Sesame Street; 1000 Hours of a Perpetual Television Experiment
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 130 634 IR 004 166 AUTHOR Cooney, Joan Ganz TITLE Sesame Street; 1,000 Hours of a Perpetual Television , Experiment. INSTiTUTION Children's Television Workshop, New York, N.Y. PUB DATE Sep 76 % NOTE 28p.; Editorial Backgrounder EDRS PRICE MF-$0.83 HC-$2.06 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Audiences; *Early Childhood Education; Educational Innovation; *Educational Television; International Programs; Media Research;.Mentally Handicapped; *Preschool Education; Production Techniques IDENTIFIERS *Sesame Street ABSTRACT *Suring its seven year history, "Sesame Street" has mainitained high popularity while introducing such innovations as new cognitive curricula, new characters,.bilingual elements, and affective and soCial education. Early goals emphasized 40 predominantly cognitive objectives aimed at helping the disadvantaged child. Additions have included location-based programs, specially designed segments for the mentally retarded, the Muppets, original . music, and guest stars. Both formative and summative research have been conducted. Though attracting an audience was initially a problem, the program now has an extensive global audience. A chart of curriculum innovations is included. (EMH) Documents acquired by ERIC include many infotmal unpublished * materials not available from other soarces. ERIC makes every effort * * to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, items of marginal * * reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the'guality * * of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available -* * via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not * responsible for the quality of the original document. Reproductions * * supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original. * *********************************************************************** SCOPt OF INTEAEST Nom( EditorialBa\ckgrounder We tin(' f ushly I*Is 111190*d 0ifis doeumeodl*, proetnieba - ... jvtly *weft, tloits*Wta 1.4 bi .4so ol st toll, 0/.**,4- rt..1.1 to114 940.t IOW d V S OE PAR TMEN T OF HEA,,TH s h. .1 11. si*. EDVCATTON &WELFARE point, ..1 NATION 4. ,NSTOTVTE OF EnV9TION SESAME STRUT TH. .).%. VI tr 14(1% *Iflt CR,CE C I wa. .:- 6. rf,s :: THE Pf .i w4 ".AN :A ' o . At ,, ... ' . STATEtt OC % ,,cf ., AQ kf PIP* 1,000 hours of a Perpetual Television Experiment SENt ( A .A. IA,4.,.. ( s CO,(A/',.... ,.f4 p `, This year Sesame Street" will create its 1.000th hour fascinated by statistics that showed that a child would of original televisibn programming. That program will be watch more TV by the time he finished high school than vastly different from the first show back in 1969 Perhaps he actual:y spent in classrooms Now I'm astounded by the strongest testimony to the vitality of the series at age the implications of an estimate that between the ages of eight is the fact its producers and researchers wil scarcely five and fifteen a child *ill see some 13,000 killings on pause to celebrate this landmark They are busdy,angaged the medium . looking ahead, and not behind, to cur ncolum innovations A family hour was created by the TV industry to limit in such areas as affect behavior, health and mental retarda- violence to programs after 9 0.m. (8 p.m. in the Midwest). tion and to carry.ng the "street" to new settings the forest, The people who study audiences, the A. C. Melsen Com- the sea, the rural Si3uth pany, found that the curtain didn't drop when the family * * * viewing hour ended. In fact, this season they foundto f4V no one's surprisethat children can't be separated from An economist once noted that 1910 ,vaz-a crucial year the television mainstream audience. More than seven mil- .n.ri,znan history because that was the year when the lion youngsters under age twelve were found watching TV ca. profession began to do more good than harm I liked after they supposedly had gone to bed al 9 p.m. (or 8.p.m.). to think that 1969. when Sesame Street became a part of The family hour is to be applauded, but is it enough? our culture, presented a similar watershed for children s Perhaps the best answer for the moment is to deal with ; te,ev.sion. I had a glimmer of it again two year:, Ater when this proolem the way we should be dealing with every kind The E:ec.pic Company burst on the TV scene as a potent of television program. liberal use by Parents of the oil and Pervasive tool for classroom teachers switch. But for much of the population, the answer is going I have been buoyed by what Fred Rogers, and Zoom,' to have to come litre programming itself, not in the and baingoal programs ofVilla AleOle and Cana:. scheduling. II is imperative for us to avoid undifferentiated .