Plaza Sésamo

Plaza Sésamo
Genre	Children's Television Series
Created by	Joan Ganz Cooney and her Sesame Workshop (then Children's Television Workshop) staff
Starring	Odín Dupeyrón Rocío Lara Eugenio Bartilotti Edgar Vivar Sergio Corona Beatriz Aguirre Mariana Garza Jorge Arvizu "El Tata"
Country of origin	Mexico
No. of episodes	65 per season
Production
Running time	22 minutes (without ads) 30 minutes (with ads) (actual length may vary in the US)
Broadcast
Original channel	Televisa
Original run	November 1972 – present

Plaza Sésamo is an educational children's television series for preschoolers, which is the Spanish-language adaptation for Latin America of Sesame Street. Both programs are pioneers of the contemporary educational television standard, combining both education and entertainment. The program was first broadcast in 1972. Originally co-produced by the Children Television Workshop (CTW) and several Latin-american TV stations, later was produced mainly in Mexico by CTW and Mexican television network Televisa.

Currently it is produced jointly by Sesame Workshop and Televisa. Hip TV Inc., a division of Los Angeles-based Hip Entertainment Group, were production supervisors for seasons 9, 10, and 11.

Plaza Sésamo can be seen in Mexico on Televisa's XHGC-TV. In Latin America on the satellite/cable channel Discovery Kids. In the United States, it can be seen on V-me and TeleFutura (and had previously aired on TeleFutura's parent network Univision), as well as selected PBS stations. Plaza Sésamo is also available On Demand on PBS KIDS Sprout.

Season 9 launched 2005, and seasons 10 and 11 debuted in 2006 and 2008. New seasons of the show are produced intermittently.

The show shares a lot of sketch footage with Sesame Street, dubbed in Spanish, but there is also a great deal of unique footage in the show, especially sketches featuring the live actors.

It is estimated that Plaza Sesamo reaches 84 percent of Spanish-speaking households in the United States. Within Mexico, 72% of mothers watched the series as a child, and 98% of them want to expose their children to the series.^[1]

It is one of the longest running children's series in Mexico, although its broadcasting has not been continuous. Note that there is also another Spanish-language version of this series known as Barrio Sésamo in Spain that went on the air on three disjointed runs in 1979-1980, 1983-1987, and 1996-2000.^[2]

Characters

Plaza Sésamo has a cast of human and muppet characters. The human cast changes continuously from season to season. Muppet characters unique to Plaza Sésamo include:^[3]

Debut era: 1972-1980

• Abelardo an 8-foot, 2-inch red and orange dragon/crocodile with a characteristic slow voice that performed functions equivalent to Big Bird from Sesame Street. Played by two different actors during his life, one of them Justo Martinez.

• Paco A grumpy parrot who normally was seen from his apartment window and who shared many characteristics with Sesame street's Oscar, including his tastes of food. It was frequently performed by the same actor that played Abelardo.

Abelardo and Paco were redesigned during the interlude from season 1 to season 2.

First revamping: 1981-1994

Previous characters were substituted by

• Serapio Montoya, mostly referred to in the program simply as Montoya, was the equivalent to Big Bird, with green, red, and pink feathers and a short, yellow beak shaped like that of a parrot. Played by Alberto Estrella (1981-1992) and Héctor Márquez (1992-1995). In 1995 this character's name was changed to Abelardo Montoya.

• Bodoque, a cousin of Oscar the Grouch that lives in a pile of boxes.

Second revamping: 1995- current

• Abelardo Montoya, an 8-foot, 2-inch bird with green, red, and pink feathers and a short, yellow beak shaped like that of a parrot, cousin of Big Bird from Sesame Street. Played by Eugenio Bartilotti (1995 - 2004) and Héctor Loeza (2004-today). Abelardo's original name was Serapio Montoya, but it was later changed to Abelardo Montoya in honor of his orange dragon equivalent of early seasons. This Abelardo guest starred on the American Sesame Street on May 5, 1997.

