Show name	Sesame Street
Format	Children's television series
Runtime	60 minutes
Creator	Joan Ganz Cooney Lloyd Morrisett
Opentheme	"Can You Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street?"
Endtheme	"Can You Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street?"
Theme music composer	Joe Raposo
Company	Sesame Workshop
Country	United States
Language	English
Pliot	July 1969 with Thomas Mann, Joe Raposo, and Maria Hill on NET
Location	Teletape Studios (1969-1992) Kaufman Astoria Studios (1992-present) New York City
Network	NET (1969-1970)
First aired	November 10, 1969
Last aired	present
Num seasons	41
Num episodes	4,256

Sesame Street is an American children's television program known for its combination of Jim Henson's The Muppets, animation, short films, humor, and cultural references. It premiered on public broadcasting television stations on November 10, 1969, to positive reviews, some controversy, and high ratings. It was the first preschool educational television program to base its contents and production values on laboratory and formative research, and the first to include a curriculum "detailed or stated in terms of measurable outcomes". According to Morrow, the CTW model consisted of four parts: "the interaction of receptive television producers and child science experts, the creation of a specific and age-appropriate curriculum, research to shape the program directly, and independent measurement of viewers' learning".

Music

Director Jon Stone stated, about the music of Sesame Street, "There was no other sound like it on television".

Sesame Street's animations and live-action films were usually commissioned to outside studios. For example, Misseri Studio in Florence, Italy provided animations for the show for its entire 40-year run. Dave Connell insisted that no child actors were used, CTW research also showed that the child actors' hesitations and on-air mistakes served as models for viewers. According to Morrow, this resulted in the show having a "fresh quality", especially in its early years. Children were also used in the voice-over commentaries of most of live-actions films the CTW produced. CTW's research found that children had difficulty constructing a scene from a spoken description, so the show's producers portrayed dramatic action on screen, narrated by unscripted comments from children.

Reception

Ratings

When Sesame Street premiered in 1969, it aired on only 67.6% of American televisions, but it earned a 3.3 Nielsen rating, or 1.9 million households. In 1985, the CTW estimated that 20% of its regular viewers consisted of adults. By the show's tenth anniversary in 1979, 9 million American children under the age of six were watching Sesame Street daily. According to a 1993 survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, out of the show's 6.6 million viewers, 2.4 million kindergartners regularly watched it. 77% of preschoolers watched it once a week, and 86% of kindergartners, first-, and second-grade students had watched it once a week before starting school. The show reached most young children in almost all demographic groups.

The show's ratings significantly decreased in the early 1990s, when children' viewing habits and the television marketplace had changed. The producers responded to these societal changes by making large-scale structural changes to the show. By 2006, Sesame Street had become "the most widely viewed children's television show in the world", with 20 international independent versions and broadcasts in over 120 countries. In 2008, it was estimated that 77 million Americans had watched the series as children. By the show's 40th anniversary in 2009, it was ranked the fifteenth most popular children's show on television.

Influence

As Davis has stated, Sesame Street is "perhaps the most vigorously researched, vetted, and fretted-over program". As of 2001, there were over 1,000 research studies regarding its efficacy, impact, and effect on American culture. ETS' two "landmark" summative evaluations, conducted in 1970 and 1971, demonstrated that Sesame Street had a significant educational impact on its viewers. According to Mielke, these studies provided the majority of the early educational effects of Sesame Street and have been cited in other studies of the effects of television on young children. Additional studies conducted throughout Sesame Street's history demonstrated that the show continued to have a positive effect on its young viewers.

, with Ernie's rubber duckie.]]

Lesser believed that Sesame Street research "may have conferred a new respectability upon the studies of the effects of visual media upon children". He also believed that the show had the same effect on the prestige in the television industry of producing shows for children. Les Brown, a writer for Variety, saw in Sesame Street "a hope for a more substantial future" for television. According to Morrow, in spite of the CTW Model's effectiveness in creating a popular show, commercial television "made only a limited effort to emulate CTW's methods", and did not use a curriculum or evaluate what children learned from them. Morrow reported that by the mid 1970s, commercial television abandoned their experiments with creating better children's programming. Other critics hoped that Sesame Street, with its depiction of a functioning, multicultural community, would nurture racial tolerance in its young viewers.

As critic Richard Roeper has stated, perhaps one of the strongest indicators of the influence of Sesame Street have been the enduring rumors and urban legends surrounding the show and its characters, especially about Bert and Ernie.

