The Sesame Workshop announced last week that it will cut 67 of 355 staff positions due to the recession - 20% of its staff. Tough times call for tough measures, and today I'd like to suggest that the venerable organization slaughter its only sacred cow. That's right: It's time to put Sesame Street to bed.

The Sesame Workshop (formerly Children's Television Workshop) is the public television brain trust behind not only Sesame Street (a landmark kids' TV show by any measure), but a series of subsequent shows that applied new thinking to educational television in the same way for a variety of subject areas and age groups - the Electric Company for reading, 3-2-1 Contact for science, and the less familiar Square One TV for middle-school-level math. For some reason, though, they've always been associated almost exclusively with that first, albeit seminal show.


The CTW was also behind the first full-length animated film produced specifically for television, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Here's a clip in Spanish that might jog your presumably English memory - you can find it in English on YouTube if you want to head there.


And although they were a bit late to the table, Follow That Bird was a pretty awesome little-"m" muppet movie, wasn't it?


So, 20% fewer staff. They may be plotting some new efficiencies over there at Sesame, but it seems like the sensible thing to do will be to limit new projects and perhaps even cut a show or two. Here's their current roster, with each image linked to its show profile on the Sesame website. So the question is, what are they doing now that they should stop doing?

Here's their current lineup of shows.

Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures: If there's anything Sesame needs, it's more claymation. Stop-motion ages well and the material you create can be spliced into other properties later to spice things up, Sesame style. This one's a keeper!



Pinky Dinky Doo: I've never seen this. From Sesame's description: "Seven-year-old Pinky Dinky Doo is a pink-haired girl with a stupendous imagination. She’s very good at making up stories about everything from rude alligators to shoes made out of salami. Pinky’s little brother Tyler Dinky Doo often inspires her storytelling - when he has a real-life problem, she’ll conjure up a creative story that leads to a solution. Along the way, she uses all sorts of wack-a-doodle, witty alliteration and some goofy doofy word play. Pinky loves to use Great Big Fancy Words like “flabbergasted” and “exasperated,” and she’ll use each word several times in each story she tells, so young viewers will remember it." Sounds good to me - ever seen it?


Play with Me Sesame: Play with Me Sesame recycles classic Sesame Street clips with a more aggressive attempt to make educational TV "interactive," although the technology hasn't changed. Kids are encouraged to participate and be active throughout, and the show is hosted by Bert, Ernie, Grover, and Prairie Dawn. This show is cheap - a big win for a bad economy.


DragonTales: Perhaps one of the better candidates for the axe, DragonTales has had some success but competes directly with other soft educational programing on Nickelodeon, the networks, and from other PBS suppliers. I could see this show disappearing.

By all accounts, the new Electric Company is a great show, and the fact that the original show was great makes this a double win. Many kiddie-literate shows have come and gone in the decades since the original Electric Company originally hit the airwaves, but on one has really found a better formula or rhythm than the pioneers at CTW. They'd be crazy to pull back on this project, and they probably won't.



Sesame Street: Which brings us back to Sesame Street. Is Sesame Workshop's strong association with this single show really fair? Sesame Street has suffered greatly over the decades. Its best bits are in its past - which still play a big part in the show - and in the wacky guest appearances the show's organizers can still pull together. Readers of this blog shouldn't be too surprised to hear me say that I think Sesame Workshop should kill Sesame Street. But I'm pretty sure that isn't going to happen.

What do you think? Would canceling Sesame Street to focus on newer projects be a smart - if drastic - move for the more than forty-year-old nonprofit, or would it be a crippling blow to an already vulnerable organization? - Jeremiah