The Bodoque character was substituted by Lola and Pancho:

• Lola, a joyful young Muppet who loves to play the harmonica, and make silly sounds with her voice. Lola, like Elmo, often refers to herself in third-person. She is related to Pancho, and is Abelardo's best friend. Played by Rocío Lara.

• Pancho, Pancho Contreras, blue-colored monster with a gruff voice. Played by Odín Dupeyrón.

other secondary characters are

• Elefancio, Pancho's pet elephant. Only his trunk is ever seen. Played by Marcia Coutiño
• Multimonstruo, Red Anything Monster that appear as a baby, a pirate, etc. Its most notable characterization is Cuernos (Horns), a red monster with horns and vicious teeth.
• Multimuppet, Brown Anything Muppet.
• El Barón Púrpura (The Purple Baron), a Muppet portraying a lackluster air pilot. A satire of The Red Baron.
• Four recurring birds.
• A macaw.
• Poco Loco.
• A penguin.
• A chicken.
• Stuckweed.
• Various fruits and vegetables.
• Professor D. Rabbit.

Additionally, characters from the English-language Sesame Street are featured in dubbed segments:

• Beto y Enrique: Bert and Ernie.
• "René" (Rene the Frog): Kermit the Frog.
• Archibaldo: Grover.
• Greñaldo: Herry Monster.
• Lucas, el monstruo comegalletas (Lucas, the Cookie-Eating Monster): Cookie Monster.
• El Conde Contar: Count von Count.

Featured adults

• Beatriz Aguirre
• Sergio Corona
• Edgar Vivar
• Mariana Garza
• Benjamin Rivero
• M'Balia Marichal
• Pedro Romo
• Mariana Sánchez
• Jorge Arvizu "El Tata"

Notable guest stars

• Jorge Campos, footballer, Season 9
• Edith Gonzalez, actress, Season 9
• Sebastián González "Chamagol", footballer, Season 9
• Andrea Legarreta, TV personality, season 10
• Fernando Platas, athlete, season 10, in a "Plaza Olimpiadas" segment
• Adal Ramones, comedian, season 9; season 10, Ramones hosts an American Idol parody ("Cantando por una fruta") with fruit Muppets.
• Marco Antonio Regil, TV personality, season 9
• Carlos Loret de Mola, TV personality, season 10
• Adela Micha, TV personality, season 10
• Antonio de Valdés, TV personality, season 10
• Leticia Calderón, actress, season 10
• Ernesto Laguardia, actor, season 10
• Omar Chaparro, TV personality, season 10
• Aaron Diaz, Actor, season 10
• Marco Antonio Regil, TV personality, season 10
• RBD, Mexican Pop Group, season 11
• Eiza Gonzalez, Actress, Singer, season 11
• Benny Ibarra, singer, season 11
• Aleks Syntek, musician, season 10
• Alessandra Rosaldo, singer, season 10
• Enrique Burak, TV personality, season 10
• Héctor Sandarti, TV personality, season 10
• Mauricio Barcelata, actor, season 11
• Cecilia Galliano, actress, model, season 11
• Polo Ortín, actor, season 10
• Evita Muñoz "Chachita", actress, season 11
• Eugenio Derbez, comedian, season 9
• Julio Bracho, actor, season 11
• Andrea Legarreta, TV personality, season 9

Seasons

Theme Park

A theme park named Parque Plaza Sésamo, based on the television series, opened in Monterrey.^[4] The park is open year round and offers summer educational camps for children ages 5 to 15. Park venues can be rented for special events.

Other media and merchandise

DVD releases

References

External links

• [1]
• Sesame Workshop: Plaza Sésamo (English Web site)
• Sesame Workshop: Plaza Sésamo (Spanish Web site)
• Hip TV Inc.
• Parque Plaza Sésamo
• Plaza Sésamo at the Internet Movie Database