Sesame Workshop, Inc. (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop, Inc. (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—including its first and best-known, Sesame Street—that have been televised internationally. Television producer Joan Ganz Cooney and foundation executive Lloyd Morrisett developed the idea to form an organization to produce Sesame Street, a television series which would help children, especially those from low-income families, prepare for school. They spent two years, from 1966 to 1968, researching, developing, and raising money for the new series. Cooney was named as the Workshop's first executive director, which was termed "one of the most important television developments of the decade."
Children's television series are television programs designed specifically for children. They are typically characterised by easy-going content devoid of sensitive or adult themes and are normally broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake, immediately before and after school schedules generally start in the country where they air. Educational themes are also prevalent, as well as the transmission of cautionary tales and narratives that teach problem-solving methods in some fashion or another, such as social disputes.
Nickelodeon, occasionally shortened to Nick, is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through Paramount Media Networks’ subdivision, Nickelodeon Group. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children, the channel is primarily aimed at children and adolescents aged 2 to 17, along with a broader family audience through its program blocks.
Nickelodeon Games and Sports for Kids was an American cable television network that was part of MTV Networks' suite of digital cable channels. The channel was available to all digital cable providers and satellite provider Dish Network. With its focus on classic Nickelodeon game shows, Nick GAS was essentially a children's version of Game Show Network and ESPN.
Oobi is an American children's television series produced by Little Airplane Productions for the Noggin channel. The show's concept is based on a training method used by puppeteers, in which they use their hands and a pair of glass eyes instead of a full puppet. The main character is a bare hand puppet named Oobi. The first season was a series of two-minute shorts. For its second season long-form series, with episodes lasting 13 minutes each. The show originally aired from 2000 to February 11, 2005, with reruns continuing until March 18, 2013.
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 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.
TEENick was a celebrity-hosted programming block aimed at adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18.
The Upside Down Show is a children's television series produced by Blink Films and Sesame Workshop. It was made for Noggin, a channel co-founded by Sesame Workshop. The series is set in a strange apartment building where the doors lead to a variety of unusual rooms. It is presented by brothers David and Shane, who live in the apartment building with their sidekick Puppet, their neighbor Mrs. Foil, and a group of fuzzy creatures called the Schmuzzies. In each episode, David gives the viewers an imaginary remote control that affects the characters and their surroundings.
Two syndication packages of Sesame Street episodes, titled Sesame Street Unpaved and 123 Sesame Street, were produced by the Noggin cable channel in 1999. At the time, Sesame Workshop co-owned Noggin and many of the company's older programs were replayed on the channel. Unpaved aired until 2002, and 123 aired until 2005.
Nickelodeon is an American basic cable and satellite television network that is part of the Nickelodeon Group, a unit of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global, which focuses on programs for children and teenagers ages 2 to 17 years old.
NickMom was an American nighttime programming block owned by Viacom Media Networks. It aired on the Nick Jr. Channel during the watershed hours of 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. ET, when the channel's regular audience of children would normally be sleeping. The block carried ad-supported comedy programming targeting an adult demographic, particularly young mothers.
The Nick Jr. Channel, sometimes shortened to Nick Jr., is an American pay television channel spun off from Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. programming block. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. The channel launched on September 28, 2009, replacing Noggin. The channel primarily targets preschoolers and toddlers ages 2 to 6 years old. Its lineup features a mix of originally-produced programming, along with series from the Nickelodeon weekday block; to avoid confusion between the two different entities, the separate channel has been identified on-air as the "Nick Jr. Channel" since March 2018 to the present day for promos and until September 2023 for the on-screen graphic.
TeenNick is an American pay-TV channel that is operated by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Aimed primarily at teens and tweens, its programming includes a variety of live-action series inherited from sister channel Nickelodeon. The channel launched on September 28, 2009, as the merger between two defunct programming blocks which also targeted a teenage audience: TEENick on Nickelodeon and The N on Noggin. Before its introduction as a channel, TeenNick's space used to be held by Nick GAS and a short-lived, 24-hour version of The N.
Noggin is an American edutainment brand launched on February 2, 1999. It was co-founded by MTV Networks and Sesame Workshop. It started out as a cable television channel and a website, both centered around the concepts of imagination, creativity, and education. Since 2015, Noggin has been a streaming service.
Tom Ascheim is an American television producer and executive. He most recently served president of Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics from July 2020 until May 2022. From 1998 to 2003, Ascheim was the general manager of Noggin, which started as a tween-targeted channel co-owned by Nickelodeon and Sesame Workshop. Ascheim later held several executive roles for both Nickelodeon and Sesame Workshop. From 2013 to 2020, he was the president of the cable channel ABC Family, which was renamed Freeform in 2016.
Best Friend's Date is an American reality-drama television series. It aired on the Noggin channel as part of its nighttime programming block for teens, The N. In each episode, a teenager goes on a blind date with someone chosen by his or her best friend. The show was hosted by Tika Sumpter and Nick Slatkin. It was filmed from July to August 2004.
The N was a prime time and late-night programming block on the Noggin television channel, aimed at preteens and teenagers. It was launched on April 1, 2002, by MTV Networks and Sesame Workshop.
