Sesame Park (partially found Canadian co-production of Sesame Street; 1972-2001)

Status: Partially found

Sesame Street Canada, later Sesame Park, was a television show that ran on CBC, comprised of Canadian made content mixed with the American sesame street, later turning into it's own show. Sesame street Canada ran from 1972-1996, with the fully original content Sesame park running from 1996-2001. The shows ran on weekdays at 11, being mostly aimed at preschoolers like Sesame street.

History

Due to legal issues with the amount of imported content in Canada, CBC decided to air beloved childrens television show Sesame Street, modified with new more Canadian segments, surrounding bilingualism, multiculturalism, and Canadian history to replace the segments which were irrelevant to Canadians. This did cause some protest, with children being photographed holding signs saying "Bring Back Bert!" Many debates surrounding Canadian nationalism in television centered around sesame street, due to the rights being bought right at the same times laws surrounding import laws in tv were being introduced.

Each episode kept the original "street" segments that progressed the plot of the episodes, with some non-street segments being replaced with canadian content. The canadian content from this era ranged from 12 to 20 minutes of an hour long episode, with the amount of content increasing to approximately 30 minutes in 1981.

In 1987, many Canadian Muppet characters were added for these segments and the opening, including Basil the polar bear, Louis the otter, Dodi, and Katie.

Beginning in 1996, the show was revamped to be solely Canadian production, with the Canadian Muppets added in 1987 becoming the core cast, and adding Chaos the cat. Episodes were shortened to 30 minutes, with it's own "street" segments, and occasionally American segments. The "street" segments were located in a park, instead of a street, giving the show the name "Sesame Park".

Availability

Many clips are available online, and six full episodes from the two series are available. It is unknown exactly how many episodes were made, due to the show getting content after Sesame Street with about a year's delay. Sesame park is the most documented, with the amount of episodes, names of the episodes of the last two seasons, and some episode descriptions. Utilizing the wayback machine, the sesame park website is available through the cbc kids website, giving us episode times and descriptions. It is unknown how much content, if any, the CBC still has, and if they would be able to release it due to legal rights with Sesame workshop.