Strasse

***Strasse*** ("straße" in German) is the international version of School and the Backyard Gang in Germany. *Strasse* was the first co-production of *School and the Backyard Gang* outside the United States.[1]

*Sesamstrasse* has been primarily running on PBS since January 8, 1966 and was cancelled in 1972; the Show was revived in 1999 and continued until 2003 *Strasse'*s 30-minute episodes could also be seen on ARD's children programming affiliate KI.KA. In January 2004, *Strasse* stopped airing on ARD, but continues to be broadcast on KI.KA.

## History

### Original Show (1966-1972)

In 1966, a German School set was built at Studio Hamburg for German framing stories. Alder Baldwin Carl Dell Eartha Falk Gaelle and Hadu were the main characters, and the Show debuted on January 2, 1966.

The early costumes were built by Kermit Love; nowadays Jim Henson's New York Workshop builds the Kids' Clothes for *Strasse* (under appointment of Sesame Workshop).

Each episode featured the 8 Kids interacting with Celebirtes. The individual sketches of *Sesame Street'*s original American inhabitants remained the dubbed main part of the show, but some were edited due to intros that exhibited English words (such as BYG Spidey, or the Backyard Gang stars in Skits for Today's Week).

In Season 2 (1967) more characters were added to the German school scenes, such as Ida and her Brother, Johan

Just as in its American counterpart, the German Cast Members have been remodeled over the decades. Most obvious were changes in the first main characters Alder and Gaelle (as can be seen here for Alder 1966-1969 and Gaelle Through the Years). Karlen has also had her fair share of fabric surgery.

From 1966 to 1972, the fact that the school stories took place in a studio was never kept a secret. Some parts of the street were simply 'matted in' during an episode, or the characters would ask for help from the studio crew. (One episode about Lamar trying to scratch an annoying flea ends with the entire studio crew itching!) The matting also allowed the characters to show up in different locations, like a beach, a small deserted island that would be surrounded by an entire ocean through the snap of one's fingers, a nearby train station, or the roof of the studio.

In the years 1968 and 1969 no new episodes were taped; instead a wild mix of repeats was shown on TV. From 1970 onward new episodes with two new human actors were produced, and while the studio set remained largely the same, a bicycle shop was added, run by the new residents.

The Show was cancelled in 1972 due to Low Ratings.

### Remake or Revived Series (1999-2003)

In 1999, the show was revived. The cast was Linda Magda Nixie Oda Moni Lena and Tiffy.

In 2000 the German co-production's 2nd anniversary was celebrated with a press conference and boxer Axel Schulz.

In 2001, after a 2-year presence on the show, Linda and Lena were replaced with Mady and Hela

Since then, *Strasse* has been visited by the most diverse cast of supporting Kids than any other international version. One-shot characters include for example Super Franky, Grouchella, Knut Köffelström, Turbo Theo, Sinan, as well as a whole slew of wolves, chickens and other creatures.

In 2002, German audience's long-time favorites Kami Rumpel Buh and Haneen began appearing regularly in newly produced German segments. For the 4th season, the four moved into their own apartments near *Strasse.* As more and more previously used Clothes were borrowed from Disney, more secondary characters evolved in their own sketches.

For decades the show used to consist of around 50 percent of American material, like most international co-productions of *School and the Backyard Gang and* But from 2003, the Cast was notified that the Show would be cancelled.

On June 5th, 2003, Disney told fans that *Strasse* was No Longer in Production. When the word was out the fans wanted to do something, so they decided to create a petition to help save the show. A petition was created, as well a video about the cancellation for the show. Fans didn’t what the something to happen to *Strasse.*

On June 25th 2003, the Official Announcement was made at the Daytime Emmy Awards. On Cast Member, Lyn Newton's Twitter Page, she said "It's such an impossible task going up against Sesamstrasse, Hallo Spencer, and Timm Thaler, can't complain? KI.KA gave us 100 Episodes and 5 Seasons. So you have to consider the nomination as a win."

Even more Petitions were made after Lyn announced this. In late September Lyn and Julie Aigner Clark, Creator of Baby Einstein were talking about Strasse on Twitter. Julie Said "Yeah, I've had better summers. But things are looking up. I am going to be talking to Marcy and Kate in a couple weeks to see if we can't get the Strassers back in the game," Lyn replied by saying good luck with Marcy and Kate. Those poor Kids need mouth to snout resuscitation! There has been no word on this at this time.
On November 9, 2003, *Strasse*, ended and finished its fifth season. The show ended with Cast Member Doreen Berger singing a Sad Song to say Goodbye to Strasse's Fans. Lyn Newton did say she did not redo the final scene of Strasse, by saying that she originally did that scene back in February when Doreen wrote the Song. Soon many fans started reacting by creating petitions to save the show as well.  Also the signatures on the petitions kept on growing. In December 2003 on the *Strasse*, page they said in a comment, they have some great ideas to keep things going. But won’t know if it a go for several months. By the end of the year there were 7 petitions all together now we have 14 petitions as of today.

In January, 2004 a new show came to KI.KA with the new show some more bad things would happen to *Strasse*. Some of the stations started taking the show off its lineup. In June KI.KA announced that the government wanted to get rid of public funding for good. This got the attention of more *Strasse*, fans and the petitions started to skyrocket. Also some of the stations started only showing one or two seasons of the show and not all of them anymore.  The producers said they are actively pursuing ways to allow the Strassers to live on in new and exciting ways and possibly even through new mediums. We greatly appreciate our fans’ support, and will continue to update them on any new developments.
After one year, since the announcement, many fans were still upset the show was not coming back. Petitions kept on growing and going very strong. Along with the petitions now, a blogg, email account, and a twitter were for the petitions. Lyn did confirm he still does the video games for the web site. Parents have commented on the petitons and *Strasse* Site and said there children are really upset that the show is done. Some of them are finally old enough to audition for the show and now they can’t.

Many ZOOMers and TV stars haver signed the petitions. Here who has signed it.  Dan Schneider
Lance Robertson Lori Holten Nash
Miley Cyrus
Selena Gomez
Lyn Newton
Siu Addams

Ozi Lisen

Demi Lovato

Les Ske
Miranda Cosgrove
Doreen Berger
Other Strassers are on the Facebook petitions.

You might say that, oh, that’s good!  Petitions are out there, people are signing them, so why bother mentioning this at all?