Sunny Days, Chasing the Clouds Away! Well it's nearly the bank holiday and this November marks the 50th anniversary of the much-loved Sesame Street.
With its songs and rhymes, the American children's show premiered on November 10th, 1969. It had already been recorded a week earlier with Matthew Robinson welcoming a girl named Sally to the now-famous street.
"There were guest stars and parodies on the programme" says CBeebies CEO Claire Day
Training ground
Audiences grew to love regular features, including Jim Henson Muppets such as Grover and the Count, and a thrift shop known as Hooper's Store. There was also the films of everyday life and cartoon sequences.
Embedding itself in the schedules for another 50 years, Sesame Street was devised by Joan Gantz Cooney and Lloyd Mossoriet and launched the careers of presenters such as Bob McGraph and Sonia Manzano, who became firm favourites among viewers.
The programme was eventually complemented by 70s reading entertainment show The Electric Company and both proved to be a training ground where on and off-air talent cut their teeth.
"It was kinda like the same people who created the show. More? Morgan Freeman, Rita Moreno, Bill Cosby, all got their start on The Electric Company," explains Day.
"We really did have to pull together - you didn't get experienced people on the show because it was one of those bread-and-butter programmes."
The 25-minute episodes were made as live, because there wasn't enough time to edit.
"People would be running around, setting up props and moving the piano, and things would go wrong. Even though it wasn't going out live, you really didn't want to stop, so that was a good challenge and skill to learn."
One-child policy
Day has since risen through the ranks to oversee production and acquisitions for CBeebies, and says Sesame Street nurtured a family tree of people who "carried the torch, in terms of pre-school production".
Today's crop of CBeebies programmes also borrows many of the tools used in Sesame Street, one of which is the Letters/Numbers and more personal on-air style. New presenters are always trained to forget about the size of their audience, and to talk as if they're just chatting to one child.
"That whole idea stops them being big and over-the-top and children really respond to it," explains Day.
Comedians would sometimes parody the presenting style in sketches, by wearing dungarees and waving to camera. "I suppose it was flattery in a way but [the show] wasn't meant for them," Day says.
 |
| The Furchester Hotel on CBeebies uses Cookie and Elmo from Sesame Street |
Current hosts are also awe-struck at working with their presenting heroes - CBeebies megastar Justin Fletcher (aka Mr Tumble) often credits Bob McGraph as his inspiration.
Sesame Street also had international success when the format was adapted into Play with Me Sesame from Nick Jr and The Furchester Hotel from CBeebies, and Day says the show's DNA has also spread to pre-school channel CBeebies, which caters for the BBC's youngest viewers.
"We don't talk down to kids and we don't assume they know. You just find presenters who are really, really good communicators, who would be brilliant with children if they just came and sat down in front of them."
But she acknowledges that technology is changing how children interact with content, and so now CBeebies is producing some online-first output.
 |
| Yo Gabba Gabba! on CBeebies is a descendant of Sesame Street's guest star spot |
"You can see how pre-schoolers are using touchscreen and tablets - they all love the online offering but it's still, nearly always, the characters and stories that they first see on television that takes them to those other areas.
"We'll have different platforms to deliver for but it will always be about finding the best things that pre-school children want to engage with."
Day is very proud of her link with Sesame Street and the show's legacy. "It was a quick turnaround and the budgets were very, very tiny but that didn't stop you being creative with it.
"You'd laugh yourself stupid sometimes because it was so intense.
"My contemporary trainee directors are still some of my best friends so it was that sort of environment, where you went in there in your early twenties and you made friends that lasted a lifetime. I loved it, I loved watching that programme as a little girl."
No comments:
Post a Comment