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The preschool educational television program ''Sesame Street'' was first aired on public broadcasting television stations November 10, 1969, and will reach its 46th season in 2016. The history of ''Sesame Street'' has reflected changing attitudes to developmental psychology, early childhood education and cultural diversity. Featuring Jim Henson's Muppets, animation, live shorts, humor and celebrity appearances, it was the first television program of its kind to base its content and production values on laboratory and formative research, and the first to include a curriculum "detailed or stated in terms of measurable outcomes".〔 Initial responses to the show included adulatory reviews, some controversy and high ratings. By its 40th anniversary in 2009, ''Sesame Street'' was broadcast in over 120 countries, and 20 independent international versions had been produced.〔 The show was conceived in 1966 during discussions between television producer Joan Ganz Cooney and Carnegie Corporation vice president Lloyd Morrisett. Their goal was to create a children's television show that would "master the addictive qualities of television and do something good with them",〔 such as helping young children prepare for school. After two years of research, the newly formed Children's Television Workshop (CTW) received a combined grant of $8 million from the Carnegie Corporation, the Ford Foundation and the U.S. federal government to create and produce a new children's television show. By the show's tenth anniversary in 1979, nine million American children under the age of six were watching ''Sesame Street'' daily, and several studies showed it was having a positive educational impact. The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. In 1981, the federal government withdrew its funding, so the CTW turned to other sources, such as its magazine division, book royalties, product licensing and foreign income. During the 1980s, ''Sesame Street''s curriculum expanded to include topics such as relationships, ethics and emotions. Many of the show's storylines were taken from the experiences of its writing staff, cast and crew, most notably the death of Will Lee—who played Mr. Hooper—and the marriage of Luis and Maria. In recent decades, ''Sesame Street'' has faced societal and economic challenges, including changes in the viewing habits of young children, more competition from other shows, the development of cable television and a drop in ratings. After the turn of the 21st century, the show made major structural adaptations, including changing its traditional magazine format to a narrative format. Due to the popularity of the Muppet Elmo, the show incorporated a popular segment known as "Elmo's World". ''Sesame Street'' has won eight Grammys and over a hundred Emmys in its history—more than any other children's show. ==Background== In the late 1960s, 97% of all American households owned a television set, and preschool children watched an average of 27 hours of television per week;〔 programs created for them were widely criticized for being too violent and for reflecting commercial values.〔〔 Producer Joan Ganz Cooney called children's programming a "wasteland", and she was not alone in her criticism.〔 Many children's television programs were produced by local stations, with little regard for educational goals, or cultural diversity〔〔See Davis, pp. 30–41, and Palmer & Fisch in Fisch & Truglio, pp. 6–7, for a discussion about the state of children's television programming.〕 and the use of children's programming as an educational tool was "unproven" and "a revolutionary concept".〔 According to children's media experts Edward Palmer and Shalom M. Fisch, children's television programs of the 1950s and 1960s duplicated "prior media forms".〔 For example, they tended to show simple shots of a camera's-eye view of a location filled with children, or they recreated storybooks with shots of book covers and motionless illustrated pages. The hosts of these programs were "insufferably condescending",〔 though one exception was ''Captain Kangaroo'', created and hosted by Bob Keeshan, which author Michael Davis described as having a "slower pace and idealism" that most other children's shows lacked.〔 Early childhood educational research had shown that when children were prepared to succeed in school, they earned higher grades and learned more effectively. Children from low-income families had fewer resources than children from higher-income families to prepare them for school. Research had shown that children from low-income, minority backgrounds tested "substantially lower"〔 than middle-class children in school-related skills, and that they continued to have educational deficits throughout school.〔 The field of developmental psychology had grown during this period, and scientists were beginning to understand that changes in early childhood education could increase children's cognitive growth. Because of these trends in education, along with the great societal changes occurring in the United States during this era, the time was ripe for the creation of a show like ''Sesame Street''.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Sesame Street」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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