"Open Sesame" (Treehouse TV in Canada)

YellowYahooey

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I heard of a short-lived "Sesame Street" spinoff series that aired exclusively in Canada on Treehouse TV from 1998 until 2001, and it was titled "Open Sesame".

The series was a half-hour compilation of sketches centering on animated, film and Muppet segments. No segments involving human cast members (i.e. Maria, Gordon, Luis, etc.) were prevalent. Many of the animated segments were more recent at the time, but there were some that were considered "classic". Among the classic animated segments that was shown was "The Bee Bee and Barker Family", which was not seen on "Sesame Street" since Season 12, and it amazed me (even though I didn't like the segment). There were even a few "Sand Alphabet" segments on "Open Sesame" (I remember seeing the "S" segment of this kind), but there were no speech balloon, consonant sound, nor Poverty Pictures skits to be seen. I am thinking many of the animated segments were either animated by Bruce Cayard, or simply in-house (computer) animation (i.e. "Sand Alphabet", "Pencil Box/School Supplies", "Planet letters", "Scanimate #10", etc.) by CTW. However, film segments seen in the series did keep Joe Raposo's music intact. Despite being aired exclusively in Canada, all of the segments were produced in the U.S.

The series did feature one letter and one number ranging from 0 to 20, but with no sponsors being announced on air at the end. A Muppet sketch would close out the show, then went to the closing credits quickly, which was short and had only two frames, the latter of which depicted "YTV Canada", implying that Treehouse TV is a subsidiary of YTV.

Many of the core Muppets were seen, with the exception of Big Bird and Snuffy. However, the iconic Elmo may likely have appeared in some form.

Does anybody in Canada remember this Treehouse TV series? And what are your thoughts on it?
 

muppet maniac

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It wasn't just exclusive to Canada. I remember watching Open Sesame when I was living in Singapore in the late 1990s, in this case it was the Malaysian dub called Taman Sesame. I remember that the episodes I saw at the time featured a good portion of early skits (1969-early 70s). With that in mind, I watched hoping to see goofball Big Bird or orange Oscar turn up (or anything with Oscar for that matter, as he's the hardest character to come across in this show, same with Big Bird). That of course never happened, but I did see Gleep (the prototype Grover). I remember seeing sketches like "The Boy, the Girl, and the Jellybeans" long before they resurfaced on the internet. Heck, I might have seen the "Crack Master" cartoon without realizing it, as I wasn't interested in the cartoons as much as I was with the Muppets.

Besides Canada and Malaysia, it also aired in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Thailand. I don't know whether the clips were already selected beforehand, or if each country that aired the show decided what clips to use in their versions. As for the number of episodes made, I can't say for certain either, but I do know that it's more than what's currently available on the internet (as I pointed out before in the "Crack Master" thread).
 

YellowYahooey

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There are episodes of "Open Sesame" on the Internet? Are any English episodes on YouTube?
 

muppet maniac

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The Swedish dub, anyway (called Svenska Sesam). This user has some episodes on his Youtube channel:


I even found a dub in Urdu/Hindi:


The Thai dub was on Youtube for a while, but I can't seem to find it anymore.
 

Cookie3001

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I am Canadian and I used to watch this channel all the time when I was little, I vaguely remember watching this show but what I remember seeing the animated intro with Ernie and Bert, I was trying to remember where I saw it and I thought it was the same as the one from Shalom Sesame but it wasn't
 

MikaelaMuppet

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The Swedish dub, anyway (called Svenska Sesam). This user has some episodes on his Youtube channel:


I even found a dub in Urdu/Hindi:


The Thai dub was on Youtube for a while, but I can't seem to find it anymore.
I remember seeing the Thai dub as well.
 

Buff Beaker

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It wasn't just exclusive to Canada. I remember watching Open Sesame when I was living in Singapore in the late 1990s, in this case it was the Malaysian dub called Taman Sesame. I remember that the episodes I saw at the time featured a good portion of early skits (1969-early 70s). With that in mind, I watched hoping to see goofball Big Bird or orange Oscar turn up (or anything with Oscar for that matter, as he's the hardest character to come across in this show, same with Big Bird). That of course never happened, but I did see Gleep (the prototype Grover). I remember seeing sketches like "The Boy, the Girl, and the Jellybeans" long before they resurfaced on the internet. Heck, I might have seen the "Crack Master" cartoon without realizing it, as I wasn't interested in the cartoons as much as I was with the Muppets.

Besides Canada and Malaysia, it also aired in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Thailand. I don't know whether the clips were already selected beforehand, or if each country that aired the show decided what clips to use in their versions. As for the number of episodes made, I can't say for certain either, but I do know that it's more than what's currently available on the internet (as I pointed out before in the "Crack Master" thread).
Does Canada still have a Sesame based show on today?
 

YellowYahooey

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By any chance were these clip sources from Open Sesame? Noticed this particular Canadian source often uses old season 1 Ernie and Bert skits.






https://youtu.be/ZbZ-xTCugs0

https://youtu.be/Y-R7bjf9dCo
Based on the watermark on the lower-right hand corner (which is by the CBC), these clips were part of "Canadian Sesame Street", or maybe the rebranded "Sesame Park". And to answer Buff Beaker's question, Canada no longer has their own version of "Sesame Street" anymore - CBC cancelled the series in 2002 for undisclosed reasons. However, Treehouse TV currently airs the American-produced series, but on weekends only.
 
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