'Sesame Street' And Muppet Diplomacy

While the world may revile many aspects of the United States, there is one uniquely American export that seems to win hearts all over the globe: "Sesame Street."

"This is the best of America," Gary Knell, president of Sesame Workshop, told Sunday Morning correspondent Martha Teichner.

"Sesame Street" first aired 36 years ago and today is regarded as one of the most positive and influential children's shows in the world. Back in 1969, its creators never suspected that the show would turn into a global enterprise with a budget of $100 million. A new documentary called "The World According To Sesame Street," produced by a company called Independent Lens, explores the show's international impact.

In Indonesia recently, President Bush was hardly welcomed with open arms, but the people warmly greeted Elmo, even as he waved an American flag. Indonesia will soon join the more than 120 countries where "Sesame Street" has been seen. That's nearly 2/3 of all the recognized countries in the world. The Muppets seem to be the opposite of the Ugly American.

On "Ulitsa Sezam," the Russians have Zeliboba, a huge, bluish tree spirit. In India, on "Galligalli Simsim," there is Boombah the lion. And in France on "Cinq Rue de Sesame," a made-up creature named Nac.

A giant green parrot named Abelardo (who claims to be Big Bird's cousin) lives on Latin America's "Plaza Sesamo."

Muppet diplomacy succeeds not by hitting anybody over the head and insisting that it's our way or no way; it's whatever way each country wants. Ginger Brown's job is to help make that happen.

"We provide a model," she said. "It's not a format. The national differences do come out in every country. And each country has its own art form that it feels that children will respond to, and they do."

"We are able to tweak and turn every single detail until we are actually doing a show that is understandable by kids in Latin America," executive producer of Mexico's "Plaza Sesamo," Javier Williams, said.

That means finding relevant subject matter, adapting classic Muppet characters, or creating new ones.

"The Muppets are marvelous because you actually can have the Muppets cross all the boundaries that can be crossed, whereas a human character wouldn't, you know," Williams said.

Lola, played by Rozio Lara, is one of the characters on "Plaza Sesamo."

"She's a little girl, she's about 4 years-old," Lara said. "She's a monster. She's very playful. She's very energetic. She's friends with everyone."

Pancho Contreras, played by Odin Duypeyron, is Latin America's Oscar the Grouch.

"He likes things that no one likes," Duypeyron said. "He likes onions. What my character is telling to the kid is that you can be different. You can like things that nobody else like and you can still be loved and have friends."

"These characters are truly animated living creatures that come to life," Knell said. "And whether it's an adult of whether it's a child, they are able to deliver the educational messages through their wonderful personalities that have really been unequaled by any other characters in the world."

In South Africa, even where there's no electricity, "Takalani Sesame" still gets seen.

One out of every nine kids is infected with the AIDS virus, so Kami is an HIV-positive Muppet. She's become such a celebrity, a stadium-full of people actually turned out to see her.

But Muppet diplomacy is not just warm and fuzzy, it is also part of United States policy. The U.S. government money helped to put "Takalani Sesame" on the air as well as co-productions in Bangladesh, India, and Egypt's wildly popular "Alam Simsim," where First Lady Laura Bush made an appearance with the Egyptian First Lady. It may seem like these kinds of appearances could delve into murky areas in terms of how it's going to be seen and interpreted in those countries, but Knell says that "Sesame Street" is able to walk a fine line.

"I think that the secret that we've been able to do is that we are really not the ones producing these shows," he said. "It is really our local partners."

The local partners define for themselves what educational and social issues their shows will address. Veronica Wulff and Jason Weber spent last summer working on characters for a new co-production with Israel.

"We felt it was really important to have an Arab Muppet on 'Rehov Sumsum,' the 'Sesame Street' in Israel," Wuff said.

His name is Mahboub, and he's 5 years old.

"His role is to bring Arab culture to the street through his music, through traditions and songs and games and through his language, because he's bi-lingual," Wuff said. "He speaks both Hebrew and Arabic."

The point is to teach tolerance in a charged environment. When "Rehov Sumsum" premieres this Friday, it will reach an impressive 97 percent of the homes in Israel.

For the vast majority of Bangladesh's 9 million kids under 6, "Sesame Street," or "Sisimpur," could be their only pre-school education.

But as the documentary shows, getting any of these co-productions on television is no small feat, starting with the design of the show.

"One of our big questions is what kind of street are we going to have," Knell said. "Tiger is the national animal of Bangladesh, so we decided we want to have a royal Bengal tiger in the show."

The process takes years and can actually be hazardous — floods caused major production delays in Bangladesh. But when a new show finally airs, nobody who's worked on it has to be convinced that all the trouble was worthwhile.

"We believe that empowering children through education is going to make a better world," Knell said. "That may be a little bit naïve, but the query I would put to skeptics and cynics about this is: What is the alternative?"

That helps to explain why "Sesame Street" is able to calls itself "the longest street in the world."