Barrio Sésamo (Sesame Neighborhood in English) was the Spanish co-production of the popular U.S. children's television series Sesame Street produced by Televisión Española and Sesame Workshop (formerly Children's Television Workshop) from 1979 to 2000. All American characters adopted Spanish names while for the title of the series a more appropriate Spanish name was chosen: barrio (Neighborhood) instead of Street (calle). Ábrete Sésamo (1974-1978) Previously, from November 3, 1974 to March 29, 1978, segments of the American Sesame Street were simply acquired and dubbed into Spanish to be aired with the title Ábrete Sésamo (es. Open Sesame) as part of a program "container" called Un globo, dos globos, tres globos Barrio Sésamo (1978-1988) Season 1 (1978-1981) In 1978, (RTVE), Televisión Española and Children's Television Workshop (CTW) agreed the terms for a co-production, after years where RTVE simply aired the original Sesame Street dubbed segments. The new episodes included a 15 minute segment of dubbed footage, and another 15 minute segment of original footage. Duncan Kenworthy (CTW) was in charge of the USA production and Enrique Nicanor was assigned by (TVE) as Director of the Spanish new show and designer of the two Spanish new original muppets "Caponata" and "Perezgil" Caponata was a red, orange and yellow feathered hen with curly pink hair similar in height (2 meters) to Big Bird. Actress Emma Cohen was in charge of working inside the muppet body and providing the character's voice. Caponata has the psychology of a 6 years old girl, naïve and curious about everything. Perezgil was a large green snail with round glasses and curly green hair. He was reader, writer, poet and advisor of everybody in the neighborhood. Actor Jesús Alcaide was in charge of working the muppet as well as providing its voice. Human characters includes: Nisi: Juan Margallo, the bar owner Angela: Petra Martínez, Nisi's wife Braulio: Manolo Aleixandre and/or José Riesgo, the newsstand owner Manolo: Manolo Vallejo, the garage owner Carmen: Concha Goyanes Cuqui: Gabriel Fariza, the radio reporter Jose: Marcelo Rubal American characters adopted Spanish names: Bert: Blas Ernie: Epi Kermit the Frog: Gustavo, la rana Grover: Coco Cookie Monster:Triqui Count von Count :El Conde Draco Cancellation The First Bario Sésamo season was cancelled by the station (RTVE) in 1981 when the station denied the authors to keep their rights on the characters. An agreement had been reached where the authors granted full commercial rights to the station