Sesame Workshop

Background
First known as "Children's Television Workshop", this non-profit production company was founded in 1968 by Joan Ganz Cooney to create the children's show Sesame Street. Until 2000, CTW produced shows such as 3-2-1 Contact, Square One, Cro, Ghostwriter, The Electric Company, Big Bag, Dragon Tales, and many other edutainment titles. In 2000, the company was renamed to "Sesame Workshop" to symbolize their move beyond producing just television shows and to capitalize on the Sesame Street name. In 2002, they revamped Sesame Street to make it more suitable for younger audiences.

1st Logo (Sesame Street Custom Logo 1) (May 10, 1969-November 21, 1983)
Nicknames: "The Plaque", "CTW Plaque", "The Still Plaque"

Logo: We have 2 still images. The first still image is a regular on the show (sometimes more than one) (i.e. Big Bird, Oscar, Susan, Gordon, Bob, etc.) holding up the Sesame Street title logo, which was a rectangular street sign in dark green and had a yellow border. Some small text in a semi-circle above the rectangle read "CTW", which stands for "Children's Television Workshop". The second still image featured another regular (again, sometimes more than one, sometimes none at all), holding up a fancy-looking plaque made of marble. The name:

CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP

appears in blue, black, or pale green in front of the plaque. The text was written more sloppy for a long time, but starting around 1979, it was written more neatly. Initially, this would be done in front of a blue background, but around 1976, it was switched to a random outdoor location (such as Central Park, the 123 Sesame Street apartment steps, etc.).

Variants:
 * A version exists where the copyright date flashes below (this was primarily used in Season 2; 1970-71).
 * On the first pilot episode, the real Sesame Street sign was used instead.
 * The beginning of Big Bird in China had the words "THE CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP" written in an Asian-style font with a Chinese text translation on the right, all on a red background.
 * On 1976-1977 episodes of Sesamstraat and the Italian dub called Sesamo Apriti, the logo is in a cursive font and there's no plaque.
 * On Bonjour Sesame, the logo is in a computer typeface and there's no plaque here either.

Trivia: The plaque used in this logo also appears throughout the beginning and ending segments with Kermit the Frog and Rowlf the Dog in the Sesame Street pitch reel. At the end of the last scene, the camera zooms up to the plaque.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds/Voice-over: The closing of the Sesame Street credits theme plays, as a random SS character says "Sesame Street is a production of the Children's Television Workshop".

Music/Sounds/Voiceover Variants:
 * On episode 666, Bert adds a weary "Good night" at the end.
 * Episode 406 features Cookie Monster, after saying the line, adding "...whatever that is."
 * Episode 810 has Count von Count adding "Ah ah ah, bye-bye!" after saying the spiel.
 * When Maria would announce the sponsors, she would typically add "¡Adiós!" after saying the line.
 * On episode 4, after the voiceover was heard, Oscar adds, "You call this a production? It looks like it was produced by Big Bird! Talk about eggs!"
 * On one episode from season 7, Big Bird says, "Sesame Street is a production of... Oscar?" and then Oscar replies, "I'm not gonna say the Children's Television Workshop!" to which Big Bird adds, "Okay, don't."
 * On episode 1190, Olivia and Biff say the voiceover and Biff says "The Children's Television Workshop? I didn't know that." After that, Olivia chuckles.
 * On the infamous episode 847, aka the "Wicked Witch of the West episode", the Witch (reprised by Margaret Hamilton) lets out a small cackle after saying the spiel.

Availability: Can be found on the Sesame Street: Old School DVD box sets. When the show aired on HBO, it could be found on reruns of 1969-1983 (Seasons 1-14) Sesame Street episodes. Strangely, the HBO prints used this logo twice, once from the closing itself and second from the ending credits. This error is fixed on most HBO Max prints, however.

Editor's Note: Well-remembered by those who grew up with Sesame Street during this time.

2nd Logo (The Electric Company Custom Logo) (October 25, 1971-April 15, 1977)
Nickname: "The Electric Company Logo"

Logo: On episodes of The Electric Company, the closing credits always featured the animated opening title to the show, in which the logo is seen in a cloud-like shape, which in turn is seen with several cloud-like shapes and a box that's connected to both sides of the screen. The words "THE ELECTRIC COMPANY" wave, wiggle, and change to the words "THE CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP" in orange. Afterwards, the box-like shape would open up and allow the CTW logo to wiggle away.

Trivia: The logo (and end credits) was made by Dolphin Productions.

Variants:
 * On the first two seasons, this logo was just two stills of "THE ELECTRIC COMPANY" and "THE CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP" in the cloud-shape. The text was also in white.
 * On episode 290, as the words "The Electric Company" transition into "The Children's Television Workshop", a series of four blue Scanimated lightning bolts (which appeared during the opening title graphic) converge toward the center and then retract; once the voiceover says "The Children's Television Workshop", the logo stays on screen a few seconds longer than usual, then immediately cuts away to the copyright slide; the box did not open up, and the words did not disappear into the center of the screen.

