More Than Education on Bert and Ernie’s Russian Agenda

It’s hard to value education when a high school dropout pushing canned peas in a kiosk earns more than a physics professor. It’s hard to talk up honesty when flashy mafiosi zip around in BMWs while shamefaced retirees beg in the subway. It’s even hard to respect the law when police demand bribes and court rulings draw scorn.

In these tumultuous times, Russian parents are finding it tough to offer their children much moral guidance.

“No one teaches parents to answer these very difficult questions,” sociologist Mikhail Matskovsky said. “They have trouble when their children ask them, ‘Why should I study? Why should I be honest? Why should I live with morals? Why shouldn’t I be a prostitute or a racketeer?’ ”

Russian parents fumbling for answers may soon find them in a most unlikely place: the television screen. Filming begins this week for Russia’s first educational TV show aimed at teaching young children basic values, along with concrete skills like counting to 10 and recognizing the alphabet.

It’s called “Ulitsa Sezam”--the Russian-language version of “Sesame Street.”

By fall, Ernie and Bert and Oscar the Grouch should be entertaining and educating Russian children several times a week. Muppets skits will be lifted from Children’s Television Workshop’s New York library and dubbed into Russian. But at least 40% of the show will be original, created to address the specific needs of Russian children.

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Led by an excitable 8-foot-tall tree-dweller named Zeleboba, brand-new Muppets will teach Russian kids to be proud of their country, to seek joy in life, to respect their parents, to have confidence in themselves.

“It’s very, very important,” series director Vladimir Gramatikov said. “Parents often don’t have time to teach their children [these values]. Without a doubt, this show will help.”

The $6-million project, funded in part by the U.S. Agency for International Development, will generate 52 half-hour shows set in a typical Russian courtyard.

Hundreds of artists, actors, composers and filmmakers here have leaped into the “Sesame Street” spirit: a Russian heavy metal band recorded a song about washing hands and a rock group put together a tune about riding the subway. More than 250 adults showed up at the audition for puppeteers. And 140 kids competed for roles in the multiethnic cast.

Children’s Television Workshop has not yet arranged for air time on either of Russia’s two main stations. But executive producer Natasha S. Lance Rogoff expects “Ulitsa Sezam” to grab prime-time billing because it is such a novelty, and so sorely needed.

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“Good Night Tots,” the one Russian program for the pre-kindergarten crowd, features three puppets giggling through jokes at bedtime. Slightly older kids get boisterous game shows, emceed by clowns who bop around in pig-tails and red noses. The most popular shows, however, are American cartoons crudely dubbed into Russian.

Children’s programming here has traditionally been shrill and escapist. Indeed, when Russian writers first drafted scripts for “Ulitsa Sezam,” they came up with fantasy scenarios, such as space aliens landing in the courtyard or little kids flying off to adventures in Paris. They had to learn the “Sesame Street” philosophy: that children younger than 6 find reality-based programs more interesting, comforting and enlightening than circus-like pyrotechnics.

Although Zeleboba and the other Muppets are clearly fantasies, they will have the personalities of very real 4-year-olds, much like Big Bird and Grover in the American version. And they will stumble through realistic situations, such as learning to tie their shoes or figuring out how to share a candy bar with friends.

“No matter where a child lives, he needs to feel as though he could be there with them in the courtyard, as though they are speaking to him directly,” Gramatikov said.

It’s a formula that has enchanted kids around the world for nearly three decades. “Sesame Street” now appears in 130 countries. Polish and Chinese versions are under way, in addition to the Russian production, which should be ready for broadcast in September.

Months before Zeleboba and Cookie Monster hit the airwaves, some Russians are already looking forward to “Ulitsa Sezam.”

“The cartoons they show on TV now have a bad influence on kids,” said Oksana Kunayeva, 25. Expecting a baby in March, Kunayeva is eager for more positive programs to replace those she finds “stupid and crude.”

Rogoff is more than willing to oblige. She was dismayed during the audition for child actors that 90% of the hopefuls sang melancholy songs as their tryouts. She wants to get them humming upbeat, self-confident tunes--and sneak in educational lyrics wherever possible.

“Sesame Street can provide these children and their parents a place where they can be happy, a peaceful place where they can learn their numbers and letters and also learn right from wrong,” Rogoff said. “It’s not only about Muppets and education, it’s also about bringing joy and light and a gentle atmosphere into homes across Russia.”