Shortly after Sesame Street premiered in the United States in 1969, television producers, teachers, and officials of several countries approached the show's producers and the executives of Children's Television Workshop (CTW) about the possibility of airing international versions of Sesame Street. Creator Joan Ganz Cooney hired former CBS executive Michael Dann to field offers to translate and adapt the show into a number of international co-productions in other countries.

Originally, international co-productions had a certain amount of American Sesame Street episodes dubbed and repackaged, or cut to a half hour running time. Later international co-productions, beginning with Brazil's Vila Sésamo, started taping their own original street scenes with new original characters, puppets, and sets.

As characters and set designs for these co-productions had been changed or the entire international franchise is revamped over the years, older international co-productions are believed to have ended up becoming lost in the shuffle, due to the lack of their availability on DVD, VHS, or online. While classic episodes of some of the well-known international co-productions like Sesamstrasse (the German co-production) made their way onto DVD or online, other classic foreign co-productions from the 70s are believed to be lost. Here are some international co-productions that are believed to be lost, not taped off television broadcasts, or hard to find anywhere on home media or online.

Sesame Street Canada (Partially found Canadian broadcasts/co-production; 1972-2001)

In 1972, the initial five minute segments of the US Sesame Street series were aired over the CBC as interstitials. In January 1973, a Canadian version of Sesame Street, called Sesame Street Canada, began as an edited version of the one-hour American program, occasionally including specially filmed Canadian cartoon and film inserts (i.e. "A Quarter Has a Caribou on It," a 1982 animated song explaining the value and appearance of the Canadian quarter). By the 1980s the show's title had been modified to Canadian Sesame Street. Sometimes Canadian-exclusive animated clips (including those made by Ishu Patel) would be shown in American episodes during the late 1970's-early 1990's, redubbed in English. So far, Canadian versions of Episode 1813 (Season 14), Episode 2058 (Season 16), Episode 3128 (Season 24), Episode 3330 (Season 26) and Episode 3370 (Season 26) have been seen on YouTube and Dailymotion to date.


So far, only two episodes of Sesame Park are seen on YouTube.

Sesamo Apriti (Lost Italian dub; 1971)

Sesamo Apriti ("Open Sesame") was the Italian version of Sesame Street, first broadcast in 1971. Approximately 50 episodes of the American show were cut to a half hour, and translated into Italian. A Sesamo Apriti board game and record album were released in 1978. No episodes of the show have been taped off broadcast and remain lost today. However, a 10-minute excerpt of the show has been found on the Rai Scuola website. Sam P. has ripped two of the clips from there and uploaded them to YouTube (though topped with visuals taken from Sesamstraße and Iftah Ya Simsim).

Vila Sésamo (Partially lost Brazilian co-production; 1972-1977)

Vila Sésamo was the Brazilian co-production of Sesame Street that ran from 1972 to 1977 on TV Globo and TV Cultura. It was officially the first international Sesame Street co-production, not counting 1971's Sesamo Apriti (which only consisted of dubbed versions of the American Sesame Street episodes). As there was no color television in Brazil at the time, the episodes were broadcast in Black and White.

A few episodes of the original 1972-1977 era have been found on YouTube.

Plaza Sésamo (Partially found Mexican co-production; 1972-1980)

Plaza Sésamo is the Mexican version of Sesame Street that debuted in November of 1972 (at the time of the fourth season premiere of Sesame Street). The cast consisted of Panamanian, Argentinian, and mostly Mexican performers and featured "neutral Spanish." The original series also featured two Muppet characters, Abelardo, a dragon, and a small grouchy green parrot called Paco. The set of the street was turned into a plaza that would be a typical city block in Central or South America with a center fountain, benches, vacant lot with playground equipment, houses, a combination grocery store-cafe, and mechanic's repair shop.

