Sesame! | |
---|---|
Genre | Educational |
Country of origin | Philippines United States |
Original languages | English Filipino |
Production | |
Production companies | Philippine Children's Television Foundation Children's Television Workshop |
Original release | |
Release | 1983 1984 | –
Related | |
Batibot |
Sesame! was the Filipino co-production of the American children's television program, Sesame Street. It ran for a single season in 1983, after which it was replaced by Batibot.
Sesame Street first aired in the Philippines in 1970.[1][2]
Negotiations for a localized production began in 1983, and the series was jointly created by Children's Television Workshop and the Philippine Sesame Street Project (PSSP), which was funded by the Philippine government.[3][4] The English segments were filmed in the United States, while the Tagalog segments were filmed in the Philippines.[5]
The choice was made to have turtle and monkey muppets due to those animals' frequent appearances in Philippine folk tales.[1]
Government support for the show was pulled in 1984 after the Philippine economy collapsed.[2][3] The Philippine producers were unable to afford their half of the co-production, and the arrangement dissolved.[3]
Much of the show's crew and cast created the Philippine Children's Television Foundation, Inc. (PCTVF).[3] This foundation went on to create Batibot, which maintained much of the Sesame Street formula while being produced solely by a Filipino team. The show was able to retain use of the Pong Pagong and Kiko Matsing puppets due to a license agreement with Children's Television Workshop.[5]
The show ran for an hour, with one half in English and one half in Tagalog.[3][4][5][6]
Messaging focused in part on teaching children a "sense of nationhood".[4]