|
As Sesame Street kicks off its 40th anniversary season Tuesday, with first lady Michelle Obama and Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda as guests, it is indisputably the most beloved children s show in history, and one of television s biggest and most enduring success stories. The series holds a record 122 Emmy Awards, not including a lifetime-achievement trophy award, and has been adapted in more than 120 countries and territories around the globe. An estimated 100,000 Sesame products have been made available internationally, from T-shirts and costumes to high-tech toys such as Elmo Live. Sesame s cross-cultural, multi-generational appeal has a lot to do with the specific age group it targets. The bulk of our audience is in the 2s and 3s, though we shoot for 2 to 4, says executive producer Carol-Lynn Parente. At that early stage, says Spinney who is 75, and has been with the show since Day 1 children are basically the same, and have been through the years. But if preschoolers fundamental needs and sensibilities haven t changed much, the world around them has not least of all on the media landscape, where Sesame Street now competes with many other kids shows and an ever-expanding array of new media. In 2000, the Children s Television Workshop, the organization through which creator Joan Ganz Cooney launched Sesame Street on PBS predecessor NET, changed its title to Sesame Workshop, to reflect its expansion into the digital, interactive age. | 