FX/SFX: The words changing/zooming away, and the box opening. Typical Scanimate effects.

Music/Sounds/Voiceover: The closing theme is usually heard, and a character from the TV show would always say, "The Electric Company gets its power from...the Children's Television Workshop."

Availability: Although the original The Electric Company is no longer on TV, the logo can be found on the show's two "best of" DVDs, released in 2006, as well as on iTunes.

Editor's Note: The logo is pretty funky being a product of the '70s with the tie-dye-ish design of the box and the clouds & pattern seen on the words inside.

3rd Logo (November 27, 1978-December 9, 1983, 1988-1989)
Nicknames: "The Orange Snake", "The (Orange) CTW Snake", "The CTW Box", "Cheesy CTW"

Logo: On a black background, four vertical orange rectangles appear in the center of the screen and start transforming into the letters in "ctw" simultaneously. The rectangle on the left stretches slightly to the right and left until it forms a square, then curves to the top and bottom to form a "c". The rectangle in the middle stretches on all sides vertically and horizontally until it resembles a cross with the top right corner slightly bent, then the bottom side stretches out some more and curves to the right to form a lower case "t". The two rectangles on the far right stretch in opposite horizontal directions until they connect each other in the middle with a bend in one of the quadrilateral corners for emphasis. The two quadrilaterals, along with the middle right corner of the "t", stretch to the bottom to form the "w". The small blue text:

CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP

appears in the top left corner where the "t" and "w" connect.

Variants:
 * On the first two seasons of 3-2-1 Contact, the closing logo is still (the animated version appeared at the beginning as an opening logo).
 * There was a filmed variant where the forming-rectangle animation was much slower, and when it's finishing, the blue text appears above it. The videotaped variant as seen on 3-2-1 Contact speeds up the forming animation, then freezes on the finished "CTW" logo for a few seconds until the "Children's Television Workshop" text appears above it.
 * Some early episodes of 3-2-1 Contact had the 'CTW' words in a pinkish-red color and the "CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP" text in bright green (though this could be from film quality).
 * An in-credit version appears on the 1979 10th anniversary special A Walking Tour of Sesame Street.
 * On 1988 episodes of the Dutch co-production Sesamstraat, an in-credit version appears with the NOS logo in blue.
 * On 1981 episodes of the original French co-production 1, rue Sésame, an in-credit version appears with the 1976 TF1 logo.
 * On the 1982 NBC PSA Betcha Don't Know, the logo is still on a navy blue background; the logo is orange, has a white outline, and is still. Below is the text "a public service message from NBC".
 * On later episodes of the Kuwaiti co-production Iftah Ya Simsim, a green in-credit variant with a copyright year.
 * A slow videotaped variant exists. The “CTW” logo forms at 1/4 speed and “Children’s Television Workshop” fades in almost immediately.

FX/SFX: The rectangles stretching. Cel animation.

Music/Sounds: A pitter-pattery synthesizer tune which sounds like outer-space music, and once the logo completes, we hear a "ding" at the end to mark the appearance of the "Children's Television Workshop" text. This typically accompanies the videotaped variant.

Music/Sound Variant: On Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, we hear a dreamy 8-note tune accompanied by bells and strings. This was used with the filmed variant of the logo.

Availability: Ultra rare. It used to be on the first 2 seasons of 3-2-1 Contact, but was plastered with the Sesame Workshop "House of Boredom" logo on 2000-2003 airings on Noggin. However, this can be found on older Random House Home Video VHS prints of Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (Sony Wonder VHS prints replace it with the next logo and DVD releases have no logos). It also might just happen to pop up on a few VHS and DVD releases of 3-2-1 Contact, unless plastered with a newer logo.

Editor's Note: This logo is noted for its design, cheesy animation, eerie electronic music, and dark environment.

4th Logo (November 16, 1983-July 8, 1997)
Nicknames: "Sparks", "Sparks of Doom", "The CTW Sparks", "Tinnitus Sparks", "Cheesy CTW II", "Cheesy Sparks"

Logo: On a black background, a spark flies across the top left corner of the screen, writing the word "CHILDREN'S" in blue. It shifts to the middle left corner and writes "TELEVISION". Then, it shifts to the bottom left corner and writes "WORKSHOP". A ray of light flies from the bottom of the screen and "explodes". The logo "glitters". All the words are written in ITC Busorama.

