Little Children, Big Challenges: Divorce

Abby Cadabby shows Gordon drawings of her two houses - the one where she lives with her mommy, and the one where she lives with her daddy.

Little Children, Big Challenges: Divorce is a Sesame Street resource kit and video released online on December 10, 2012, with the full version of the video going online the next day, December 11. Like other resource video kits, it is also being made available on DVD to military families and to the general public through various family courts, counseling services, parenting and child care programs, and related outlets.

The 22-minute video features Elmo, Rosita, Gordon and Abby Cadabby. Abby explains that her mommy and daddy are divorced and shares the emotions she went through.

The resource video and support materials are part of Sesame Workshop's resiliency initiative Little Children, Big Challenges. The bilingual, multimedia outreach initiative focuses on helping children increase self-awareness, boost self-esteem, and persevere through changes.

The video is the show's second attempt to explain the subject of divorce. Previously, they tried to show Snuffy's family going through the turmoil of divorce in an unaired 1992 episode, "Snuffy's Parents Get a Divorce," but it failed in the testing phase due to the emotions depicted being a bit too realistic, leaving the test audience upset. The producers went on a different route in making this project, focusing on how Abby has gotten over the divorce rather than going through the process.

The online kit also includes mp3 downloads of the "Bird Family" and "Big Feelings" songs from the video.

Releases

Learn Along with SesameThe iTunes Store (2012)

Credits

• Executive Producer: Carol-Lynn Parente
• Co-Executive Producer: Kevin Clash
• Supervising Producer: Melissa Dino
• Senior Producer: Tim Carter
• Producer: Benjamin Lehmann
• Directed by Kevin Clash
• Written by Christine Ferraro
• Starring The Muppets of Sesame Street
  • Leslie Carrara-Rudolph as Abby Cadabby and Mother Bird (vocals only)
  • John Tartaglia as Birdie
  • Ryan Dillon
  • Carmen Osbahr as Rosita (uncredited)
  • and Kevin Clash as Elmo and Father Bird
• Cast
  • Roscoe Orman as Gordon
• Senior Muppet Consultant: Kevin Clash
• Assistant Muppet Captain: Matt Vogel
• Jim Henson's Creature Shop: Jason Weber, Rollie Krewson, Connie Peterson, Andrea Detwiler, Colette Nickola, Anney Ozar, Michelle Hickey
• Music Director: Bill Sherman
• Music Director - Arrangements: Joe Fiedler
• Music Director - Studio: Paul Rudolph
• Music by Bill Sherman and Joe Fiedler
• Composers: Kathryn Raio and JP Rende
• Senior Vice President, Outreach and Educational Practices: Jeanette Betancourt, Ed.D.
• Production Designer: Bob Phillips
• Associate Director: Ken Diego
• Sound Effects: Dick Maitland, C.A.S.
• Cameras: Frank Biondo, Jerry Cancel, Shaun Harkins
• Production Assistants: Rachel Colleen Smith, Andrew Moriarty, Maxwell Nicoll
• Animation by Magnetic Dreams
• DVD Production: Frank Campagna, Franco Schettino, William D'amico
• Taped at Kaufman Astoria Studios
• Executive Vice President, Education, Research and Outreach: Lewis Bernstein, Ph.D.

See also

• Divorce

External links

• Little Children, Big Challenges: Divorce- toolkit site
• 'D' Is for Divorce: Big Feelings on Sesame Street
• Entertainment Weekly - 'Sesame Street' and Abby Cadabby talk about divorce