Sesame Street (Various Dubs and International Co-productions, 1970s-1990s)

Shortly after Sesame Street premiered in the United States in 1969, television producers, teachers, and officials of several countries approached the show's producers and the executives of Children's Television Workshop (CTW) about the possibility of airing international versions of Sesame Street. Creator Joan Ganz Cooney hired former CBS executive Michael Dann to field offers to translate and adapt the show into a number of international co-productions in other countries.

Originally, international co-productions had a certain amount of American Sesame Street episodes dubbed and repackaged, or cut to a half hour running time. Later international co-productions, beginning with Brazil's Vila Sésamo, started taping their own original street scenes with new original characters, puppets, and sets.

As characters and set designs for these co-productions had been changed or the entire international franchise is revamped over the years, older international co-productions are believed to have ended up becoming lost in the shuffle, due to the lack of their availability on DVD, VHS, or online. While classic episodes of some of the well-known international co-productions like Sesamstrasse (the German co-production) made their way onto DVD or online, other classic foreign co-productions from the 70s are believed to be lost. Here are some international co-productions that are believed to be lost, not taped off television broadcasts, or hard to find anywhere on home media or online.

Sesame Street Canada (Partially found Canadian co-production)
In 1972, the initial five minute segments of the US Sesame Street series were aired over the CBC as interstitials. In January 1973, a Canadian version of Sesame Street, called Sesame Street Canada, began as an edited version of the one-hour American program, occasionally including specially filmed Canadian cartoon and film inserts (i.e. "A Quarter Has a Caribou on It," a 1982 animated song explaining the value and appearance of the Canadian quarter). By the 1980s the show's title had been modified to Canadian Sesame Street. Sometimes Canadian-exclusive animated clips (including those made by Ishu Patel) would be shown in American episodes during the late 1970's-early 1990's, redubbed in English.

So far, Canadian versions of Episode 1813 (Season 14), Episode 2058 (Season 16), and Episode 3128 (Season 24) have been seen on YouTube to date.

In 1996, the show was revamped and renamed Sesame Park, with the new "premiere" airing on October 21 and aired until 2002. Instead of inserting Canadian elements into the hour-long Sesame Street episodes, the series was trimmed to a half hour, dominated by the Canadian scenes with only occasional American inserts. This setting would be an ecological, lush green public park, as opposed to a city street, with an accessible playground and a Canadian flag proudly waving. The change was explained by CBC children's program executive Peter Moss: "My own kids grew up on the original Sesame Street but we decided it was time to put the pro-social messages of the show and its wonderful pedagogy - the skills of literacy and numeracy - into a Canadian context. There isn't a Canadian city where you can go more than about six blocks without finding a safe, green park. So it became Sesame Park." The recycled footage reflected the change; Bert and Ernie, and to a lesser extent Big Bird and Grover, among others, continued to appear, but the urban, grungy Oscar the Grouch was deemed more representative of a U.S. streetscape and dropped entirely.

So far, only two episodes of Sesame Park are seen on YouTube.

Sesamo Apriti (Lost 1971 Italian co-production)
Sesamo Apriti ("Open Sesame") was the Italian version of Sesame Street, first broadcast in 1971. Approximately 50 episodes of the American show were cut to a half hour, and translated into Italian. A Sesamo Apriti board game and record album were released in 1978.

No episodes of the show have been taped off broadcast and remain lost today. However, Sam P. has uploaded Italian dubs of two Sesame Street classic clips (both taken from other coproductions, but dubbed with audio taken from the Sesamo Apriti record) to YouTube.

Vila Sésamo (Partially lost Brazillian Portuguese co-production, 1972-1977)
Vila Sésamo is the Brazilian co-production of Sesame Street that ran from 1972 until 1977 on TV Globo and also ran until 1974 on TV Cultura. It was officially the first international Sesame Street co-production, not counting 1971's Sesamo Apriti (which only consisted of dubbed versions of the American Sesame Street episodes).

A few episodes of the original 1972-1977 era have been found on YouTube, most of which are in black-and-white.

