page_title: Format of Sesame Street
section_title: Animation, films, and other media
hierarchical_section_title: Format of Sesame Street / Original format / Animation, films, and other media
caption_attribution_description: Photo of puppeteer Jim Henson at the 41st Emmy Awards.
context_page_description: Sesame Street is an American children's television program that is known for its use of format and structure to convey educational concepts to its preschool audience, and to help them prepare for school. It utilizes the conventions of television such as music, humor, sustained action, and a strong visual style, and combines Jim Henson's Muppets, animation, short films, humor, and cultural references. The show, which premiered in 1969, was the first to base its contents, format, and production values on laboratory and formative research. According to researchers, it was also the first to include a curriculum "detailed or stated in terms of measurable outcomes".
  The format of Sesame Street consisted of a combination of commercial television production elements and educational techniques. It was the first time a more realistic setting, an inner city street and neighborhood, was used for a children's program. At first, each episode was structured like a magazine, but in 1998, as a result of changes in their audience and its viewing habits, the producers researched the reasons for its lower ratings, and changed the show's structure to a more narrative format.
context_section_description: Animation was another important aspect of the structure of Sesame Street. Lesser stated that one of the purposes of animation was to create incongruity, or what he called "illogical surprises".  The first piece of animation commissioned by the CTW for Sesame Street was "the J commercial", in 1968, which they used in a study about its effectiveness in daycare centers in New York City. The CTW found that it was an effective tool in teaching children letters and numbers and that it effectively attracted children's attention. It also provided evidence, as writer Robert W. Morrow reported, that children were able to "endure enormous amounts of repetition".  According to Morrow, the CTW's generalization from this study, which was later supported by outside studies, was that although repetition was an effective teaching method, repeated exposure "determined instructional effectiveness".  "The J commercial" was a part of CTW's promotional film about Sesame Street and was used to demonstrate its teaching style to the press.
  Sesame Street's animations and live-action films were usually commissioned to outside studios. For example, Misseri Studio in Florence, Italy provided animations for the show for its entire run.  Many animations, as well as the show's live-action films and longer segments like Elmo's World were created to accompany specific episodes, and became part of its library of shorts available for use in later episodes. Other films and animations were created as regular, recurring, and stand-alone segments.  Gikow reported, "Virtually all animators and filmmakers supplying the show cite the enormous freedom given by producers, calling it a liberating force that let creativity explode on screen".
  CTW's first producer responsible for the show's animation and live-action shorts was Lu Horne. His successor, Edith Zornow, was interested in what Gikow called "emerging talent", and as a result, the show worked with, as Gikow also stated, "animators and filmmakers on the cusp of fame". Animators who created pieces for Sesame Street included Bud Luckey, Jeffrey Hale, Ernie Fosselius, and others who went on to work at Pixar.  Jim Henson was one of the many producers who created short films for the show.
  As Gikow stated, "The expansion of the Sesame Street brand into films, videos, and television specials was a natural".  There have been two full-length films produced: Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird (1985) and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (1999).  In early 2019, it was announced that a third film, a musical co-starring Anne Hathaway and written and directed by Jonathan Krisel, would be produced.  Starting in 1978 with Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, there have been several television specials, and the Sesame Street Muppets have made several appearances on other programs throughout the years.  Home videos, which emphasized specific curriculum goals, began to be produced in 1985.
  By 2009, Sesame Workshop started a new website containing a large library of classic and more recent free video clips, as well as a series of podcasts.  In 2014, PBS began to stream full-length episodes on its website, mobile app, and Roku channel.  Also in 2014, the SW began an online streaming subscription service called Sesame Go, which aired both old and new episodes of the show.  By 2019, Sesame Street has produced over  4,500 episodes, 35 TV specials, 200 home videos, and 180 albums.  Its YouTube channel had almost 5 million subscribers, and the show had 24 million followers on social media.
caption: Jim Henson, (1989), creator of the Muppets.  Henson created and produced many of the animation and short films shown on Sesame Street.
exif: {}