Sesame Street

YMA recommendation

Approved as non-violent media, with caution. Accidental harm; Slapstick comedy

Most suitable age range:

2-4

Availability

At time of review, screening on ABC free to air.

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About the program

Year of production	1969-0ngoing
Classification advice
Rating	G
Consumer advice lines	None
Duration	25 minutes

Other information
Country of origin	USA
Production Company	Children’s Television Workshop 1969-2000, Henson Associates (HA) 1969 – 1990), Jim Henson Productions (1990 – 2000), Sesame Workshop (2001 – On-going) 牋牋牋牋

Synopsis

Sesame Street is a special street where humans and puppets go about their days working, playing and helping one another as they teach a preschool audience about letters, numbers and many other things.

Points to consider

Words of caution

Oscar the Grouch is often rude and seems to take pride in hurting people's and puppets' feelings
Super Grover is frequently seen crashing off screen before he stands up, makes a comment and collapses.
Abbey the Fairy Godchild sometimes has trouble with her magic and both she and Elmo wind up reappearing on someone’s shoulders. That individual then crashes to the ground under their weight.

Positive aspects

The same characters appear year after year offering a sense of continuity and reliability.
The characters offer conflict resolution skills, teach games and songs and present things in a way that preschoolers will readily understand.
Basic literacy and numeracy are part of each episode, with every show having a letter and number of the day.

Questions to ask

How could Oscar the Grouch have spoken so that he wouldn’t have hurt the other person’s feelings?
If Grover was a real person, what do you suppose would happen if he crashed out of the sky like that?