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Season 1 (1969-1970)

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Sesame Street
Season premiere November 10, 1969 (001)
Season finale May 8, 1970 (130)
No. of episodes 130
Season 1 title card.
Season 1 title card.
The season 1 cast.
The season 1 cast.
The original cast of Sesame Street.
The original cast of Sesame Street.
Ernie and Beautiful Day Monster.
Ernie and Beautiful Day Monster.
Big Bird and Bob.
Big Bird and Bob.
James Earl Jones on Sesame Street.
James Earl Jones on Sesame Street.
Oscar the Grouch
Oscar the Grouch
The baker in the Number Song Series.
The baker in the Number Song Series.
Kermit the Frog and Grover.
Kermit the Frog and Grover.
Ernie and the Salesman.
Ernie and the Salesman.
Six spies in Jazz Numbers.
Six spies in Jazz Numbers.
Kermit the Frog and Cookie Monster.
Kermit the Frog and Cookie Monster.
The Anything Muppets of Sesame Street.
The Anything Muppets of Sesame Street.
Professor Hastings
Professor Hastings

After five test shows and years of preparation, Sesame Street premiered on NET (a precursor of PBS) on November 10, 1969.

Contents

Characters

During this first season, Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch were the only Muppets to regularly appear in Street scenes, while Bert, Ernie, and other Muppets debuted in separate segments. Many of the Muppet characters had designs and/or character traits that would be changed or dropped later on. Big Bird had a much more naïve voice and a smaller head with fewer feathers, and was written as a sort of dopey adult character. Oscar the Grouch, who would still retain much of his grouchy demeanor almost 40 years later, had orange fur. Monsters, who would become core characters by the second season, had fierce teeth and often destroyed anything in their path.

Bob, Mr. Hooper, Gordon, and Susan were the original human cast members. With the exception of Mr. Hooper, who died in the early 1980s, the other original characters are still with the series as of 2008, making them some of the longest continually-running non-soap opera characters in American entertainment. Like the Muppets, the human characters would change over time. Bob, originally a shop teacher, would later teach music, and by the end of the first season Susan would become a nurse. The season also featured live-action segments starring Buddy and Jim, a human comedy duo that failed at such tasks as hanging a picture and making a sandwich. Jennie also made occasional appearances.

Format

Sesame Street's format as established in 1969 would remain virtually unchanged for decades; live-action street scenes would alternate with Muppet comedy skits, musical numbers and short film segments, all known collectively as "inserts". Many of the Muppet scenes and films were created so that they could be replayed over and over (at least one segment would be repeated within any given episode); some of the segments made in 1969 would continue to be rebroadcast into the 1990s.

The original episodes had a much more literal, almost lecture-like tone to the Street scenes, closer in style to its original contemporaries like Mister Rogers' Neighborhood or Captain Kangaroo. With time, the Street-scenes became more natural with a definite plot thrust, with less breaking of the fourth wall. For example, in the first episode, Ernie once addresses the audience as those in "TV land".

While the Muppets would eventually become the biggest stars of the show, they did not appear as frequently as the cast. Cartoon segments aired more frequently than Muppet segments, and as such, some of the original illustrated promotional material featured the cast and Muppets interacting with animated characters, who also appeared in advertisements of the show. Animated segments and live-action inserts featured in the season included Alice Braithwaite Goodyshoes, Jazz Numbers, Speech Balloons, Alphabet Bates and Number Song Series, most of which continued to air many years later.

The season introduced many original songs that have gone on to become Sesame Street classics, including "Rubber Duckie",, "I Love Trash", "Bein' Green", "The People in Your Neighborhood" and "One of These Things".

Curriculum

In 1968, the Children's Television Workshop established the original educational concepts that would prepare children for school. Over time these would be expanded into larger fields (such as women's career awareness, medical issues, and science and space). The original topics that were focused on during the first season included:

  • recognition of the 26 letters of the alphabet (often in the form of short cartoons like the Speech Balloon series)
  • numbers from one to ten (both forwards and backwards)
  • shapes: circles, rectangles, triangles, and squares
  • putting items in the right order, reasoning, and problem-solving
  • classification (illustrated by the song "One of These Things")
  • relational concepts (including "Near and Far", "Big and Little", and "First and Last")
  • perceptual and auditory discrimination
  • self: parts of the body, coordinated movement, emotions, differing perspectives, and self-esteem (as illustrated by Kermit the Frog's "Bein' Green song)
  • roles: members of the family, and jobs
  • cooperation and fair play
  • the natural environment (often demonstrated in animal films) and the man-made environment [1]


Episodes

Episodes 0001 - 0130 (130 episodes)

Cast

Muppet Characters:

Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, proto-Cookie Monster, an early version of Grover, Kermit the Frog, Lefty the Salesman, Mahna Mahna, Snerfs, Beautiful Day Monster, Anything Muppets, proto-Betty Lou, Oscar the Grouch, Professor Hastings, Roosevelt Franklin, Roosevelt Franklin's Mother, Sonny Friendly

Other Characters:

Bob, Gordon, Susan, Mr. Hooper, Jennie, Buddy and Jim

Muppets of Sesame Street

Caroll Spinney, Frank Oz, Jim Henson, with Danny Seagren, Caroly Wilcox

Actors

Matt Robinson, Loretta Long, Will Lee, Bob McGrath, Jada Rowland, Brandon Maggart, James Catusi

Guest Stars

Batman and Robin, Carol Burnett, Michael Cooney, Ruby Dee, Mahalia Jackson, James Earl Jones, Ethel Kennedy, B.B. King, Burt Lancaster, Don McLean, Listen My Brother, Odetta, Pat Paulsen, Lou Rawls, Jackie Robinson, Rowlf the Dog, Pete Seeger, Superman


Crew

Sources

  1. ↑ Truglio and Fisch. G is for Growing. p. 31


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(first) Season 2 (1970-1971)
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