-....4endashave accomplished on public television, and by violence on a mass medium, especially when we know the occasional positive programming on commercial out- the young people are watching. lets such as ABC's "Multiplication Rock" and "After Schobl Specials," CBS's "In the News" and NBC's "Spe- cial Treats." Marshall McLuhan notwithstanding, teiewsion is like Sucn efforts, however, must be viewed as bright but only any technology. it exists to be used. It has the power to occasional blossoms in the arid desert of television pro- illuminate and convey ideas. Some of the applications grams for children. This society is spending more money might go astray, but the potential remains. Among other on advertising to children than in creating TV programs things, I would like to see much more television for spe- lor merit to watchnot to mention quality programs. A cialized audiences, such as the old and the young, who commercia. network news reportei recent.y noted that are ill-served by a medium whose economic underpinnings about 5400 million dollars a year is spent on advertising dictate programs that will reach viewers who contiol to children. spending dollars: the 18-to-49 yeaa olds. f Uniike so many institutions in Americaa sciety, the 1 believe that the talent and the economic resources exist probiem at chilaren s television is one of motivation, not to address the problems of TV and to exploit as potential in money. Reallocating many of the resources that already the marketplace of education and ideas as well as the exist in the industry could go a long way toward improving marketplace of p.oducts. There is still much more to be the cument and variety in children .> programming accomplished for our children Meantime, Sesame Street * * * promises to continue to demonstrate in it's arena that tele- vision can be applieil positively, effectively and inno- I am very howled by the most immediate and potentially vatively to serve social and educational purposes. disastrous misapplication of the medium televised vio- lence Americans are laced with an obsession with vio- lence on the airwaves. One new study reports that more lhan half of all characters on primetime TV are involved in some violence, about one-tenth in killing. I used to be Joan Ganz Cooney President Children's Television Workshop September, 1976 2 -- TABLE OF CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION Page 1 THE SERIES GOES GLOBAL Page 15 English Language Versions 16 A PERPETUAL EXPERIMENT 3 Localized Versions 16 Early Objectives 3 Open Sesame 17 'Continuing Presence' 4 THE IMPACT OF THE SHOW 18 AN EVOLVING PRODUCTION 4 Results Confirmed 19 lnnbvation and Improvisation PBS Audience Survey 19 The Muppets 7 Inner-City Studies 20 Celebrities 7 Parental Favorite 20 Residents of the Street 8 Strong Impact Overseas 20 A Flexible Approach 8 International Acclaim 22 THE ROLE OF RESEARCH 9 Accolades in Europa 22 Formative/Summative Research 9 TV's Most Honored Show 23 Research and Production: 10 Making the Concept Work SESAME STREET' LESSONS 23 Testing Pilot Shows 10 TV Can Teach 23 Universal Appeal 24 ATTRACTING THE AUDIENCE 11 Value of Repetition 24r . Spreading the Word 14 TV Doesn't Punish .24 Audience and Cost 14 Non-Target Audience Viewing 15 CHART: CURRICULUM INNOVATION 12-13 Other Media 15 For additional information. contact: Public Affairs Division, CTW, One Lincoln Plaza, New York, New York 10023. Phone: 212/595-3456 3 / INTRODUCTION As it begins its eighth'Year of broadcasting, "Sesame Street" is such a familiar and accepted piece of the television landscape that few people consider the program revolutionary or, indeed, even highly unusual. After all, why shouldn't such a powerful and pervasive medium as television teach intellectual skills and other useful concepts to preschool children? And why shouldn't the teaching be done with the sophisticated and entertaining techniques of commercial television, especially the commercials? But in 1066, whe Street was only a germinating idea, these were, in the conte of the elevision of that day, revolutionary concepts. Until Sesame Street flasheon the nation's screens in late 1969, the underlying purpose of any vision for a mass audience of U,S. children was to sell products. Sesa Street, on the other hand; was abotit to court that same audience wh lively entertainment that, in effect, would try to 'sell' an education 1 curriculum. The rest, of course, is television history. That Sesame Street no longer is considered a hreakthrough in children's television is one measure of its achievem^nt. Other children's shows -- including Sesame Street's first companion production, "The Electric Company" -- have used Sesame Street either as a model or a standard, or both. That.Sesame Street proved television to he a superb teacher of children when used imaginatively is another measure of its achievement.The fusion of education with entertainment was not incompatible after all. The success of the series is evident in many areas. For one, it has always ranked among the top preferences of public television stations in their program selections.