24 Facts About Sesame Workshop

1.

Sesame Workshop, originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—including its first and best-known, Sesame Street—that have been televised internationally.

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2.

Sesame Workshop Street premiered on National Educational Television as a series run in the United States on November 10, 1969, and moved to NET's successor, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), in late 1970.

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3.

Sesame Workshop's reported her findings in a fifty-five-page document entitled "The Potential Uses of Television in Preschool Education".

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4.

In what television historian Robert W Morrow called "an extensive campaign" that Lesser stated "would demand at least as much ingenuity as production and research", the Workshop promoted the show with educators, the broadcast industry, and the show's target audience, which consisted of inner-city children and their families.

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5.

The formation of the Children Television Sesame Workshop was announced at a press conference at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City on 20 May 1968.

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6.

Sesame Workshop's assembled a team of producers: Jon Stone was responsible for writing, casting, and format; David Connell assumed control of animation and volume production; and Samuel Gibbon served as the show's chief liaison between the production staff and the research team.

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7.

The Sesame Workshop provided materials to non-English speaking children and adults.

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8.

The Sesame Workshop had a reorganization in 1995, and dismissed about 12 percent of its staff.

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9.

The Sesame Workshop defended the acceptance of corporate sponsorship, stating that it compensated for a decrease of government subsidies.

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10.

Also in 1998, the Sesame Workshop invested $25 million in the cable channel Noggin, initiated in 1999 by the Sesame Workshop and Nickelodeon.

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11.

Also in 2000, Gary Knell succeeded Britt as president and CEO of the Sesame Workshop; according to Davis, he "presided over an especially fertile period in the nonprofit's history".

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12.

In 2007, the Sesame Workshop founded The Joan Ganz Cooney Center, an independent, non-profit organization that studies how to improve children's literacy by using and developing digital technologies "grounded in detailed educational curriculum", just as was done during the development of Sesame Street.

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13.

In 2011, Knell left Sesame Workshop to become the chief executive of National Public Radio.

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14.

Dunn's appointment was the first time someone not affiliated with CTW or Sesame Workshop became its manager, although he had associations with the organization previously.

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15.

Immediately after its premiere, Sesame Street gained attention from marketers, so the Workshop explored sources such as licensing arrangements, publishing, and international sales, and became, as Cooney envisioned, a "multiple media institution".

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16.

The Sesame Workshop began pursuing funding from corporate sponsors in 1998; consumer advocate Ralph Nader urged parents to protest the move by boycotting the show.

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17.

In 2018, the Sesame Workshop made a deal with Apple to develop original content, including live-action, puppet, and animated series, for Apple's streaming service.

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18.

The Sesame Workshop decided that all materials its licensing program created would "underscore and amplify" the series' curriculum.

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19.

Sesame Workshop quit to become more involved with writing and composing music for the series, and was replaced eventually by Bill Whaley.

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20.

Many of the songs written for Sesame Workshop Street have become what writer David Borgenicht termed "timeless classics".

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21.

Sesame Workshop's hired former CBS executive Mike Dann, who quit commercial television to become her assistant, as a CTW vice-president.

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22.

In 2008, the Sesame Workshop began to offer clips and full-length episodes on the websites Hulu, YouTube, and iTunes, where "Word on the Street" segments became the most popular webcast.

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23.

Sesame Workshop won a Peabody Award in 2009 for its website, sesamestreet.

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24.

In 2010, the Sesame Workshop began offering, for a subscription fee, a library of over 100 eBooks.

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