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{{quote|''Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?''
|'''Opening theme''' <ref>Official location is in Manhattan, New York City. It is unclear where in Manhattan the street is, though.</ref>}}
Joan Ganz Cooney of the Children's Television Workshop (now [[Sesame Workshop]]) created this hour-long [[PBS]] series in 1969. Initially, it was created as a means of preparing young inner-city children for kindergarten. Instead, it got to ''everybody'' and became one of the all-time great educational shows.
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The show teaches literacy, counting, simple logic<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSa6aE3FwF0 "Which key fits"]</ref> and the What Happens Next machine, see below, demonstrate tools of logic and reasoning such as trial and error, process of eliminations, and cause and effect, and social skills through a kaleidoscopic mix of puppetry, animation and short films. In a radical departure for the time, it was designed to deliberately mimic the fast pace and style of TV advertising in order to 'sell' learning to kids: An [[Aesop]]-friendly story featuring the recurring characters on the Street would be intercut with rapid-fire 'commercials' for that day's 'sponsors' ("Sesame Street has been brought to you today by the letters A and S, and the number 7...").
The show was
{{quote|''Sesame Street underwent an obvious, dramatic makeover... The new format emphasized rituals and repetition, featured brighter, more cartoon-colorful real-life characters and sets, and more exaggerated, simplistic mannerisms in addressing the screen and seeking viewer interaction. Regular segments... are almost identical from one episode to the next, with only minor story details changing between shows.''}}
The set has expanded and contracted over the years but in classic form is a typical New York cul-de-sac, with a brownstone apartment block, a convenience store, a boarded-off vacant lot, and a big open area at one end used as a playground. This urban setting, multiracial human cast (plus guest stars, including [[Buffy Sainte-Marie]], Jesse Jackson, and [[Bill Cosby]] at different times) and multicolored Muppets added to the hip, inclusive feel.
Although aimed at preschool children, ''Sesame Street'' deliberately includes enough mainstream [[Parental Bonus|pop culture references]] to entertain older children and parents as well, the better to encourage family involvement in the learning process. A cameo appearance on the Street [[Sesame Street Cred|quickly became celebrity chic]], showcasing such diverse stars as [[Stevie Wonder]], [[REM]], Madeline Kahn, the ''[[Star Wars]]'' droids, [[Paul Simon]], [[Mel Gibson]] and [[Patrick Stewart]]. All of this has had the side benefit of the show developing [[Periphery Demographic|a very strong adult fanbase]] over the decades, as the original audiences have grown up and introduced the show to their children.
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The human cast has varied over the years, but the core has remained relatively stable: Black married couple Susan and Gordon (and later their adopted son Miles), who work as a nurse and a junior-high science teacher, respectively. Puerto Rican college student Maria and (until 1990) black student and store clerk David. White freelance musician Bob and (until 2003) his deaf librarian girlfriend Linda. Hispanic "Fix-It Shop" owner Luis, who later married Maria. They have a daughter, Gabriella.
When Will Lee
Various specialized [[Muppet
== Memorable Muppets include: ==
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* Elmo, a cutesy-voiced red monster with a 'psychological age' of three [[Insistent Terminology|and a half]] and a distinctive habit of referring to himself in the third person ("Elmo not sure this good idea..."). A later addition to the cast who became Urkel-level ubiquitous after the spinoff 'Tickle Me Elmo' toy proved a mega-hit for Christmas 1996. (As a public television broadcast in a country whose government does not fully fund public broadcasting, the show is heavily dependent on merchandising revenues, so...) He was eventually given his own regular 15-minute segment, [[Elmo's World|''Elmo's World'']], soon spun off into a series in its own right outside the US. Whether all this is a good thing or not is the subject of much adult skepticism — to put it kindly — especially among fans of the show's earlier years.
{{tropenamer}}
* [[Brought to You by The Letter "S"]]:
* [[Sesame Street Cred]]:
{{tropelist}}
* [[Acid Reflux Nightmare]]: Cookie Monster's cookie-induced nightmare (well known as a notorious [[Nightmare Fuel]] moment).
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* [[Amazing Technicolor Population]]: Especially among the Muppets.
