Educational children's television series for preschoolers
Plaza Sesamo
(English:
Sesame Plaza
)
[a]
is the first
international co-production
of the
educational
children's television
series
Sesame Street
. Its first season premiered in Mexico in 1972, and the last season ended in 2018 during the holiday season and the 50th anniversary of
Sesame Street
, but the show returned in 2020. It has also aired throughout Latin America, to a potential audience of 25 million children in 34 countries. Unlike some of the earliest co-productions, which consisted of dubbed versions of
Sesame Street
sketches with local language voice-overs,
Plaza Sesamo
along with
Vila Sesamo
were actual co-productions. Half of the show was adapted from the American show, and half was original material, created in
Mexico
by Mexican writers, performers, and producers. The first season consisted of 130 half-hour episodes. The
Plaza Sesamo
development process was similar to that of the American show. Its goals were developed by local experts in television, child development, and early education during curriculum seminars in Caracas, Venezuela.
Sesamo
'
s goals emphasized problem solving and reasoning, and also included perception, symbolic representation, human diversity, and the child's environment. Other goals included community cooperation, family life, nutrition, health, safety, self-esteem, and expressing emotions. Early reading skills were taught through the
whole language
method. The show's budget for the first and second seasons was approximately US$1.6 million.
The show's set consisted of a typical neighborhood square (or plaza) found throughout the region. New
Muppets
and human characters were created. In all, four seasons of
Sesamo
were filmed. The first season resulted in some of the highest ratings in Mexico. The fourth season, filmed in 1995, was broadcast in the U.S., making it the first foreign-language co-production shown in the U.S. Studies conducted after the first season of
Sesamo
showed that it had a demonstrable impact on the educational achievement levels of its young audience. Highly significant difference were found in tests about general knowledge, letters, and numbers after children were exposed to the show. Significant gains were made in several cognitive and perceptual areas by regular viewers, even in subjects that were not taught by the show. Characters from the show participated in campaigns promoting health and nutrition; in 2009, Sesame Workshop, the organization responsible for the show, was awarded the "Champion of Health" award by the
Pan American Health Organization
(PAHO) for its efforts.
Sesame Amigos
, a Sesame Workshop production for Spanish-speakers from the United States, debuted in 2015. This series aired Saturday mornings on
Univision
as part of their
Planeta U
block until October 2017 when it was replaced by
Calimero
.
Background
[
edit
]
A few months after the 1969 debut of
Sesame Street
on
PBS
in the US, producers from several countries all around the world approached the Children's Television Workshop (CTW, later
Sesame Workshop
, or "the Workshop"), the organization responsible for the show's production, to create and produce
versions of
Sesame Street
in their countries.
[1]
Co-creator
Joan Ganz Cooney
was approached by German public television officials about a year after the US version debuted. Many years later, Cooney recalled, "To be frank, I was really surprised, because we thought we were creating the quintessential American show. We thought the
Muppets
were quintessentially American, and it turns out they're the most international characters ever created".
[2]
She hired former
CBS
executive Mike Dann, who left commercial television to become her assistant, as a CTW vice-president. One of Dann's tasks was to field offers to produce versions of
Sesame Street
in other countries. By summer 1970, he had made the first international agreements for what the CTW came to call "co-productions".
[3]
As of 2006, there were 20 active co-productions.
[2]
In 2000, CTW vice-president Charlotte Cole estimated that there were over 120 million viewers of all international versions of Sesame Street,
[4]
and by the show's 40th anniversary in 2009, they were seen in more than 140 countries.
[5]
Doreen Carvajal of
The New York Times
reported that income from the co-productions accounted for US$96 million in 1994.
[6]
Cole stated, "Children's Television Workshop (CTW) can be regarded as the single largest informal educator of young children in the world".