Critical reception

Sesame Street was praised from its debut in 1969. Newsday reported that several newspapers and magazines had written "glowing" reports about CTW and Cooney. In 1970, Sesame Street won twenty awards, including a Peabody Award, three Emmys, an award from the Public Relations Society of America, a Clio, and a Prix Jeunesse. By 1995, the show had won two Peabody Awards and four Parents' Choice Awards. In addition, it was the subject of retrospectives at the Smithsonian Institution and the Museum of Modern Art. According to Children and Television, Lesser's account of the development and early years of Sesame Street, there was little criticism of the show in the months following its premiere, but it increased at the end of its first season and beginning of the second season. Historian Robert W. Morrow speculated that much of the early criticism, which he called "surprisingly intense", stemmed from cultural and historical reasons in regards to, as he put it, "the place of children in American society and the controversies about television's effects on them". Social scientist and Head Start Program founder Urie Bronfenbrenner criticized the show for being too wholesome. Psychologist Leon Eisenberg saw Sesame Street's urban setting as "superficial" and having little to do with the problems confronted by the inner-city child. Head Start director Edward Zigler was probably Sesame Street's most vocal critic in the show's early years.

Morrow credited CTW's commitment to multiculturalism as the source for many of their conflicts with the leadership of minority groups, especially Latino groups and feminists, who objected to Sesame Street's depiction of Latinos and women. The CTW took steps to address their objections. By 1971, the CTW hired Hispanic actors, production staff, and researchers, and by the mid-70s, Morrow reported that "the show included Chicano and Puerto Rican cast members, films about Mexican holidays and foods, and cartoons that taught Spanish words". As the New York Times has stated, creating strong female characters "that make kids laugh, but not...as female stereotypes" has been a challenge for the producers of Sesame Street. According to Morrow, change regarding how women and girls were depicted on Sesame Street occurred slowly. As more female Muppets performers like Fran Brill, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, and Leslie Carrara-Rudolph were hired and trained, stronger female characters like Abby Cadabby were created.

As of 2009, Sesame Street has received 118 Emmy Awards, more than any other television series.

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References

Borgenicht, David (1998). Sesame Street Unpaved. New York: Hyperion Publishing. ISBN 0-7868-6460-5

Clash, Kevin and Gary Brozek & Louis Henry Mitchell (2006). My Life as a Furry Red Monster: What Being Elmo has Taught Me About Life, Love and Laughing Out Loud. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-7679-2375-8

Cole, Charlotte F., Beth A. Richman, and Susan A. McCann Brown (2001). "The World of Sesame Street Research". In "G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street, Fisch, Shalom M. and Rosemarie T. Truglio, eds. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. ISBN 0-8058-3395-1

Cooney, Joan Ganz (2001). "Foreword". In "G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street, Fisch, Shalom M. and Rosemarie T. Truglio, eds. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. ISBN 0-8058-3395-1

Davis, Michael (2008). Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. New York: Viking Penguin. ISBN 978-0-670-01996-0

Finch, Christopher (1993). Jim Henson: The Works: the Art, the Magic, the Imagination. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-6794-1203

Fisch, Shalom M. and Lewis Bernstein (2001). "Formative Research Revealed: Methodological and Process Issues in Formative Research". In In "G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street, Fisch, Shalom M. and Rosemarie T. Truglio, eds. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. ISBN 0-8058-3395-1-4

Gikow, Louise A. (2009). Sesame Street: A Celebration— Forty Years of Life on the Street. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. ISBN 978-1-57912-638-4.

Gladwell, Malcolm (2000). The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. New York: Little, Brown, and Company. ISBN 0-316-31696-2

Lesser, Gerald S. (1974). Children and Television: Lessons From Sesame Street. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-3947-1448-2

Lesser, Gerald S. and Joel Schneider (2001). "Creation and Evolution of the Sesame Street Curriculum". In "G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street, Fisch, Shalom M. and Rosemarie T. Truglio, eds. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. ISBN 0-8058-3395-1

Morrow, Robert W. (2006). Sesame Street and the Reform of Children's Television. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-8230-3

O'Dell, Cary (1997). Women Pioneers in Television: Biographies of Fifteen Industry Leaders. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-0167-2.