Plaza Sésamo (Partially found Mexican co-production + Lost 1972-1980 Abelardo era)
Plaza Sésamo is the Mexican version of Sesame Street that debuted in November of 1972 (at the time of the fourth season premiere of Sesame Street). The cast consisted of Panamanian, Argentinian, and mostly Mexican performers and featured "neutral Spanish." The original series also featured two Muppet characters, Abelardo and a small grouchy green parrot called Paco. The set of the street was turned into a plaza that would be a typical city block in Central or South America with a center fountain, benches, vacant lot with playground equipment, houses, a combination grocery store-cafe, and mechanic's repair shop.

While new Plaza Sésamo episodes from 2001-present (as well as a few from the 90s) are available, no episodes of the original Plaza Sésamo from the 70s-80s can be found nor seen online, reportedly due to Televisa (the network who co-produced Plaza Sésamo with CTW in the 1970s) losing their master archive of the show's earlier material that had been destroyed in a 1985 earthquake. No one has taped any of the show's earlier material at the time, and there is no footage of Abelardo the crocodile (or dragon) preserved on any VHS recording. All that survives are some photos and a screenshot of the show's opening title card. Only one classic episode, Episodio 327 (aired in 1976), has been documented.

Sesamstraße (Partially found German co-production)
Sesamstraße is the German version of Sesame Street that debuted on and has been primarily running on Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) since January 8, 1973 and has a total of 42 seasons. Sesamstrasse's 30-minute episodes can also be seen on ARD's children programming affiliate KI.KA.

While a certain amount of Sesamstraße episodes are available on DVD and online, many of the episodes have been kept in storage in not viewable in public since. In 2006, many classic Sesame Street inserts dubbed in German and ripped off of KiKA had been posted on YouTube, but eventually swept to dust and have not resurfaced since due to the uploader of these clips getting terminated as a result of the February 2007 Viacom takedown that pulled 400,000 YouTubers. Some episodes have been taped off of broadcast and uploaded to YouTube, while only title cards of the episodes have surfaced.

Ábrete Sésamo (Missing 1974 original Spanish dub)
Ábrete Sésamo was the one of the first international dubs of Sesame Street, debuting on Spanish national television in 1974.

The show featured a mixture of Muppet segments, cartoons, and street scenes, but no original material.

The Spanish names given to Muppet characters included Blas (Bert), Epi (Ernie), Triki (Cookie Monster), Conde Draco (Count von Count) and Gustavo (Kermit).

The show was replaced in 1979 with a Spanish co-production, Barrio Sésamo. The original 1974 Spanish broadcasts are entirely lost.

Bonjour Sesame (Missing 1974 original French dub)
Bonjour Sesame was the first French translation of Sesame Street, debuting on French national television in September 1974. (Not to be confused with a Canadian show of the same name.)

The show took only 15 minutes in a large block and was entirely a translation of clips from the American show, and was composed of about 65% puppet sequences, 25% animated cartoons and 10% live action sequences. It aired together with another childerens programm called L'Île aux Enfants.

The French names given to Muppet characters included Bart (Bert), Ernest (Ernie), Macaron (Cookie Monster), Hyacinthe (Herry Monster) and Martoff (The Amazing Mumford).

The show was replaced in 1978 with a French co-production, 1, Rue Sesame. The original 1974 French broadcasts are entirely lost.

Bonjour Sesame (Missing French-Canadian dub)
Bonjour Sesame, also known as Sésame, Sésame Ouvre-Toi or Rue Sésame, was the French-language dub of Sesame Street, produced for the Canadian market. In contrast to the occasional bilingual elements of Sesame Street Canada, this version was a fully dubbed package, translated into Québécois rather than the more formal French used in France.

It was one of several "Open Sesame" packages, translations targeted for nations as an alternative to full-coproduction, along with the French Bonjour Sesame and Sesamo Apriti, among others.

The series debuted over Radio-Canada in September, 1975, and was broadcast primarily in Montreal. The episodes are believed to be lost.