[7]
Most of the early international versions were what Cole called "fairly simple",
[1]
consisting of dubbed versions of the show with local language voice-overs and instructional
cutaways
. Studies conducted on the effects of several co-productions found that viewers of these shows gain basic skills from watching them.
[8]
Production
[
edit
]
Plaza Sesamo
debuted in Mexico on the
Televisa
network in 1972.
[9]
[10]
According to
Sesame Street
producer Gregory J. Gettas,
Plazo Sesamo
was one of Sesame Street's first true co-productions, programs that were developed using a variant of a flexible model, called the CTW model, created by the producers and creators of the American show, in the countries they aired.
[1]
[11]
Like the American show in the late 1960s, the producers and researchers in Mexico conducted a curriculum seminar in
Caracas, Venezuela
. The goals they developed, however, were significantly different from the goals developed in the U.S. For example, the
Plaza Sesamo
team emphasized problem solving and reasoning.
[12]
Their educational goals included perception, symbolic representation, human diversity, and the child's environment.
[13]
Other goals included community cooperation, family life, nutrition, health, safety, self-esteem, and expressing emotions.
[12]
The show was designed to address the educational needs of the region's 25 million children in 34 countries,
[9]
including its target audience of 7 million children between the ages of 3 and 6 in Mexico alone. Despite their common language, the show's Latin American viewers had a wide variety of customs and lifestyles.
[10]
[13]
The show's budget for the first and second seasons was approximately US$1.6 million.
[10]
The American-produced and dubbed segments were analyzed for cultural appropriateness. If any segments were considered "too American", meaning that they contained English writing on the screen, showed the American flag, or overtly referred to American history, they were removed. The board was responsible for choosing content from the CTW's inventory, and it had to satisfy the curriculum goals chosen by the Latin American researchers.
[12]
They chose to teach reading through the
whole language
method, which emphasizes teaching children to recognize entire words or phrases, as opposed to
phonetics
, the way the American show taught reading.
[13]
The Mexican producers and writers designed a distinctive set that appeared different than the American set and consisted of a typical neighborhood square (or plaza) found throughout the region. The set included a background of mountains, a vacant lot with playground equipment, houses, a combination repair shop and store-cafe, and the plaza's central fountain and benches.
[10]
[12]
New music, written and performed by Latin American artists, was recorded, and writers and actors from different Latin American countries like Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela, were hired.
[12]
New Muppet characters were created and performed by puppeteers trained in Mexico City.
[12]
Abelardo. a dragon,
[9]
was modeled after the American show's
Big Bird
, and like Big Bird, was a full-body puppet that was controlled by the puppeteer from inside the costume.
[14]
Paco, a grouchy green parrot, was based on
Oscar the Grouch
. Abelardo and Paco were both played by Justo Martinez.
[10]
The Muppets Beto and Enrique, who were based upon
Bert and Ernie
of the American show, were called "national favorites" by the UPI less than three years after the show's premiere. In 1975, Enrique and Beto were used to promote Mexico's nationwide free vaccination campaign.
[10]
130 half-hour episodes of the show's first season were shot in
Mexico City
entirely in Spanish, under the control of a Mexican research and production team. About half the show's material was adapted from the American show and dubbed into Spanish, while the other half was produced in Mexico and included animation, live-action films, and studio sequences with human actors and
Muppets
. A Mexican board of advisers, who set curriculum goals for the show, approved all content, both Mexican and American, something that followed the newly established policies of the CTW. Mexican psychologist Rogelio Diaz-Guerrero was the first chair of the show's advisory board, which was later expanded to include child-development and educators from other Latin American countries, so that
Plaza Sesamo
could be broadcast throughout Central and South America, including the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
[15]
The third season, which was filmed in 1983 and consisted of 130 half-hour episodes,
[13]
had different goals than the previous seasons. One of its goals was instructing its viewers and their families about basic hygiene, "a matter of critical importance in an area of the world where gastrointestinal diseases abound and infant mortality rates are high".
