The emergence of television in the 1950s has opened a new era of information and entertainment. TV producers are competing against each other to attract viewers and increase their ratings. TV formats, a television program that is being adopted outside its country of origin[1], have become a worldwide phenomenon and business. While travelling across countries and continents, a format is being adapted to suit the local culture and preferences. These changes and adaptations are usually not noticed by the audience.[2] It is important to note that these differences might also have a political motivation. Thus, a format is a show that can generate a distinctive narrative and is licensed outside its country of origin in order to be adapted to local audiences.[3] A good example of a TV format is Sesame Street. This program has been distributed to 120 countries and consists of more than 20 international versions.[4] It is an educational television program designed for children. Sesame Street aired for the first time in 1969, and is still one of the most famous and successful formats. In our blog we are going to discuss the American muppet Big Bird and the Dutch version of Big Bird called Pino. We will answer the following question: what are the local differences between Pino and Big Bird and are there any differences in the way the two muppets are used to send out political messages?
Big Bird is a six-year-old yellow bird who lives in a large nest in Sesame Street.[5] He is curious and asks questions all the time. Pino is based on this original American version of Big Bird. In the Dutch version Pino is three years old.[6] Pino is a little younger than Big Bird, because the character of Big Bird does not suits a Dutch six-year-old. In the Netherlands, kids are going to preschool at a younger age and language deficiency is less common. This is why Sesamstraat focuses less on the alphabet and numbers and more on social emotional development.[7] One very obvious difference is that Big Bird is yellow, and Pino is blue. But this has nothing to do with local differences, but it was a requirement imposed by Sesame Street.[8] Big Bird does not show up in Sesamstraat episodes, but he does in merchandising for example. This confused the kids, so now Big Bird is Pino’s cousin, called Neef Jan.[9] Pino and Big Bird have similar personalities. Pino asks questions all the time, just as Big Bird, and the other residents have to explain a lot to him, but in this way the kids who are watching are learning together with Pino. So this Pino is eager to learn, but he is also sensitive, very friendly and can easily make new friends. Important to state here is that Big Bird has just one very clear character feature, while Pino has a few more. The Dutch muppet are therefore more like real children.[10]
Both Big Bird and Pino are not just muppets with an educational aim, they are also mentioned in political campaigns and actions. Big Birds political debut was in 2012 when politician Mitt Romney announced cuts in the government funding of public broadcasting which could lead to the end of the broadcasting station PBS.[11] Romney said the following:
I’m sorry, Jim. I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m going to stop other things. I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you too. But I’m not going to — I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it.[12]
According to James Poniewozik it is actually not Romney who dragged Big Bird into the politician debate, but it’s the defenders of public money who bring up Big Bird and the other characters of Sesame Street to connect the budget cuts to the educational television for their children.[13] After this statement of Romney and the online reactions portraying Romney a bird-killer, Obama launched an advertisement which “depicted Romney as more concerned with cracking down on Big Bird than on white-collar criminals such as Bernie Madoff and Ken Lay.”[14] The Sesame Workshop wanted their characters to be removed from the political campaigns and stated: “Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns.”[15] Poniewozik interestingly notices that even with the budget cuts it’s not Sesame Street that would suffer, but some local PBS stations. [16]
Pino was in 2005 physically present in Den Haag to demonstrate against the media policy of the former government. This policy formed a treat towards the Dutch Publieke Omroep, because the intention was to abolish the NPS.[17] Pino defended the NPS by saying that he did not want to pack all his stuffed animals.[18] The fact that Pino is the only full-body muppet of Sesamstaat might explain why Pino and not Tommie or Inimini was there to demonstrate.
It has become clear that the characters of Big Bird and Pino are very similar when it comes to the personality treat of being very curious and wanting to know everything. On the other hand, there are differences as well, which is interesting since the USA and the Netherlands are both very Western countries. The most striking difference is that Pino has a richer character than Big Bird has, which has to do at least partly with the fact that the USA and the Netherlands have different education systems. In terms of political differences it is very interesting to see that both Pino and Big Bird are used to symbolize public broadcasting and in the Netherlands Pino is actually used to defend public broadcasting outside of the television series. The difference between the political use of Big Bird/Pino is that in America Sesame Street reacted to the use of their character, while in the Netherlands such an expression of disapproval of Pino’s presence at the demonstration in Den Haag was not found from Sesamstraat.