Palmer, Edward L. and Shalom M. Fisch (2001). "The Beginnings of Sesame Street Research". In "G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street, Fisch, Shalom M. and Rosemarie T. Truglio, eds. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. ISBN 0-8058-3395-1

Truglio, Rosemarie T. and Shalom M. Fisch (2001b). "Why Children Learn From Sesame Street". In "G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street, Fisch, Shalom M. and Rosemarie T. Truglio, eds. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. ISBN 0-8058-3395-1

Truglio, Rosemarie T., Valeria O. Lovelace, Ivelisse Segui, & Susan Scheiner. (2001). "The Varied Role of Formative Research: Case Studies from 30 Years". In "G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street, Fisch, Shalom M. and Rosemarie T. Truglio, eds. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. ISBN 0-8058-3395-1

Yotive, William and Shalom M. Fisch. (2001). "The Role of Sesame Street-Based Materials in Child-Care Settings". In "G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street, Fisch, Shalom M. and Rosemarie T. Truglio, eds. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. ISBN 0-8058-3395-1

External links

Sesame Workshop

SesameStreet.org

PBS Kids: Official Site

Muppet Wiki

Sesame Street Live

* Sesame Street Episode Guide at Muppet Wiki

Sesame Street eBooks

Top Sesame Street Song Parodies

Category:1969 television series debuts Category:1960s American television series Category:1970s American television series Category:1980s American television series Category:1990s American television series Category:2000s American television series Category:2010s American television series Category:American children's television series Category:Early childhood education Category:Early childhood education in the United States Category:Emmy Award winning programs Category:English-language television series Category:Fictional neighborhoods Category:Fictional streets and roads Category:Peabody Award winners Category:PBS network shows Category:Preschool education television series Category:Sesame Street Category:Sesame Workshop Category:Television programs featuring anthropomorphic characters Category:Television programs featuring puppetry Category:Television series by Sesame Workshop Category:Television shows set in New York City

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), better known by her stage name Katy Perry, is an American pop musician. Born in Santa Barbara, California, and raised by Christian pastor parents; Perry grew up listening to only gospel music and sang in her local church as a child. After earning a GED during her freshman year of high school, she began to pursue a career in music. As Katy Hudson, she released a self-titled gospel album in 2001, which due to the closing of her record label, was deemed unsuccessful. She later recorded an album with production team The Matrix and completed the majority of a solo album from 2004–5; neither of which were released.

After signing with Capitol Music Group in 2007, her fourth record label in seven years, she adopted the stage name Katy Perry and released her first Internet single "Ur So Gay" that November, which garnered public attention; but failed to chart. She rose to fame with the release of her second single "I Kissed a Girl" in 2008, which went on to top international charts. Perry's first mainstream studio album One of the Boys followed later that year and subsequently, became the thirty-third best selling album worldwide of 2008. It was accredited platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America, while "I Kissed a Girl" and her second single "Hot n Cold" both received multi-platinum certifications. Her sophomore studio album Teenage Dream was released in August 2010 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. The album included hit singles "California Gurls", "Teenage Dream" and "Firework", all of which topped the charts on the Billboard Hot 100 and worldwide.

Perry was credited as a guest judge on the seventh series of the British television show The X Factor; has released a fragrance called "Purr"; and will appear in the upcoming 2011-film The Smurfs. Perry had a long relationship with Travie McCoy; she married Russell Brand on October 23, 2010.

Biography

1984–2006: Early life and career beginnings

Perry was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson in Santa Barbara, California on October 25, 1984 to Mary (née Perry), an evangelist who grew up in Southern California and had "a tempestuous first marriage in Zimbabwe", She has an older sister and younger brother. Perry's maternal aunt and uncle were screenwriter Eleanor Perry and director Frank Perry, through whom she is also related to Charles M. Schwab, the founder of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation.

Perry was incorporated into her parents' ministry She grew up listening to gospel music, was not allowed to listen to what her mother called "secular music", and attended Christian schools and camps. She took her GED after her freshman year at Dos Pueblos High School and decided to leave school in the pursuit of a career in music. Her sister practiced with cassette tapes, while Perry took the tapes herself when her sister was not around. She rehearsed the songs and performed them in front of her parents, who suggested she take vocal coaching. She grabbed the opportunity and began taking lessons at the age of nine and continued until she was sixteen. She later enrolled in at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and studied Italian opera for a short period of time. In Nashville, Perry started recording demos and was taught by country music veterans on how to craft songs and play guitar. Performing as Katy Hudson, she released the self-titled Gospel-rock album in 2001. The album was due for release in 2005,

Perry signed to Columbia Records in 2004. However, the label was not amenable with her vision, not putting her in the "driver's seat". She made a cameo appearance in Carbon Leaf's video, "Learn to Fly".