[13]
The third season of the show included characters created to "expose young Latin American children to both traditional and nontraditional role models".
[13]
The producers created characters that demonstrated family diversity, in order to fulfill their curriculum goal of presenting more egalitarian lifestyles by modeling overcoming stereotypes, demonstrating different career options for both men and women, and exhibiting the sharing of household responsibilities. They cast performers in two different families. The first family was more traditional and consisted of a middle-aged couple named Tono, a mechanic (played by Maurico Herrara), and Alicia, a public health nurse (Alicia de Bari), who had two children. The adults in the second family were young working professionals; the wife was a veterinarian and the husband was a music teacher who worked from home. Other human characters included: Jose, a shopkeeper and his young assistant, a student named Mercedes (Xochiti Vigil): a truck driver played by Tony Diaz; and a pilot (Fernando Balzaretti), who travelled throughout Latin American and came home to tell his adventures to his friends on the plaza.
[10]
[13]
As of 1990, the third season was still airing in reruns.
[13]
In 1995, a fourth season of
Plaza Sesamo
was produced. It featured two monsters named Lola and Pancho, a larger cast of children, more original music, and a new set designed by renowned Mexican architect
Ricardo Legorreta
. The season focused on a more innovative curriculum, developed by a board of Latin American educators and
UNICEF
, and included topics such as health, hygiene, safety issues, cooperation, counting, and the alphabet. The producers created outreach materials for Hispanic families, for the purpose of promoting media literacy and helping parents improve their roles as their children's first teachers.
[16]
The fourth season aired in the U.S. because of the large population of Spanish-speakers in the country; it was the first time an original co-production was shown in the U.S.
[17]
[18]
As
Gary Knell
, an executive at the CTW stated, "Our mission is to educate all kids. And the fact is, in the U.S., especially in cities like Los Angeles, there's an enormous number of Spanish-speaking households".
[19]
The fourth season was test-marketed for American audiences in April on PBS and
Univision
stations in
Miami
,
Dallas?Fort Worth
, and
Los Angeles
. The test-run was successful, so PBS and Univision began airing it nationally in December; it reached 92% of the country's Spanish-speaking households. At first,
Plaza Sesamo
'
s producers were concerned that the show would be attacked, but
The Los Angeles Times
reported that "even some staunch opponents of bilingual education concede that
Plaza Sesamo
has its merits".
[19]
The L.A. Times
also stated that its broadcast in the U.S. was an acknowledgment that Spanish was a prominent language in the U.S. and that more children were bilingual. The show's supporters believed that exposure to an educational program like
Plaza Sesamo
would result in the transfer of Spanish skills to English and increase literacy in both languages. Bilingual education opponents disagreed, but were not against the show's entertainment value. According to Knell, the CTW found that watching the Spanish version did not draw children away from the English version.
[19]
In 2012,
Plaza Sesamo
celebrated its 40th anniversary with the creation of a new website and a traveling photo exhibit. In December 2013, the show's 15th season premiered with 52 episodes. Segments were shot throughout Latin America; it was the first time the show was filmed in Colombia. Its curriculum focused on math, literacy, diversity, and health.
[20]
A stakeholders meeting was convened in Bogota in October 2012, consisting of interested parties from government and the private sector, and included officials from
UNICEF
.
[21]
In 2016, episodes began to debut on
HBO Latino
, as part of a five year deal running from January 16, 2016 to July 11, 2020. All songs are left undubbed from English. That same year,
Plaza Sesamo
(alongside its Brazilian counterpart
Vila Sesamo
) shortened its name to simply
Sesamo
and fully moved to Colombia. Three seasons have been produced as of December 2017, with a total of 65 episodes. A fourth season, made exclusively for
Azteca 7
debuted on April 27, 2020. The season mostly features dubbed segments from Season 50 of its
American counterpart
.
Influence
[
edit
]
When
Plaza Sesamo
'
s first season premiered, it was the highest rated TV program ever broadcast in Mexico.