While Plaza Sésamo episodes from 2001-present (as well as a few from the 90s) are available, no episodes of the original Plaza Sésamo from the 70s-80s can be found nor can be seen online, reportedly due to Televisa (the network who co-produced Plaza Sésamo with CTW) losing their master archive of the show's earlier material that had been destroyed in the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. No one has taped any of the show's earlier material at the time, there also is no footage of Abelardo the Reptile preserved on any VHS recording.[1] All that survives are some photos and a screenshot of the show's opening title card. Only one classic episode, Episodio 327 (aired in 1976), has partially resurfaced on Vimeo, and has been documented on the unofficial Muppet Wiki.[2] A nine-second clip from the 1972 era of Plaza Sésamo appeared on a retrospective of the 50th anniversary of Televisa, being this the only known footage of Abelardo the Dragon and Paco the Parrot .[3]

The series was re-vamped in the early 80's. The improved series got rid of the early resident Muppet and replaced him with a parrot named Montoya and a brown grouch named Bodoque. While the first era lasted for two seasons, this era only lasted for only one season.

In 1993, the first series of Plaza Sésamo videos were released, featuring new stories with Montoya and Bodoque. These home videos can be really hard to find today.

Quentin T. also uploaded some of the 1980s highlights that were found on the Yale library site.

Sesamstraße (Partially found German co-production; 1973-Present)

Sesamstraße is the German version of Sesame Street that debuted on and has been primarily running on Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) since January 8, 1973 and currently has a total of 42 seasons. Sesamstrasse's 30-minute episodes can also be seen on ARD's children programming affiliate KI.KA.

While a certain amount of Sesamstraße episodes are available on DVD and online, many of the episodes have been kept in storage in not viewable in public since. In 2006, many German Sesame Street had been posted on YouTube, but eventually swept to dust and have not resurfaced since due to the uploader of these clips getting terminated (as a result of the February 2007 Viacom takedown that pulled around 400,000 YouTubers). Some episodes have been taped off of broadcast and uploaded to YouTube, while only title cards of the episodes have surfaced.

Ábrete Sésamo (Partially lost original Spanish dub; 1974)


Ábrete Sésamo was the one of the first international dubs of Sesame Street, debuting on Spanish national television in 1974.

The show featured a mixture of Muppet segments, cartoons, and street scenes, but no original material.

The Spanish names given to Muppet characters included Blas (Bert), Epi (Ernie), Triki (Cookie Monster), Conde Draco (Count von Count) and Gustavo (Kermit).

The show was replaced in 1979 with a Spanish co-production, Barrio Sésamo. The original 1974 Spanish broadcasts are entirely lost. A handful of segments and songs had been released to vinyl LP in 1976, which is available in its entirety on YouTube.

FatBlueBoy has synced all tracks of the album with various video sources to recreate a 1974 broadcast of the show and eventually posted it on YouTube.

One actual clip, "Kermit's Feelings Lecture" as taped off the show has resurfaced.

Bonjour Sésame (Partially found original French dub; 1974)


Bonjour Sésame was the first French translation of Sesame Street, debuting on French national television in September 1974. (Not to be confused with a Canadian show of the same name.)

The show took only 15 minutes in a large block and was entirely a translation of clips from the American show, and was composed of about 65% puppet sequences, 25% animated cartoons and 10% live action sequences. It aired together with another children's program called L'Île aux Enfants.


The show was replaced in 1978 with a French co-production, 1, Rue Sésame. The original 1974 French broadcasts are entirely lost. Some puppet inserts surfaced on YouTube, but it is unknown whether they are sourced from these 1974 Bonjour Sésame broadcasts or from 1978's 1, Rue Sesame broadcasts, judging by the characters' same voice actors.

UPDATE 5 Dec 2018: A handful of segments and songs from the show can be found on Les années récré. And good news if you wouldn't know it, PumpkinSeedCandySalesman264 has dumped chunks of various clips of the show (also downloaded from OK.RU as well) onto YouTube. Plus a couple of 1974 broadcasts of L'Île aux Enfants with Bonjour Sesame in them can be found on FaceBook as follows:

Bonjour Sésame (Partially lost French-Canadian dub; 1975)

Bonjour Sésame, also known as Sésame, Sésame Ouvre-Toi or Rue Sésame, was the French-language dub of Sesame Street, produced for the Canadian market. In contrast to the occasional bilingual elements of Sesame Street Canada, this version was a fully dubbed package, translated into Québécois rather than the more formal French used in France.

