Ulica Sezamkowa

Ulica Sezamkowa (pronounced Ulitsa Sezamkova) is the Polish co-production of Sesame Street, which first aired in 1996 on TVP2 and ran up until 2001. It was co-produced with EuroMedia TV."Leisure time: Sesame Street has new international addresses", The Courier-News (Bridgewater, New Jersey), 2 September 1996, page 10. The show is no longer in production.
The Muppets remain the main attraction, but they speak Polish, have Polish names, and interact with actors playing Polish characters, including a grandfather whose bushy mustache makes him look like Poland's anti-communist hero and former president, Lech Walesa.
Actor Andrzej Buszewicz was chosen for the role by children who were shown a group of photographs and picked his face as the most grandfatherly. "It turned out that (the Walesa look-alike) was the average grandfather the children selected," said Andrzej Kostenko, who shot the 52-episode series.
The series had its debut in October, just after a version appeared in Russia in the Russian language. Before that, Polish children had only known the American version of Sesame Street with a man doing a voice-over and reading all the parts in Polish. 
Now, it's all Polish, from the dubbed dialogue to the Polish family that lives on the make-believe "Sezamkowa" Street.
There are even original Polish Muppets, designed in the United States by Jim Henson Productions based on thousands of Polish children's sketches.
The characters are:
*Bazyli the Dragon, a jovial, furry dragon.
*Beata, a lamb who thinks she knows everything.
*Pędzipotwór, a turquoise monster.
In one episode, Beata played a TV commentator, reporting on an orchestra's performance as if it were a sporting event. "The piano is moving ahead and the violin is coming in second," she said. "The oboe has done something wrong. It's getting a yellow card from the conductor."
==Character Names and Voices==
English Character Name	Polish Character Name	Polish Voice Actor
Kermit the Frog 	Kermit Żaba 	Włodzimierz Press
Bert 	Hubert 	Stefan Knothe
Cookie Monster 	Ciasteczkowy Potwór 	Andrzej Arciszewski
Big Bird 	Żółtodziób 	Aleksander Mikołajczak
Elmo 	Bodzio 	Lucyna Malec
Ernie 	Emil 	January Brunov
Telly Monster 	Tolek 	Ryszard Olesiński
Count von Count 	Liczyhrabia 	Grzegorz Wons
Prairie Dawn 	Basia 	Ilona Kuśmierska
Oscar the Grouch 	Oskar Zrzęda 	Jacek Bończyk
Herry Monster 	Henrys 	Jacek Czyż
Zoe 	Zosia 	Barbara Bursztynowicz
==Sezamkowy Zakątek==
Beginning in 2006, the Polish kids' channel MiniMini began airing a one-hour Sesame programming block, Sezamkowy Zakątek, including dubbed versions of Elmo's World, Global Grover, Sesame English and Play with Me Sesame. In 2009, Sesame English was replaced with Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures.
==See also==
*Ulica Sezamkowa Merchandise
==Sources==
==External links==
* Sesame Street in Poland
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Category:International Sesame Street Shows