Sesame Street - Series 49
From Monday 29 July at 9am daily on ABC KIDS and ABC KIDS iview
Celebrity guests on the 49th season of Sesame Street include Tiffany Haddish, Keegan Michael Key, Blake Lively, Chance the Rapper, Amanda Seyfried, Zoe Kravitz, Questlove, Bill Nye, and Solange Knowles!
The 49th season of the iconic children’s show Sesame Street will explore a “Learning Through Play” curriculum that models how kids can build school readiness skills as they try out different roles during play. In line with the new curriculum, the season will start with a new special that puts a madcap spin on the familiar pretend-playing different careers. Also new this season is “Abby’s Amazing Adventures,” a recurring animated segment starring Abby Cadabby that shows how girls – and boys, and fairies-in-training! – can take charge of their own journeys.
Underscoring the power of guided pretend-play, this season’s episodes illustrate how kids can get more out of playtime with a little bit of planning and gentle guidance. Each week, the Sesame Street gang pretend to be bus drivers, chefs, directors, veterinarians, and more, complete with homemade props and scenery made from household objects. Simple career-oriented play is common among
children, but when helpful adults empower kids to create their own plans, a game of “restaurant” or “train” can turn into an opportunity to foster both academic and social-emotional skills.“Children learn best through play because they are actively engaged in joyful and meaningful activities that can be also be socially interactive and iterative,” said Dr. Rosemarie Truglio, SVP Content and Curriculum, Sesame Workshop. "It is through their play that kids learn to collaborate, self-regulate, communicate, and empathize with peers, motivated by their own interests and curiosities.”
By building on a common pattern of pretend play, this year’s curriculum will help children develop critical life skills and imagine new paths for themselves in a safe environment. Whether they’re building a school bus out of cardboard boxes or creating their own newspaper about life on Sesame Street, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Abby Cadabby and friends model how – with a little help! – children can start to see themselves in exciting futures while having fun together.
The concept of “Learning through Play” is whimsically interpreted in the season’s new primetime special, with special guests Blake Lively and Amanda Seyfreid. “When You Wish Upon a Pickle” follows the adventure when a wishing machine appears on Sesame Street and the magical pickle inside starts granting wishes! (Elmo finds out what it’s like to run Hooper’s Store, Cookie Monster’s wish for more cookies goes awry, Abby Cadabby teams up with her favourite storybook detective, and more, until an unlikely – and grouchy! – hero restores order to the neighboirhood.) Individual episodes throughout the season also celebrate the role-playing theme, with the gang learning about scientific inquiry with Bill Nye, exploring the library with Zoe Kravitz, playing the drums with Questlove, and more.
Also new this season is “Abby’s Amazing Adventures,” a recurring animated segment starring Abby Cadabby. In each episode, Abby and her stepbrother Rudy travel beyond Sesame Street to solve problems in fantastical new places with the help of a magical basket. Together, they complete “missions” like traveling deep under the sea to photograph a rare fish, visiting an active volcano as scientists to find lava rocks, and even blasting into space as astronauts to fix a space station. Led by Sesame Street’s curious and determined fairy-in-training, “Abby’s Amazing Adventures” serves as a valuable example of young girls thinking big and imagining exciting futures for themselves. “‘Abby’s Amazing Adventures’ continues a decades-long tradition of great animation on Sesame Street,” said Ben Lehmann, Executive Producer of Sesame Street. “Viewers will follow Abby and Rudy on magical adventures as they take on the roles of veterinarians, photographers, recyclers and more. This short series is the first to be produced entirely at Sesame Workshop, by our in-house animation team.”
Although not reported by us, Giggle And Hoot has celebrated its 10th birthday a while ago and aired a series of “live” Giggle Party segments done from the set on 24 June.
Giggle & Hoot aired its first episode in June 2009? TBH I actually thought that show launched much later in the year (around the time the “ABC For Kids on 2” block launched on ABC2, coinciding with the launch of ABC3) but am always happy to be corrected with any misconceptions! 
Yeah, I think you’re right. They had Rollercoaster on the main channel (ABC1) in 2009, with just straight childrens programs on ABC2, but I don’t think it ran all day back then. This was before the launch of ABC3.
