Sesamstrasse

Sesamstrasse ("Sesamstraße" in German) is the international version of Sesame Street in Germany. Sesamstrasse was the first co-production of Sesame Street outside the United States.

Sesamstrasse has been running on Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) since January 1973; it is now in its 33rd season. Sesamstrasse can also be seen on ARD and KiKa.

History
The first four seasons of Sesamstrasse were American episodes dubbed to German. The exception was Bavaria, where the local TV station felt that the Sesame Street set was too grotty to suit German children.

In 1977, a German street set was built in Hamburg for German framing stories. Samson the bear and Tiffy the bird replaced Big Bird (Bibo) and Oscar the Grouch as main characters, and the new version debuted in 1978.

Other characters that were added later were Uli Von Bödefeld (Uli is short for Ulrich), also called Herr von Bödefeld (1978-1988), Finchen the Snail (1980s), Rumpel the Grouch (1989) and Buh the Owl (1989). Newer additions are Feli Filu the Monster reporter, the comic duo Pferd the Horse and Wolle the sheep, a few grouches, and some Anything Muppets.

Just as in its American counterpart, the German characters have been remodeled over the decades. Most obvious were changes in the first main characters Samson and Tiffy (as can be seen here for Samson 1978-2000 and here for Tiffy 1978-2000). Finchen and Buh have also had their fair share of fabric surgery.

In 2005 Tiffy was replaced with single mom Moni and her pink and furry daughter Lena.

Simson came on as Samson's cousin; he was an older puppet being re-used, with slight changes to his appearance (equipped with a hat, a tie, etc.). For the first few episodes that his name was mentioned, Simson was only imagened by Samson.

Leonie Löwenherz (Leonie Lionheart in English), a female lion, was featured for a very short time after the set and puppets were destroyed in a fire. Just like Uli von Bödefeld, she was built by German puppetmakers and not the Muppet Workshop. After her short-lived Sesame career, she got her own (ALF-like) show called "Leonie Löwenherz" on ARD, featuring herself, her two lion brothers and a few human characters.

Little Bird has made a few cameos as a utility puppet, and in 2006, Ernie and Bert began appearing regularly in new German segments.

The early characters were built by Kermit Love; nowadays, the Muppet Workshop builds the puppets for Sesamstrasse.

From 1977 to 1988, the fact that the street stories took place in a studio was never kept a secret. Some parts of the street were simply 'matted in' during an episode, or the characters would ask for help from the studio crew. (One episode about Samson trying to scratch an annoying flea ends with the entire studio crew itching!) The matting also allowed the characters to show up in different locations, like a beach or the roof of the studio.

In 1988, the set and the puppets were destroyed in a fire. They were rebuilt in 1989. The new set was centered around a bicycle shop; it also featured Samson's cave and a barrel for Rumpel. The street stories no longer took place in a studio.

Sesamstrasse fans divide the series between the Studio Episodes and the Bicycle Shop Episodes in the same way certain American fans talk about the pre-Elmo days.

Like most international co-productions of Sesame Street, 50 percent of each episode consists of dubbed American material. The German episodes feature many early sketches, sometimes even from the first season in 1969. Long gone and rarely seen characters like Lefty, Guy Smiley, Sherlock Hemlock, Don Music, and even Professor Hastings are still favorite main characters in Germany.

One of the most controversial moments on Sesamstrasse was a film directly showing the birth of a human baby.

Muppets

 * Samson (1978-present)
 * Simson (on and off in 1989-2000)
 * Tiffy (1978-2005)
 * Finchen (on and off from 1978, 1989-present)
 * Rumpel and his pet caterpillar Gustav (1989-present)
 * Buh, a male owl (1989-present)
 * Feli Filu, a blue female monster reporter (2000-present)
 * Pferd (2000-present)
 * Wolle (2000-present)
 * Lena (2005-present)
 * Moni (2005-present)
 * Wolf vom Wörtersee (2007-present)
 * Uli Von Bödefeld (1978-early 1988)
 * Leonie Löwenherz (1989-early 1990s)

Human Cast

 * Street residents


 * Henning Venske as Henning (1978-1979)
 * Liselotte Pulver as Lilo (1978-1983)
 * Uwe Friedrichsen as Uwe (1979-1982)
 * Horst Janson as Horst (1979-1986)
 * Ute Willing as Ute (1979-1986)
 * Ilse Biberti as Ilse (1979-1982)
 * Elisabeth Vitouch as Elisabeth (1979-1982)
 * Manfred Krug as Manfred (1982-1986)
 * Gernot Endemann as Schorsch (1986-1999)
 * Hildegard Krekel as Bettina (1986-1989)
 * Kirsten Spick as Bettina (1989-1999)
 * Ferdinand Dux as Opa Brass (1992-2000)
 * Senta Bonneval as Helmi (1995-1999)
 * Alexander Geringas as Alex (1995-2000)
 * Vijak Bajani as Jiviana (1995-2001)
 * Nils Julius as Nils (2000-present)
 * Caroline Kiesewetter as Caro (2000-2002)
 * Miriam Krause as Caro (2002-2006)
 * Dirk Bach as Pepe (2000-present)
 * Anke (Anke Engelke, 2003-2006)
 * Mehmet (Mehmet Yilmaz, 2003-present)
 * Ella (Franziska Troegner, 2003-present)
 * Annette Frier as Annette (2005-)

Sketch actors
 * Horst Pinnow as Detektiv Humphrey Gocard ("Letter Detectives" segments, 1980s)
 * Tobias Meister as Ludwig Lupe ("Letter Detectives" segments, 1980s)
 * Felicitas Woll as Wörterfee ("Wolf vom Wörtersee" segments, 2007-)