2007–09: One of the Boys and MTV Unplugged

Before being dropped by Columbia, its then publicity executive Angelica Cob-Baehler recommended Perry to Capitol A&R; Chris Anokute while at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Keen to hear more, Anokute was sent a DVD, featuring a video of "Simple", and a three-song demo. It was after hearing the demo of "Waking Up in Vegas" that Anokute became convinced of Perry's star talent. He showed the demo to his boss Jason Flom, then head of Capitol Music Group, telling him, "I've found the next Avril Lavigne meets Alanis Morissette." Flom proved to be less enthusiastic, however; he wasn't convinced the demos were good enough and was wary about an artist that had already been dropped by two major labels. Anokute refused to give up and eventually his persistence together with that of new Virgin employee, Cob-Baehler, paid off. Perry was signed to Capitol Music in early 2007.

She went on the next step of promoting the album, undertaking a two-month tour of radio stations. The album's official lead single, "I Kissed a Girl", was released on May 6, 2008. Perry's A&R;, Chris Anokute, told HitQuarters how, despite being himself convinced it was a "career record", the song and its controversial theme met with strong resistance at the label, "People said, 'This is never going to get played on the radio. How do we sell this? How’s this going to be played in the bible belt?'" On June 12, 2008, Perry appeared as herself on the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless,

One of the Boys was released on June 17, 2008 to mixed critical reviews. The album has reached number nine on the Billboard 200, and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Perry released her second single, "Hot n Cold", which became her second top three single in dozens of countries around the world, including the United States where it reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100, Perry was nominated in five categories at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, including Best New Artist and Best Female Video, but lost to Britney Spears. She won Best New Act at the 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards, which she co-hosted, and Best International Female Artist at the 2009 BRIT Awards. On February 9, 2009, both "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot n Cold" were certified three-time platinum by Recording Industry Association of America for individual digital sales of over three million.

The Matrix's self-titled debut album, which features Perry, was later released via the team's label, Let's Hear It, during Perry's solo tour. When the release date was scheduled, "I Kissed a Girl" had been charting well. Matrix member Lauren Christy spoke to Perry about the decision, but she wanted to hold the release until the fourth single of One of the Boys had been dispatched. Despite their communication, The Matrix was released on January 27, 2009, via iTunes Store. In December 2008, Perry apologized to British singer Lily Allen for remarks in which she called herself a "skinnier version" of her, saying she meant it as a joke. Allen retaliated and told a British radio station that she "happen[ed] to know for a fact that she [Perry] was an American version" of her because their record company needed "to find something controversial and 'kooky'" like her.

On May 16, 2009, Perry performed at the opening ceremony of the annual Life Ball in Vienna, Austria. In June 2009, lawyers acting for Katy Perry opposed the recent trademark of Australian fashion designer Katie Perry who uses her own name to market loungewear. Some media outlets reported this as a lawsuit, which Katy Perry has denied on her blog. Katie Perry the designer reports on her blog that at a hearing with IP Australia on July 10, 2009, the singer's lawyers withdrew their opposition to the trademark. During the summer of 2009 Perry filmed a cameo appearance for Get Him to the Greek; her scene, in which she kisses her future fiancé Russell Brand was cut, and does not appear in the final film. Discussing the issue with MTV, Perry hypothesized there may have been some fear that seeing the two make out would have taken viewers out of the experience. In 2009, Perry was featured on two singles: a remix of Colorado-based band 3OH!3's song "Starstrukk" in August (the idea for the collaboration came after Perry's tour that featured 3OH!3 as the supporting act). The song was released over iTunes on September 8, 2009; and "If We Ever Meet Again", the fourth single off Timbaland's album Shock Value II in December. In October 2009, MTV Unplugged revealed that Perry was one of the artists to perform for them, and that she would be releasing a live album of the performance, including two new tracks, "Brick by Brick" and Fountains of Wayne cover "Hackensack". The album was released on November 17, and includes both a CD and a DVD.

2010–present: Teenage Dream

Perry appeared as a guest judge alongside Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole and Louis Walsh during the Dublin audition stage of the seventh series of the British television show The X Factor on June 28, 2010 (later televised on August 28). She was one of the many celebrities chosen to fulfil the role of judge whilst Dannii Minogue was on maternity leave. She later returned to the show on October 17 to perform "Firework". Perry's second mainstream studio album was titled Teenage Dream and was released in August 2010. The first single from the album was titled "California Gurls". The single peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the fastest rising single from a Capitol Records artist since Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe" in 1967. The cover art for Teenage Dream is a painting by Will Cotton in which depicts Perry lying naked on clouds of cotton candy; resembling the shots of Perry in the video for "California Gurls". The booklet of the physical edition of the album, in keeping with the theme of cotton candy, has a cotton candy scent. The album's second single "Teenage Dream" was released in July 2010. "Firework" is the album's third single.

