Barrio Sésamo
Spanish co-production of Sesame Street with original Muppets.
Barrio Sésamo, meaning “Sesame Neighborhood,” was the Spanish adaptation of the American show Sesame Street. Televisión Española and the Children’s Television Workshop produced it from 1979 to 2000. All characters received Spanish names, and the title swapped “calle” for “barrio.”
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Children's television; Educational
- Based on
- Sesame Street
- Writer
- Lola Salvador
- Alberto Aguilar
- José Miguel Hernán (First Season)
- Director
- Enrique Nicanor (First season)
- Country
- Spain
- Language
- Spanish
- Seasons
- 7
- Producer
- Alberto Espada (First season) Antonio Torets (other seasons)
Facts from the source article.
{{lang|es|Barrio Sésamo}} (1978–1988)
In 1978, after years of simply broadcasting the original American show with Spanish dubbing, TVE partnered with the Children's Television Workshop to create a co-production. Each new episode was split into two fifteen-minute halves: one featuring dubbed American footage, the other containing original Spanish material. Duncan Kenworthy from CTW managed the American side, while TVE assigned Enrique Nicanor to direct the Spanish segments and design two new local Muppets: a hen named Caponata and a snail named Perezgil. Caponata was a large bird, standing two meters tall like Big Bird, with feathers in red, orange, and yellow, and curly pink hair. Actress Emma Cohen both operated the full-body puppet and provided its voice. The character had the mindset of a six-year-old girl, naive and endlessly curious. Perezgil was a big green snail who wore round glasses and had curly green hair. He acted as a reader, writer, poet, and advisor to everyone in the neighborhood. Actor Jesús Alcaide operated and voiced this Muppet. The human cast included Nisi (played by Juan Margallo), who ran the bar; his wife Angela (Petra Martínez); Braulio (Manolo Aleixandre and/or José Riesgo), who owned the newsstand; Manolo (Manolo Vallejo), the garage owner; Carmen (Conchita Goyanes); Cuqui (Gabriel Fariza), a radio reporter; and Jose (Marcelo Rubal). The familiar American characters were given Spanish names: Bert became Blas, Ernie became Epi, Kermit the Frog was called La rana Gustavo, Grover became Coco, Cookie Monster was renamed Triqui, and Count von Count became El conde draco. The first season of Barrio Sésamo ended in 1981 when TVE refused to let the Spanish designers keep their rights to the characters. An earlier agreement had given the station full commercial control, but the creators had retained the right to be credited as designers and to block the Muppets from being used in ads for carbonated drinks or unhealthy children's products—the same protections Jim Henson held for his own creations. TVE fired the original team and banned those characters from any future season. Between 1981 and 1983, a different TVE children's show called La cometa blanca aired dubbed sketches from Sesame Street. It was directed by Muppet enthusiast Lolo Rico and featured several actors who later joined Barrio Sésamo, including Luz Olier, Alfonso Vallejo, and child actress Ruth Gabriel.
{{lang|es|Barrio Sésamo}} (1996–2000)
When Barrio Sésamo came back to TVE in 1996, it was made in both Catalan and Spanish at a studio in Catalonia. Among the fresh faces were Bluki, a blue cat-like Muppet in a full-body suit; Vera, a yellow female monster who talks about herself in the third person, much like Elmo; Bubo, an owl Muppet; and Gaspar, a human Muppet with red hair. Sometimes viewers saw a red-furred monster with a big appetite, filling a role similar to Cookie Monster’s, and a tan Anything Muppet that could transform into a baby, a human girl who was Vera’s friend, a clumsy mustached man, or a pig. The directors were Enrique Nicanor, Antonio Torets, and co-director Jose María Vidal.
Later Spanish dubs
Spanish audiences have seen several Barrio Sésamo spin-offs over the years. In 2006, Antena 3 began airing Juega conmigo, Sésamo, the Castilian Spanish version of Play with Me Sesame. Two years later, in 2008, Disney Jr. in Spain started broadcasting Las grandes aventuras de Epi y Blas, the dub of Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures. A short health-focused series, Super Healthy Monsters, was produced by Sesame Workshop in English; its 26 episodes, each running five to seven minutes, aired in Spain as the Barrio Sésamo mini-series Monstruos Supersanos on Antena 3 starting in 2012. On April 28, 2016, Clan broadcast El Hotel Furchester, the Castilian Spanish dub of The Furchester Hotel. Additionally, the American Sesame Street has been part of HBO's programming in Spain since 2017, with dubbed episodes from the HBO seasons.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which network aired Barrio Sésamo?
Barrio Sésamo aired on TVE 1/La Primera.
When did Barrio Sésamo first air?
Barrio Sésamo first aired on 24 December 1979.
More in Television Series with Live Action and Animation
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced