Iftah Ya Simsim
First Arabic Sesame Street co-production, revived in 2015.
Iftah Ya Simsim, Arabic for "Open Sesame," was the Arab world's first local version of Sesame Street. It launched in Kuwait and Morocco on September 14, 1979, airing across 22 nations until June 23, 1989, and remained famous for decades. The show was revived, debuting a new series on September 1, 2015, produced by a partnership including the Abu Dhabi Education Council.
Quick Facts
- Opening theme
- "Iftah Ya Simsim Theme Song"
- Ending theme
- various closing themes
- Country
- Kuwait
- United Arab Emirates
- Iraq
- Morocco
- Saudi Arabia
- Language
- Arabic
- Runtime
- 28 minutes (Original)
- 30 minutes
- 15 minutes (Revival)
- Company
- Children's Television Workshop (Original)
- Bidya Media
- Mubdala
- Sesame Workshop (Revival)
- Network
- Syndication
- First aired
- 14 September 1979
Facts from the source article.
History
Just months after Sesame Street first aired in the United States in 1969, broadcasters from other nations began asking the Children's Television Workshop to develop local versions. Joan Ganz Cooney, who helped create the show, recalled being surprised when German public television reached out about a year later. She had thought the Muppets were purely American, but they turned out to be universally appealing. Cooney brought in Mike Dann, a former CBS executive, as a vice president at the Workshop. Part of his job was managing requests from abroad, and by the summer of 1970 he had set up the first international co-production deals. In Kuwait, a 1980 census revealed that nearly half the population could not read or write, or could barely do so. Research there linked parents' illiteracy to problems in their children's learning and social growth. In rural areas, half of all Kuwaitis were illiterate, and the situation was even worse for women and girls. A 2005 UNESCO report noted that women made up two-thirds of the region's illiterate population. By 2000, the Arab world's adult literacy rate stood at just over 62%, far below the global average of 84% and the developing-country average of about 76.5%.
Original series
Iftah Ya Simsim was the first children's educational TV program of its kind in the Arab world and the first Sesame Street co-production in the region. It was also the first co-production to use Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Its development resembled that of the American version in the late 1960s. The GCC established the Joint Program Production Institute (JPPI) to work with the CTW. The JPPI formed a team that visited the CTW in New York to negotiate the production of 130 30-minute programs, purchasing the rights for US$2.5 million and bringing in experts from throughout the Arab world. The production consisted of three stages: pre-production research identifying basic educational needs of children under six; creating a pilot reel for testing and review by experts; and filming and airing the series. Research began in August 1977, led by an educator and including a linguist and a psychologist from Kuwait University. The show was tested on different socioeconomic groups of children aged three to six in four representative cities. The team proposed curriculum goals, and Arab and CTW educators agreed on ten final goals. The show focused on Arab heritage, including wedding rituals and Arabic poems and songs.
Revival
In 2010, the Sesame Workshop and the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States (ABEGS) started talks about relaunching Iftah Ya Simsim. Pre-production research and preparation took two years. An agreement was signed to revive the series for Arab television with content suitable for a new generation. The show was the first educational initiative sponsored by the Mubadala Development Company, the investment vehicle of the Abu Dhabi government. Bidaya Media was chosen to produce the show; in 2013, the company was housed at Twofour54. A seminar was held in 2011 to design the curriculum and educational framework, attended by ABEGS representatives and sponsored by the GCC Joint Program Production Institution and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC). The participants considered educational changes over the previous 20 years, including a more diverse world and a need for greater creativity. The seminar focused on the educational needs of children throughout the Arab world, the possible effects of the show's return, and how to provide educational resources and technology. Participants recommended creating an advisory council, expanding to new media forms, and including important Arab celebrities as guests.
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