Bazyli and Beata in the Polish co-production Ulica Sezamkowa. © CTW. Sesame Street Muppets © Henson.

Sesame Street, Children's Television Workshop's 30-year-old preschool television series, has been broadcast in more than 140 countries over the last three decades. Sixty-eight nations currently air one of various versions of the show; some carry the American original, others a prepackaged half-hour called Open Sesame and some a unique coproduction created for local tastes. Sesame Street consists primarily of live-action studio street scenes, interspersed with freestanding vignettes; a few of the latter are animated but most feature Jim Henson's Muppets. Still, a look at CTW's international distribution strategy is illuminating for animation houses and live-action producers alike.

Tingo, created by Jim Henson Productions for Sesame English, a new CTW initiative with publisher Berlitz. © CTW. Sesame Street Muppets © Henson.

The U.S. version of Sesame Street airs in Australia, where it has been on for nearly 30 years, and the United Kingdom, where it debuted in 1983. English-language broadcasters in the Middle East, Africa and Asia also carry the show. It has been on the air in Japan since 1971 -- becoming the longest-running U.S. TV series there -- attracting an older audience that wants to learn English. A year ago, Japanese network NHK began running a dubbed version of the show (the first time the American version has been dubbed); viewers can switch tracks from English to Japanese by pushing a button on the remote.

Broadcasters in 29 countries from Afghanistan to Zambia carry Open Sesame, a pre-packaged half-hour culled from the best of the Sesame Street library. It includes freestanding segments from Sesame Street, but not the live-action street scenes, and is dubbed into the local language. Some countries, such as Finland, air a customized version featuring new opens and closes and/or original material starring native children.

A new CTW initiative, Sesame English, is a co-venture with publisher Berlitz. It will teach English via 52 15-minute video segments (which also will be sold for broadcast), using a combination of newly created vignettes and repurposed material from the Sesame Street library. Henson created a new Muppet named Tingo for the project, which will also contain a print component.

Abelardo (green), Lola (pink), and Pancho Contreras (blue) in the Mexican co-productionPlaza Sesamo. © CTW. Sesame Street Muppets © Henson.

International Co-Productions
Producers in 19 countries around the world have worked with CTW to create local versions of Sesame Street. All co-productions are 30 minutes in length (the U.S. version runs an hour), with the exception of a 15-minute version in The Netherlands. They feature street scenes reflecting indigenous culture -- in Norway it's a train station instead of a street -- and star a local cast. Co-production partners select from the existing library of freestanding segments, which are dubbed into the local language.

Each co-production incorporates unique Muppets, which interact with the human characters during studio street scenes. The Muppets from the U.S. Sesame Street -- Big Bird, Elmo, Bert & Ernie, Grover and others -- appear in the freestanding inserts but not usually on the street; an exception is China, where the first new Big Bird ever was trained by the original puppeteer.

CTW's first international co-production, Sesamstrasse, premiered in 1973 on German network NDR. Other local European versions of Sesame Street include Barrio Sesamo, which launched on Spain's TVE in 1975 and airs in the Castilian and Catalan languages, and The Netherlands' Sesamstraat, which was introduced on NOS in 1976 and was featured on 15 million postage stamps in honor of its 20th anniversary. Norway's Sesam Stasjon premiered on NRK in 1989. In 1996, two new versions debuted, Ulitsa Sesam on Russia's NTV and ORT networks and Ulica Sezamkowa on Polish TV.