Snuffy's Parents Get a Divorce

Last updated

"Snuffy's Parents Get a Divorce"
Sesame Street episode
SesameDivorce.jpg
Episode no.Season 23
Episode 19
Written by Norman Stiles
Production code2985
Original air dateUnaired
List of episodes

"Snuffy's Parents Get a Divorce" is the name of an episode on the children's television program Sesame Street . Produced in 1992, it never aired because tests showed several unintended negative effects. Sesame Street has had a history of presenting difficult topics as part of its affective curriculum goals, including death, marriage, childbirth, and disaster. Extensive research was done before these episodes were written and produced, to ascertain their focus, and after they aired, to analyze the effect they had on viewers, and that was the case for "Snuffy's Parents Get a Divorce." The show's producers had expressed a desire to produce the episode as early as 1989, and they were convinced that it was a topic they should address after the US Census Bureau reported that 40% of American children had experienced divorce.

Contents

The producers chose to present the Muppet Mr. Snuffleupagus ("Snuffy") and his family's experience of divorce. The episode was written by staff writer Norman Stiles, who also wrote the 1983 episode in which Mr. Hooper's death was explained. The episode was reviewed by the Children's Television Workshop's (CTW) advisory board, content experts, and developmental psychologists. After tests showed that their young viewers were confused by the episode and did not understand important concepts about divorce, the producers decided not to air it, despite the investment they had made. This marks the only time the show's producers made this kind of decision, and was cited as an example of the producer's practice of "listening to the voices of children and by putting their needs first," [1] despite the costs.

Sesame Street did not address the topic of divorce until November 2012, when they produced a video for limited audiences titled Little Children, Big Challenges: Divorce as part of their resiliency initiative.

Background

Sesame Street , which premiered in 1969, was the first children's television program to use a detailed and comprehensive educational curriculum, with specific educational goals, in its content. [2] The show's goals included both cognitive and affective objectives. [3] Initially, the cognitive skills of its young viewers were stressed over affective skills, which were addressed indirectly because the producers, writers, and researchers believed that focusing on cognitive skills would increase children's self-esteem and feelings of competency. Eventually, after the show's first season, its critics forced its staff to address affective goals more overtly, which occurred after "extensive research and planning." [4]

According to writer Michael Davis, Sesame Street's curriculum began addressing affective goals more overtly during the 1980s. [5] For example, the producers addressed grief after the 1982 death of Will Lee, who had played Mr. Hooper since the show's premiere. [6] [7] Author David Borgenicht called the episode "poignant." [8] and Davis called it "a landmark broadcast" [9] and "a truly memorable episode, one of the show's best". [10] For the 1988 and 1989 seasons, the topics of love, marriage, and childbirth were addressed when the show's staff created a storyline in which the characters Luis and Maria fall in love, marry, and have a child, Gabi. Extensive research was done before these episodes were written and produced, to ascertain their focus, and after they aired, to analyze the effect they had on viewers. [11] [12] The show also addressed real-life disasters. [13] For example, the producers addressed the September 11 terrorist attacks with an episode that aired in early 2002. [14] They also produced a series of four episodes that aired after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. [13]

Development

The Children's Television Workshop (CTW, later Sesame Workshop), the organization responsible for the production of Sesame Street, considered and discussed addressing the topic of divorce for many years before developing an episode. As early as 1989, writer and director Jon Stone expressed his intention of writing a script about it, stating, "My two projects for this year are drugs and divorce. Divorce is a difficult one. Perhaps we could do it with puppets. I am also writing a script on drugs and peer pressure." [15] Executive producer Dulcy Singer vetoed the idea in 1990, before it reached development. While she felt complex social matters should be discussed on the series, she felt the issue was irrelevant to inner city and financially disadvantaged families, which was the show's target audience. She said that "divorce is a middle-class thing," and suggested instead that an episode focus on a single-parent family, with the child born out of wedlock with an absent father. [16] Singer stated, even after the episode was filmed, "We were really nervous about the show, and we didn't think it was a shoo-in. When you're dealing with something like death, the approach can be universal. But with divorce, it's so personal. People react differently." [17] The topic of divorce was discussed again the following year, after the US Census Bureau released statistics suggesting 40 percent of all children in the United States, not just the middle classes, would soon live in divorced households. [18] [19]

