Plaza Sésamo debuted in Mexico on the
Televisa network in 1972. Like the American show in the late 1960s, the producers and researchers in Mexico conducted a curriculum seminar in
Caracas, Venezuela. The goals they developed, however, were significantly different from the goals developed in the U.S. For example, the
Plaza Sésamo team emphasized problem solving and reasoning. Other goals included community cooperation, family life, nutrition, health, safety, self-esteem, and expressing emotions. Abelardo, a giant parrot, Paco, a grouchy green parrot, was based on
Oscar the Grouch. Abelardo and Paco were both played by Justo Martinez. 130 half-hour episodes of the show's first season were shot in
Mexico City entirely in Spanish, under the control of a Mexican research and production team. About half the show's material was adapted from the American show and dubbed into Spanish, while the other half was produced in Mexico and included animation, live-action films, and studio sequences with human actors and
Muppets. A Mexican board of advisers, who set curriculum goals for the show, approved all content, both Mexican and American, something that followed the newly established policies of the CTW. Mexican psychologist Rogelio Diaz-Guerrero was the first chair of the show's advisory board, which was later expanded to include child-development and educators from other Latin American countries, so that
Plaza Sésamo could be broadcast throughout Central and South America, including the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The third season, which was filmed in 1983 and consisted of 130 half-hour episodes, The fourth season aired in the U.S. because of the large population of Spanish-speakers in the country; it was the first time an original co-production was shown in the U.S. As
Gary Knell, an executive at the CTW stated, "Our mission is to educate all kids. And the fact is, in the U.S., especially in cities like Los Angeles, there's an enormous number of Spanish-speaking households". The fourth season was test-marketed for American audiences in April on PBS and
Univision stations in
Miami,
Dallas–Fort Worth, and
Los Angeles. The test-run was successful, so PBS and Univision began airing it nationally in December; it reached 92% of the country's Spanish-speaking households. At first,
Plaza Sésamos producers were concerned that the show would be attacked, but
The Los Angeles Times reported that "even some staunch opponents of bilingual education concede that
Plaza Sésamo has its merits". A stakeholders meeting was convened in Bogotá in October 2012, consisting of interested parties from government and the private sector, and included officials from
UNICEF. In 2016, episodes began to debut on
HBO Latino, as part of a five-year deal running from January 16, 2016 to July 11, 2020. All songs are left undubbed from English. That same year,
Plaza Sésamo (alongside its Brazilian counterpart
Vila Sésamo) shortened its name to simply
Sésamo and fully moved to Colombia. Three seasons have been produced as of December 2017, with a total of 65 episodes. A fourth season, made exclusively for
Azteca 7 debuted on April 27, 2020. The season mostly features dubbed segments from Season 50 of its
American counterpart. == Influence ==