In the course of over 51 years on the air, Sesame Street has always been about cultural diversity, inclusiveness, and how its target audience----children----can relate to the Muppet characters.
Roosevelt Franklin, despite the purple fur, was designated as the series' 1st African-American Muppet all the way back in 1970. Despite Roosevelt's popularity, some viewers thought he represented certain negative stereotypes. I have a suspicion I know where those viewers were based.
Today, Sesame Workshop introduced a new pair of African-American Muppets. Father & son. Wesley & Elijah Walker.
If I could hazard a guess, since Street has been based in New York from its inception in 1969, Wesley might've been named for a former NFL player who plied his trade with the Jets during the 70's & 80's. Elijah's mother is "in development", and will debut as well.
When the Walkers do join the cast, as you're aware by now, 1st run episodes are airing on HBO, and will also appear on HBO Max, PBS, & PBS Kids. Meaning that, assuming the Walkers debut this year, their first appearances will appear on PBS around this time next year.
4 comments:
According to a news article that I read about this yesterday, Elijah is also going to have a mother named Naomi, who is currently "in development".
I'm all for ethnic/cultural diversity and all that good stuff, but I'd prefer to see black characters where their being isn't the gimmick. Just make interesting, entertaining characters who just happen to be black.
I mentioned the mother character being in development. Sesame Street has also introduced autistic Muppets, and dealt with real-world topics over the course of going on 52 years.
You know, there was an African American Muppet character named Segi, whom you probably know best for singing I Love My Hair and Change the World. She even had her own Street Story - in it, she feels offended when she gets to a part of a book she’s reading in which Snazzy Jazzy thinks a teddy bear is too brown to be snazzy. That’s when she stops the reading (and we don’t know how the rest of the book goes). Later on, Segi learns that she can still be snazzy regardless of skin color.
I wonder why they dropped her years ago. She could’ve been along the lines of Prairie Dawn or any other regulars.
I had read about Segi. Don't know what the story was that knocked her off the show.
Post a Comment