Producer/director Lisa Simon stated, regarding the difficulty the producers and writers had with crafting the episode, "We hope to get to it by the end of the season. It always takes us a while to figure out how to do an issue appropriately, from a child's point of view." [20] Puppeteer Jerry Nelson, who was one of the original performers of Snuffy, [21] noted, "Now we delve into things like divorce that are likely to affect small children very heavily. We didn't touch those things before." [22]

Instead of using the human characters in the show's cast, the writers and producers decided to use Muppets to present their narrative about the effects of divorce on young children. They chose to use the family of Mr. Snuffleupagus ("Snuffy"), a large Muppet that had been on the show since 1971. Long-time cast member Bob McGrath stated, "They knew they couldn't do it with either of our married couples—Gordon and Susan or Maria and Luis—so they tried it with Snuffleupagus, writing a show about his parents getting divorced." [23] According to Simon, "With puppets, it's slightly less frightening... The kids have somebody to identify with. They see the puppet characters have feelings and work through a difficult issue many of them will have to face." [20]

Staff writer Norman Stiles, who also wrote the episode in which Mr. Hooper's death was explained, was assigned to compose the script. [17] [18] [24] The episode was reviewed by CTW's advisory board, content experts, and developmental psychologists. [1] The episode featured Gordon explaining the concept of divorce, Snuffy being assured that his parents still loved him, and the characters talking and singing "about how Snuffy will have good homes, and so on and so on." [19]

Test results

As with the Mr. Hooper episode, "Snuffy's Parents Get a Divorce" was studied extensively for comprehension and attention. After it was filmed, it was screened before a test audience of 60 children in four daycare centers. [1] The results found several unintended negative effects. As The Christian Science Monitor said, "it bombed." [19] Despite Gordon's reassuring the Muppets Elmo, Big Bird, and Telly, children believed that their parents' arguments would lead to divorce. [17] They also were unsure that Snuffy and his little sister Alice's parents loved them despite the divorce, and were unclear where the characters' parents lived (especially their father, who had never appeared on the show before). [18] [19] Many viewers also thought that Snuffy and Alice would never see their father again. [1] According to Singer, "The kids came away with negative messages... The kids misunderstood arguments. They said arguments did mean divorce. Some thought Snuffy's parents were moving away even though we said just the opposite. A number said the parents would no longer be in love with them." [17]

Based upon their findings, and despite the expense and their intention to air "Snuffy's Parents Get a Divorce" in April 1992, the CTW decided not to risk possibly harming their audience and not air the episode. [17] [18] McGrath said, "They wrote a whole show and taped it, and it was just devastating for test groups of kids. So they just threw the whole thing in the garbage and never tried it again. It was just too difficult a concept for a 3-year-old." [23] CTW Research director Valeria Lovelace recommended scrapping the episode and going "back to the drawing board" and the idea was abandoned, at least for the season. Producer Michael Loman recalled, "We ate the cost and never aired it. We feel there are a range of issues that we can deal with in the family that do not go to the extreme of divorce." [25] According to Sesame Street researcher Susan Scheiner, it was the first time the CTW had produced an episode, and after making a large investment, found after tests that the episode did not work. [19] Rosemarie T. Truglio and her colleagues at the CTW cited the episode as an example of the CTW's practice of "listening to the voices of children and by putting their needs first." [1]

Legacy

Sesame Street did not address the subject of divorce until November 2012, when its producers created, as part of their resiliency initiative, Little Children, Big Challenges: Divorce. It was made available to military families and to the general public through family courts, counseling services, and parenting and child care programs. It included a 22-minute DVD, a caregiver guide, a storybook, a tip sheet for extended families and friends, mobile apps and social networking sites, and an online toolkit. [26] [27] Like in "Snuffy's Parents Get a Divorce", the Little Children, Big Challenges production also used a Muppet, Abby Cadabby, to represent the child experiencing divorce. Whereas Snuffy was shown going through it in real time, Abby's parents' divorce was in the past, which gave her time to adjust. [26]

Footage from the episode exists at the Museum of the Moving Image near the studios where Sesame Street is recorded, and was screened for the public in November 2019. [28] Some footage of the episode was aired during the Sesame Street: 50 Years of Sunny Days documentary on ABC. [29] [30] [31]

