Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 12, 1994 TAG: 9412080013
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ELLEN EDWARDS THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
It's called the book.
Michael Loman, the show's executive producer, laughs and protests this characterization only a bit. Because even though the show has emphasized literacy since it began - the letter of the day is a staple - the physical presence of books in great number will be new. And that is largely Loman's doing.
A onetime reading teacher who went on to write sitcoms in Hollywood for more than a decade, from ``All in the Family'' to ``Cosby,'' Loman blends in well enough with Washington's power lunchers. Except for that little green thing sticking out from his jacket cuff. Ah, yes, a Kermit watch - the perfect touch.
``We are not a schoolroom, we're not a library, and we're not home,'' says Loman. ``We make no pretense about that. We are a television show.'' So the approach will be a familiar one: When the new season's first show airs Nov. 21, the Tooth Fairy loses his appointment book and enlists the whole neighborhood to help find it - emphasizing the importance of all books.
This season will be Loman's second in charge of the program. Its hour-long structure will not change - the quick snippets that have always characterized it will still be there; the show is not becoming a reading hour. Still, this three-year reading initiative will take the show on a new tack.
Children's Television Workshop, the nonprofit company that produces the show for PBS, creates 130 new programs each year, each designed to meet specific curriculum goals, says Loman. About 25 percent of ``Sesame Street's'' material is new each season; the rest is taken from the ``library'' of segments that have been created over the years.
The message about the importance of books will be transmitted in a variety of ways. A ``Sesame Street'' float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will feature a ``street'' constructed out of books and pencils. And a new stuffed Zoe, a toy based on last season's successful new female Muppet character, may be holding a book, says Loman.
When Loman decided to embark on the reading project, the staff assembled a panel of experts to spend a day with everyone involved.
``They told us how important it was for children to see the text and see the words,'' he says. ``So almost every show, we'll show books, you'll see [the cast] following along the text so that children get to know that books are read from left to right and from top to bottom. The words go like that'' - he waves a finger through the air, left to right. ``There will be words, there will be sentences, they'll get to see the illustrations in the book.''
``Sesame Street'' airs weekdays at 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on WBRA-Channel 15.
by CNB