Variants:
 * On 3-2-1 Contact and the first season of Big Bag, the logo is already formed. The latter also featured the end "glittering" animation on the logo. This variant was (surprisingly) also found at the end of PBS airings of Sesame Street Stays Up Late! and Elmo Says BOO!.
 * On Sesame Street VHS releases from Random House Home Video, this fades to the My Sesame Street Home Video logo when finished.
 * On 1993 VHS releases of Plaza Sésamo, the logo is shown on the bottom right of the screen with the Televisa logo at the top left. On 1995 episodes, both logos are in 3D and sometimes spin around each other.
 * On non-USA airings of Koki, there is an in-credit variant.
 * On non-USA airings of first-season episodes of Slim Pig, the logo starts at the ray of light exploding.
 * On a 1988 pledge-drive special of Sesame Street (later released on VHS as Put Down the Duckie), the logo is superimposed over the end of the final scene.
 * The end of the 1983 special Don't Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a rare still version with the logo on a dark blue background.
 * On CD-ROM games (such as Sesame Street Letters and Sesame Street Numbers), the logo is white and is still. This variant uses a black background, but Sesame Street Art Workshop used a maroon background (due to a color scheme error). The logo is pixelated on most games, but is sometimes in HD.
 * Sesame Street Numbers uses the CD-ROM variant (due to it being a CD-ROM game); however, after a couple of seconds, the logo folds up and the camera zooms out to reveal that it is on a balloon, which, with a few other balloons, carries up Elmo (who is holding the balloons) and reveals the game's title card.
 * The end of the 1991 McDonald's holiday special The Wish That Changed Christmas has a still version with the logo in an orange-brown color with a rectangle and the letters "DPI" inside in the same color along with blue text saying "a company of" both above it.

FX/SFX: The spark writing the words, the ray of light flying and "exploding", and the "glittering" of the text. Scanimate effects.

Music/Sounds: 3 electronic keyboard scales quickly descending, each one heard over the spark animations forming each word, followed by a laser zap.

Music/Sound Variants:
 * On The Best of Elmo, a series of ascending bells ending with a "clang" sound is used instead.
 * The still variant at the end of Big Bag features the end of the show's closing theme.
 * When the second half of the logo's animation is played at the end of non-USA first-season episodes of Slim Pig, the ending of the show's theme plays.
 * On Sesame Street games for the View-Master Interactive Vision, the logo is silent.
 * The CD-ROM variant uses the opening theme of the game; however, Sesame Street Letters and Sesame Street Numbers use the original 1969-1992 Sesame Street theme song.

Availability: Rare; it used to be on 3-2-1 Contact, various Sesame Street productions (not including the main series itself) and a few other shows from the company, but the "House of Boredom" logo has plastered itself to most older CTW shows when they were rerun on Noggin. However, this logo can be found on older 1980s and early 1990s Sesame Street and 3-2-1 Contact tapes, and the "ascending bells" variant was spotted on a DVD release of Sesame Street's 25th Birthday: A Musical Celebration. Its longevity is amazing, having being used for 14 years and surviving into the late '90s when CGI was dominant.

Editor's Note: For some, this may bring back fond memories of Sesame Street home videos and 3-2-1 Contact.

5th Logo (Sesame Street Custom Logo 2) (November 21, 1983-March 8, 1984)
Logo: Superimposed on the screen is an outline of the Sesame Street logo in various colors (the position varies depending on the episode). This is followed by the CTW logo in its then new font, in that same color.

Variant: Some episodes have the CTW logo horizontally arranged (similar to the next custom logo). Other episodes have the logos appearing on-screen as the final scene continued, rather than a still shot.

FX/SFX: The logos appearing and disappearing.

Music/Sounds: Same as the first Sesame Street custom logo.

Availability: Ultra rare; this was used for a short time, and could be found at the end of season 15 Sesame Street episodes from the time period on HBO. Just like in the first logo, HBO strangely used the logo twice, though is mostly fixed on HBO Max.

Editor's Note: Same as the 1st logo.

6th Logo (Sesame Street Custom Logo 3) (March 9, 1984-March 9, 1995)
Logo: Superimposed on the screen (moving or not), we see the Sesame Street logo flipping in (the position varies depending on the episode). This is followed by the white words "CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP" in its usual font sliding in one by one below the sign.

Variants:
 * On episode 2030, the logo fades in already formed.
 * On episode 2091, the logo doesn't appear at all. The scene just continues zooming in on the actual street sign at night.
 * On episodes 2164, 2404 and 2749, the real Sesame Street sign takes the place of the animated one.
 * On episode 2129, the Sesame Street logo appears in pink outline (similar to the previous logo) crawls in from the right side of the screen followed by flipping itself in to the center of the screen. The CTW text slides in as usual.
 * On episode 2584, the Sesame Street sign is at the very center of the screen, followed by the CTW text appearing on the bottom of the screen.
 * On episode 2782, which featured a parody of Wide World of Sports called Wide World of Sesame Street, the SS logo is displayed on the model globe used in the show, and the usual CTW text slides in below it as usual.
 * Starting with Season 24 in November 1992, this would not be seen on Fridays, as Sesame Street had introduced a new closing credit sequence for that season.
 * On episodes 2796 and 3108, the Sesame Street sign is at the top of the screen and the CTW text slides in at the bottom of the screen.
 * On episode 2929 (and its repeat, episode 3184), a big Sesame Street sign flips in at the bottom, with the CTW text appearing at the top.

FX/SFX: The flipping and sliding.

Music/Sounds: Same as before, but is synced up to the animation of the sliding words.

