Sesame Street… 20 Years and Still Counting

Sesame Street... 20 Years & Still Counting is a special aired on Friday April 7, 1989 on NBC. It was made to celebrate the 20th season of the popular children's show, Sesame Street.

Contents

• Human cast
• Muppet performers
• Nielsen ratings
• References

This special, unlike most Sesame Street specials, was not produced by the Children's Television Workshop but by The Jim Henson Company (one of the few Sesame Street productions they directly produced, though an "Executive Producer for CTW" credit was included in the end credits) and was meant to air as part of The Jim Henson Hour, but ended up airing as a solo special the week before the premiere episode aired.

In the special, comedian Bill Cosby tells us about the history of the show while interacting with various Muppet characters. Among the subjects featured are the curriculum, the show's adult humor and even the foreign co-productions (e.g. Plaza Sesamo and Rechov Sumsum). There are also guest appearances; opera singer Plácido Domingo sings with Placido Flamingo, and Ray Charles sings "It's Not Easy Bein' Green". Meanwhile, Ernie and Bert are taping the street with their video camera so they can watch Sesame Street on television. Every now and then, we cut to Kermit the Frog in his Sesame Street News attire asking people (all of which are Grover) how to get to Sesame Street, occasionally running into people who were on the show when they were kids. The show ends with the characters all singing "Sing". The program was dedicated to the memory of Joe Raposo.