a 1962 retelling of "The Ugly Duckling" on "Fractured Fairy Tales" is a screed against cosmetic surgery.)
But it was the mixture of whimsy, pop music and didactic rigor that distinguished "Sesame Street" from everything else. It has arguably had an even greater impact overseas, especially in places like Kosovo and South Africa, where the show is made in partnership with local television producers and tailored to local concerns. Kami, the world's first H.I.V.-positive Muppet, made her debut on the South African version in 2002 when the government of Thabo Mbeki was still questioning the value of anti-viral drugs.
Television
Same Street, Different World: 'Sesame' Turns 40
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: November 8, 2009
Over the years, "Sesame Street" has replaced the graffiti and gritty smudges of city life with green spaces, tofu and yoga.