Music/Sounds variants: On episodes 3058 and 3093 (and their repeats, 3281 and 3288, respectively), there is the sound of a spring popping as the Sesame Street sign flips in, and 3 whooshing sounds as the words "Children's Television Workshop" slide in.

Availability: Uncommon. Seen at the end of older Sesame Street episodes of the era on HBO Max. Either way, check your old tapes and DVR recordings! Like in the 1st and 5th logos strangely, the HBO prints of some '90s episodes were followed by the full 1992 closing credits with the 10th logo.

Editor's Note: Same as the 1st logo.

7th Logo (Square One TV Custom Logo 1) (January 26, 1987-December 23, 1990)
Logo: On various backgrounds, the Square One TV logo flies around the screen, then immediately disappears as a copyright notice appears. A few seconds later, the Square One TV goes in random places until it reaches the center of the screen. Less than a second later, the Children's Television Workshop appears zooming out, plastering the Square One portion of the logo. Thus, the logo reads "CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP TELEVISION".

Variants:
 * For the first season, the CTW logo text is blue on a black background. For seasons 2 and 3, it was changed to a purple background with white text.
 * On early episodes of Square One TV, as well as Friday episodes, the logo would already begin at the copyright screen.

FX/SFX: The logo flying and going in random, and the CTW logo zooming out.

Music/Sounds/Voiceover: The final eight seconds of the Square One TV theme song (from Seasons 1-3) with Cynthia Darlow saying "100% of Square One TV is a production of the Children's Television Workshop." Her announcement is followed by a kid chorus shouting "SQUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARE ONE!"

Availability: Very rare. Seen at the end of older Square One TV episodes of the era. While they're almost never rerun, VHS tapes should retain this.

Editor's Note: None.

8th Logo (Square One TV Custom Logo 2) (September 30, 1991-November 6, 1992)
Logo: On a black and white checkered background, the Square One TV logo zooms in with a copyright notice fading in. Afterwards, it immediately cuts from the CTW logo in pink, to a fully checkered board logo zooming out, revealing the Square One TV logo, turning itself to the right and facing the viewer.

FX/SFX: TBA.

Music/Sounds/Voiceover: The closing bars of the Season 4-5 Square One TV theme song with Cynthia Darlow saying "100% of Square One TV is a production of the Children's Television Workshop." followed by a female chorus singing "SQUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARE ONE!"

Availability: Extremely rare. Seen at the end of later Square One TV episodes of the era. Again, VHS tapes should retain it.

Editor's Note: None.

9th Logo (Mathnet Custom Logo) (September 30, 1991-October 23, 1992)
Logo: On a blue background, we see the Mathnet seal radial wiping in with its slogan "to cogitate and to solve." fading in.

Variant: Sometimes, the logo just appears as a still image. It would usually fade to the CTW logo.

FX/SFX: The wiping in, and the slogan fading in.

Music/Sounds/Voice-over: Just Cynthia Darlow saying "100% of Mathnet is a production of the Children's Television Workshop." Sometimes, after her announcement, George Frankly would laugh.

Availability: Same as the 9th logo. The original version was seen on Mathnet 1-Hour Specials, but was retained on the 1992 Republic Pictures VHS releases of "The Case of the Unnatural" and "Despair in Monterey Bay".

Editor's Note: None.

10th Logo (Sesame Street Custom Logo 4) (November 13, 1992-May 12, 2000)
Logo: This is incorporated into the original version of the 1992-2006 Sesame Street closing credit sequence. After the credits scroll, we come across an animated version of the familiar Sesame Street sign flipping in against a cloudy sky with buildings. Big Bird (live-action; puppeteered by the late Caroll Spinney) walks by and says the usual end spiel as the words "Children's Television Workshop" in white with black outlines is wiped in.

FX/SFX: The animated sign flipping in and the live-action Big Bird walking by, all done by regular series animator Joey Ahlbum. The 2D animation/live-action blend is pretty good, especially for the early '90s.

Music/Sounds: Just the hip-hop remix of the Sesame Street theme as Big Bird says "Sesame Street is a production of the Children's Television Workshop."

Music/Sounds Trivia: The musical instruments used for the ending theme were the Yamaha DX7 keyboard, the Linndrum drum machine and the Roland D-50 keyboard.

Music/Sounds Variant: In the October 13, 2000 rerun of Episode 3895, Big Bird doesn't say the usual ending spiel, even though he still moves past the sign and his mouth still moves as if he were talking. This was most likely done to remove the CTW reference, since the company was renamed "Sesame Workshop" by then.

Availability: Rare. Seen on several Sesame Street episodes from the time period starting with episode 3010 from Season 24 and ending with episode 3915 from Season 31, mostly ones that initially aired on Fridays, though some season premieres (such as episode 3786, containing the debut of "Elmo's World") would feature this credit sequence. CTW abolished this logo around 2000 when they renamed themselves as Sesame Workshop, and shortened the credit sequence as a result. Even after CTW changed its name to Sesame Workshop, this was still intact when episodes were reran on Noggin. Nowadays, newer episodes are being rerun over these, but it should be intact if they are rerun. This might be also on HBO Max prints as well. Strangely, some prints have this logo cut.

Editor's Note: Same as the 1st logo.

11th Logo (Cro Custom Logo) (September 18, 1993-October 22, 1994)
Nicknames: "The Rolling Stone", "The Cro Logo", "Prehistoric CTW"

Logo: We see two pink boulders against a blue background; one is round, while the other is in the shape of an inverted triangle. Both have cracks and niches in them. From the screen's right, we see a third pink boulder in the shape of a square rolling in. It bumps into the second boulder, and all three boulders crumble apart slightly; each one forms a letter: the first one forms "C", the second forms "T" and the third forms "W". Copyright information fades in at the bottom of the screen.

FX/SFX: The boulders rolling and breaking. This was produced by Film Roman (who also produced Cro).

Music/Sounds: First, we hear several descending trumpet notes, then the sound of the boulders crumbling, and then an ascending four-note piano jingle accompanied by a descending four-note trumpet jingle.

Availability: Extremely rare. Only used on Cro, which is hardly ever rerun nowadays and this logo is only available on VHS; the DVD release has the Sesame Workshop logo instead.

Editor's Note: None.

12th Logo (Square One TV Math Talk Custom Logo 3) (1995-1996)
Logo: Against an animated background with a white copyright notice below, and after the Square One TV Math Talk logo appears, the 4th CTW logo in white slides in word-by-word and in the correct order, from the left, right, and left sides of the screen, respectively. This is followed by the funding credits.

FX/SFX: The letters sliding in.

Music/Sounds/Voice-over: The end theme to Square One TV Math Talk (an upbeat tune with horns) with Cynthia Darlow saying "Square One TV Math Talk is a production of the Children's Television Workshop."

Availability: Extremely rare; seen on tapes of Square One TV Math Talk (a spin-off of Square One TV used for instructing teachers), which is hardly, if ever, aired on TV.

Editor's Note: None.

13th Logo (Ghostwriter Custom Logo) (October 4, 1992-February 12, 1995)
Logo: On a black background in the center of the screen, the Ghostwriter from the show of the same name appears (in yellow) and flies across the top of the screen from left to right, wiping in the green word "Ghostwriter" (in the show's font) with the red words "is produced by" below it. Then, all of a sudden, the "W" and "T" in "writer", as well as the "C" in "produced", drop out, swirl around, and form a large "CTW" in the same colors, shoving the rest of the words off the screen. Ghostwriter then flies across the screen from right to left, wiping in the words "in association with BBC TELEVISION" ("BBC" being displayed as its familiar logo from the time) below that.

Variant: Later episodes do not have the BBC Television logo.

FX/SFX: The text being formed, as well as Ghostwriter himself. Pretty standard 2D effects.

Music/Sounds: A funky bass/synth guitar tune, as well as scribbling sounds as the words are being formed.

Availability: Very rare. Seen at the end of Ghostwriter on select PBS stations. Perhaps retained on the DVD.

Editor's Note: None.

14th Logo (Sesame Street Custom Logo 5) (November 20, 1995-April 12, 2002)
Nickname: "Toodle-loo!", "The Curtain/Purple Static"

Logo: This was merely a copyright screen for Sesame Street. From 1995 to 1998, the screen was displayed on a teal/blue curtain background with alternating diagonal lines. From 1998 to 2002, it was displayed on a purple static background. The text reads as follows:

"Sesame Street" and the "Sesame Street" sign are trademarks and service marks of

Children's Television Workshop

©(year) Children's Television Workshop. Sesame Street Muppets©(year) The Jim Henson Company.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

After a few seconds, the copyright screen moves to the left, revealing Big Bird, who's seen from the head up. He tells the audience, "Toodle-loo!".

FX/SFX: The static or the lines moving (depending on which background was used), the text moving to make way for Big Bird.

Variant:
 * When CTW renamed itself to Sesame Workshop in 2000, they continued to use this logo until 2002. To reflect the name change, "Sesame Workshop" replaced "Children's Television Workshop". The copyright info also replaced all mentions of CTW with the SW name.
 * Beginning around 2002, the entirety of the text changed to a bold Arial-type font. The letters of the "Sesame Workshop" text are also spaced out.
 * It's worth mentioning that also around 2002, the copyright info got rid of any mentions of The Jim Henson Company, the "Sesame Street Muppets" text had the SW name added to it, and as a result of the removal of the Jim Henson name, the "ALL RIGHTS RESERVED" text is all on the same line (instead of taking up 2).
 * This logo is still and silent on HBO Max prints.

Music/Sounds:
 * 1995-1999: A bombastic version of the Sesame Street theme, which ends in a jolly keyboard/bass vamp. This carries over into the funding spiel.
 * 2000: A soft keyboard/bass version of the theme.
 * 2001-2002: A bluesy version of the theme played by a muted trumpet ensemble.

Availability: Uncommon. It's intact on HBO Max releases of Sesame Street Season 27-33 episodes.

Editor's Note: Same as the 1st logo.

15th Logo (June 1, 1997-May 12, 2000)
Nicknames: "The Bouncing Letters", "Play it Smart", "The Sailors' Hornpipe Logo", "The CTW Semicircle"

Logo: On a shady cyan background, we see a yellow semi-circle (the same one from the Sesame Street logo) turned on its bottom side with the red letters "C", "T", and "W" positioned from left to right. The "C" bounces on the semicircle, making it slant to the left. Then the "T" twists in a slight angle around while the "W" bounces. The semicircle rebounds to its original position, then the three letters bounce together, pushing the semicircle to the ground. The semicircle bounces up and rotates a few times before settling into a position halfway up the screen. The text "CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP" comes from underneath the semicircle in yellow. The three letters flip in the air and land on the face of the semicircle. The sign bounces once more as the text "PLAY IT SMART" appears below in black.

Variants:
 * There was an early version of this logo without "PLAY IT SMART". Also, the shadow still appears behind "CTW" after the logo forms.
 * On the Nintendo 64 versions of Elmo's Letter Adventure and Elmo's Number Journey, the logo is still.
 * On 1998-99 episodes of Plaza Sésamo, a picture of the logo flies around with the Televisa logo.
 * At the end of the 1999 Noggin special Sesame Street: Unpaved, the Sesame Street logo of the time appears on a white background with "CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP" in black underneath.
 * A variant exists with "Play it smart" placed on the bottom of the screen. This was spotted on a demo reel from Pittard Sullivan. It's currently unknown if this was ever used on any shows.
 * On the original pilot of Tiny Planets, the logo appears in credit on a white background, with the text in red. The logo appears to the right of the Pepper's Ghost logo.

FX/SFX: Very nice CGI from Pittard Sullivan (which also animated HBO's 1998 Feature Presentation bumper, the 1998 King World logo, the 1995 Buena Vista Television logo, and the 1998 CTV logo)!

Music/Sounds: A horn playing a tune that starts out similar to "Sailor's Hornpipe", accompanied by bouncing sound effects.

Music/Sounds Variant: On Sesame Street: Unpaved, it's silent.

Availability: Extremely rare; though this logo was sort of common in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it has since become increasingly rare and hard to find. It was seen on Seasons 29-31 (1997-2000) episodes of Sesame Street (later airings of these Sesame Street episodes have the "House of Boredom" plastered over this), later Big Bag episodes, and Season 1 episodes of Dragon Tales (Seasons 2-3 have the 1st Sesame Workshop logo). The early version can be found on the VHS releases of Elmopalooza, Cinderelmo (the DVD release also has the logo intact), the DVD release of The Alphabet Jungle Game (even though the case and disc have the 1st Sesame Workshop logo) and Elmo's World. Also appears on the games Elmo's Letter Adventure and Elmo's Number Journey for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. It is also available on the DVD release of Dragon Tales: Adventures in Dragon Land. The Sesame Street: Unpaved variant is ultra rare and only appeared on the 1999 special of the same name that aired on Noggin (now Nick Jr.) which will probably never air on TV again, but can be found online.

Editor's Note: Compared to the 3rd and 4th logos, this is a breath of fresh air with great CGI and music.

16th Logo (October 1, 1999)
Nicknames: "CTW Car", "The CTW Semicircle II"

Logo: On a light-blue background, we see the Children's Television Workshop semicircle from the previous logo on wheels, which stops. A door opens on the logo and a bunch of letters come out of the semicircle, forming the words "CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP". As we zoom out, the semicircle leaves and the letters get pushed up to form the logo as the semicircle re-appears.

FX/SFX: 2D animation produced by The Ink Tank in New York.

Music/Sounds: A bouncy piano tune, and a crowd of adults talking when the letters get off of the semicircle.

Availability: Unknown. This was a test logo slated to appear at the either the beginning or end (varies by source) of The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, but it never made it to the film theatrically nor on video. It did, however, appear on a 1999 Sesame Street resource video called Sesame Street Goes to the Doctor.

Editor's Note: A finely done and cute logo that sadly wasn't used at all.

1st Logo (June 5, 2000-April 4, 2011)
Nicknames: "House of Boredom", "The Sesame Workshop House", "Cheesy House"

Logo: On a white background, we see an abstract green house with a purple roof and the text:

sesameworkshop

outlined below. The window of the house is filled with yellow glitter. The house bounces and the roof explodes open to the right, sending the glitter sprinkling all over. Some of the glitter remains to form a lightning bolt crowned with a star, some sprinkles to the left to fill the "sesame" text with purple, and some sprinkles to the right to fill the "workshop" text with green, rendering it like this:

sesameworkshop

Variants:
 * Green house and purple roof (most common variant; it replaces the CTW logo seen on 1999-2000 episodes of Dragon Tales and is seen on 2001-02 episodes of Sesame Street).
 * Purple house and red roof (second common variant; it usually plasters older CTW logos and seen on 2003-06 episodes of Sesame Street). This is the first variant to contain the byline described below.
 * Blue house and green roof (seen on Plaza Sésamo, Ulitsa Sezam and perhaps other foreign-language co-productions of Sesame Street).
 * Red house and blue roof (seen on Sesame Street Sports for the PlayStation, a CineGroupe Star VHS promo for Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat and later episodes of The Upside Down Show).
 * Green house and green roof (seen on the Palestinian co-production Shara'a Simsim and the Egyptian-Arabic co-production Alam Simsim; the latter is on an orange background with kids drawings).
 * Purple house and green roof (seen on CTW/Noggin co-productions such as The Upside Down Show).
 * The text "The nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street and so much more" (in the same color as the house) is shown below on occasion.
 * On some occasions, the "www.sesameworkshop.org" URL can be seen below the "sesameworkshop" text.
 * Another variant has been discovered using the purple house and red roof, and features a byline reading "A nonprofit educational organization" below the "sesameworkshop" text, and the "sesameworkshop.org" URL can be seen underneath the nonprofit byline.
 * Some have a copyright date, such as the Dutch co-production Sesamstraat.
 * There is an extended variant that is practically the URL and the "nonprofit organization" variants combined into one, where it fades in between the bylines (from the nonprofit one to the URL one).

In-Credit Variants:
 * On 2003-06 (Seasons 34-37) Sesame Street episodes, the in-credit variant from 2001 is seen during the end of the 1992-2006 credit sequence.
 * On 2007 (Season 38) Sesame Street episodes, another in-credit variant of the logo was used, in which the Muppet character Abby Cadabby flies by. Her wand's magic dust form the phrase "a production of sesameworkshop" and the "The non-profit organization..." byline as well, all in green text, as the background fades to black. This was eventually replaced with the second logo in the next season (Season 39). This also appears on the 2009 revival of The Electric Company (without the byline or Abby Cadabby).
 * At the end of Sesame English, a superimposed variant is seen.
 * On some VHS and DVD releases of Sesame Street, the logo is still. This one has no byline or URL underneath at all.
 * On Tiny Planets, the logo is to the left of the Pepper's Ghost Productions logo.

Plaza Sésamo Variant: On early 2000s episodes of Plaza Sésamo, a picture of the logo flies around with the Televisa logo.

FX/SFX: The house bouncing, the glitter filling in the words & the shooting star forming. The logo was designed by Carbone Smolan; the animation was done by The Ink Tank.

Music/Sounds: A stretching and "pop" sound for the roof with giggling children as a bass clarinet plays, and then a short accordion riff.

Other Music/Sounds Variants:
 * In some cases, such as Season 38 of Sesame Street, Tiny Planets, and The Upside Down Show, it uses the closing theme of the show.
 * On the still variant, a breathy synth-chime theme is heard. This was used on Alam Simsim as well.
 * The extended variant has stock music and a female narrator saying, "Sesame Workshop: The nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street and so much more. Learn more at sesameworkshop.org".
 * On certain Sesame Street DVDs from them, extra sounds accompany certain actions (i.e. the roof explosion, the sprinkling, etc.), which are usually silenced on the variant directly above.

Availability: Uncommon. The animated version was first seen on Season 1 reruns of Dragon Tales, and the still version debuted on Sesame Street: Let's Make Music and Elmo's World: Singing, Drawing & More!. Seen on 2001-2007 episodes of Sesame Street and 2001-2005 episodes of Dragon Tales. At one point, it was to Sesame Workshop what the "Bars of Boredom" was to Sony Pictures Television, and appeared on many DVD and VHS releases from the company, and pretty much on every show PBS and Sesame Workshop distributed together, with the exception of post-2008 episodes of Sesame Street. It's no longer current, so you'll have to rely on Sesame Street and Dragon Tales VHS tapes and DVDs. The extended variant can be seen on certain DVD releases of shows from Sesame Workshop from around 2004, more specifically Play With Me Sesame. The purple house-red roof variant is scarce and the green house-purple roof variant is uncommon. The red house-blue roof variant is very rare but can be seen at the end of later episodes of The Upside Down Show (the still variant), a Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat promo (seen on earlier CineGroupe Star VHS releases) and Sesame Street Sports (both of which use the animated variant) for the PlayStation, both mentioned above. It's tough to find on TV, since the episodes of the shows on which it appears are rarely shown in favor of more recent ones, like those with the next two logos below. Ironically, on Dragon Tales, this logo would appear before either the Columbia TriStar Television "Boxes of Boredom" (season 2) or the Sony Pictures Television "Bars of Boredom" (season 3)! It was last seen on the 2009 revival of The Electric Company.

Editor's Note: It's cute, but it may be considered annoying due to its omnipresence, though its presence was significantly toned down in recent years.