* [[Ambiguously Jewish]]: Mr. Hooper. On rare occasions the show would make it more explicit, as when Bob wished him a happy Hanukkah in the ''Christmas Eve'' special, or when Big Bird inquired about the different languages the characters could speak and he mentioned that he learned Yiddish as a boy.
** The Count may be a [[Space Jews|Space Jew]] (his leitmotif is actually a Roma tune, but it happens to sound
* [[Anti-Christmas Song]]: Sung by [[The Grinch|Oscar]], of course.
* [[The Artifact]]: Telly was originally "The Television Monster", an example of a child who watched too much television
* [[Audience Participation Song]]: Which requires [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]].
* [[Bald of Awesome]]: Gordon, as currently played by Roscoe Orman (the early 1970s Matt Robinson version having had an Afro of Awesome).
** [[Bald Black Leader Guy]]: As necessitated by the events of ''Follow That Bird''.
* [[Balloonacy]]: Several examples, such as the very end of Kermit's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cog2a3YeDMM What-Happens-Next machine] demonstration, and the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mieUsShDZL8 Light and Heavy Lecture].
* [[Beary Cute]]: Baby Bear, whose cuteness is further accented by his [[Elmuh Fudd Syndwome]]-style speech impediment.
* [[Big Applesauce]]: Sesame Street has been shown to be in New York on maps in both ''Follow that Bird'' and the five-part hurricane story arc.
* [[Big Damn Movie|Big Bird Movie]]: 1985's ''Follow That Bird'', which required a bigger, more elaborate street set in [[Toronto]] (and in the same studio where ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'' was shot) to make it look good on the silver screen.
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* [[Blessed with Suck]]/[[Driven to Suicide]]: Everything King Minus touches ceases to exist. {{spoiler|This includes the princess he wanted to save; he annihilated himself in horror after that.}}
* [[Blowing a Raspberry]]: The movie in which Elmo goes to Grouchland features the Queen of Trash demanding one hundred of these "raspberries" in a set time.
* [[Bottle and Switch Episode]]: Has had a few of these for the high-budget songs or celebrity cameos. There are several versions of "Put Down the Duckie" that feature celebrities over the decades singing and dancing the song. These celebrities include a young John Candy, Jeremy Irons, Danny DeVito and Rhea Pearlman dancing together, Itzhak Perlman, and Paul Simon. It took several years to make because they would ask celebrities coming for other segments to film a short lyric.
* [[Breakout Character]]: Elmo.
▲* [[Brought to You by The Letter "S"]]: Sesame Street is the [[Trope Namer]]; the leading example for the trope on this show is Super Grover.
* [[Bus Crash]] (to explain death to children): Mr. Hooper, after actor Will Lee's death.
* [[Calling the Old Man Out]] and [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: Big Bird actually did this to freaking [[Egyptian Mythology|Osiris]] when encountering him in ''Don't Eat the Pictures'' when demanding he give the little Egyptian ghost prince he helped get this far another chance on the weighing of the heart.
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** "A la peanut butter sandwiches" - The Amazing Mumford.
** "Ah, heigh-ho, Kermit the Frog here for Sesame Street News..."
* [[Cats Are Mean]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20131023051656/http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/
* [[Character Blog]]: The Muppet cast shares one [http://twitter.com/sesamestreet Twitter account].
* [[Characterization Marches On]]: Big Bird started out as an adult-aged country bumpkin rather than the innocent [[Man Child]] he's become.
** The Count also acted a bit more like a vampire in his early appearances, moving his hands around as if hypnotizing others as well as walking around with his cape across his face. His laugh was also louder and more sinister as opposed to the softer chuckle of today.
** Cookie Monster behaved more like a toddler: he interfered with others (though unaware he was doing so), was occasionally fussy when he didn't get his way, and was scolded by other characters when he misbehaved. It wasn't until his [[Signature Song]] "C is for Cookie" in 1971 that Cookie Monster's personality was firmly established.
* [[Character Outlives Actor]]:
* [[Character Outlives Actor]]: Northern Calloway, who played David, was fired from the show in 1989 due to having serious mental health issues and the wildly erratic behavior it caused. He was institutionalized and died several months later. David was said to have moved to a farm to live with his grandmother. Gordon's sister Olivia moved away, never to be heard from again, when her actress Alaina Reed Hall left the show to play Rose on NBC's ''227''. She died sometime back in 2010 (she also sang the theme song for ''[[Reading Rainbow]]''). Both of these actors had been long mainstays who played major characters. You can see David in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TjX5r37V0Q this clip] and Olivia in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eOuR0MjNAI this clip].▼
** Northern Calloway, who played David, was fired from the show in 1989 due to having serious mental health issues and the wildly erratic behavior it caused. He was institutionalized and died several months later. David was said to have moved to a farm to live with his grandmother.