It was one of several "Open Sesame" packages, translations targeted for nations as an alternative to full-coproduction, along with the French Bonjour Sesame and Sesamo Apriti, among others.

The series debuted over Radio-Canada in September, 1975, and was broadcast primarily in Montreal. The episodes are believed to be lost, but a handful of songs and also the theme song had been released on the 1976 LP Sésame which can be found on YouTube. YouTuber lejukeboxer1 has synced audio tracks from this LP to the video sources and has posted them individually, but appear to be out of sync and do not match correctly with the characters' mouth movements.

Sesamstraat (Partially found Dutch co-production; 1976-Present)

Sesamstraat is the Dutch version of Sesame Street that debuted in 1976 on NOS. The co-production then moved to NPS from 1995 to 2010 and NTR since 2010.

The co-production started off as a Dutch/Belgian co-production, with only one thirty-minute episode a week. These episodes had only 12 minutes allotted for the Dutch cast. At this time there were only two Muppets and three live actors, Piet Hendriks, Sien Diels, and Annet van Heusden. In 1978, Sesamstraat's format changed to a daily 15 minute show that aired in the evening, around dinnertime.

Only one episode, "Ziek voelen", from the Dutch/Belgian co-production in 1976, resurfaced on Sesamstraat's site (hence linked on YouTube below), but the other episodes from the early seasons are believed to be lost. A handful of episodes from the 1980s and 1990s are also uploaded on YouTube.

MNAvdb and SesamstraatTommie also have uploaded various Sesamstraat Dutch clips on YouTube.

Sesam (Partially lost original Swedish dub; 1976)


Sesame Street was first shown in Sweden in 1976 under the name Sesam. Twenty six of the American episodes were dubbed.

In 1981, Sweden started their own full co-production using the name Svenska Sesam.

A new batch of Open Sesame episodes were dubbed and shown on Sveriges Television from 1996 to 1998, under the same name, including newer characters such as Elmo. 8 episodes of the 1996-1998 broadcast can be found on YouTube.

The original 1976 Swedish broadcasts are entirely lost, but audio tracks for certain inserts from this version as well as the show theme song "Sesam-melodin" had been released on vinyl LP in the Netherlands. YouTuber PumpkinSeedCandySalesman264 has synced some album tracks from Sesam and Sesam 2 to some video clips and posted them on YouTube. Sesam 2 has been posted in its entirety. Recently, FatBlueBoy has digitized the entire soundtrack for Sesam and posted it in its entirety on YouTube.

Abre-Te Sesamo (lost Portuguese dub; 1976)

Abre-Te Sesamo was the first Portuguese dub of Sesame Street, debuting on RTP in 1976. The dub's title is not to be confused with the Castilian Spanish dub of the same name. Very little information is known about this dub, although some characters had different names than the ones used in Rua Sésamo, such as Grover (known as Tobias) and Cookie Monster (known as Monstro Comilão). Among the voices for this dub include João Lourenço (Becas / Monstro Comilão), João Perry (Egas / Cocas), José Gomes (Tobias) and Irene Cruz.

1, Rue Sésame (Partially lost French co-production; 1978)

1, Rue Sésame is the original French Sesame Street co-production, which premiered on January 4, 1978. The French Muppet characters are Toccata the large Albatross, Mordicus the saxophone-playing blue Grouch, and Trepido (a pink snail). Another French co-production from 2005, titled "5, Rue Sésame" is not to be confused with this version.

No episodes of this co-production have resurfaced online at all. Only the theme song has been found, a few skits dubbed in French have resurfaced (though lejukeboxer1 used some of the video sources to dub some skits with the soundtrack), and a few vinyl LP soundtrack records of the show have been released (which are difficult to find today). Some screenshots of the show can also be found here.

