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Washington Post
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Pint-size pioneer 'Dora the Explorer' celebrates her 25th anniversary
NEW YORK — Twenty-five years ago, a little girl with a bob haircut appeared on our TVs, speaking a mix of English and Spanish, with a spunky, can-do spirit. She had an adventure planned, a backpack, a monkey friend and upbeat songs. 'Hi, I'm Dora. What's your name?' she asked. This was, of course, 'Dora the Explorer,' the first Latina to lead a major cartoon series and the girl who helped spearhead the rise of multicultural children's programming in the U.S. on her way to becoming a cultural phenomenon.
Associated Press
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Pint-size pioneer 'Dora the Explorer' celebrates her 25th anniversary
NEW YORK (AP) — Twenty-five years ago, a little girl with a bob haircut appeared on our TVs, speaking a mix of English and Spanish, with a spunky, can-do spirit. She had an adventure planned, a backpack, a monkey friend and upbeat songs. 'Hi, I'm Dora. What's your name?' she asked. This was, of course, 'Dora the Explorer,' the first Latina to lead a major cartoon series and the girl who helped spearhead the rise of multicultural children's programming in the U.S. on her way to becoming a cultural phenomenon. 'The show allowed Latinos to be depicted on TV as educators, teaching viewers how to speak our language, and yet at the same time, just teaching ordinary things that children need to learn,' said Brenda Victoria Castillo, president and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition. Nickelodeon is celebrating Dora's 25th anniversary with the feature-length live-action movie 'Dora and the Search of Sol Dorado,' a third season of the rebooted animated series 'Dora,' the podcast Dora's Mermaid Adventures, an album of songs and plenty of toys and apparel. 'The great thing about Dora is that, yes, she celebrates Latin culture through every aspect — language, food, dress and music,' says Ramsey Naito president of animation at Paramount and Nickelodeon. 'But she also empowers everybody to be their true self and to be brave. She's not exclusive. She's inclusive.' The original voice Kathleen Herles had a special vantage point to see Dora's influence: She was the original voice of the pint-size heroine, cast in the role when she was 7 and staying until she was 18 and off to college. 'It has been the longest journey and the greatest adventure of my life — no pun intended,' said Herles, who grew up in New York City to parents of Peruvian descent. On the convention circuit, Herles would see firsthand the power of Dora. 'I remember I would make kids cry, not intentionally,' she says. 'Their mind goes to a memory, to a moment, it's just incredible. It's so special, it's magical.' Herles has lately been the voice actor for Dora's mom on 'Dora,' the reboot that started in 2024. It's a full-circle moment for the actor and singer: 'It changed my life forever, twice.' 'Dora the Explorer' led to what Herles laughingly calls the 'Dora-verse' — the spinoff series 'Go, Diego, Go!,' a sequel series 'Dora and Friends: Into the City!' and the 2019 live-action feature film 'Dora and the Lost City of Gold,' starring Isabela Merced, Eva Longoria and Michael Peña. 'Dora' co-creator Chris Gifford has watched his creation age up and down and take human form. 'She has been older and she has been younger and she has a hair clip now,' he says. 'Her essence, her positive spirit, her I-can-do-anything-with-your-help attitude has stuck through.' Dora is firmly part of the culture, as big as her Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. There's a reference to her in 'Inside Out 2,' she's been mocked on 'Saturday Night Live' and if you look carefully at the PBS show 'Alma's Way,' you can see a Dora doll in that heroine's bedroom. TikTok users have embraced the 'Backpack Song.' 'Those kids coming of age now — the ones who 25 years ago were just watching it as little preschoolers — they're out there and they're remembering,' says Valerie Walsh Valdes, co-creator of the original series and an executive producer on the new series and movie. Creating a problem solver Valdes and Gifford originally had the idea for a show about a little girl who was a problem solver. Like 'Blue's Clues,' it would reward kids for figuring out answers posed by the host. 'Preschoolers are the least powerful people in our world,' says Gifford. 'They're not able to button their sweater and not able to tie their shoes, but if they're able to help Dora get to the City of Lost Toys and really feel like they helped, that's something special.' Nickelodeon suggested the girl be Latina and the creators ran with it, making her pan-Latina so no one would feel excluded. Latin representation on TV — then and now — has been a struggle. The Latino Donor Collaborative's 2024 Latinos in Media report found that Latino actors made up 9.8% of the main cast in lead, co-lead and ensemble roles in scripted shows. In non-scripted television, Latino hosts made up only 5% of host roles. That's despite Latin people making up nearly 20% of the country. 'There were few programs at the time that featured Latina protagonists with Dora's skin tone or features, so from that perspective, the representation is valuable,' says Erynn Masi de Casanova, head of the Sociology Department at the University of Cincinnati. Dora was put in an animated world inside a computer, and the creators asked kids to help make the show better. They hired education consultants to tease out the skills Dora teaches, like spatial understanding and interpersonal. They brought in language and culture experts. 'We did it!' became her signature song. Bilingual heroine The series is seen in more than 150 countries and territories and translated in 32 languages on Nickelodeon channels and Paramount+. In English-speaking countries such as the United States and Australia, Dora teaches Spanish; in other markets — including the Hispanic U.S. markets — she teaches English. Samantha Lorraine, 18, who grew up in Miami of Cuban heritage, had the Dora T-shirts and backpack. She laughs that she once even had the Dora bob. In July, she's starring as Dora in 'Dora and the Search of Sol Dorado,' which was filmed in Colombia. 'I've been doing my audition since day one,' she says. 'It's an honor to be stepping into Dora's shoes. It's such a huge legacy,' she adds. 'It's really nice to be able to be a part of representation where it counts. And Dora is the epitome of that.' Castillo, of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, puts Dora up there with Mickey Mouse in terms of an instantly recognized cultural character and says she's relevant more than ever. 'We need more Doras,' she says. 'If people were just open to being educated in other people's languages and cultures and beliefs and not see it as a threat, we wouldn't be in the situation that we're in this country and the world.'
