- Barrio Sésamo
"Barrio Sésamo" (Sesame District or Sesame Neighborhood in Spanish) was the Spanish version of "
Sesame Street ", achildren's television program . The show premièred in1979 . It was formed for locally-produced segments alternated with a dubbed version of the American program, in which many characters had Spanish names.In the first season of this show, it featured two
Muppets : a full-bodied red hen namedCaponata (similar to the originalBig Bird and often mistaken in Spain) and a male greensnail named Perezjil (apun with the surnames Pérez and Gil, and the word perejil, Spanish forparsley ). Emma Cohen was the actress that played Caponata. This first season ended in 1981 and was replaced by another children show called "La cometa blanca".In 1983, after the end of that show, Sesame Street returned in the most remembered and successful season. Only José Riesgo as Julián returned from the first season, with the rest of the cast leaving. Caponata and Perezjil were replaced by two new
Muppets . The main character wasEspinete , a large pinkhedgehog that replaced Caponata. Like Caponata, Espinete was a full-bodyMuppet and was the most important character on the show, played by Chelo Vivares. He became famous for sleeping in pajamas in spite of being "naked" the rest of the day. Some of the friends of Espinete were:*
Don Pimpón (Alfonso Vallejo): Another full-body muppet. This farmer was an undetermined brown being, similar to aSesame Street monster .
*Chema (Juan Sánchez): The baker of Barrio Sésamo.
*Ana (Isabel Castro): The young friend of everybody.
*Don Julián (José Riesgo): The old owner of a mobile news stand.
*Matilde (Mari Luz Olier) and Antonio (José Enrique Camacho): married owners of an horchata shop
*Roberto (Roberto Mayor) and Ruth (Ruth Gabriel, as Ruth Abellán): Matilde and Antonio's childrenThe show finished around the middle of the 1980s, and was replaced by "
Los Mundos de Yupi ", a similar TV program starred by three extraterrestrial characters.In the mid 1990s, a most recent version of this show aired, and featured four new
Muppet charactersBluki (the full-body bluecat ),Vera (the female yellow monster), Bubo (the brownowl ), andGaspar (a red-haired smiling man who works at themarket ).
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