Related Research Articles

<i>Sesame Street</i> American childrens television show

Sesame Street is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop and was created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett. It is known for its images communicated through the use of Jim Henson's Muppets, and includes short films, with humor and cultural references. It premiered on November 10, 1969, to positive reviews, some controversy, and high viewership. It has aired on the United States national public television provider PBS since its debut, with its first run moving to premium channel HBO on January 16, 2016, then its sister streaming service HBO Max in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sesame Workshop</span> American nonprofit organization and childrens media producer

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."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mr. Snuffleupagus</span> Character on Sesame Street

Aloysius Snuffleupagus, more commonly known as Mr. Snuffleupagus or Snuffy for short, is one of the characters on Sesame Street, a PBS/HBO educational television program for young children. His head bears resemblances to giant anteaters and mammoths, but he has no tusks or (visible) ears. He also has a tail similar in shape to that of a dinosaur. He has thick, brown hair and a trunk, or "snuffle", that drags along the ground. Snuffy is also Big Bird's best friend, and has a younger sister named Alice.

History of <i>Sesame Street</i>

The preschool educational television program Sesame Street was first aired on public television stations on November 10, 1969, and reached its 54th season in 2023. The history of Sesame Street has reflected changing attitudes to developmental psychology, early childhood education, and cultural diversity. Featuring Jim Henson's Muppets, animation, live shorts, humor and celebrity appearances, it was the first television program of its kind to base its content and production values on laboratory and formative research, and the first to include a curriculum "detailed or stated in terms of measurable outcomes". Initial responses to the show included adulatory reviews, some controversy and high ratings. By its 40th anniversary in 2009, Sesame Street was broadcast in over 120 countries, and 20 independent international versions had been produced. It has won eleven Grammys and over 150 Emmys in its history—more than any other children's show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mr. Hooper</span> Sesame Street character

Mr. Harold Hooper was one of the first four human characters to appear on the television series Sesame Street. Created by producer and writer Jon Stone, Mr. Hooper is the original proprietor of Hooper's Store, the neighborhood variety store and combination diner/corner store that serves as a place for Muppets and humans to meet and interact. Lee, a character actor and instructor was "perfectly cast" as Mr. Hooper. Mr. Hooper ranked first of all human characters of the show in recognition by young viewers. Mr. Hooper, who has been described as "slightly cranky but good-hearted" and "curmudgeonly", bridges the gap between the older generation and its young audience. Hooper's Store, "an idealized social institution", is an extension of his personality. He had a close relationship with the Muppet Big Bird.

<i>Plaza Sésamo</i> Educational childrens television series for preschoolers

Plaza Sésamo is the first international co-production of the educational children's television series Sesame Street. Its first season premiered in Mexico in 1972, and the last season ended in 2018 during the holiday season and the 50th anniversary of Sesame Street, but the show returned in 2020. It has also aired throughout Latin America, to a potential audience of 25 million children in 34 countries. Unlike some of the earliest co-productions, which consisted of dubbed versions of Sesame Street sketches with local language voice-overs, Plaza Sésamo along with Vila Sésamo were actual co-productions. Half of the show was adapted from the American show, and half was original material, created in Mexico by Mexican writers, performers, and producers. The first season consisted of 130 half-hour episodes. The Plaza Sésamo development process was similar to that of the American show. Its goals were developed by local experts in television, child development, and early education during curriculum seminars in Caracas, Venezuela. Sésamo's goals emphasized problem solving and reasoning, and also included perception, symbolic representation, human diversity, and the child's environment. Other goals included community cooperation, family life, nutrition, health, safety, self-esteem, and expressing emotions. Early reading skills were taught through the whole language method. The show's budget for the first and second seasons was approximately US$1.6 million.

Elmo's World is a segment that is shown at the end of the American children's television program Sesame Street which premiered on November 16, 1998, as part of a broader structural change to the show. It originally lasted fifteen minutes at the end of each episode. The segment ran until 2009, and then returned in 2017. The segment was designed to appeal to younger viewers and to increase ratings, which had fallen in the past decade. The segment is presented from the perspective of a three-year-old child as represented by its host, the Muppet Elmo, performed by Kevin Clash in the original series and Ryan Dillon in the 2017 reboot.

