Bringing Muppets to Moscow pitted ‘open society’ against ‘300 years of Russian thought’: Former producer
New book by former ‘Sesame Street’ executive producer details making the children’s show for post-Soviet Russia
After the Cold War, ‘Sesame Street’ challenged ‘300 years of Russian thought’: Former producer
Former executive producer and co-director of ‘Sesame Street’ in Russia, Natasha Rogoff, discusses the difficulties around creating a ‘progressive, upbeat’ children’s show following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In the early 1990s just after the Soviet Union’s collapse, a PBS documentary producer was selected by a bipartisan group in Congress to bring one of America’s most iconic children’s shows to the revolutionized Russia – but she was left "shocked" by the events that unfolded in her five years abroad.
"I was tasked to bring this show to a country that was in the need of transitioning to a modern, open society," Natasha Rogoff, former executive producer and co-director of "Sesame Street" in Russia, said in an interview on "Mornings with Maria" Wednesday. "And I was shocked at what I discovered when I came and how difficult it was to create a team and find financing. It was very difficult."
Rogoff’s latest book, titled "Muppets in Moscow," details the wild, and often life-threatening, stories that surrounded and intimidated the Russian adaptation and making of "Sesame Street."
After the show became "a hit" following its inaugural year on-air, its first two broadcasting partners were allegedly assassinated, before one of the show’s investors had his car blown up. Rogoff claimed she had been in that same car just three weeks prior.
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The biggest challenge producers faced, Rogoff noted, was the cultural "clash" taking place in a recently crumbled totalitarian nation.
"We proposed having a lemonade stand, and in a country where business was illegal, they said that would be shameful to teach children how to sell things on the street – only criminals do that," Rogoff detailed. "And then, the scriptwriters said we got scripts that were like ten pages long, and one of the early ones was teaching letter ‘D’ for ‘depression.’"
While making "Sesame Street" in Russia, former executive producer and co-director Natasha Rogoff said it was "very difficult" to build a team and get financing on "Mornings with Maria" Wednesday, October 19, 2022. (Getty Images)
Despite the "unprecedented period" show-makers faced during "Sesame Street’s" production, Rogoff touted how the show resonated with a new generation of Russians.
"Making ‘Sesame Street,’ I would say, pitted ‘Sesame Street’s’ progressive, upbeat, fun values against 300 years of Russian thought," Rogoff said. "The show went on to become an incredible hit. It lasted for ten years, well into Putin’s era."
"When I meet Russians now all over the world and I mention Zeliboba, which is one of the three new Russian characters, an eight-foot, blue, furry spirit of nature with pieces of fur and moss in his costume, these now grown up 20-year-olds and 30-year-olds sometimes break out in song from that show," the former producer continued.
Another reason the show found success was due to its combination of comedy and sensibility around "fraught questions," according to Rogoff, and that it aired across 11 time zones in all former Soviet territories, including Ukraine.
"When we first met with educators, they asked, ‘You're tasking us as a group to come up with a vision of what our country and the new independent country should look like in an open society, but we don't know what an open society looks like,’" Rogoff said.
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Young people who are outspoken against Putin's war on Ukraine "are children of ‘Sesame Street,’" former executive producer and co-director in Russia Natasha Rogoff said. (Getty Images)
Rogoff also commented on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, expressing support for the many young Russians that continue to be outspoken in their disapproval of Putin's assault on Ukraine. The producer and author told Bartiromo she takes "solace" in those "walking out of their country" due to a military draft.
More than 200,000 Russian citizens have already been drafted into the military as the mobilization seeks to address significant Russian defeats in Ukraine, and reports across Russia have seen citizens with zero military experience receive conscription papers.
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Mongolia, Georgia and Kazakhstan have borne the brunt of the migration wave, with Georgia stating that daily border crossings nearly doubled in the week, falling Putin's order. More than 100,000 men have fled to Kazakhstan alone.
Many of the men fleeing criticized Putin's invasion effort, stating that they had no interest in going to war with Ukraine and oppose the Soviet-like, dictator mentality.
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"There were a lot of young people, a lot of people trying to get away from Putin," one man escaping Russia's draft, Aleksey, told Reuters. "We are not afraid, but why do we have to fight in Ukraine, why?"
"If other countries would attack Russia, we would fight for our country. But why are we going to Ukraine? For what?"
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"Those are children of ‘Sesame Street’ and ‘Ulitsa Sezam,’ and then the same set of young men and women in their twenties and thirties in Ukraine who are now fighting for freedom and self-determination, they are also children of ‘Ulitsa Sezam,’" Rogoff said.
Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.