Sesame!
| 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.
Production
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]
Cancellation
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]
Content
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]
Characters
Muppets
- Pong Pagong – a turtle who wears a beanie[1]
- Kiko Matsing – a monkey[1]
- the Byaps-Byaps[1]
Humans
- Ate Sylvia – played by Susan Africa[7]
References
- ^ a b c d e Lohr, Steve (1985-07-24). "HOME-GROWN VALUES REPLACE KERMIT IN FILIPINO VERSION OF 'SESAME STREET'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
- ^ a b "Filipino Sesame Street facing tough times – UPI Archives". UPI. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
- ^ a b c d e Cipanas (1991). "Batibot : towards the development of supplementary modes of education for Filipino children". AMIC ICC Seminar on Children and television: 8.
- ^ a b c Gettas, Gregory J. (1990). "The Globalization of "Sesame Street": A Producer's Perspective". Educational Technology Research and Development. 38 (4): 60, 62. ISSN 1042-1629 – via JSTOR.
- ^ a b c Cana, Paul John (7 September 2020). "Here's the Real Story of Batibot's Pong Pagong and Kiko Matsing". Esquire Magazine. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
- ^ Grana, Rhia D. (11 October 2020). "Nostalgia: The untold stories of 'Batibot,' according to Kuya Bodjie". ABS-CBN News. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
- ^ Yanoria, Luigene (18 September 2014). "Susan Africa is not your typical poor nanay on TV". Yahoo News. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
External links
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