Since its first episode aired on this day in 1969, Sesame Street has been an indispensable part of children’s and families’ lives all around the world! Its colorful world filled with human and muppet counterparts has provided a charming, captivating, and empathetic format for education and empowerment of the youth.
Sesame Street was born of a need to provide children in urban areas with accessible, diverse, and inclusive educational resources. Joan Ganz Cooney, Lloyd Morrisett, and Jim Henson conceived of the show as something that would appeal to kids regardless of their age, abled or disabled, socioeconomic background, or ethnicity!
From learning numbers to colors to the alphabet, from science to art to world cultures, it’s undeniable how indelible this resource has become in the history of childhood development. To this day, the show has been broadcast globally to more than 190 million children in 70 different languages across 150 countries with 30 different international co-productions. And that’s not all! There are hundreds of print media books, comics, and coloring books to build on and reinforce the concepts taught and demonstrated in the series, for yet another way for viewers and families to engage. We love to see it!
Of course, since cars and transportation are our bread and butter, we’re checking out some of the incredible ways that Sesame Street has connected kids to transportation, movement, and the automotive industry through STEM/STEAM activities and play based learning!
In 1975, Sesame Street and CTW introduced “The Countmobile”, helmed by none other than our number loving Transylvanian pal, The Count! Borrowing designs from retro vehicles, a vampire coffin, and the vintage Batmobile designs, this unique vehicle was lovingly hand-crafted with purple paint, green flames, and goofy camp! It was used to illustrate the importance of road rules, driver/passenger etiquette, and pedestrian safety to youngsters. Ten years later in 1985, the vehicle was upgraded for the Follow That Bird movie, and built on the bones of a 1930s Frazer Nash replica, and sported a very smart pair of purple and black bat wings and a New York State license plate with 12345678910 on it!
Sesame Street is no stranger to introducing kids to automotive concepts, highlighting a series of classic and vintage (then new and popular) daily drivers, highlighting everything from a Taxi to a station wagon to cargo vans and more! Here is a super fun list of vehicles featured in Sesame Street over its 50ish years in production. They’ve also updated several classic children’s songs, such as “Wheels on the Bus”, while creating some of their own memorable hits like “Let’s Go Driving.”
We love this segment from early Sesame Street in which Grover is a Taxi driver! It’s a very funny way to introduce kids into Taxi etiquette, Taxis as part of city culture and transportation, and the way car services work. It’s also a very sweet nod to the personality and hustle and bustle of “city culture.”
In this segment of Bert and Ernie’s Great Adventures from the 2010s, Bert and Ernie are working as car mechanics. Of course, wacky hijinks ensue as they highlight the basics of car maintenance and the pitfalls of not keeping up with a reliable service schedule, haha!
If you’re looking for relatable content to help kids pass the time in the car, this segment with Abby, Cookie, Guy Smiley, and Cookie’s Mom is a surefire hit! Introducing kids to the concept of boredom busters and family togetherness through a round of “Smiley Says” can help them connect and thwart the doldrums. (And a humorous rendition of the infamous “Cash Cab!”) And of course, showing their favorite characters buckled up and in their car seats!
Elmo and Rosita are going to the museum with Papa Elmo, and have jumped into the car and stepped into an unexpected episode of Guy Smiley’s travel gameshow, for a round of “I Spy”! Another classic car game that kids will love playing together, and will be extra excited to try now that their favorite characters have demonstrated! Not only that, but it encourages the powers of observation while driving and passenging, and observing internal and external environments! We also love how nicely it highlights the childlike muppets being properly belted and buckled, as well as the grownups who drive paying close attention to the road.
We also love this similar segment of Bert, Ernie, and Count all buckled up safely, playing another classic car game of “Name That Animal” style charades!
This wonderful clip from Elmo and Abby explains the basics of car safety to kids, and the importance of wearing a seatbelt before hitting the road. By employing the element of imaginative play, the safety lesson is framed incredibly well, the concept of seatbelts to improve safety in crashes introduced gently, and all the while accessible for little minds to grasp. We love it!
These segments continue to impress upon us the importance of vital children's television programming such as Sesame Street, and reasons why public access to educational resources is the way we build a better future as a community. Let’s all do our part to support funding and research for educational programming and encourage generations of children to explore, learn, and play!
Images on this post for educational and illustrative purposes only; no copyright infringement intended.
All characters and videos and imagery belongs to CTW and derivative networks.