<i>Iftah Ya Simsim</i> Arabic television series

Iftah Ya Simsim is the first international co-production of the American children's television series Sesame Street created in the Arabian world. It premiered in Kuwait on September 14, 1979, and was broadcast in 22 Arabic-speaking countries, running until June 23, 1989. The program continued to be well-known decades after it went off the air.

Sesame Street... 20 Years & Still Counting is a 1989 television special celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Sesame Street. Hosted by Bill Cosby, the special aired on Friday, April 7, 1989, on NBC.

Sesame Street international co-productions are adaptations of the American educational children's television series Sesame Street but tailored to the countries in which they are produced. Shortly after the debut of Sesame Street in the United States in 1969, television producers, teachers, and officials of several countries approached the show's producers and the executives of the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), renamed Sesame Workshop (SW) in 2000, about the possibility of airing international versions of Sesame Street. Creator Joan Ganz Cooney hired former CBS executive Michael Dann to field offers to produce versions of the show in other countries.

A wide variety of characters have appeared on the American children's television series Sesame Street. Many of the characters are Muppets, which are puppets made in Jim Henson's distinctive puppet-creation style. Most of the non-Muppet characters are human characters, but there are many characters that are animated.

<i>Street Gang</i> Non-fiction book by Michael Davis

Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street is a non-fiction book chronicling the history of the children's television program Sesame Street. Street Gang is journalist and writer Michael Davis's first book, published by Viking Press in 2008. On bookshelves in time for the show's 40th anniversary in 2009, the book developed out of a TV Guide article Davis wrote to commemorate the show's 35th anniversary in 2004. Davis spent five years researching and writing the book, and conducted hundreds of interviews with the show's creators, cast, and crew.

<i>Children and Television: Lessons from Sesame Street</i> 1974 book by Gerald S. Lesser

Children and Television: Lessons from Sesame Street (1974) is a non-fiction book written by Gerald S. Lesser, in which he describes the production of Sesame Street, and the formation and pedagogical philosophy of the Children's Television Workshop. Lesser was a professor at Harvard University, studying how social class and ethnicity interacted with school achievement and was one of the first academics in the US who researched how watching television affected children and their development. He was initially skeptical about the potential of using television as a teaching tool, but he was eventually named as the advisory board chairman of the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), the organization created to oversee the production and research of Sesame Street, and was the show's first educational director. Lesser wrote the book early in Sesame Street's history, to evaluate the show's effectiveness, to explain what its writers, researchers, and producers were attempting to do, and to respond to criticism of Sesame Street.

In 1969, the children's television show Sesame Street premiered on the National Educational Television network in the United States. Unlike earlier children's programming, the show's producers used research and over 1,000 studies and experiments to create the show and test its impact on its young viewers' learning. By the end of the program's first season, Children's Television Workshop (CTW), the organization founded to oversee Sesame Street production, had developed what came to be called "the CTW model": a system of planning, production, and evaluation that combined the expertise of researchers and early childhood educators with that of the program's writers, producers, and directors.

Sesame Street is an American children's television program that is known for its use of format and structure to convey educational concepts to its preschool audience, and to help them prepare for school. It utilizes the conventions of television such as music, humor, sustained action, and a strong visual style, and combines Jim Henson's Muppets, animation, short films, humor, and cultural references. The show, which premiered in 1969, was the first to base its contents, format, and production values on laboratory and formative research. According to researchers, it was also the first to include a curriculum "detailed or stated in terms of measurable outcomes".

Music of <i>Sesame Street</i> Music of the television show Sesame Street

Music has been a part of the children's television show Sesame Street since its debut on PBS in 1969. For the first time, music was used as a teaching tool on a TV program for children; the songs written and performed on the show fulfilled specific purposes and supported its curriculum. The music on Sesame Street consisted of many styles and genres, but was consistent and recognizable so that it could be reproduced. The producers recorded and released dozens of albums of music; many songs became "timeless classics". In order to attract the best composers and lyricists, CTW allowed songwriters to retain the rights to the songs they wrote, which allowed them to earn lucrative profits. Sesame Street Book & Record, recorded in 1970, went gold and won a Grammy. As of November 2019, Sesame Workshop has partnered with Warner Music Group's Arts Music division to reform Sesame Street Records to make the music of Sesame Street fully available.