[12]
The UPI reported that all three seasons of the show had some of the highest ratings in Mexico; its second season, which premiered in 1975, "had piled on ratings that only Mexico's popular
soap operas
could rival".
[10]
Gettas claimed that
Plaza Sesamo
was "the model for all subsequent
Sesame Street
co-productions throughout the world".
[12]
He also stated that the first season "had a demonstrable impact on the educational achievement levels of its young audience".
[12]
In 1974, a study was conducted by American and Mexican researchers that studied the effect of
Plaza Sesamo
on its viewers. Highly significant differences were found in tests about general knowledge, letters, and numbers after children were exposed to the show.
[22]
Significant gains were made in several cognitive and perceptual areas by regular viewers, even in subjects that were not taught by the show.
[23]
Seasons 1 to onwards from
Sesame Street
were dubbed into Mexican (Latin American) Spanish.
In 1995, Parque Plaza Sesamo, a 12-acre theme park based on the show, was opened in
Monterrey, Mexico
, within the gates of the theme park
Parque Fundidora
. It is the first theme park of its kind in Mexico. According to a press release announcing its opening, Parque Plaza Sesamo includes water rides, live entertainment, interactive, and educational elements. It is privately owned, with Mexican investments, and features the show's characters, along with the American
Sesame Street
, via a
licensing agreement
with Sesame Workshop. The park's focus audience is around northern Mexico and
South Texas
.
[24]
On May 18, 2022, the park announced that it would rebrand as Parque Fiesta Aventuras for the 2022 season following a two-year period of closure. The reason for the rebranding was not classified by the park, but is likely that the park terminated its license to use the Plaza Sesamo branding and characters.
[25]
In 2003, the
Pan American Health Organization
(PAHO) and the Sesame Workshop collaborated in a program promoting vaccinations. Their promotion reached over 147 million children and adults. In 2007, the Workshop participated in an extensive health promotion in Mexico; they put many of the characters of
Plaza Sesamo
on milk containers, which were given to schools, with positive messages about nutrition and exercise. Studies showed that the promotion was effective. Children choose healthy food associated with the show's characters, and 68 percent of families exposed to the promotion reported positive changes in their children's nutrition and hygiene habits. In 2009, the Workshop was awarded the "Champion of Health" award by PAHO for its efforts.
[26]
[27]
In response to
a flu pandemic in Mexico
, various national celebrities appeared in public service announcements with the
Plaza
Muppets, discussing flu prevention.
[28]
[29]
Appearances
[
edit
]
Television
[
edit
]
Events
[
edit
]
Comic Books
[
edit
]
- 2013: "
Sesame Street
": (Issue #1, with Bodoque)
International broadcasting
[
edit
]
Dubbing
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Formerly known as "Sesamo" from 2016 to 2022.
- ^
a
b
c
Cole
et al.
p. 148
- ^
a
b
Knowlton, Linda Goldstein and Linda Hawkins Costigan (producers) (2006).
The World According to Sesame Street
(documentary). Participant Productions.
- ^
Davis, pp. 209?210
- ^
Cole et al., p. 147
- ^
Gikow, p. 263
- ^
Carvajal, Doreen (12 December 2005).
"Sesame Street Goes Global: Let's All Count the Revenue"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
29 June
2014
.
- ^
Cole
et al
., pp. 169?172
- ^
Gikow, pp. 252?253
- ^
a
b
c
"Meet Sesame Street's Global Cast of Characters: Abelardo - Mexico Plaza Sesamo"
.
Smithsonian.com
. 6 November 2009
. Retrieved
31 July
2014
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
"Television in Review: Sesame Street South of the Border"
.
The Nashua Telegraph
. Nashua, New Hampshire. UPI. 26 February 1975. p. 25
. Retrieved
8 August
2014
.
