Page 34 - Lauren Lolo Spencer Issue

Ernie and Bert; Image by NDR/Sesame Workshop
PBS has produced 53 seasons! Behind all Sesame Streets across the globe stands a non-profit organization that ties them all together: The Sesame Workshop, a US non-profit supporting children in 150 countries across the globe. Without them, the German Sesamstraße would not exist. Some of the most popular characters are Elmo, a red muppet monster, Big Bird, a pompous yellow bird, and the Cookie Monster, a prominent and fluffy blue muppet. Germany’s Sesamstraße features most of the characters from the US original, with some additional ones, for example, Samson, a huge, brown bear-like character, and, of course, the most recent development Elin, a girl who uses a wheelchair.
it is so much fun! Even though I haven’t planned to become part of the Sesamstraße, I am really happy here.”
The most significant difference between Sesame Street in the US and Germany is that they target different age groups. “Our American colleagues start at around two years of age, while our narratives in Germany require the children to be around four to five years old. Addi- tionally, in the US, they use more didactic elements than we do in Germany,” Dirk Junk, Sesame Street Producer, explains. Each episode of Sesame Street is complexly crafted to convey a core message to the audience. The producers pick one specific topic, which will then be split up into several segments consisting of puppetry and documentary clips, all to educate children in a fun and exciting way. That’s Junk’s job. He develops the content for the episodes. A dream job? He laughs. “Yes,
On April 12, 2022, producer Junk received an e-mail from Equal Opportunities Officer at the NDR René Schaar, who asked Junk how he felt about diversifying their muppets. One day later, during a conference with editor Holger Hermesmeyer, Schaar brought up Ameera, a green muppet that is a part of the Sesame Street of North Africa and the Middle East. “Ameera loves math and sciences and plays basketball but also uses a wheelchair. And we needed a character like that in Germany, too.” Schaar stepped out of his usual role at the NDR, where he is responsible for the diversity and equality of the channels’ employees, but not the content of the TV program. “I didn’t really have the capacity to develop a new character for the Sesamstraße, but since this was so close to my heart, I just did and still contin- ue doing it on top of my regular job,” Schaar, who lives with a limb difference himself, says. After Schaar dis- cussed his ideas internally with the team at NDR, they reached out to the Sesame Workshop. Together, they brought the new character Elin, a girl with a disability, to life. One year after Schaar’s initial input, the muppet was finalized and ready to be played.
34 ABILITY
Building a Role Model