Literature:
– Chalaby, Jean. (2011). ‘The making of an entertainment revolution: How the TV format trade became a global industry’, in: European Journal of Communication, 26, nr.4: 293-309.
Websites:
– Muppet Wiki. (2014). Big Bird. http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Big_Bird (02-10-2014).
– Muppet Wiki. (2014). Pino. http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Pino (02-10-2014).
– Muppet Wiki. (2014). Sesame Street. http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Sesame_Street (01-10-2014).
– Poniewozik, J. (2012). ‘Why Is Mitt Romney Picking a Fight with Big Bird?’, in: Time. http://entertainment.time.com/2012/10/05/why-is-mitt-romney-picking-a-fight-with-big-bird/ (02-10-2014).
– Sesamstraat. (2014). ‘Amerikaanse poppen’, in: Sesamstraat achter de schermen. http://sesamstraat.ntr.nl/achterdeschermen/poppen/amerikaansepoppen.html (02-10-2014).
– Sesamstraat. (2014). ‘Leerdoel’, in: Sesamstraat achter de schermen. http://sesamstraat.ntr.nl/achterdeschermen/vroegerennu/leerdoel.html (02-10-2014)
– Sesamstraat. (2014). ‘Pino’, in: Achter de schermen van Sesamstraat. http://sesamstraat.ntr.nl/achterdeschermen/poppen/pino.html (02-10-2014).
– Stegeman, L. (z.j.). ‘Pino protesteert’, in: Sevendays. http://www.sevendays.nl/artikel/135606#.VCwRd9McSP8 (02-10-2014).
– Z.n. (2014). ‘Big Bird’, in: Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bird (02-10-2014).
– Z.n. (z.j.). ‘Sesame Workshop Response to Campaign Ads’, in: The Sesame Workshop Blog. http://www.sesameworkshop.org/our-blog/2012/10/09/sesame-workshop-response-to-campaign-ads/ (02-10-2014).
[1] Chalaby, Jean. (2011). The Making of an Entertainment Revolution: How the TV Format Trade Became a Global Industry. SAGE.: 295.
[2] Chalaby, Jean. (2011). The Making of an Entertainment Revolution: How the TV Format Trade Became a Global Industry. SAGE.: 293.
[3] Chalaby, Jean. (2011). The Making of an Entertainment Revolution: How the TV Format Trade Became a Global Industry. SAGE:296.
[4] Muppet Wiki. (2014), Sesame Street. http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Sesame_Street (1-10-2014).
[5] Muppet Wiki. (2014). Big Bird. http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Big_Bird (02-10-2014).
[6] Sesamstraat. (2014). ‘Pino’, in: Achter de schermen van Sesamstraat. http://sesamstraat.ntr.nl/achterdeschermen/poppen/pino.html (02-10-2014).
[7] Sesamstraat. (2014). ‘Leerdoel’, in: Sesamstraat achter de schermen. http://sesamstraat.ntr.nl/achterdeschermen/vroegerennu/leerdoel.html (02-10-2014)
[8] Muppet Wiki. (2014). Pino. http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Pino (02-10-2014).
[9] Idem.
[10] Sesamstraat. (2014). ‘Amerikaanse poppen’, in: Sesamstraat achter de schermen. http://sesamstraat.ntr.nl/achterdeschermen/poppen/amerikaansepoppen.html (02-10-2014).
[11] Poniewozik, J. (2012). ‘Why Is Mitt Romney Picking a Fight with Big Bird?’, in: Time. http://entertainment.time.com/2012/10/05/why-is-mitt-romney-picking-a-fight-with-big-bird/ (02-10-2014).
[12] Idem.
[13] Idem.
[14] Z.n. (2014). ‘Big Bird’, in: Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bird (02-10-2014).
[15] Z.n. (z.j.). ‘Sesame Workshop Response to Campaign Ads’, in: The Sesame Workshop Blog. http://www.sesameworkshop.org/our-blog/2012/10/09/sesame-workshop-response-to-campaign-ads/ (02-10-2014).
[16] Poniewozik, J. (2012). ‘Why Is Mitt Romney Picking a Fight with Big Bird?’, in: Time. http://entertainment.time.com/2012/10/05/why-is-mitt-romney-picking-a-fight-with-big-bird/ (02-10-2014).
[17] Stegeman, L. (z.j.). ‘Pino protesteert’, in: Sevendays. http://www.sevendays.nl/artikel/135606#.VCwRd9McSP8 (02-10-2014).
[18] Idem.
discussingthemediaindustries 