 | This article contains too many or overly lengthy quotations .(October 2022) |
Tarah Schaeffer | |
|---|---|
| Born | Tarah Lynne Schaeffer [1] July 4, 1984 Waterbury, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1993–2001 |
Tarah Lynne Schaeffer (born July 4, 1984) is a former American child actress. She is known for her role as herself on Sesame Street . [2]
In 1993, Sesame Street was casting for a child actor to play a character with disabilities for at least five episodes. Schaeffer's wheelchair sports coach recommended that she audition. [3] Schaeffer had been on the Newington Children's Hospital's award-winning Cruisers wheelchair athletic team, and she impressed the show's producers with her wheelchair racing skills and other modified track and field talents. [4] Schaeffer was cast as the first Sesame Street cast member with disabilities. [3]
Sesame Street writer Emily Perl Kingsley was a strong supporter of Schaeffer's inclusion in the cast. Kingsley's episode "Tarah's Ballet", which features a wheelchair dance, gained her a Grand EDI. Kingsley also drafted many guests with disabilities, such as Itzhak Perlman and the Little Theater of the Deaf. The integration of Schaeffer exemplified Kingsley's views:
We include kids with disabilities just as part of the gang. Children in the audience get validation when they see others like themselves. Their siblings receive gratifying reinforcement seeing kids like those in their own families. We take the strangeness out of it. Why should difference be equated with fear?"
— Emily Perl Kingsley [5]
I had some bumps in my road and frustrations that I'd rather not have had, but they've all got me to where I wanted to be. I know I was lucky to have the parents I did I wouldn't be here without all the support they've given me...I still hope people can look at me if they have goals and say. "If she can do it, I can do it, too."
— Tarah Schaeffer [4]
Schaeffer appeared on Sesame Street for eight seasons. She became featured in the scripts more and more, and at times would travel two or three times a week from Connecticut to the studio in New York City. When her family moved to Reading, Pennsylvania in the late 1990s, the trip to New York became more difficult, and both Tarah and her family felt it was time to move on. [4]
Sesame Street gave Tarah a lot of self-confidence, and we approached it as a family adventure as we did everything...We would do it as long as it was fun, and when it wasn't fun anymore that would be it.
— –cott G. Schaeffer (father) [4]
A 2000 Sesame Workshop newsletter mentioned Tarah's inclusion in the cast as one of the top ten significant ways Sesame Street has encouraged diversity:
1994 - Tarah Lynne Schaeffer joins the cast. Wheelchair-bound [ sic ] Tarah proves over and over again that all kids like to play, laugh, learn, and have fun! Her spunky presence has helped children learn about the needs (and strengths!) of children with disabilities.
— Sesame Workshop Newsletter [6]
Schaeffer was raised in Plainville, Connecticut. She was born with osteogenesis imperfecta. [3] Schaeffer graduated from Daniel Boone High School in 2002 and, as of September 2021, is a freelance writer and Twitch streamer under the name Mightymidge.
Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (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. Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett developed the idea to form an organization to produce the Sesame Street television series. 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."
Elmo is a red Muppet character on the children's television show Sesame Street. A furry red monster who speaks in a high-pitched falsetto voice and frequently refers to himself in the third person, he hosts the last full five-minute segment on Sesame Street, "Elmo's World", which is aimed at toddlers. He was originally performed by Kevin Clash. Following Clash's resignation in late 2012, Elmo has been performed by Ryan Dillon.
This is a list of recordings released by the TV series Sesame Street. Many of the early Columbia and CTW releases have been re-released on the Sony Wonder label, and later by The Orchard and Warner Music Group.
Takalani Sesame is the South African co-production of the children's television program Sesame Street, co-produced by Sesame Workshop and South African partners. The series debuted in 2000 and currently airs on SABC 2.
"Welcome to Holland" is a prominent essay, written in 1987 by American author and social activist Emily Perl Kingsley, about having a child with a disability. The piece is given by many organizations to new parents of children with special needs issues such as Down syndrome. As a testament to its popularity, several individuals have received the first name "Holland".