Katy Perry appeared at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. She was nominated for two awards and presented the award of "Best Male Video" with Nicki Minaj to Eminem. On September 14, she returned to her old high school, Dos Pueblos High School, where she performed a short set for the school's students. Perry performed "Hot n Cold" with Elmo from Sesame Street, which was originally to appear on the forty-first-season premiere of the educational children's program on September 27, 2010. However, four days before the scheduled airing, Sesame Workshop announced, "In light of the feedback we've received on the Katy Perry music video ... we have decided we will not air the segment on the television broadcast of Sesame Street, which is aimed at preschoolers. Katy Perry fans will still be able to view the video on YouTube." The main reason was that parents complained about what appeared to be a great amount of cleavage shown by her dress. Perry shot the video for Firework in Budapest in September 2010. An open casting call drew an unprecedented 38,000 applicants. She proceeded to perform at a concert in Budapest on October 1, her first concert in Central and Eastern EuropePerry has announced her own fragrance to be released in autumn of this year, named "Purr". It will come in a cat-shaped bottle, and will be available through Nordstrom stores.

Musical style and themes

Perry has a contralto vocal range. Among Perry's musical influences are Alanis Morissette, pop rockers Cyndi Lauper, Pat Benatar, Joan Jett, Shirley Manson, and Freddie Mercury, Perry expects to record more pop songs for her next album.

Perry is artistically involved in her projects, especially in the writing process. Since she could play guitar, she would start writing songs at home and present it to her producers. Perry is mostly inspired by specific moments of her life. She said it is easy for her to write songs about heartbreak. The songs have been respectively labeled as being homophobic and promoting homosexuality, as well as "lez ploitational".

Public image

Perry is known for her unconventional style of dress. Her fashion has caught the attention of designers, who were giving her nearly as much attention as fans of her music. The picture was defended as only an effort to give Perry a "sexy, harder edge". She has appeared in FHM Magazine's 100 Sexiest Women poll twice, ranking at #23 in 2009 and #37 in 2010.

Personal life

Perry dated Gym Class Heroes frontman Travie McCoy, whom she met in a recording studio in New York, on and off for several years. After more than a year of friendship and casual dating, they became serious with their relationship right before they embarked on the 2008 Warped Tour. Perry and McCoy broke up in December 2008. The two began dating again in early 2009 and broke up again a few months later. Perry first met British comedian Russell Brand in the summer of 2008 when Perry filmed a cameo for Brand's film Get Him to the Greek. Perry and Brand began dating after meeting again in September 2009 at the MTV Video Music Awards, where Brand, as host, remarked, "Katy Perry didn't win an award and she's staying at the same hotel as me, so she's gonna need a shoulder to cry on. So in a way, I'm the real winner tonight." The couple became engaged in December 2009 when Brand proposed to Perry while vacationing in India. In a July 2010 YouTube interview, Perry said Brand would be a "perfect" father. Perry has stated that she plans to take dual British citizenship when she marries Brand. "One of the first things I'll do is apply for dual citizenship. I'm not too sure if I have to take a test as I've not had time to look into it. But England is like my second home". Perry and Brand married on October 23, 2010 near the Ranthambhore tiger sanctuary in Rajasthan, India, the same location where Brand had proposed. They were married in a traditional Hindu ceremony.

Discography

Katy Hudson (2001)

One of the Boys (2008)

Teenage Dream (2010)

Tours

Hello Katy Tour (2009)

California Dreams Tour (2011)

Filmography

Television

{| class="wikitable sortable" !Year !Title !Role !class="unsortable"|Notes |- |2008 | |Herself |Episode 8914 |- |2008 |Wildfire |Herself |"" (Season 4, episode 8) |- |2010 | American Idol |Guest judge |"Season 9, episode 5" |- |2010 |The X Factor |Guest judge |"Series 7, episode 2" |- |2010 |Sesame Street | Herself | Online special (deleted from televised episode) |- |2010 | The Simpsons | Herself | 1 episode, "The Fight Before Christmas" |- |2011 | How I Met Your Mother | Zoey's cousin | 1 episode, "Oh Honey" |}

Films

{| class="wikitable sortable" !Year !Title !Role ! class="unsortable"|Notes |- |2011 | |Smurfette |Voice |- |2011 | |TBA |Cameo |- |}

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Official website

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