Celebrating Sesame Street’s 45th Anniversary!
It`s time for America`s most loved puppets to celebrate their 45th anniversary on TV. Sesame Street premiered on public broadcasting television stations on November 10, 1969 and has produced over 4,300 episodes. From the first premier until now, this educational children`s program has won 159 Emmys, several Grammys and, as of 2009, as many as 77 million adult Americans had watched the show as children. There is much more behind this show besides the countless lessons and celebrity appearances.
Here are the top 5 secrets behind Sesame Street. The first secret is the Count’s love of numbers isn’t exactly just a play on his name. Vampires are supposed to have arithmomania which is a strong need to count surrounding objects. The second secret is that the original idea of the show was to focus on Bert and Ernie. This failed testing led to the creation of the characters Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch and Snuffleupagus.
The third 
secret is the trashcan dweller, Oscar The Grouch actually fell in
love. It might seem that he only loves grumpy weather but in a now banned
episode, Oscar fell in love with the Wicked Witch of the West. This episode was banned due to the content being deemed too scary for children. The fourth secret is that Elmo was originally used as just a character in the background and did not debut till season 12.
Not only did he become one of the most famous puppets he ended up becoming the only puppet or non-human to testify before Congress in 2002, advocating for increased funding for music programs. The last secret is “Sesame Street” is named after the “Arabian Nights” phrase “Open, Sesame!”
Written by: Sandra Costanzo