Iftah Ya Simsim (Partially lost original Kuwaiti co-production; 1979-1989)

Iftah Ya Simsim (Arabic: افتح يا سمسم‎; meaning "Open Sesame") is the first international co-production of the American children's television series Sesame Street created in the Arab world. It premiered in Kuwait in 1979 and was broadcast in 22 Arabic-speaking countries, running until 1989, when the Gulf War brought it to an end. According to Rym Ghazal of The National, "Such was its popularity that it is said the Iraq invaders stormed the set...taking away not just videos of the show but some of the Muppet costumes as prisoners of war. It is said that the Nu'man costume, as well as Cookie Monster were never found or returned to Kuwait". In 2015, the series was rebooted.

The master tapes of the show's episodes also were never recovered, but luckily were preserved by many Arabic fans who taped the show while it was still on the air. Many episodes have been uploaded from time to time on YouTube, but many of them are out of order and the episode number is not identified correctly for some of them. YouTube links to several playlists and channels having Iftah Ya Simsim episodes are provided below.

Episodes 75, 124, 125, and 126 are missing from the first batch of episodes. Episodes 261-315 from the third batch were also once uploaded by CARTOON ZAMAN to YouTube in 2016, but he unexpectedly deleted them.

As of January 28th, 2018, abuwahab unexpectedly closed his YouTube account, making a lot of Iftah Ya Simsim episodes unwatchable. A user saved all the Iftah Ya Simsim episodes from #1-#142 that have been deleted from YT and will upload them to MEGA. The first batch of episodes from 1-130 have been uploaded. The key is: !cbYd_wrcj4xjIEURvNC5MA

A second batch of episodes have also been uploaded to MEGA. The key is: !W2uKgZlq3137ULf3_IY_hA

UPDATE AUG 24 2018: Episodes 125, 126 and 130 have been uploaded to YouTube. The previous frame-jaggy upload of 130 originally had another episode play after it reached the end.

UPDATE NOV 8 2018: Here's the rest of the MEGA links, followed by the key (after the colon) for each link.

UPDATE AUG 25 2019: With the series rebooted (and therefore more accessible online), the official Iftah Ya Simsim YouTube channel has uploaded the first nine episodes in this playlist.

Barrio Sésamo (Partially found Castilian Spanish co-production; 1979-1980; 1983-1987; 1996-2000)

In the late 70s, Barrio Sésamo began as a dubbed version of the American Sesame Street and aired in Spain. However, the original 1970s version of Barrio Sésamo, including the "Caponata and Perezgil" era from 1979-1980, is stored away from the public, and only six episodes + the pilot episode of the "Caponata y Perezgil" era can be found on YouTube and The releases excluded the dubbed Sesame Street Muppet inserts (featuring Ernie, Bert, Grover, Kermit the Frog, etc.), and it is rumored that this was due to licensing issues. On August 18, 2018, a user has uploaded a portion of a Caponata and Perezqil Barrio Sesamo episode containing a Sesame Street insert.

From 1981 to 1983, a different children's program on Spanish television, La Cometa Blanca, included some sketches from Sesame Street. This program was directed by Muppet fan Lolo Rico and starred actors who later went on to star in the "Espinete and Don Pimpon" run of Barrio Sésamo. This is yet another show that is hard to find online, so only a few episodes of this show have surfaced on YouTube or, but again exclude Sesame Street sketches.

Several episodes during the "Espinete and Don Pimpon" era from 1984 can be shown on Youtube, and a majority of those episodes have been released on the DVD box set "Espinete y Don Pimpon" (though hard to find even online). Some users have uploaded many episodes on YouTube, and links are provided below:

Mario BS VHS also uploaded two compilations of Barrio Sésamo containing dubbed Sesame Street inserts to YouTube. The first compilation contains a clip from Los mundos de Yupi, which replaced Barrio Sésamo from 1988 to 1990 after its cancellation in 1987.