Vila Sésamo is a Brazilian co-production of the first preschool television programme Sesame Street. As of 2009 it airs on TV Rá-Tim-Bum. As of 2016, similar to Plaza Sésamo, new seasons air under the title Sésamo. The series debuted on October 12, 1972, moving from TV Cultura to SKY Play on June 25, 2020.
Galli Galli Sim Sim is the Hindi language adaptation of the American children's television series Sesame Street, for India. The show debuted in 2006.
Emilio Ernest Delgado was an American actor best known for his role as Luis, the Fix-it Shop owner, on the children's television series Sesame Street. He joined the cast of Sesame Street in 1971 and remained until his contract was not renewed, in late 2016, as part of Sesame Workshop's retooling of the series.
Sesame Street Stays Up Late! is a 1993 Sesame Street New Year's Eve television special with guest appearances of characters from the international versions of Sesame Street. The special was produced by the Children's Television Workshop in association with Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Israel Educational Television, NHK, Televisa S.A. de C.V., Norsk Rikskringkasting and Radiotelevisão Portuguesa, the respective broadcasters of the respective international co-productions featured in the special. This special also marked Steve Whitmire's first performance as Ernie.
Emily Perl Kingsley is an American writer who joined the Sesame Street team in 1970 and continued to write until her retirement in 2015.
The Robinson family is a fictional family in the children's television series Sesame Street. The family consists of high school science teacher Gordon and his wife, Susan, a nurse. Later, the family expands to include their adopted son, Miles, as well as Gordon's sister, Olivia, his father, Mr. Robinson, and a brother. As African Americans, the family was created as leads for the show, originally targeted to underprivileged inner city children. Even as human roles were slowly reduced over the years, their characters maintained a constant presence.
"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 revealed several unintended negative effects. Sesame Street has a history of addressing difficult topics as part of its affective curriculum goals, including death, marriage, childbirth, and disaster. Extensive research was conducted before these episodes were written and produced to determine their focus, and after they aired, to analyze their impact on viewers. This 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.
Clifford the Big Red Dog is an animated educational children's television series, based upon Norman Bridwell's children's book series of the same name. Produced by Scholastic Productions, it was originally aired on PBS Kids from September 4, 2000, to February 25, 2003. A UK version originally aired on BBC Two in April 2002.
Lloyd Newton Morrisett Jr. was an American experimental psychologist with a career in education, communications, and philanthropy. He was one of the founders of the Children's Television Workshop, the organization that created the children's television show Sesame Street, which Morrisett created with Joan Ganz Cooney from its debut on November 10, 1969, until his death from natural causes on January 15, 2023 at his San Diego home, at age 93.
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.
Lisa Jayne Hammond is an English actress, known for her roles as Donna Yates in EastEnders and as Tina in Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere. In 2005, she had a minor role in the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' Bleak House. In 2009, she appeared in the first series of Psychoville.
Jason Kingsley is an American actor who was born with Down syndrome. In 1975, Kingsley made his television debut on Sesame Street at 15 months old and appeared in 55 episodes. He also guest-starred in a 1984 episode of The Fall Guy, and episodes of All My Children and Touched by an Angel.
Esme & Roy is an animated children's television series created by Dustin Ferrer and Amy Steinberg. The series is produced by Sesame Street producer Sesame Workshop and Canada-based animation studio Nelvana, in association with Corus Entertainment.
Episode 847 is the 52nd episode from the seventh season of the American educational children's television series Sesame Street. It was directed by Robert Myhrum and written by Joseph A. Bailey, Judy Freudberg and Emily Kingsley, it originally aired on PBS on February 10, 1976. The episode involves the Wicked Witch of the West, from the film The Wizard of Oz (1939), losing her broomstick over Sesame Street and causing havoc as she attempts to recover it. Margaret Hamilton, who portrayed the witch in the film, reprises her role in the episode. Produced as the 52nd episode of the series' seventh season, the episode was created to teach children how to overcome their fears.
 | This article about an American actor is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |