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''Iftah Ya Simsim'' ((アラビア語:افتح يا سمسم; meaning "Open Sesame")) is the first international co-production of the American children's television series ''Sesame Street'' created in the Arab world. It premiered in Kuwait in 1979, was broadcast in 22 Arabic-speaking countries and ran until 1990, when the Gulf War ended production. The program continued to be well-known decades after it went off the air. In 2010, talks between Arab organizations and governments planned to revive the show. In 1978, educators, mass media officers, and social planners agreed to adopt ''Sesame Street'' as a feasible and economical solution for the low attendance in preschools and illiteracy that plagued the region. They approached the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), the producers of the American show, and purchased the rights to create an Arab version for US$2.5 million. A few months after its premiere, ''Iftah Ya Simsim'' became one of the most popular and successful programs for children in many Arab states. Critics called it "one of the most successful pan-Arab collaborations of educators, creators, writers and artists from the Middle East".〔 The show inspired many studies, which demonstrated that children benefited from watching it. It has been said that when Iraqi invaders stormed the set during the Gulf War in 1990, they took away not just videos of the show but some of the Muppet costumes as "prisoners of war",〔 some of which have never been returned. In 2010, efforts began to revive the show for a new generation of young viewers in the Arab world. In late 2013, fifteen writers and producers from Bidaya Media attended training about its educational methodology and production techniques from the staff of the American show in New York. ''Iftah Ya Simsim'' was in pre-production in March 2014, and the first phase of auditions took place in April 2014. The new series debut on September 1, 2015.〔http://kidscreen.com/2015/09/02/arabic-language-sesame-street-returns-after-25-year-hiatus/〕 == Background == A few months after the 1969 debut of ''Sesame Street'' on PBS in the US, producers from several countries all around the world approached the Children's Television Workshop (CTW, later the Sesame Workshop, or "the Workshop"), the organization responsible for the show's production, to create and produce versions of ''Sesame Street'' in their countries.〔Cole ''et al.'' p. 148〕 Co-creator Joan Ganz Cooney was approached by German public television officials about a year after the US version debuted. Many years later, Cooney recalled, "To be frank, I was really surprised, because we thought we were creating the quintessential American show. We thought the Muppets were quintessentially American, and it turns out they're the most international characters ever created". She hired former CBS executive Mike Dann, who left commercial television to become her assistant, as a CTW vice-president. One of Dann's tasks was to field offers to produce versions of ''Sesame Street'' in other countries. By summer 1970, he had made the first international agreements for what the CTW came to call "co-productions".〔Davis, pp. 209—210〕 As of 2006, there were 20 active co-productions.〔 In 2001, CTW vice-president Charlotte Cole estimated that there were over 120 million viewers of all international versions of Sesame Street,〔Cole et al., p. 147〕 and by the show's 40th anniversary in 2009, they were seen in more than 140 countries.〔Gikow, p. 263〕 Doreen Carvajal of ''The New York Times'' reported that income from the co-productions accounted for US$96 million in 1994. Cole stated, "Children's Television Workshop (CTW) can be regarded as the single largest informal educator of young children in the world".〔Cole ''et al''., pp. 169—172〕 Studies conducted on the effects of several co-productions found that viewers of these shows gain basic skills from watching them.〔Gikow, pp. 252—253〕 Kuwait's 1980 census, conducted shortly after the original show's premiere, showed that 48% of its citizens were "either totally illiterate or ... barely (to ) read or write".〔Al-Khulaifi, p. 2〕 Several studies in Kuwait showed that parents' illiteracy adversely affected their children's educational and social development. Half of Kuwaitis who lived in the rural areas of the country were illiterate.〔Al-Khulaifi, p. 3〕 Literacy rates for women and girls were worse: UNESCO reported in 2005 that they "account for two thirds of the region's illiterates".〔Hammoud, p. 4〕 In 2000, before the revived show aired, the Arab region had some of the world's lowest adult literacy rates, at a little over 62%, which was well below the world average of 84% and in developing countries (almost 76.5%).〔Hammoud, pp. 3–4〕 The Kuwaiti 1980 census also showed that even though Kindergarten was free for its citizens, 30% of children aged 3 to 5 attended; the number was much lower for the 12 million preschoolers in the Arab world, at about 2%. Girls attended school less commonly than boys in Arab countries.〔 In 1976, the Arab fund for Social and Economic Development held a series of workshops and seminars, attended by educators, mass media officers, and social planners, about preschool education in the region. The participants agreed to adopt ''Sesame Street'' as a feasible and economical solution for the low attendance in preschools and illiteracy〔Al-Khulaifi, p. 6〕 and, with funding from the Arab Gulf States Joint Program Production Institution, movement was made to create a co-production for the children of Kuwait and for the Arab world. This program, called ''Iftah Ya Simsim'' ("Open Sesame") premiered in Kuwait in 1979 and ran until 1990, when the Gulf War stopped production. It was broadcast in 22 Arab countries, and continued to be well-known decades after it went off the air.〔Gikow, p. 259〕 In June 2010, the Sesame Workshop and the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States (ABEGS), a regional Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) organization dedicated to education, research, and development, agreed to bring back the show. 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「Iftah Ya Simsim」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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