Some episodes of the third run appeared on YouTube.

Svenska Sesam (Partially lost Swedish co-production; 1981-1982)

Svenska Sesam was the second Swedish version of Sesame Street. 30 episodes were produced and aired on the network SVT2 (Sveriges Television) from October 31, 1981 to April 11, 1982. The show took place behind the scenes of "Galateatern" (a theater) and had Swedish live actors and no puppet characters at all. The only puppets on the show were from the American sketches, which were dubbed in Swedish. The show went into a re-run August 23, 1982 and ended in January 28, 1983. The last time the show was seen on Swedish TV was from March 28, 1984 to July 13, 1984. Of the 30 episodes, only the first 8 have surfaced on YouTube. The rest of the episodes have not been taped off SVT2 and remain lost. Only time will tell when someone will find the remaining 22 episodes and release the whole series in a Swedish DVD box set or possibly on YouTube.

Rechov Sumsum (Partially found Hebrew co-production; 1982-1986)

Rechov Sumsum (רחוב סומסום) was the first Israeli co-production of Sesame Street. The first episodes debuted over ETV in June 1982, with the full season beginning in September 1983. 195 episodes were produced through 1986, and remained popular in re-runs even having the show's Muppet characters appearing on other Israeli television productions frequently for years after the show's run.

None of these classic episodes are available on DVD. However, several episodes have surfaced on YouTube.

As of 2019, archionir2 started leaking more episodes of the show on YouTube.

Sesame!/Batibot (Partially lost Filipino co-production; 1990’s)

Sesame! lasted one season because of economic reasons. A few years later they decided to make a new Filipino show called Batibot (with no need for cooperation from Children's Television Workshop). The show's Muppet characters Pong Pagong (a full-body giant turtle) and Kiko Matsing (a grouchy monkey) tried to appear on Batibot, but that's when CTW took these Muppets back to Jim Henson Productions. To date, no full episodes have resurfaced on Youtube, but only the opening intro to the show itself has surfaced, and Quentin T. also uploaded some of the 1980s highlights of the show that were found on the Yale library site.

Susam Sokağı (Partially lost Turkish co-production; 1986-1991)

Susam Sokağı is the Turkish co-production of Sesame Street. It aired on TRT, from 1986 until 1991. Only a few episodes (and dubbed inserts) have been found online, some on YouTube, others on

The user by the name of "80 VE 90'LI YILLAR TV ARŞİVİ" is back up on YouTube with a playlist of the Susam Sokaği episodes he originally uploaded (as previously linked above). However, the second episode had been blocked on YouTube for copyright.

Sousámi Ánoikse (Lost Greek dub; Date unknown)

Sousami anoikse

Sousami anoikse

Sousámi Ánoikse (Σουσάμι Άνοιξε) is the Greek co-production of Sesame Street that aired on the ET1 television network. Very little is known about this dub, as it has been considered lost over the years; only the Greek dub of Ernie's "One of These Things" song has survived and has been up on YouTube.

Taman Sesame (Partially lost Malaysian dub; date unknown)

Like Sousámi Ánoikse, very little is known about this dub, as it has been considered lost over the years; only six clips were posted on YouTube via a user by the name of TamanSesame.

Rua Sésamo (Partially found Portuguese co-production; 1990’s)

Only the first 30 episodes from Rua Sésamo's first season are released on DVD (one episode per disk) and they can be seen on Youtube.

The second season is lost and only some clips of it can be seen.

Sesam Stasjon (Partially Found Norwegian co-production; 1991-2000)

Sesam Stasjon is the Norwegian co-production of Sesame Street that has aired on NRK. Several episodes can be seen on Youtube.

Various clips and dubbed inserts of the show have also been uploaded via user pellefrank:

Sesam, luk dig op (Missing Danish dub; 1992-1993)

Sesam, Luk dig op intro

Sesam, Luk dig op intro

Sesam, luk dig op (Open, Sesame) is the Danish dub of Sesame Street, using the Open Sesame format, rather than a co-production. 65 episodes were shown on TV2 Denmark from 1992 to 1993. Only the opening intro to the show itself has surfaced.