2nd Logo (August 11, 2008-July 14, 2018)
Nicknames: "Sesame Workshop All-Stars", "The Elmo Logo", "Uh-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!", "Elmo's LOL"

Logo: On a yellow background, the green "sesame" text is seen, arranged like this:

sesame

Next to it, various stills of CTW/Sesame Workshop characters appear one-by-one next to the logo, including characters from CTW/Sesame Workshop co-productions outside of the U.S.. Characters include, from left to right:
 * Cookie Monster (replaced by Elmo in the Shara'a Simsim variant)
 * Chamki (from Galli Galli Sim Sim, the Indian co-production of SS)
 * A claymation Bert (from Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures)
 * Big Bird
 * A claymation Ernie (also from Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures)
 * Abelardo Montoya (from Plaza Sésamo, the Mexican co-production of SS)
 * Kami reading a book (from Takalani Sesame, the South-African co-production of SS)
 * Pinky (from Pinky Dinky Doo)

Then, the "workshop" text pops in letter-by-letter from right to left, replacing the characters, and is now arranged like this:

sesameworkshop

A still of Elmo fades in reclining on the last O, and below that the byline "The nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street" fades in, and the URL "www.sesameworkshop.org" fades in with and below the byline. Then, we hear Elmo's distinctive laughter.

Variants:
 * Sesame Tree, Northern Ireland's co-production of Sesame Street, uses a special still variant that shows the Sixteen South logo and SW logos at the top with "Produced in association with BBC Northern Ireland" below it, along with a copyright date.
 * Some international co-productions of Sesame Street use a variant with Grover in place of Elmo. This also has Cookie Monster being replaced with Elmo in the logo's formation.
 * There is also a variant with nothing below.
 * On 16:9 DVDs from Sesame Workshop, they use a widescreen version cropped with vert-field of view.

FX/SFX: The characters appearing and changing into the text, and Elmo fading in.

Music/Sounds: The standard audio is a tuba tune with accordions followed by Elmo's distinctive laugh (done by either Kevin Clash or Ryan Dillon) when he fades in (the laugh is replaced with a deep boing on the Grover variant). On 2008-2015 Sesame Street episodes, the ending of the then-current Sesame Street closing theme is heard, with Elmo's laugh heard at the end. The Sesame Tree variant uses the end theme of the show.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * On the Sesame Street: Old School DVD box sets, the logo is silent.

Availability: Pretty common; seen on episodes of Sesame Street, from Season 39 (2008) to at least Season 45 (2014-2015). It can also be seen on later episodes of Pinky Dinky Doo and Plaza Sésamo. The Grover variant is only seen on Shara'a Simsim. The Sesame Tree variant is seen on said show. DVDs such as Learning Letters with Elmo, Elmo's Rainbow and Other Springtime Stories, Elmo's Alphabet Challenge, The Cookie Thief, Elmo's Super Numbers and Learning Rocks also have this logo intact. Fortunately, this logo did not plaster over the previous logo on post-2008 DVD releases of Dragon Tales, even on re-runs of the show, because Sony didn't have plans to keep the logos up to date.

Editor's Note: Another cute one, but at least it's not known for plastering like the previous logo. Of course, those with a strong distaste for Elmo may be put off by it.

3rd Logo (August 18, 2018-)
Nicknames: "Sesame Street 's Cookie Jar", "Sesame Street Sign Of Boredom"

Logo: On a white background, the words "SESAME" and "WORKSHOP" draw themselves in, from left to right, as two lines draw themselves in from left to right as well (a yellow one with a hump in it above the words and a straight green line below the words). The "TM" symbol also appears next to the "P". The end result resembles the Sesame Street sign.

Variants:
 * At the beginning of Esme & Roy, the logo is completely white, and is right next to the HBO logo, with a light orange "&" symbol in the middle. "Present" is seen below the logos in the same color. It is on an orange background.
 * Esme & Roy used a still version with "SESAME" and "WORKSHOP" stacked on top of each other.

FX/SFX: The lines drawing.

Music/Sounds: A 3-note xylophone tune that has the same rhythm, but not the same pitch, as the first 3 notes of the Sesame Street theme. Otherwise, it's the end theme of the show.

Music/Sounds Variant: HBO Max prints have music used on the copyright screens from older episodes, namely the "Funky Chimes" and the "Calypso" theme playing over the logo. Similarly, the audio from the previous logos also remains intact on episodes from that era.

Availability: Brand new. The logo first appeared on a Variety news article on June 20, 2018. Its first on-screen appearance was on Esme & Roy on HBO Kids and HBO Max in the US and Treehouse TV in Canada. It's currently seen on episodes of Sesame Street starting with Season 49 (2018-2019) and has been spotted plastering older logos on older episodes.

Editor's Note: Another logo within the modern trend of "simplicity", and as a result, it's VERY generic. The two lines on the top and bottom give it a suspicious resemblance to the Cookie Jar logo, and current seasons of Sesame Street are pretty infamous for their changes to the show. Some may appreciate the simplicity and the resemblance to the Sesame Street sign, however.