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 | | Sesame Street, one of the most famous and iconic of all American children's programmes, is 40 years old. Originally designed to help American pre-schoolers learn the alphabet, Sesame Street continues to help many children take their first crucial steps towards reading. As a result, the programme has won over 100 prestigious television awards. And Sesame Street is not just popular in the USA. Over the last four decades, the programme has produced over 4,000 episodes and broadcast in almost every country in the world. |
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The creators of Sesame Street wanted to appeal to children from different ethnic backgrounds across the United States. In the 1960s, commercially-funded cartoons dominated American television. Sesame Street's creators were horrified to discover that these cartoons contained an average of 20 violent episodes an hour. Appalled by such statistics, the executive director was determined that Sesame Street was going to be different.
Funded by a non-profit organisation called the Children's Television Workshop and developed by a team of educationalists and child behavioural specialists, Sesame Street was a success from the start. The show featured five human hosts, together with a cast of Jim Henson's legendary Muppets. The hour-long programme contained lots of role-play, games, music, short films and catchy songs. Such was the success of Sesame Street that Big Bird, one of the programme's favourite puppets, appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1970. Other puppets such as Kermit the Frog and Elmo spawned thousands of toys, books and other television shows.
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Glossary
Dominate (v)
to control and have power over someone or something.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 17 February 2010 14:32 )
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