Ulica Sesamkowa (Partially found Polish co-production; 1996)

Ulica Sesamkowa is the Polish co-production of Sesame Street that aired on TVP2. Only six episodes can be seen on Youtube.

Ulitsa Sezam (Partially found Russian co-production; 1996)

Улица сезам серия 1 полная версия

Улица сезам серия 1 полная версия

Ulitsa Sezam (Улица Сезам) is the Russian co-production of Sesame Street that aired on NTV and ORT. Several episodes can sometimes be seen on Youtube.

Sezame, otevři se (Missing Czech dub; 1996-2000)

Sezame, otevři se (literally translated as Open Sesame) was a Czech-dubbed version of the American Sesame Street. In addition to the dubbed version, there was also a subtitled incarnation of the show. Sezamé Otevri Se first aired in 1996, after the revolution which saw the creation of the independent Czech Republic from the former Czechoslovakia. The show was intended to teach Czech viewers about the English language. Three seasons of 28 minute episodes were produced, in 1996, 1997, and a final season in 2000.


Seesamtie (Partially found Finnish co-production; 1997-2000)

Seesamtie (1997)

Seesamtie (1997)

Seesamtie is the Finnish co-production of Sesame Street that aired on Yle TV2 from 1997-2000. Only one episode has turned up on YouTube (in 50fps).

Rechov Sumsum — Shara'a Simsim (Partially found Israeli/Palestinian co-production; 1998-2000)

Rechov Sumsum (רחוב סומסום) and Shara'a Simsim (شارع سمسم) are the names for the Israeli/Palestinian co-production of Sesame Street. Premiering on April 1, 1998, the series was inspired by the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords, and featured Moishe Oofnik and a re-designed Kippi Ben Kippod from the early Rechov Sumsum, joined by new Israeli Muppet Dafi and two new Palestinian Muppets, Kareem and Haneen.

A handful of episodes appeared on YouTube.

Zhīma Jiē (Partially found Chinese co-production; 1998-2001)


For years, the only footage found on YouTube was a 1999 recording of 7 minutes of an episode (since it was recorded 20 years ago, it was in poor quality). However, lejukeboxer1 and conraddork uploaded a Chinese dub of Rubber Duckie (taken from other coproductions, but dubbed with audio taken from the Sesame Street Playground record) to YouTube.

Alam Simsim (Partially lost Egyptian co-production; 2000)

Alam Simsim (عالم سمسم) is the Egyptian co-production of Sesame Street. It is co-produced between Al Karma Edutainment and Sesame Workshop and funded by USAID under a bilateral agreement with the Egyptian Ministry of Education.

The show airs on ETV and MBC, and can be seen via satellite across the Middle East (dubbed into Classical Arabic), and in Iraq on Alsumaria Iraqi Satellite TV Network.

Three seasons have been produced, comprising 230 30-minute episodes. The first season premiered on August 2000, and only a handful of episodes can be found on YouTube.

Shara'a Simsim (Partially Found Palestinian co-production)

Shara'a Simsim is the current Palestinian co-production of Sesame Street, the successor to Rechov Sumsum — Shara'a Simsim, the Israeli-Palestinian joint venture, and Hikayat Simsim, the Palestine only series. It is produced by Sesame Workshop and Al-Quds Educational Television and filmed in Ramallah,

Only one episode was available on Amazon Prime in the "Sesame Street from Around the World" Season, which is "The Storm"[1], The intro was uploaded on Sesame Street's Official YouTube Channel on April 2nd, 2010.

Shara'a Simsim- Show Open

Shara'a Simsim- Show Open

The intro for Shara'a Simsim.


  1. A Muppet Wiki talk page about Abelardo (crocodile). Retrieved 13 Jan '18.
  2. Muppet Wiki entry on Plaza Sésamo Episodio 327.
  3. link