Barrio Sésamo (Sesame Neighborhood in English) is the
Spanish co-production of the popular U.S. children's television series Sesame Street produced by
Televisión Española and
Sesame Workshop (formerly
Children's Television Workshop) from 1979 to 2000, the equivalent of
Plaza Sésamo in Latin America. All characters adopted Spanish names while for the title of the series a more appropriate Spanish name was chosen: barrio (Neighborhood) instead of Street (calle).
Ábrete Sésamo (1974-1978)
Previously, from November 3, 1974 to March 29, 1978, segments of the original Sesame Street were simply acquired and dubbed into Spanish to be aired with the title Ábrete Sésamo (es. Open Sesame) as part of a program "container" called Un globo, dos globos, tres globos.
Barrio Sésamo (1978-1988)
Season 1 (1978-1981)
In 1978, (
RTVE), Televisión Española and
Children's Television Workshop (CTW) agreed the terms for a co-production, after years where RTVE simply aired the original Sesame Street dubbed segments. The new episodes included a 15 minute segment of dubbed footage, and another 15 minute segment of original footage.[1]
Duncan Kenworthy (CTW) was in charge of the USA production and
Enrique Nicanor was assigned by (
TVE) as Director of the Spanish new show and designer of the two Spanish new original muppets "Caponata" and "Perezgil"
Caponata was a red, orange and yellow feathered
hen with curly pink hair similar in height (2 meters) to
Big Bird. Actress
Emma Cohen was in charge of working inside the
muppet body and providing the character's voice. Caponata has the psychology of a 6 years old girl, naïve and curious about everything.[2]
Perezgil was a large green
snail with round glasses and curly green hair. He was reader, writer, poet and advisor of everybody in the neighborhood. Actor Jesús Alcaide was in charge of working the muppet as well as providing its voice.
The First Bario Sésamo season was cancelled by the station (RTVE) in 1981 when the station denied the authors to keep their rights on the characters. An agreement had been reached where the authors granted full commercial rights to the station except the right to be mentioned as authors and the right to deny the use of the muppets for commercial advertising of carbonized drinks and unhealthy products for children, the same rights that
Jim Henson kept with all his own characters. The station fired the first creators and banned the characters from appearing in the new season. The person responsible for the Children's Department at the station commissioning the American co-production company, CTW USA, to create and provide new "Spanish" muppets with new names. With that action, Barrio Sésamo was no longer a co-production with Spanish-created characters.[3]
La Cometa Blanca (1981-1983)
From 1981 to 1983, a different Televisión Española children's program, La Cometa Blanca, included some sketches from Sesame Street. This program was directed by Muppet fan Lolo Rico and featured some actors who would later appear in Barrio Sésamo, mainly Mari Luz Olier, Alfonso Vallejo and the child-actress
Ruth Gabriel (then known as Ruth Abellán).
Seasons 2-4 (1983-1988)
The Sesame Street sketches in La Cometa Blanca were so successful with their young audience that the Spanish-version was given another chance in 1983. Only José Riesgo as Julián returned from the first season. Caponata and Perezgil were replaced by two new
Muppets totally designed, this time, and constructed by CTW. The main character was
Espinete, a large pink
hedgehog that replaced Caponata. Like Caponata, Espinete was a full-body Muppet and was the main character on the show, played by Chelo Vivares.[2] He became famous for sleeping in pajamas in spite of being "naked" the rest of the day.
Other characters included:
Don Pimpón (Alfonso Vallejo): Another full-body Muppet. This farmer was an undetermined brown being, similar to a Sesame Street monster.
Ana (Isabel Castro): The young friend of everybody.
Don Julián (José Riesgo): The old owner of a mobile news stand.
Matilde (Mari Luz Olier) and Antonio (José Enrique Camacho): married owners of an
horchata shop
Roberto (Roberto Mayor) and Ruth (Ruth Gabriel, as Ruth Abellán): Matilde and Antonio's children
In 1983, one year after the second season started, a new government won the elections in Spain and new officials were appointed as DG of RTVE (José Maria Calviño). The new staff fired those involved in the cancellation of the original series. The creator[4] of the banned first season was called by the station and was appointed as new Head of the Children' Programmes Unit and later Director of the
TVE-2 channel.
The show finished around April 1988 and was replaced by Los Mundos de Yupi, a similar program fully produced by Televisión Española, featuring three extraterrestrial characters.
Barrio Sésamo revival (1996-2000)
In 1996, the show returned, this time being produced in both
Catalan and
Castilian.[5]
New characters included Bluki (a blue full-body cat-like Muppet), Vera (a yellow monster), Bubo (an owl) and Gaspar (a human Muppet). Additional characters that made occasional appearances included a wild monster with red fur and a healthy appetite — portraying a role similar to Cookie Monster's — and a tan Anything Muppet that could be turned into characters (such as a baby, a girl friend of Vera's, a clumsy man with a moustache, or a pig). The show's directors were Enrique Nicanor, Antonio Torets, and Jose María Vidal (co-director).
Later Spanish dubs
Since 2006, Juega Conmigo, Sésamo, the Castilian Spanish dub of
Play with Me Sesame, has been broadcast on
Antena 3.
Since 2012, Super Healthy Monsters is a 5 to 7-minute series focuses on activities and foods that keep one healthy. Sesame Workshop produced 26 episodes in English, which initially aired dubbed in Spain on Antena 3 as a Barrio Sésamo mini-series called "
Monstruos Supersanos."
On April 28, 2016, El Hotel Furchester, the Castilian Spanish dub of
The Furchester Hotel, was broadcast in Spain on
TVE Clan.
The show is part of the
HBO programming in Spain under its original title, Sesame Street, with dubbed episodes of the HBO seasons from 2017 to present.
Episode list
List of 1979-80s series episodes
”Programa piloto” (1979) (broadcast in 01/01/80)
”Primer programa” (12/24/79)
”Segunda programa” (1979)
The rest of the episodes are in the website RTVE but they’re titled of the date.
List of 1980s series episodes
"La bicicleta" (6- 4-1983)
"Vamos a jugar" (7-4-1983) (7-11-1983)
"Dietética sana" (8-4-1983) (19-12-1983)
"El invento de Don Pimpón" (13-4-1983) (23-11-1983)