Sesame Street

Footage captured by Retrontario.

Footage captured by Retrontario.

Sesame Street is an American children's television show co-created by Joan Ganz Cooney and produced by the non-profit Sesame Workshop (formerly known as Children's Television Workshop until 2000). The series, which debuted in November 1969, is known for educational content and images communicated through the use of puppetry, animation, short films, humor, and cultural references. It has aired on public television stations owned by PBS (National Educational Television (NET) until October 1970) since its debut, with first-run airings of episodes moving to premium cable channel HBO in 2016. Starting with Season 51, the series' new episodes now move to HBO's streaming service, HBO Max.

Sesame Street was the first children's television show to use educational goals and a curriculum to shape its content and the first show to study its educational effects on children. The program was intended to teach preschool children such things as letters and numbers, socialization and cooperation; but through the use of its humor, cultural references, celebrity guest appearances, and Jim Henson's Muppets, the show was also able to have a strong appeal to parents. Sesame Street has been part of the childhoods of over 77 million Americans, spawned twenty international versions, and holds the record for the most Emmy Awards won by a children's television series.

## History With The Parade

Sesame Street's participation in the parade started in the 70s, when the parade was near the end of the Eaton's era. The first known Sesame Street float was designed in 1977, and it featured a playground and a replica of the famous street with Big Bird, Bert & Ernie, Oscar The Grouch and the classic muppets that every kid and kid at heart knows. This float was a larger-than-life replica of the Fisher-Price Little People Sesame Street Clubhouse set, produced in 1976 and released a year later in 1977. The float would be so popular amongst kids that it would return the following year. The only known credit for this float is Michael Earl.

Then in 1979, a new Sesame Street float was designed for the parade, and it added alphabet blocks and Count Von Count's counting scale to the float. And of course, the muppets were still riding it. The float returned the following year.

In 1981, which was the last year for Eaton's, the Sesame Street float became self-propelled for the first (and only) time. This time, the muppets were riding mini replicas of cars, boats, helicopters and other vehicles. As usual, Big Bird was at the top in his boat, Grover was front in center in his helicopter, and Cookie Monster, Bert & Ernie were driving their own cars. Oscar The Grouch didn't appear on the float because they had even bigger plans for him. Eaton's knew that Oscar was too grouchy, especially at Christmastime, so they decided to let him host the parade to put him in the holiday spirit. Oscar wasn't the only host of the parade though, as children's entertainers Sharon, Lois & Bram were hosting the parade too.

As Eaton's stopped hosting the parade, this meant that our favourite muppets would stop making appearances. This was a very sad moment, especially because not only was the show popular even after the end of the Eaton's era, but also because it's still going on today, so the chances of a new Sesame Street float are still likely, thankfully.