Money, Markets, and Muppets: A History of Sesame Street in 1970s Europe

In 1977, just before the launch of Sesame Street’s Italian version, Sesamo Apriti, Lutrelle Horne, executive producer at Sesame Street’s American production company, Children’s Television Workshop (CTW), said: “The series [Sesame Street] contains universally acceptable material, much of it already tested on audiences outside the United States, and is as nearly ‘culture free’ as TV can be” (Newsletter, box 369, folder 12, CTW archive). The notion of Sesame Street as ‘culture free’ runs through much of CTW’s material from the late 1960s and 1970s and the source of this belief was the productions’ special set-up. Vigorously build, tried and tested according to beliefs of universally acceptable learning outcomes as well as the latest in educational and psychological theories, Sesame Street was seen to meet standards that would make it appeal to all the world’s producers of children’s television. However, when CTW tried selling the program in Europe they discovered severe obstacles and even hostility. In my paper, I present a few cases from my on-going research project on transnational comparison of the transfer, reception and demarcation of Sesame Street in 1970s Europe. I will focus on two obstacles in the transfer processes: Different ideas of television’s role in the lives of children and differences in television markets.

The paper builds on my ongoing research project for which I have collected material in seven different broadcasting archives as well as the Carnegie archives and the archives of the European television festival Prix Jeunesse. The overall idea of the project is to contribute insights into differences and similarities in American and inter-European notions of the role of television in children’s enculturation and subsequently television’s part in upholding and transgressing national cultures.