Sesame Park

After the original American version of Sesame Street premiered in the United States in 1969 to major success, Director of Information Programs for the CBC Knowlton Nash approached Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) to acquire the first season of 52 episodes for the CBC. The private CTV Television Network also offered a competing bid, but CBC won the rights to air the program by citing its larger broadcast footprint.^[2]

On 12 February 1970, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced an increase in Canadian content requirements to 60 percent, however, Nash chose to pursue acquisition and received a verbal guarantee to exempt Sesame Street for one year. The CRTC later announced that stations can exceed the maximum 30 percent quota of American programming for the 1970-71 broadcast season if the excess was caused by the airing of Sesame Street.^[2]

The program began airing in Canada on 30 September 1970 to critical acclaim and public enthusiasm, with 10,000 viewers writing to CTW for educational materials. However, both the CRTC and newspaper columnists expressed concerns about the majority African American cast, the depictions of New York City, and references to “cows across America”. At the same time, financial concerns over CRTC regulations led Calgary CBC affiliate CHCT-TV (now CICT-DT) to announce on 2 January 1971 that they planned to drop the series, prompting protests from viewers, escalating to letter campaigns to the CRTC. The CRTC ultimately agreed to extend the waiver for Sesame Street for the 1971-72 broadcast season.^[2]

While Nash was impressed by the support, it emboldened CTW to increase the renewal rate for the second season to US$280,000. Financial concerns from CBC stations led to more announcements of dropping the program, prompting further backlash from the Canadian public. Throughout this time, columnists expressed concerns about elements of the series such as the American English dialect being used in the program. The introduction of the Puerto Rican character Maria Rodriguez (played by Sonia Manzano) and the resulting introduction of Spanish-language segments prompted further demands for a Canadian version of the program that would teach Canadian children English and French in a similar manner.^[2]

Daniel McCarthy, the director of the CBC Sesame Street Project, developed Sesame Street Canada for CBC Television.^[3] The series, which debuted in 1972, was originally a hybrid of American and Canadian production segments. McCarthy partnered with the Children's Television Workshop to introduce new, CBC-produced segments to the show's original American footage. He also introduced distinct Canadian themes and set designs to the show.

The series was later titled Canadian Sesame Street. During the 1970s and 1980s it anchored a three-show block that included Friendly Giant (later replaced by Fred Penner's Place) and Mr. Dressup.

Most of the production of the Canadian segments took place in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Halifax, and Montreal.

In 1996, the CBC decided to take on the job of producing different kinds of content for the series; specifically to have their own "street". Producer Shirley Greenfield and screenwriter Jill Golick decided to set the show in a park, rather than on an urban street. A new half-hour series entitled Sesame Park was born. The series premiered in September 1996.^[1] It joined the CBC Playground lineup on October 21, along with Wimzie's House.^[8]

The show's animated sequences were created in Toronto, while live-action segments were shot in Regina, Vancouver, and Winnipeg.^[9]

Sesame Park was cancelled in 2001 for undisclosed reasons.^{[citation needed]}

In 1999, the series received its nomination and win from the Gemini Awards, for Best Preschool Program or Series (Wendy Smith, Susan Sheehan, Duncan Lamb). Bob Stutt was nominated that year for Best Performance in a Preschool Program or Series. In 2000, Sheila McCarthy won Best Performance in a Preschool Program or Series, for her role in an episode of the show, beating out fellow guest star Pier Kohl, as well as others. In 2001, the series won Best Preschool Program or Series (Wendy Smith, Susan Sheehan, Duncan Lamb), beating out Land O' Hands and The Nook Counting Network. Guest Eric Peterson won again for Best Performance in a Preschool Program or Series, beating out Pier Kohl, James Rankin, Natasha LaForce and Gisèle Corinthios.

As with the original Sesame Street, some segments of Canadian Sesame Street and Sesame Park were farmed out to other versions of Sesame Street, in particular, Plaza Sésamo, the Latin American version of Sesame Street. In addition, since the rise of cable television in Canada in the 1970s (and before that for communities close to the US border), the original American Sesame Street could still be viewed on PBS-affiliated stations.

Sesame Street now airs on Treehouse TV, a Canadian channel aimed at preschoolers, with specials airing on the Global Television Network, one of Canada’s major terrestrial broadcast networks. Various segments, including Global Grover and Elmo's World, have aired separately on the channel for many years after Open Sesame.

• Tim Gosley - Basil the Polar Bear (1987–1996)^[10]
• Trish Leeper - Katie,^[9] Barbara Plum
• Rob Mills - Dodi (1987–1996),^[10] Garth Burmengi
• Pier Paquette - Louis the Otter^[9][10]
• Derek Ritschel - Ray
• Gord Robertson - Dodi (assistance in flying sequences)
• Bob Stutt - Basil the Polar Bear (1996–2001)
• Karen Valleau - Chaos the Cat^[9]
• Noreen Young - Dodi (1996–2001)^[9]