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''Plaza Sésamo'' ((スペイン語:Sesame Square)), is one of the first international co-productions of the American children's television program ''Sesame Street''. Its first season premiered in Mexico in 1972, and was immediately a ratings hit. It also aired throughout Latin America, to a potential audience of 25 million children in 34 countries. Unlike some of the earliest co-productions, which consisted of dubbed versions of ''Sesame Street'' with local language voice-overs, ''Plaza Sésamo'' was a true co-production. Half of the show was adapted from the American show, and half was original material, created in Mexico by Mexican writers, performers, and producers. The first season consisted of 130 half-hour episodes. The show's goals, similar to the process begun in the U.S., were developed by local experts in television, child development, and early education during curriculum seminars in Caracas, Venezuela. ''Plaza Sésamo's'' goals emphasized problem solving and reasoning, and also included perception, symbolic representation, human diversity, and the child's environment. Other goals included community cooperation, family life, nutrition, health, safety, self-esteem, and expressing emotions. Early reading skills were taught through the whole language method. The show's budget for the first and second seasons was approximately US$1.6 million. The show's set consisted of a typical neighborhood square (or plaza) found throughout the region. New Muppets and human characters were created. In all, four seasons of ''Plaza Sésamo'' were filmed. The first season resulted in some of the highest ratings in Mexico. The fourth season, filmed in 1995, was broadcast in the U.S., making it the first foreign-language co-production shown in the U.S. Studies conducted after the first season of ''Plaza Sésamo'' showed that it had a demonstrable impact on the educational achievement levels of its young audience. Highly significant difference were found in tests about general knowledge, letters, and numbers after children were exposed to the show. Significant gains were made in several cognitive and perceptual areas by regular viewers, even in subjects that were not taught by the show. Characters from the show participated in campaigns promoting health and nutrition; in 2009, the Sesame Workshop, the organization responsible for the American show, was awarded the "Champion of Health" award by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for its efforts. Sesame Workshop recently produced ''Sesame Amigos'' for Spanish-speaking Americans. == 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〕 Most of the early international versions were what Cole called "fairly simple",〔 consisting of dubbed versions of the show with local language voice-overs and instructional cutaways. 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〕 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「Plaza Sésamo」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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