Sesame Street Characters - Human Characters

Human Characters

Since the premiere of the children's television program Sesame Street on November 10, 1969, it has included what writer Malcolm Gladwell has called "the essence of Sesame Street—the artful blend of fluffy monsters and earnest adults". The original cast, chosen by producer Jon Stone, consisted of four human actors—Matt Robinson, who played Gordon, Loretta Long, who played Gordon's wife Susan, Will Lee (Mr. Hooper), and Bob McGrath (Bob). Unlike most children television programs at the time, the producers of Sesame Street decided against using a single host and cast a group of ethnically diverse actors, with, as Sesame Street researcher Gerald S. Lesser put it, "a variety of distinctive and reliable personalities".

Stone did not audition actors until Spring 1969, a few weeks before five shows, designed to test the show's appeal to children, and to examine their comprehension of the material, were due to be filmed. Stone videotaped the auditions, and researcher Ed Palmer took them out into the field to test children's reactions. The actors who received the "most enthusiastic thumbs up" were cast. For example, when the children saw Long's audition, they stood up and sang along with her rendition of "I'm a Little Teapot". As Stone said, casting was the only aspect of the show that was "just completely haphazard". Most of the cast and crew found jobs on Sesame Street through personal relationships with Stone and the other producers.

According to CTW researchers Shalom M. Fisch and Lewis Bernstein, the results of the test shows, which were never intended for broadcast and presented to preschoolers in 60 homes throughout Philadelphia and in day care centers in New York City in July 1969, were "generally very positive". They found that children learned from the shows, that the show's appeal was high, and that children's attention was sustained over the full hour. However, the researchers found that although children's attention was high during the Muppet segments, their interest wavered during the "Street" segments, when no Muppets were on screen. The producers had followed the advice of child psychologists who were concerned that children would be confused, and had recommended that human actors and Muppets not be shown together. As a result of this decision, the appeal of the test episodes was lower than they would have liked.

Palmer referred to the Street scenes as "the glue" that "pulled the show together", so producers knew they needed to make significant changes, including defying the recommendations of their advisers. Lesser called this decision "a turning point in the history of Sesame Street". The producers went back and reshot the Street segments; Muppet creator Jim Henson and his coworkers created Muppets that could interact with the human actors.

On August 14, 2012, Sesame Street announced it is hold a casting call for a new Hispanic character for the show’s 44th season.