▲*
** [[Averted]], as mentioned in its own paragraph in the description above, with Will Lee — who played Mr. Hooper.
* [[Children Are Innocent]]
* [[Chosen Family]]: It's shown that the whole neighborhood can become your family if you let them. The adults comfort Big Bird and promise to take care of him after he finds out that Mr. Hooper died.
* [[Christmas Special]]: The utterly adorable ''Christmas Eve on Sesame Street''.
** Not to mention ''A Special Sesame Street Christmas'', which first aired on [[CBS]] -- the same year as ''Christmas Eve on Sesame Street'' (and the same network as ''[[The Star Wars Holiday Special]]'') -- and is known primarily for being less "utterly adorable" than it was utterly awful.
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* [[Clown Car Base]]: Oscar's trash can, which among many other things contains a ''pet elephant'' named Fluffy. And an ''indoor pool''.
* [[Clutching Hand Trap]]: In a episode from the mid-70s, Oscar has his hand stuck in a jar. Throughout the episode, the adults try many methods of prying his hand out, even by greasing it with lard. Turns out he wanted to look at his rock collection that he kept in the jar. The adults convince him to let go and his hand comes out easily; the adults then pour the rocks into his hand. Immediately after, Luis comes by with an old alarm clock in pieces as a gift to Oscar. Luis puts the pieces in the jar, which Oscar immediately grabs. He finds his hand stuck once again as the closing credits begin.
* [[Collectible Cloney Babies]]:
** Bert likes collecting bottlecaps and paperclips, treating them as valuable collectibles. He can identify different ones and vintages. Unsurprisingly, no one else on Sesame Street shares this interest, though Mr. Hooper encouraged Bert.
** Oscar treats his trash collection as this. In an episode where he tries to sell his trash to make room for Fluffy the Elephant to go dancing, he can't give any of it up because he has happy memories attached to each piece.
* [[The Collector of the Strange]]: Bert and bottlecaps. Telly and triangles.
* [[Commuting on a Bus]]: Several of the human cast, but most notably Bob and Susan, since season 29. Also happens to the Muppets from time to time, usually due to concerns over the character's particular impact on young audiences.
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** Kermit the Frog became the host and main character of ''[[The Muppet Show]]'', of course. Another early Jim Henson Muppet, Rowlf the Dog, appeared with Kermit in the [http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Sesame_Street_Pitch_Reel promotional pitch reel] for ''Sesame Street'' (and made a single cameo appearance in the "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NXeO9_Ec7w Song of 9]" from the show's first season) before becoming a ''Muppet Show'' regular himself. Big Bird guest-starred in one ''Muppet Show'' episode, Ernie and Bert in another. Still another episode had practically *all* of the ''Sesame'' Muppets turn up in one sketch. And then there was ''[[A Muppet Family Christmas]]''...
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Bert or Oscar, normally. Though the writers have infused many of the characters with this trait when the sketch calls for it.
*[[Defictionalization]]: The name has been placed on real streets in multiple communities; "1 Sesame Street, Plattsburgh NY" and "23 Sesame Street, Richmond VA" are the official physical civic addresses of real-world PBS member stations, for example.
* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: In the [[TV Movie]] ''Don't Eat the Pictures'' several of the human cast and Muppets are accidentally locked in the NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art overnight. Big Bird's subplot involved him and Snuffleupagus helping the 4000 year old ghost of an Egyptian boy confront the god Osiris when he refused to let the boy into the afterlife. Repeat: ''Big Bird'' confronted a ''god'' and told him ''he was wrong''.
* [[Digging to China]]: The ''Big Bird In China'' TV-movie special. Oscar and Telly feel left out, so they decide to dig (Oscar makes Telly do all the actual work). As soon as they get there, Oscar decides that "Ehhh, it's not so special!" and immediately turns around to go home.