This is just what I recall, not 100% sure!
According to Jimmy Rees management bio:
Maybe the ABC recorded the first episodes in June 2009 but they didn’t get to air until December?
Helpmann Awards 2019 - LIVE
Monday 15 July at 8.00pm
This year ABC COMEDY is broadcasting Australia’s prestigious live theatre and entertainment night of nights - the 19th annual Helpmann Awards LIVE, on Monday, 15 July at 8pm.
Hosted by the dynamic duo of Susie Youssef and Mitchell Butel, with special guest presenters Kate Miller-Heidke & Keir Nuttall, Paul Kelly, Greta Bradman and James Egglestone, the 90-minute program will be live from the Arts Centre, Melbourne.
The Helpmann Awards recognise distinguished achievement and excellence across Australia’s vibrant live performance industry.
This year’s nominees include Anne Edmonds, Barrie Kosky, Elaine Crombie, Felix Reibl, Hannah Gadsby, Kate Mulvany, Kylie Minogue, Paula Arundell, Tim Minchin, Tina Arena, Ursula Yovich and Wayne Blair to name a few.
Musician and singer songwriter Kev Carmody will be presented with the industry’s highest
accolade - the 2019 JC Williamson Award.The show will include performances by Electric Fields, Bangarra Dance Theatre, The Australian Ballet, Victorian Opera, Silvie Paladino and Brent Hill and the kids from School of Rock.
The awards will encore on ABC + ABC I iview on Sunday, 21 July at 10pm.
Monday’s ceremony will also include a special performance by the cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child live from Princess Theatre across Melbourne’s CBD.
The Umbilical Brothers: The Rehearsal
Sunday 18 August at 9:10pm
With only a week to create their new Melbourne Comedy Festival show from scratch, the lads decide to name it The Rehearsal. That way, no-one would have anything to complain about. They got away with it until Edinburgh 2005, where a savvy punter observed “it just seemed like two blokes mucking around in their lounge room after too many beers”. Meanwhile, the critic at The Stage proclaimed the show “a work of genius”. Who would you believe: a highly reputable British theatre publication, or some bloke who uses the word “bloke”? Look, it’s at least a show about a rehearsal. Or a rehearsal for that show. Whatever. Creatively misused multi-media, audience participation, suspicious furry glove puppets, tangents that shouldn’t be taken…all for a show that will theoretically happen at another time, in another venue. In this, a very different Umbilical experience, they take you inside their Creative Process, and don’t let you out until your brain explodes.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
From Tuesday August 13 at 9:45pm
Corpses, cops, trap, cult, assassins, Pararibulitis, vampires, lottery ticket, kitten, corgi… EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED! Welcome to the world of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency; a trippy mystery that thrusts a reluctant sidekick into the bizarre world of an unconventional detective who believes in the interconnectedness of all things. When washed-up rocker Todd Brotzman (Elijah Wood) stumbles upon the murder scene of a millionaire, all hell breaks loose. Eccentric detective, Dirk Gently (Samuel Barnett), wholly believes they’re destined to untangle the peculiar events surrounding the mystery together, whether Todd likes it or not! A collection of wild and dangerous characters’ further infiltrate and complicate their world, each episode landing them a few random steps closer to uncovering the truth.
I thought that show was a Netflix Original?
It was a BBC America show.
Bandit was awarded Father Of The Year (Canine category) alongside humans Mark Beretta from Channel 7 and Peter Smart, a former police officer. 
Great News
From Tuesday 8 October at 9:30pm
Every workplace is a family. But for Katie, a producer at cable news network MMN, it goes one step further when her mom, Carol, is hired as an intern. That’s just scratching the surface of this slightly offbeat team, which includes old-school newsman Chuck and hip millennial Portia, the two co- anchors who only get along when the cameras are rolling. Then there’s Greg, the young, ambitious but uptight executive producer, and Justin, the laid-back video editor and voice of reason for this oddball crew. Together, they may be a little dysfunctional, but that won’t stop them from doing what they do best: breaking the news.
Lots of fake news on offer in this series
I didn’t mind this show and caught both seasons on Netflix, shame NBC cancelled it.
Excellent show but have seen it all already. Was either on Netflix or Stan.
