Sesame Street‘s 39th Season kicks off on Monday, August 11 with new segments, musical performances, parodies and cast members. Broadcast in HD, this season will feature new street scenes that will bolster a child’s math vocabulary. In one notable segment, Will Arnett plays Max the Magician, whose tricks may not be magic, but math! Indeed. Other celebrities joining Arnett this season include Feist (you knew the 1-2-3-4 song was destined for Sesame Street — if you can’t wait, check out the clip below from YouTube, it’s fantastic), Jessica Alba, David Beckham, Heidi Klum, Brian Williams, Neil Patrick Harris, Sandra Oh, Jack Black, Jenny McCarthy, Feijoo Sisters and Jason Taylor.
Continuing its tradition to use pop culture to educate, new parodies this season include “30 Rocks,” Pre-School Musical” and “Are You Smarter Than an Egg Layer,” hosted, appropriately, by Jeff Rocksworthy.
Young viewers will meet a new cast member on the Street this season: Leela, a young Indian-American who embraces her heritage and culture. Murray, already popular from his “Word on the Street” segment, will have a expanded role on the Street with “Murray Has a Little Lamb.” Murray will traverse the city following the clues provided by his Spanish-speaking cohort Ovejita. It’s a bilingual and cognitive-thinking adventure to discover all kinds of schools — karate, ice-skating, cooking and more — all over town.
Also notable this season will be an additional look for Bert and Ernie. The Misseri Studio in Italy has created a stop-motion version of the two friends for Bert and Ernie’s Great Adventures.