Seseme Street Moves To HBO

[ZariusTwo]

The letters of the day on “Sesame Street” are H, B and O.

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit group behind the children’s television program, has struck a deal with HBO, the premium cable network, that will bring the next five seasons of “Sesame Street” to HBO and its streaming outlets starting this fall.

The partnership will allow Sesame Workshop to significantly increase its production of “Sesame Street” episodes and other new programming. The group will produce 35 new “Sesame Street” episodes a year, up from the 18 it produces now. Sesame Workshop also will create a spinoff series based on the “Sesame Street” Muppets and another new educational series for children.

After nine months of programming exclusively on HBO, the shows also will be available free on PBS, its home for the last 45 years. “Sesame Street” will also continue its run on PBS this fall, with the season featuring a selection of episodes from the last several seasons edited in new ways.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/bu...fall.html?_r=0

[ObiWanFan4life]

Hmm, maybe they'll explore Bert and Ernie's relationship in an episode.

[Raph's Girl]

Oh sure. Maria leaves and they decide to move shop to HBO. Well this autta be interesting. They can have more eps out every year and a bigger budget! Super Grover can have more powers!

I don't think tho that Bert and Ernie will come out tho since they'll still be airing the eps on PBS.

Meanwhile we can have more baby muppet dragons.

[ObiWanFan4life]

Well then, we can at least expect lighter episodes of Game of Thrones in the future.

[BubblyShell22]

WTF? HBO? Really? Okay, this is just messed up.

[ObiWanFan4life]

Originally Posted by BubblyShell22

WTF? HBO? Really? Okay, this is just messed up.

Actually, it's not too far fetched, since HBO used to air a few shows for children.

[Brodie]

Originally Posted by BubblyShell22

WTF? HBO? Really? Okay, this is just messed up.

They have an entire separate channel dedicated to Family programming.

[JTH]

HBO presents the continuing adventure of "Seasamia Street"

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by ObiWanFan4life

Actually, it's not too far fetched, since HBO used to air a few shows for children.

Really? I do not get the channel. Its just Sesame Street is the show that most everyone watches in the crib and HBO has original programing of gore and borderline porn. Parents are going to have to be very careful letting their kid watch HBO. I understand the show needs funding and most of the actors are senior citizens which means if it will last much longer it needs help, but HBO? Like I said I do not get the channel, its just what Sesame Street is known for and what HBO is its an unlikely alliance.

[Roseangelo]

Originally Posted by BubblyShell22

WTF? HBO? Really? Okay, this is just messed up.

Not really—Fraggle Rock originally aired on HBO.

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by JTH

HBO presents the continuing adventure of "Seasamia Street"

Today's letter is three

[Powder]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

Really? I do not get the channel. Its just Sesame Street is the show that most everyone watches in the crib and HBO has original programing of gore and borderline porn. Parents are going to have to be very careful letting their kid watch HBO. I understand the show needs funding and most of the actors are senior citizens which means if it will last much longer it needs help, but HBO? Like I said I do not get the channel, its just what Sesame Street is known for and what HBO is its an unlikely alliance.

& Cartoon Network has Adult Swim.

It's the responsibility of parents to make sure their kid isn't subjected to adult material, not the networks.

[ssjup81]

Seriously, am I the only person on this planet who never viewed Bert and Ernie as gay? I'm still trying to figure out where that came from or how that started up.

That aside, why show it on HBO? What's wrong with keeping it on PBS. At least it 's a non-cable station.

Originally Posted by ObiWanFan4life

Actually, it's not too far fetched, since HBO used to air a few shows for children.

When I was a kid, my parents got HBO, but I didn't watch it much. The only thing I can recall watching on HBO back then was Fraggle Rock and Babar.

[BubblyShell22]

Never knew there were kids shows on HBO before, but I don't get the channel anyway, so whatever. I just know HBO mainly for Game of Thrones and stuff like that. It's just hard to picture a kids show like Sesame Street being on a channel that's mainly known for adult stuff.

[CyberCubed]

Isn't HBO a cable channel still? Why would anyone pay to watch Sesame Street?

Its illogical.

[plastroncafe]

HBO had quite a bit of children's programming back in the day.
From Fraggle Rock and Babar to "Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child."

From its inception Sesame Street was intended to help level the literacy rates between Rich and Poor kids. That's why it's set in an inner city, and why it's always had a diverse cast. Prior to the Blues Clues method of teaching small children, ie: Showing the same episode for the whole week so that little ones learn by repetition, it was the most researched television show on the air.

Jim Henson is said to have left provisions for the Sesame Street Muppets specifically to the Children's Television Workshop for just this mission.

Here's the issue: We don't fund public television enough. In fact, politicians are actively going out of their way to defund it. Once upon a time Mister Rogers had to testify before Congress in defense of public television as a public good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKy7ljRr0AA

This defunding, alongside the advent of streaming technology, has wrecked the budget for Sesame Street. HBO is willing to foot the bill, but what they're asking is 9 months of exclusivity before PBS can air the same episodes.

Which isn't an unreasonable request on a business level, but it is a really sad one.

The whole point of sesame street was to cater to poor children with limited resources, the ones the most in need of help and early childhood intervention when it comes to literacy, and HBO is putting their new content behind a paywall.

There's such a relatively small window in which to teach a child how to read. Basically you have until the 3rd grade, which is when they stop teaching reading as a subject, and rely on reading as a way to teach other subjects. If that window closes and a kid doesn't know how to read...they're not going to succeed in school. Literacy isn't just a public good, it's a necessity.

[Cure]

Can't kids still learn from an episode that's 9 months late? Would they even know or care? I'm honestly asking, I'm no child psychologist or whatevs.

[plastroncafe]

For me, it's not a whether they can/can't, but that they should have to at all.

Chances are better than not that these things will leak and the kids will get their hands on the new content one way or another, but...that they'd essentially be stealing in order to do so. And to me that's kind of gross as well.

[BubblyShell22]

I just remember learning some French from Sesame Street since we got the Canadian channel. When I started kindergarten and they asked me to count, I started counting up to twelve in French and they had to ask me to do it in English. It was hilarious!

And as for kids learning reading, some can learn that without Sesame Street through websites such as ABC Mouse and other sites now, so they don't have to watch Sesame Street to learn how to read.

[CyberCubed]

Is there any reason Sesame Street even has to make new episodes instead of just rerunning the same shows over and over? Its not like education changes, the same stuff they taught in the shows in the 80's and 90's is still relevant today.

Aren't there like 1000 episodes of Sesame Street by now? Just rerun the same shows over and over again, all the 2-5 year olds will watch it and outgrow it anyway.