Sesamstraat (Partially found Dutch co-production)
Sesamstraat is the Dutch version of Sesame Street that debuted in 1976 on NOS. The co-production then moved to NPS from 1995 to 2010 and NTR since 2010.

The co-production started off as a Dutch/Belgian co-production, with only one thirty-minute episode a week. These episodes had only 12 minutes allotted for the Dutch cast. At this time there were only two Muppets and three live actors, Piet Hendriks, Sien Diels, and Annet van Heusden. Piet, who owned a hobby and crafts workshop and a camper which he would drive around The Netherlands and Belgium for live trips. Sien, who owned a grocery store, where the exchange of knowledge and happenings were as important as the selling of products. And Annet, who played a kindergarten teacher. In 1978, Sesamstraat's format changed to a daily 15 minute show that aired in the evening, around dinnertime.

Only one episode, "Ziek voelen", from the Dutch/Belgian co-production in 1976, resurfaced on Sesamstraat's site (hence linked on YouTube below), but the other episodes from the early seasons are believed to be lost. A handful of episodes from the 1980s and 1990s are also uploaded on YouTube.

Sesam (Missing 1976 original Swedish dub)
Sesame Street was first shown in Sweden in 1976 under the name Sesam. Twenty six of the American episodes were dubbed.

In 1981, Sweden started their own full co-production using the name Svenska Sesam.

A new batch of Open Sesame episodes were dubbed and shown on Sveriges Television from 1996 to 1998, under the same name, including newer characters such as Elmo. 8 episodes of the 1996-1998 broadcast can be found on YouTube. The original 1976 Swedish broadcasts are entirely lost.

1, Rue Sésame (Partially lost French co-production)
1, Rue Sésame is the original French Sesame Street co-production, which premiered on January 4, 1978. The French Muppet characters are Toccata the large Albatross, Mordicus the saxophone-playing blue Grouch, and Trepido (a pink snail). Another French co-production from 2005, titled "5, Rue Sésame" is not to be confused with this version.

No episodes of this co-production have resurfaced online at all. Only the theme song has been found, a few skits dubbed in French have resurfaced (though lejukeboxer1 used some of the video sources to dub some skits with the soundtrack), and a few vinyl LP soundtrack records of the show have been released (which are difficult to find today).

Iftah Ya Simsim (Partially lost Kuwaiti co-production)
Iftah Ya Simsim (Arabic: افتح يا سمسم‎; meaning "Open Sesame") is the first international co-production of the American children's television series Sesame Street created in the Arab world. It premiered in Kuwait in 1979 and was broadcast in 22 Arabic-speaking countries, running until 1990, when the Gulf War brought it to an end. According to Rym Ghazal of The National, "Such was its popularity that it is said the Iraq invaders stormed the set ... taking away not just videos of the show but some of the Muppet costumes as prisoners of war. It is said that the Nu'man costume, as well as Cookie Monster were never found or returned to Kuwait".

The master tapes of the show's episodes also were never recovered, but luckily were preserved by many Arabic fans who taped the show while it was still on the air. Many episodes have been uploaded from time to time on YouTube, but many of them are out of order and the episode number is not identified correctly for some of them. YouTube links to several playlists and channels having Iftah Ya Simsim episodes are provided below.


 * VHS captures of 45 episodes (all of them split up; the first 33 in order, the rest are not in order) via user drxvb: https://www.youtube.com/user/drxvb/videos
 * More episodes uploaded via user mohammed alayesh: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKLWtj6tU27VI1QYxNxkEUKQneww2hDX1
 * Episodes uploaded in better quality via user CARTOON ZAMAN: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbXneORxd74Xk-9-MAY5MIBKyqxzi-k93
 * Later episodes uploaded via user حسين عبدالرضا: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5f-Cbz8AtGcGNFiyFiIfO9vtWavGAi_2
 * The 278th and 279th episodes uploaded via user comicstime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y750623vaOo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGjOHCXvyi0
 * Episodes, believed to be in order, plus newly uploaded episodes, via user abuwahab: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnC3iIhMRhtMsvuSzZxpC9sSovQ8VYTlw
 * A 1990 episode that likely dates around the time of the Gulf War attack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTw4QeVGf3U

Episodes 75, 124, 125, and 126 are missing from the first batch of episodes. Episodes 262-315 were also once uploaded by CARTOON ZAMAN to YouTube in 2016, but he unexpectedly deleted them. However, episodes 261-291 can be found in a torrent here. However, you have to register to download and must use a VPN before downloading the torrent.

