ABSTRACT
The globalization of Sesame Street began in the early 1970s, shortly after the series' initial broadcast in 1969 in the United States. Producers from Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and Germany approached CTW independently, seeing the value of Sesame Street, but wanting programs that would specifically address the educational needs of the children of their own countries. To create the se ries that the producers imagined, CTW devised a flexible production plan that has continued to evolve over time and is now used to develop all of our international productions of Sesame Street. Although this model was fairly simple-initially, producers enhanced dubbed versions of the program with instructional cutaways and local language voice-overs-eventually a full model emerged. As in the United States, a triune of individuals is involved: Producers are responsible for the creative elements of the production, educa tional content specialists set the curricular priorities, and researchers represent the voice of the child and provide information about the program's effective ness. Studio sets reflective of a given culture are created by local production teams and inhabited by characters developed specifically for each adaptation. Live-action videos and animations are produced in-country, giving the local viewers characters and venues that have direct relevance to their own lives. For example, the production in Mexico, which was one of the first produc tions to use the model in its fullest form, takes place in a colorful Plaza popu lated by Abelardo, a bright green parrot, a grouch character named Poncho Contreras, and others. At least one half of the material broadcast is created by the local producer, whereas 50% or less of the program's content is material dubbed from CTW's international library of segments. These segments are selected by each local production team for their pertinence to a given pro gram's educational goals and for their general contribution to the production.
