Classic Canadian Sesame Street

[BlueFrackle]

Buck,

I cant email you, The option is turned off in your profile.
Could you email me through my profile please?


thanks

 

[Lone Wolf]

The change to Sesame Park was done mostly because CBC is supposed to favour Canadian content over foreign programs and the American curriculum of Sesame never completely meshed with the CBC's programming goals.

I found this old essay on customizing Sesame Street for a Canadian audience and mentions something else that was problematic in terms of the original Canadian version:

"Because the CBC buys the previous year's version of Sesame Street, certain content will surely be repeated. With most segments, there is little concern. However with certain content, problems arise. Several year's ago, CTW decided to deal with Mr. Hooper's death on the air. As a result, Mr. Hooper died one year on the US version and then a year later in the Canadian version. Similarly, Maria and Luis's wedding, seen in 1988 by children watching the US version will be seen in 1989 on the CBC version. Since many Canadian children watch both versions, parents may have to deal with some confused children."

This also makes me wonder if the fact that so many Candian kids also see the original influenced the CBC's decision. As I understand it, muppet skits from the American show only made up a small fraction of each half-hour episode and these tended to be relatively old, hence you rarely if ever, saw characters like Elmo, Zoe or Rosita in Sesame Park. I remember kids with "Tickle Me Elmo" dolls in the 90s. Make no mistake: they were/are every bit as crazy about him as their American counterparts and since Elmo and other more recent characters were nearly absent from Sesame Park, (no Elmo's World) I wonder did the kids just not prefer the American show instead.

And this is pure speculation and maybe nothing more than coincidence, but Sesame Park seemed to vanish from the CBC's kids morning programming slot not long after the American Sesame Street radically changed its format in light of new research about the way kids learn. Sesame Park's format was basically consistent with the "old", only half an hour shorter and network executives and child development experts can't afford to be regarded by the public as not keeping up with the times. Again this all just a guess.

 

[D'Snowth]

I find it fascinating that out of so many international co-productions out there, CANADIAN SESAME STREET, as well as the latter SESAME PARK are so hard to come by in terms of online videos and such. There's one full episode of SP and one full episode of Canadian SST on YouTube, plus Shane's got a clip of Basil and Katie that's dubbed in Spanish for PLAZA SESAMO (go fig), but other than that, there's really nothing. It almost kinda makes it feel like we were never supposed to know this co-production ever existed.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

But, to actually contribute to the discussion at hand, I find it fascinating that out of so many international co-productions out there, CANADIAN SESAME STREET, as well as the latter SESAME PARK are so hard to come by in terms of online videos and such. There's one full episode of SP and one full episode of Canadian SST on YouTube, plus Shane's got a clip of Basil and Katie that's dubbed in Spanish for PLAZA SESAMO (go fig), but other than that, there's really nothing. It almost kinda makes it feel like we were never supposed to know this co-production ever existed.

Could just be that whichever network showed the episodes, doesn't feel the need to put out the episodes because it was never as popular as the original American Sesame Street. It seems to me, Canadian produced shows are not as respected as imported shows from the US and the UK.

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm talking about more people out there who would tape the shows growing up and then post them on YouTube.

As for Canadian shows, I don't know, seems like a majority of the shows on PBS are Canadian produced or co-produced.

 

[OscarandTelly]

I'm talking about more people out there who would tape the shows growing up and then post them on YouTube.

As for Canadian shows, I don't know, seems like a majority of the shows on PBS are Canadian produced or co-produced.

Luckily for me I got to see the last 4 seasons of Canadian ss and ss park along with the us version because we have a Canadian cable channel here. But yes it is super hard to come by. I know of 5 Canadian episodes that exsist out there. One of them is the 1993 one that's currently on yt. And only 2 ss park episodes. One is the one on yt. The other a friend of mine has. I wish I could travel through canada and go door to door asking people if they have either show recorded on vhs. However, we are lucky that at least a few episodes have popped up. Let's home as time goes on more come to surface.

 

[Furry Red Thing]

Luckily for me I got to see the last 4 seasons of Canadian ss and ss park along with the us version because we have a Canadian cable channel here. But yes it is super hard to come by. I know of 5 Canadian episodes that exsist out there. One of them is the 1993 one that's currently on yt. And only 2 ss park episodes. One is the one on yt. The other a friend of mine has. I wish I could travel through canada and go door to door asking people if they have either show recorded on vhs. However, we are lucky that at least a few episodes have popped up. Let's home as time goes on more come to surface.

Now that you mention it, a 1991 episode of the Canadian version surfaced on YouTube not too long ago