- ^
Gettas, p. 57
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
Gettas, p. 58
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Gettas, p. 59
- ^
"Abelardo- Mexico Plaza Sesamo"
.
Smithsonian.com
. 6 November 2009
. Retrieved
7 August
2014
.
- ^
Gettas, pp. 57?58
- ^
"Univision and Children's Television Workshop Announce National Rollout of 'Plaza Sesamo'
"
.
The Free Library
(Press release). PR Newswire. 11 December 1995
. Retrieved
10 August
2014
.
- ^
"Univision and Children's Television Workshop Announce the Introduction of 'Plaza Sesamo' in the United States" (Press release). PR Newswire. 28 March 1995.
- ^
Freeman, Michael (3 April 1995). "Now, Big Bird en Espanol".
MediaWeek
.
5
(14).
- ^
a
b
c
Cobo-Hanlon, Leila (27 March 1996).
"A Green Big Bird? : 'Plaza Sesamo,' the Spanish-language version of 'Sesame Street,' is prospering in the U.S. amid debate over whether the program hurts or helps bilingualism"
.
The Los Angeles Times
. Retrieved
10 August
2014
.
- ^
"Production to Begin on Plaza Sesamo Season 15"
(Press release). Sesame Workshop. 8 October 2013
. Retrieved
14 October
2014
.
- ^
"Plaza Sesamo kicks off 40th Anniversary with Stakeholders Meeting in Bogota"
(Press release). Sesame Workshop. 25 October 2012
. Retrieved
14 October
2014
.
- ^
Diaz-Guerrero & Holtzman, p. 632
- ^
Diaz-Guerrero & Holtzman, p. 643
- ^
"Flagship Theme Park Parque Plaza Sesame Opens in Monterrey, Mexico as First of Five 'Sesame Street' Parks Planned in Mexican Venture"
.
The Free Library
(Press release). PR Newswire. 8 October 1995
. Retrieved
10 August
2014
.
- ^
https://www.facebook.com/Parquefiestaaventuras/photos/a.160542600667377/5178923278829259
[
user-generated source
]
- ^
"Sesame Workshop's "Plaza Sesamo" Receives "Champion of Health Award" From PAHO"
(Press release). Washington, D.C.: Pan American Health Organization. 30 September 2009
. Retrieved
7 August
2014
.
- ^
"Latin America: Plaza Sesamo"
.
Sesame Workshop.org
. Retrieved
7 August
2014
.
- ^
"Department of Health and Human Services; Three Federal Agencies Join with Sesame Workshop to Launch National PSA Campaign Stressing Healthy Habits to Prevent H1N1 Flu Infection".
Bioterrorism Week
. NewsRX. 14 September 2009.
- ^
"
"Plaza Sesamo" educa sobre la gripe porcina"
.
People en Espanol
(in Spanish). Time Inc. 30 April 2009
. Retrieved
20 August
2014
.
References
[
edit
]
- Cole, Charlotte F.; Beth A. Richman; Susan A. McCann Brown (2001). "The World of Sesame Street Research". In Shalom M. Fisch; Rosemarie T. Truglio (eds.).
"G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street
. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers.
ISBN
0-8058-3395-1
.
- Diaz-Guerrero, Rogelio; Holtzman, Wayne H. (October 1974). "Learning by Televised "Plaza Sesamo" in Mexico".
Journal of Educational Psychology
.
66
(5): 632?643.
doi
:
10.1037/h0037480
.
- Gettas, Gregory J. (December 1994). "The Globalization of Sesame Street: A Producer's Perspective".
Educational Technology Research and Development
.
4
(38): 55?63.
ISSN
1042-1629
.
- Gikow, Louise A. (2009).
Sesame Street: A Celebration?Forty Years of Life on the Street
. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal.
ISBN
978-1-57912-638-4
.
External links
[
edit
]
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Original
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adaptations
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Americas
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Asia
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Spin-offs
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