While most leave "Sesame Street" behind along with sippy cups and diapers, Tufts alum Dan Lewis (LA '00) recently returned to the show that is a childhood fixture for many in order to help the 40−year−old program better adapt to the 21st century.
Lewis was appointed this year to fill the newly created Director of New Media Communications position for Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind "Sesame Street," and is still settling into his new position.
Sesame Workshop has more shows in its stable than just "Sesame Street," including "Dragon Tales," "Pinkey Dinky Doo" and a remake of the literacy program "The Electric Company" (1971−77), whose cast included Bill Cosby, Joan Rivers, Mel Brooks and Morgan Freeman.
However, as the organization's name implies, none of its other shows have ever surpassed the popularity of the one featuring characters like Big Bird, the Cookie Monster and Elmo.
Lewis said that there was not a natural path from Tufts to Sesame Workshop. Lewis attended Cardozo School of Law in New York City and graduated in 2005.
After that, while acting as a practicing attorney, Lewis helped found ArmChairGM.com, a sports forum and wiki, with several friends. Wikipedia.org founder Jimmy Wales later purchased the Web site for his new startup Wikia, Inc.
Lewis' new position involves the "social media communications" side of Sesame Workshop, rather than the side involving the production of the shows themselves. "I'm in charge of how the organization uses Facebook[.com], Twitter[.com], its corporate Web site and other new media platforms — blogs, generally, and potentially other things as well — for marketing and PR purposes," Lewis said.
Lewis feels the Internet was an entirely different beast when he was at Tufts. "At the time, the Web was very young," Lewis said. "To put it in perspective, it took about two months for everybody to get Internet connectivity in their dorms. They had to go from dorm to dorm and connect people. When I was there, the Internet was just emerging, and broadband adoption certainly wasn't there yet. It would be a couple of years after I graduated that my parents had broadband, for example."
Lewis still gained some experience with online media while on the Hill. "On the other hand, [Tufts] gave me and a lot of others the opportunity to do things that many people wouldn't have the opportunity to do," he said. "For example, I had my own space on the Tufts server and I could build my own Web page and I did some of that, and I think that's where I really started to get interested in how the Web and the Internet in general is an incredibly valuable communications tool."
Although many "Sesame Street" viewers are too young to use computers and social media, Lewis sees new media as a useful tool to promote Sesame Workshop. "The target audience is probably parents of the preschool set, but also there are numerous fans of our shows, especially ‘Sesame Street,' and just the fact that we're a cultural touchstone itself means that having our brand out there on these platforms is a good idea generally," Lewis said.
As both a parent and childhood viewer, Lewis feels honored to be involved with a program with the impressive reputation of "Sesame Street."
"It's absolutely incredible. Especially on a personal level for me, I have two sons, two and four years old, so I quite literally live in a very Sesame− friendly household, so for me on a personal level, it's rewarding for that reason as well," Lewis said.
Although much of his work involves promoting Sesame Workshop to adults, Lewis sees the potential in using technology to reach the target audience of the group's programs. Lewis said his children regularly watch "Sesame Street" through the show's YouTube.com channel.
Lewis also sees potential in mobile devices as well as computers. "We have an iPhone app where you can build your own Muppet, called Elmo's Monster Maker, and it's clearly targeted toward kids," Lewis said. "If … I was sitting there, building a friend for Elmo would be rather silly, but you give that to a three− or four−year−old and you might never see your iPod again. There are sort of the exceptional numbers of platforms out there which pre−schoolers are using, [like] Youtube, iPhones, etc., that we will certainly try and be in front of."
While many think of a television show when they hear "Sesame Street," Lewis believes that "Sesame Street" isn't completely tied to the medium of television. "We're a media company generally, so we want to use the power of media to educate and entertain children. I think that's the overall goal," Lewis said.
With "Sesame Street" in its 40th year, Sesame Workshop has plenty of history and content to draw on when branching into new forms of media, but it is still focused on creating new and compelling programming.
"We have a YouTube channel — it's YouTube.com/SesameStreet — and you'll see a lot of our older things there and a lot of new stuff as well," Lewis said. "We also have at SesameStreet.org an absolute ton of video content, some more nostalgic, some more current, and we also have a lot of Flash−based games which are designed for the zero−to−five crowd. When you have the 40 years of history that we have, it's important that we use that, but also that we continue going forward with our new stuff to put everything everywhere."
As for his favorite character of the cast, "It's definitely Grover," Lewis said.
