Ep 215: Carol-Lynn Parente, Executive Producer of Sesame Street

Cookie Monster eats Sesame StreetWhen the opportunity arrived to speak to the Executive Producer of one of the most influential TV shows on the planet, there was absolutely no question about it.

Josh spoke to Carol-Lynn Parente about Sesame Street, the death of Mr Hooper, the introduction of new characters, and using TV as an educational tool.

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3 Comments

  1. actualchad says:

    I recently picked up a Sesame Street 40th anniversary book at Kmart for maybe $20?, partially for my two-year-old and partially for me because I was a huge fan growing up (apparently I would stop dead and stare whenever the Philip Glass/Geometry/Rainbow animated segments would appear).

    While she points out all the characters, letters and numbers she knows, I get to read snippets of history about the show.

    Included in the book are sections on the death of Mr Hooper and the discovery of Snuffleupagus, but there's also a stack of other stuff I didn't know, like all the various Gordons, why Telly is called Telly and why you don't see Don Music or Forgetful Jones anymore.

    Fascinating stuff, and some of the segments mentioned in the book are currently being shown on ABC2 at the moment.

    Great interview that would never be as along as I would want.

    Thanks.

    Long live the Jazzy Spies,
    Chad

  2. A.K.A.Mum says:

    I've got the same book, Chad – isn't it fantastic?!?

    I also regularly haunt the Sesame St website (http://www.sesamestreet.org) as they have some great videos of classic Sesame clips including the wonderful Madeline Kahn and Grover singing “Sing After Me”, vintage Bert & Ernie, little John John and the pinball counting song, which I recently heard was sung by the Pointer Sisters.

    If you haven't been there before, set aside a few hours.

    I also love the recent parodies of adult TV shows including The Amazing Race (Amazing Alphabet Race complete with muppet Phil), Law & Order SVU (Special Letters Unit complete with “chung chung” sound), Mad Men and Desperate Housewives (Desperate Houseplants), even if I don't watch the “normal” version.

    Great interview, Josh, but sadly it only whetted my appetite!

    Anne

  3. Paul from Mordy says:

    I just found an audiobook of “Street Gang – The Complete History of Sesame Street” by Michael Davis

    It is read by Caroll Spinney, the voice of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. Shall be a fun listen.

    Is this the same book as mentioned above?

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