As of January 28th, 2018, abuwahab unexpectedly closed his YouTube account, making a lot of Iftah Ya Simsim episodes unwatchable. A user saved all the Iftah Ya Simsim episodes from #1-#142 that have been deleted from YT and will upload them to MEGA. The first batch of episodes from 1-130 have been uploaded. The key is: !cbYd_wrcj4xjIEURvNC5MA

A second batch of episodes have also been uploaded to MEGA. The key is: !W2uKgZlq3137ULf3_IY_hA

UPDATE AUG 24 2018: Episodes 125, 126 and 130 have been uploaded to YouTube.

Barrio Sésamo (Partially found Castilian Spanish co-production)
In the late 70s, Barrio Sésamo began as a dubbed version of the American Sesame Street and aired in Spain. However, the original 1970s version of Barrio Sésamo, including the "Caponata y Perezgil" era from 1979-1980, is stored away from the public, and only six episodes + the pilot episode of the "Caponata y Perezgil" era can be found on YouTube and RTVE.es. The RTVE.es releases excluded the dubbed Sesame Street Muppet inserts (featuring Ernie, Bert, Grover, Kermit the Frog, etc.), and it is rumored that this was due to licensing issues. On August 18, 2018, a user has uploaded a portion of a Caponata y Perezqil Barrio Sesamo episode containing a Sesame Street insert.

Svenska Sesam (Partially lost Swedish co-production)
Svenska Sesam was the second Swedish version of Sesame Street. 30 episodes were produced and aired on the network SVT2 (Sveriges Television) from October 31, 1981 to April 11, 1982. The show took place behind the scenes of "Galateatern" (a theater) and had Swedish live actors and no puppet characters at all. The only puppets on the show were from the American sketches, which were dubbed in Swedish.

The show went into a re-run August 23, 1982 and ended in January 28, 1983. The last time the show was seen on Swedish TV was from March 28, 1984 to July 13, 1984. Of the 30 episodes, only the first 8 have surfaced on YouTube. The rest of the episodes have not been taped off SVT2 and remain lost. Only time will tell when someone will find the remaining 22 episodes and release the whole series in a Swedish DVD box set or possibly on YouTube.

Rechov Sumsum (Partially found Hebrew co-production)
Rechov Sumsum (רחוב סומסום) was the first Israeli co-production of Sesame Street. The first episodes debuted over ETV in June 1982, with the full season beginning in September 1983. 195 episodes were produced through 1986, and remained popular in re-runs even having the show's Muppet characters appearing on other Israeli television productions frequently for years after the show's run.

None of these classic episodes are available on DVD. However, a few episodes have surfaced on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWS2HjAOe5gsotOmWa83n5mRvGQQ9VzEZ

Sesame!/Batibot (Partially lost Filipino co-production)
Sesame! lasted one season because of economic reasons. A few years later they decided to make a new Filipino show called Batibot (with no need for cooperation from Children's Television Workshop). The show's Muppet characters Pong Pagong (a full-body giant turtle) and Kiko Matsing (a grouchy monkey) tried to appear on Batibot, but that's when CTW took these Muppets back to Jim Henson Productions.

To date, no full episodes have resurfaced on Youtube, but only the opening intro to the show itself has surfaced, and Quentin T. also uploaded some of the 1980s highlights of the show that were found on the Yale library site.

Susam Sokağı (Partially lost Turkish co-production)
Susam Sokağı is the Turkish co-production of Sesame Street. It aired on TRT, from 1986 until 1991.