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* [[Five-Token Band]]: The human cast.
* [[Follow the Leader]]: To the point where viewership decreased and the average age of viewers got younger.
▲* [[Forgetful Jones]]: [[Trope Namer]]
* [[Four-Fingered Hands]]: According to [[Word of God]], every Muppet has them ''except'' Cookie Monster.
* [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampire]]: The Count is one of the finest examples of this.
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* [[Green Aesop]]: [[Once an Episode]] during seasons 40 and 41.
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aTsze_Awpk Willie] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU7FcZ5ASUs Wimple] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOzIO5uNKh8 Anyone?]
* [[Harsh Life Revelation Aesop]]:
** One early episode had an anonymous harasser on the Hooper Store phone threaten Gina and Savin for being friends because Gina is white and Savin is black. While Gina and Savin reassure the kids that they aren't going to let one jerk end their friendship, they are both shaken by the end of the episode but decide to walk home together anyway.
** "Farewell Mr. Hooper" has one that marked [[Growing the Beard]] for the show: as Gordon puts it to Big Bird, "When people die, they don't come back." The adults while crying have to explain that Mr. Hooper died and won't come back, which leads to Big Bird crying as well. Talking it out and the adults saying it's okay to be sad allows Big Bird to accept this big loss, as well as a [[Group Hug]].
** The wildly memed Rocco episode has one for Zoe. She spends the whole afternoon using her pet rock Rocco to boss Elmo around and make him sing an apology song every time she claims that he made Rocco cry. Eventually Elmo hits his [[Rage Breaking Point]] when Zoe doesn't let him say the number of the day after he asked, delivers a [[The Reason You Suck Speech]], and stalks off to play alone. Gina spots Zoe moping in guilt; when she hears what happened, Gina says that Zoe may have been pretending, but her pretending went too far and hurt Elmo's feelings. You need to know when to stop. Zoe takes this to heart and makes peace with Elmo by singing him an apology song.
** The special ''[[Elmo Saves Christmas]]'' has Santa deliver one to Elmo: "Every day can't be Christmas." For context, he gave Elmo a snow globe that grants three wishes, and Elmo used his second wish to ask for it to be Christmas everyday. Elmo doesn't see what the problem is, because everyone is happy on Christmas. Santa shows him using a time-traveling reindeer named Lightning: everyone on Sesame Street gets tired of exchanging presents and eating turkey every day, the adults run out of money and have to close their businesses, and those who traveled for the holiday can't come back. Elmo is shocked that Sesame Street becomes a wasteland, and quickly strives to fix things.
* [[Head Desk]]: Muppet composer Don Music had a habit, when unable to find a rhyme, of slamming his forehead into the keys of his piano in sheer frustration. Which is why you don't see him anymore.
* [[Here We Go Again]]: The end of the song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syj3dYJvHUQ "I heard my Dog Bark."]
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* [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]]: [[In Which a Trope Is Described]]
* [[Incendiary Exponent]]: It is overshadowed by the song, but a campfire in "The Ladybugs' Picnic" gets out of control, and has to be put out by the fire department.
* [[Instant Plastic Surgery]]: The sadly banned episode with Margaret Hamilton played the Wicked Witch of the West has this. When David finds the broom -- rather, it lands in his hands-- he refuses to give it to Witchy on the grounds that she was very rude to him. She transforms herself into a "sweet old lady," that is Margaret Hamilton without her makeup, in the blink of an eye, to con him into giving it back to her. Even so, everyone recognizes her; David pretends not to and says he would return the broom, if she asked politely. Witchy finally does, and David returns it while wishing her a safe trip back to Oz.
* [[Instant Web Hit]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enpFde5rgmw "I Love My Hair."]
* [[Invincible Hero|Invincible TV Show]]: Sesame Street's Emmy count is ''off the charts''.
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* [[Safety Worst]]: In one storyline, Telly breaks his arm after playing tag. Following his recovery he wraps himself up in pillows in order to protect himself, only to realize that [[An Aesop|this means he can't move and must remove it to have fun.]]
* [[Scandalgate]]: A crossover between ''[[Sesame Street]]'' and ''The MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour'' occurred during a PBS pledge drive in the '80s in which Robert MacNeil covered a presumed cookie theft by Cookie Monster known as "Cookiegate".
* [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]]: One of Kermit the Frog's lectures has Kermit teaching about "more and less" with two glasses of milk - one full, and one empty - only for Cookie Monster to drink the whole full glass. Kermit scolds Cookie Monster for his actions, but this prompts the latter to summon a group of creepy monsters. Kermit's reaction:
{{quote|'''Kermit:''' You will now notice that there are more monsters than frogs here. Which means that there are... less frogs than monsters. Uh, which means you're going to see more and more of them, and... less and less of me. Uh... PIP! ''(makes a run for it)''}}
* [[Second-Person Attack]]: In the ''Elmo's World'' episode "Water", a boy is shown squirting a jet of water at the camera with a hose during a montage of kids playing with water.
* [[Sequel Hook]]: From ''Christmas Eve on Sesame Street'': {{spoiler|"How do you think the Easter Bunny can hide all those eggs in one night?"}}
* [[Serious Business]]: Under all the apparent silliness is a deep, deep dedication to their core educational mission, to the point of instantly dropping characters and concepts that ''might'' negatively impact young audiences. Sometimes can itself come off as over-the-top funny; as per [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O-Q5vJ-GHk this early short film] wherein the process of getting milk from the cow to a baby's bottle is treated with just slightly less gravity than, say, the Normandy Invasion.
▲* [[Sesame Street Cred]]: The [[Trope Namer]]. This is also the most likely show to invert this trope, with characters making appearances on all sorts of shows from ''Rove Live'' to ''[[Scrubs]]'' to ''[[NBC|The Today Show]]''.
* [[Sesquipedalian Smith]]: Forgetful Jones.
* [[Shoot the Money]]: The smaller version of Zoe, a.k.a. "Homunculus Zoe". See [[Throw It In]].
* [[Shout-Out]]: Again, a fundamental part of the [[Parental Bonus]]:
** "[[Happy Days|Good morning, Mr. Cunningham!]] Gee, that wasn't even close!"
** Big Bird's teddy bear is named [[
** Bert composes a letter to [[Mister Rogers' Neighborhood|Mister Rogers Neighborhood]] in one skit.
** Aversion: No matter what you've heard, Bert and Ernie are '''not''' named for George Bailey's childhood friends in ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]''. Henson & co. have been driven crazy by that coincidence for years.
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** A kid yanks the bottom can off a stack, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2j2O7M5Riw and the whole store collapses.]
** In one of Prairie Dawn's pageants about "heavy" and "light", one character named [[Monty Python|Monty]] is struggling to hold up a boulder and another named Merry is holding a feather. Monty eventually drops the boulder onto Prairie's piano, nearly crushing it. Then, Merry places the feather on top, completely crushing it.
* [[Weird Moon]]: "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon" shows Ernie sitting on the moon, which is in a crescent shape, as well as smaller in size.
* [[Wham! Shot]]: Has had one or two in its various long-term arcs:
** When Slimey goes into space, a farmer tells the WASA commander that his chicken is in the worms space shuttle. The official tells him the shuttle can only carry tiny worms. [[Gilligan Cut|Cut to a chicken clucking from the bottom of the ship as it breaks from the Earths' gravity]].
** The worm-astronauts fight over a bowling ball late at night. The balls goes loose and hits the Wrong Way button. This causes the ship to go off-course.
* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]: [[Andrea Bocelli]] singing a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BDVvB7Xx1w lullaby]
* [[Whip Pan]]: Typical of Season 40.
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{{reflist}}
{{TV Guide's 50 Greatest}}
{{Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:American Series]]
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[[Category:Memetic Works]]
[[Category:Puppet Shows]]
[[Category:Puppet Shows of the 1970s]]
[[Category:Puppet Shows of the 1980s]]
[[Category:Puppet Shows of the 1990s]]
[[Category:Puppet Shows of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Puppet Shows of the 2010s]]
[[Category:Puppet Shows of the 2020s]]
[[Category:TV Series]]
[[Category:The Kiddie Ride]]▼
[[Category:The Muppets]]▼
▲[[Category:Turn of the Millennium]]
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 1960s]]
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 1970s]]
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[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 2010s]]
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 2020s]]
[[Category:Long Runners]]
▲[[Category:The Kiddie Ride]]
▲[[Category:The Muppets]]
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