The children's television show Sesame Street, which premiered on public broadcasting television stations in 1969, was the first show of its kind that utilized a detailed and comprehensive educational curriculum, with specific educational goals, in its content. Its goals were garnered from in-house formative research and independent summative evaluations, and its first curriculum was created in a series of five seminars in 1968.

The children's television program Sesame Street premiered in 1969 to high ratings, positive reviews, and some controversy, which have continued during its history. Even though the show aired on only 67% of American televisions at the time of its premiere, it earned a 3.3 Nielsen rating, or 1.9 million households. By its tenth anniversary in 1979, 9 million American children under the age of six were watching Sesame Street daily. Its ratings declined in the 1990s, due to societal changes. A survey conducted in 1996 found that by the age of three, 95% of all American children had watched it. By its fortieth anniversary in 2009, it was ranked the fifteenth most popular children's show.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Truglio, p. 76
  2. ↑ Mielke, Keith W. (2001). "A Review of Research on the Educational and Social Impact of Sesame Street". In Fisch, Shalom M. and Rosemarie T. Truglio, Eds. "G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. p. 85. ISBN   0-8058-3395-1
  3. ↑ Morrow, p. 106
  4. ↑ Morrow, p. 76
  5. ↑ Davis, p. 277
  6. ↑ Davis, p. 177
  7. ↑ For a description of this episode, see Borgenicht, p. 42, and Davis, pp. 281–285.
  8. ↑ Borgenicht, p. 42
  9. ↑ Davis, p. 284
  10. ↑ Davis, p. 281
  11. ↑ Truglio et al., p. 76
  12. ↑ See Truglio et al., pp. 74–76, for a more detailed discussion. Also see Davis, pp. 293–294, for a description of the wedding episode, written by Jeff Moss, and Borgenicht, pp. 80–81, for descriptions of the wedding and of Gabi's birth.
  13. 1 2 Gikow, p. 165
  14. ↑ Guernsey, Lisa (2009-05-22). "'How Sesame Street Changed the World". Newsweek. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
  15. ↑ Muriel, Cohen (29 October 1989). "Street Smarts". The Boston Globe (Affiliated Publications).
  16. ↑ Alaton, Salam (27 January 1990). "Street Smarts". The Globe and Mail (Thomson Group)
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 "'D' Won't Do for Divorce." (17 March 1992). The Herald Sun (Durham, North Carolina)
  18. 1 2 3 4 Newman, Richard J. (20 April 1992). "Not So Sunny Days." U.S. News & World Report
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 Hanes, Stephanie (12 December 2012). "'Sesame Street' tackles the big 'D,' Divorce". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 31 December 2013
  20. 1 2 "Tackling Divorce". (08 November 1991). The Advertiser (News Corporation)
  21. ↑ Gikow, p. 58
  22. ↑ Hartford, Courant (07 November 1991). "Big Bird, Friends Begin 23rd Season". The Gazette (Montreal)
  23. 1 2 Dawidziak, Mark (04 April 2004). "35 Candles for Sesame Street". Cleveland Plain Dealer
  24. ↑ Davis, p. 294
  25. ↑ Walters, Laurel Shaper. (22 November 1993). "Sesame Street: 25- and Growing." The Christian Science Monitor
  26. 1 2 West, Abby (11 December 2012). "'Sesame Street' and Abby Cadabby talk about divorce". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 31 December 2013
  27. ↑ "Divorce". (Press release). Sesame Workshop. 11 December 2012. Retrieved 31 December 2013
  28. ↑ "Sesame Street “Lost and Found”". (Event announcement). Museum of the Moving Image. November 24, 2019. Retrieved May 25, 2020
  29. ↑ Soberman, Matthew (28 April 2021). "REVIEW: "Sesame Street: 50 Years of Sunny Days"". ToughPigs. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  30. ↑ "Sesame Street: 50 Years of Sunny Days - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  31. ↑ Flook, Ray (25 April 2021). "Sesame Street: 50 Years of Sunny Days Preview Already "Oscar" Winner". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved 14 February 2023.

Works cited

Listen to this article (12 minutes)
Sound-icon.svg
This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 10 April 2024 (2024-04-10), and does not reflect subsequent edits.
(Audio help  · More spoken articles)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.