Only a few episodes (and dubbed inserts) have been found online, some on YouTube, others on Izlesene.com.
 * Susam Sokağı - 4. Bölüm: https://www.izlesene.com/video/susam-sokagi-4-bolum/9800513
 * Susam Sokağı - 5. Bölüm: https://www.izlesene.com/video/susam-sokagi-5-bolum/9800500
 * Susam Sokağı - TRT 2. Tam Bölüm(1993): https://www.izlesene.com/video/susam-sokagi-trt-2-tam-bolum1993/8979712
 * Susam Sokağı (TRT Tam Bölüm 2): https://www.izlesene.com/video/susam-sokagi-trt-tam-bolum-2/8806005
 * Susam Sokağı TRT Tam Bölüm 1993 ( TÜRKÇE ): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X2HbDOZXn8
 * Susam Sokağı Tam Kayıt 1. Bölüm (TV1 1989): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sGuWhTYzXE
 * https://www.youtube.com/user/79taneraydemir/search?query=susam+sokagi+bolum

Sousami Anoikse (Missing Greek co-production)
Sousami Anoikse is the Greek co-production of Sesame Street that aired on the ET1 television network. The show has been considered lost over the years; only the Greek dub of Ernie's "One of These Things" song has survived and has been up on YouTube.

Rua Sésamo (Partially found Portuguese co-production)
Only the first 30 episodes from Rua Sésamo 's first season are released on DVD (one episode per disk) and they can be seen on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLapqUe7ahAreM8XeYi__gDPfAJqMvfs-9

The second season is lost and only some clips of it can be seen.

Sesam Stasjon (Partially Found Norwegian co-production)
Sesam Stasjon is the Norwegian co-production of Sesame Street that has aired on NRK. Several episodes can be seen on Youtube.

Various clips and dubbed inserts of the show have also been uploaded via user pellefrank: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7l14X0btwAdAOo8fiiuh4z2_uMP3xr8y

Sesam, luk dig op (Missing Danish dub)
Sesam, luk dig op (Open, Sesame) is the Danish dub of Sesame Street, using the Open Sesame format, rather than a co-production. 65 episodes were shown on TV2 Denmark from 1992 to 1993. Only the opening intro to the show itself has surfaced.

Ulica Sesamkowa (Partially found Polish co-production)
Ulica Sesamkowa is the Polish co-production of Sesame Street that aired on TVP2. Only six episodes can be seen on Youtube.

Ulitsa Sezam (Partially found Russian co-production)
Ulitsa Sezam is the Russian co-production of Sesame Street that aired on NTV and ORT. Several episodes can sometimes be seen on Youtube.
 * https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIT54XPgavjq3oLhd2m_Evw/search?query=ulitsa+sezam
 * https://www.youtube.com/user/MrAnnuta/search?query=ulitsa+sezam
 * https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBDbMv2HgbsaItnde9Xi5qg/videos

Seesamtie (Partially found Finnish co-production)
Seesamtie is the Finnish co-production of Sesame Street that aired on Yle TV2 from 1997-2000. Only one episode has turned up on YouTube (and in 50fps).

Rechov Sumsum — Shara'a Simsim (Partially found Israeli/Palestinian co-production)
Rechov Sumsum and Shara'a Simsim are the names for the Israeli/Palestinian co-production of Sesame Street. Premiering on April 1, 1998, the series was inspired by the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords, and featured Moishe Oofnik and a re-designed Kippi Ben Kippod from the early Rechov Sumsum, joined by new Israeli Muppet Dafi and two new Palestinian Muppets, Kareem and Haneen.

A handful of episodes appeared on YouTube.

Zhima Jie (Partially found Chinese co-production)
Zhima Jie (芝麻街) is the Chinese co-production of Sesame Street. The show was produced from 1998 to 2001, for a total run of 130 half-hour episodes.

For years, the only footage found on YouTube was a 1999 recording of 7 minutes of an episode (since it was recorded 19 years ago, it was in poor quality). However, lejukeboxer1 and conraddork uploaded a Chinese dub of Rubber Duckie (taken from other coproductions, but dubbed with audio taken from the Sesame Street Playground record) to YouTube.