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Apple TV Plus, Bird Bird team up for Sesame Workshop show Helpsters

Muppets are coming to teach kids about coding with the new show.

Amanda Kooser
Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET. When not wallowing in weird gear and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto.
Amanda Kooser
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Big Bird and a friend showed up on the Apple Event stage to announce a new show.

Video screenshot by CNET

The most colorful celebrity cameo at Apple's Monday "show time" event belonged to Big Bird, the friendly oversized muppet of Sesame Street fame.

Big Bird came to introduce Helpsters, a children's show for Apple's new TV Plus streaming video service. The big yellow fellow had a muppet friend named Cody along to help. Cody will stat in the show, which will focus on teaching coding skills to preschoolers.

Apple announced in June 2018 it had given a multi-series order to Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit media organization behind the famed Sesame Street children's show.

Watch this: Big Bird wants to help your kids learn to code on Helpsters

"Sesame Workshop will draw on their 50 years of expertise creating children's programming to produce live-action and animated series, and to develop a puppet series," Apple said.

While Sesame Street is one of the organization's most famous productions, it is not a part of the Apple agreement.

The new Sesame Workshop show is just one in a flurry of Apple show unveilings and partnerships spanning the gamut from a reboot of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories to a wide-ranging deal with media mogul Oprah Winfrey

Apple's Sesame Workshop move shows it is intent on offering a wide range of programming for all ages. 

Be sure to check out everything Apple announced at the event.  

Originally published June 20, 2018. 
Update, March 25, 2019, 12:06 p.m. PT: Adds official announcement. 

It's showtime for Apple's streaming service

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