| Play with Me Sesame | |
|---|---|
 Title card | |
| Genre | Children's television series |
| Based on | Sesame Street by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett |
| Developed by | Jocelyn Hassenfeld Karen Kuflik |
| Presented by | Steve Whitmire Eric Jacobson Fran Brill David Rudman John Tartaglia Martin P. Robinson |
| Music by | Michael Ungar Russell Velazquez |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 104 |
| Production | |
| Producers | Tom Ascheim Alyssa Cooper Dana Greengross Kenny Miller Jodi Nussbaum Sarah Tomassi Lindman |
| Production locations | Kaufman Astoria Studios, New York |
| Camera setup | Videotape, Multi-camera |
| Running time | 24 minutes |
| Production companies | Nick Digital[1] Noggin LLC Sesame Workshop |
| Original release | |
| Network | Noggin Sprout |
| Release | April 1, 2002 – September 2, 2007 |
| Related | |
| Sesame Street Elmo's World | |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
Play with Me Sesame is an American children's television series, created by Sesame Workshop and Nickelodeon for their former joint venture Noggin. It is a spin-off of Sesame Street hosted by Ernie, Bert, Prairie Dawn, and Grover. The series' backgrounds and animated elements were made by Nickelodeon Digital[1] in New York City. Nickelodeon and Sesame Workshop developed the show to expand on Sesame Street by directly encouraging young viewers to interact with the characters. To do this, they combined classic Sesame Street sketches with new segments, where the hosts invite preschoolers to join them in games.
The show began development in 1999, when the Jim Henson Company still co-owned the rights to the Sesame characters. To start production, Nickelodeon had to seek approval from Henson. Kidscreen reported that "the series marks the first time a State-side entity other than Sesame Workshop has been given permission by Henson to use the Sesame Street Muppets."[2] Noggin shot footage of the characters on a green screen, and animators at Nick Digital added in new graphics. Many of the background designs in Play with Me Sesame were simultaneously used in Nickelodeon's Moose and Zee interstitials.
Play with Me Sesame premiered on April 1, 2002 and ran for three seasons. The show was heavily linked with Noggin's website, Noggin.com, and it featured a regular segment where computer games from Noggin were played. Nickelodeon extensively promoted the show across all of their networks, using a musical infomercial sung by Grover. Noggin also launched a live show, called Noggin's Play with Me Sesame Mall Tour, across the United States. At its launch, it was announced that Play with Me Sesame would continue to be produced for Noggin through 2009,[3] but the show instead wrapped in 2007. It last aired on Noggin on September 2, 2007. Reruns moved to PBS Kids Sprout, where it aired until May 14, 2016.
- ^ a b Play with Me Sesame credits. Credit appears at 0:12 seconds.
- ^ Connell, Mike (January 3, 2002). "Noggin has tween educon on the brain". Kidscreen.
The newest addition to that sked is Noggin-produced series Play With Me Sesame... the series marks the first time a State-side entity other than Sesame Workshop has been given permission by Henson to use the Sesame Street Muppets.
- ^ "Nickelodeon Buyout Brings Noggin In-House". 12 August 2002.