Fast Company
19-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Netflix's Sesame Street deal is a PR coup for the ages
Anyone asking how to get to Sesame Street will have a new answer as of this morning: Just log on to Netflix. The industry leader in streaming, which topped 300 million global subscribers last December and reported revenue of $10.5 billion for the first quarter in 2025, just picked up Sesame Street ahead of its 56 th season. That's after HBO wound down its deal with the beloved children's institution last December. Although financial details about Netflix's new arrangement are not yet publicly available, HBO reportedly paid $30–$35 million annually for rights to the edutainment lodestar. Whatever price Netflix is paying to add the series to its robust slate of children's programs, which includes Cocomelon, it's likely a bargain, considering the intangibles. With this deal, Netflix created a lot more than just a new home for Big Bird, Cookie Monster and the rest of the gang; by allowing the embattled PBS network to freely air new episodes as they roll out, Netflix just elegantly orchestrated the feel-good corporate PR coup of the year. Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that produces Sesame Street, has faced rough headwinds in recent months. After losing its lucrative contract with HBO last December, amid a pronounced reduction in children's programming on the network, the fate of the show was uncertain. Making matters worse, Trump recently moved to cut federal funding to PBS, which has aired Sesame Street for over half a century–and only did so after his administration's cuts to the U. S. Agency for International Development abruptly deprived Sesame Workshop of valuable grants. The venerable children's show needed a champion, and into the void stepped the entertainment company whose branding is the color of Elmo. 'I strongly believe that our educational programming for children is one of the most important aspects of our service to the American people, and Sesame Street has been an integral part of that critical work for more than half a century,' said Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS, in a statement. 'We're proud to continue our partnership in the pursuit of having a profound impact on the lives of children for years to come.' The new deal will involve a mild cosmetic overhaul. According to The Washington Post, Sesame Street had intended to start a new format of two 11-minute stories, along with a new five-minute animated segment called 'Tales from 123,' but the show will now instead feature a single 11-minute story, followed by 'Tales from 123,' and then some revived fan favorites such as 'Elmo's World.' The most profound change in the new deal, though, will have nothing to do with the content, but in how it's delivered. When HBO began airing episodes of Sesame Street in 2016, the show continued to run on PBS, but new episodes only reached the public channel nine months later. This arrangement continued after 2020, when the show transitioned to HBO Max, and remained in place until HBO announced its intention to drop the show last December. In contrast, Netflix's deal ensures that new episodes will be available on PBS stations and PBS KIDS digital platforms the day they're released, honoring the creators' commitment to free, fun educational material for children. 'This unique public-private partnership will enable Sesame Workshop to bring our research-based curriculum to young children around the world with Netflix's global reach, while ensuring children in communities across the U.S. continue to have free access on public television to the Sesame Street they love,' Sesame Workshop CEO Sherri Westin added in the announcement. What makes the deal such a savvy PR move is that it's a win for the company on several levels. Not only does it provide a sharp contrast between Netflix and the once and future HBO Max, and what might be considered a subtle rebuke to this administration's attack on publicly funded channels, it also offers a counterpoint to some recent perceptions of Netflix. Over the past couple years, Netflix has made some moves that helped foster an image of the company as more profit-focused and less consumer-friendly. Between the crackdown on password-sharing, multiple price hikes, and sunsetting of the popular Basic ad-free plan, pushing users toward either higher-priced tiers or an ad-based option, the company seemed driven by a shrewd quest to leave no money on the table, no matter who got left behind. By ensuring that American families will be able to access new episodes of Sesame Street for free for the first time in a decade, however, Netflix has demonstrated it has more on its mind than the bottom line. It's the kind of message that resonates with would-be subscribers, and it should go a long way toward keeping the clouds away from Netflix's reputation for some time.
