"Sesame Street" Launches its First-Ever iPhone App, Makes Current-Season Episodes Available on iTunes

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind the long-running children's TV show, "Sesame Street" (which is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary), said Wednesday that it has teamed with design consultancy, IDEO, to launch the first-ever official "Sesame Street" iPhone/iPod touch app.

Entitled "Grover's Number Special" (note: Grover is a furry, blue muppet perhaps best known for his encounters as a bumbling waiter with a long-suffering customer called "Mr. Johnson") and priced at $2.99, the app includes original "Sesame Street" video and is intended to help children develop such skills as visual discrimination, counting and number recognition. Sesame Workshop describes the app's scenario as follows: "When Charlie, the cook, doesn't come into the restaurant and the customer wants his lunch right away, Grover, our cute and lovable waiter, needs help! Join Grover in the kitchen to catch--and count--ingredients to make delicious and nutritious meals. All users have to do is tip the iPhone or iPod touch back and forth to move the tray. Grover tells you how many ingredients to catch, and then counts the items with you. 'Oh, it is so much fun,' said Grover. 'Please play my little app--the customer is getting very hungry!'"

In addition, Sesame Workshop says that it will, for the first time, make select episodes from "Sesame Street's" current season available on iTunes. The Season 40 episodes will include guest appearances by Cameron Diaz, Jimmy Fallon, Ricky Gervais, Maggie Gyllenhall and others, the organization says. Sesame Workshop also offers a weekly "Sesame Street Podcast" on iTunes, as well as a selection of "Sesame Street" music. "As 'Sesame Street' marks this milestone year, we continue to innovate through the latest media platforms and offer our fans the best of 'Sesame Street' whenever and wherever they are," Jeffrey Fleishman, Sesame Workshop's assistant VP of media distribution business development, said in a prepared statement.

A demo video of the "Grover's Number Special" iPhone app can be seen here.