''Iftah Ya Simsim'' ( ar, افتح يا سمسم; meaning "

Open Sesame "Open sesame" (french: Sésame, ouvre-toi; ar, افتح يا سمسم) is a magical phrase in the story of " Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" in Antoine Galland's version of ''One Thousand and One Nights''. It opens the mouth of a cave in whic ...

") is the first

international co-production A co-production is a joint venture between two or more different production companies for the purpose of film production, television production, video game development, and so on. In the case of an international co-production, production compa ...

of the American children's television series ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) and ...

'' created in the Arabian world. It premiered in

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the no ...

on September 14, 1979, and was broadcast in 22 Arabic-speaking countries, running until June 23, 1989. The program continued to be well-known decades after it went off the air. A few months after its premiere, ''Iftah Ya Simsim'' became one of the most popular and successful programs for children in many Arab states. Critics called it "one of the most successful pan-Arab collaborations of educators, creators, writers and artists from the Middle East". The show inspired many studies, which demonstrated that children benefited from watching it. In 2010, efforts began to revive the show for a new generation of young viewers in the Arab world. In late 2013, fifteen writers and producers from Bidaya Media attended training about its educational methodology and production techniques from the staff of the American show in New York. ''Iftah Ya Simsim'' was in pre-production in March 2014, and the first phase of auditions took place in April 2014. The new series debuted on September 1, 2015. The present show is a collaboration between the Abu Dhabi Education Council, Twofour54, Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States and Bidaya Media.

History

A few months after the 1969 debut of ''