Dan Hassler-Forest at VPRO about Sesame Street

On 10 November, Dr. Dan Hassler-Forest was a invited to VPRO's OVT to look back at fifty years of Sesame Street.

Many kids in the Netherlands grew up with Sesamstraat, the Dutch version of the American children's show Sesame Street. It was the first show ever that involved researchers in the creation of the television format. According to Hassler-Forest the rationale went: “We have to make children's television where we take the lessons we've learned from commercial television and work together with academics and educational experts to help underprivileged children prepare themselves for a better future.”

While this was the goal of both the American Sesame Street and the Dutch Sesamstraat, there are also interesting differences between the two. For example, the American version would always stick close to the script, while the Dutch adaptation also contained improvisation and running jokes. Moreover, the creators of the Dutch adaptation would always make sure that the show would be interesting for adults. According to Hassler-Forest, that “children benefit when parents are prepared to watch television together with them” was an important part of the original concept of Sesame Street. The show is charming to adults, but it never forgets that children form the core audience.