Natasha Lance Rogoff - Muppets in Moscow - he Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia

Natasha Lance Rogoff is an award-winning American television producer and filmmaker of TV news and documentaries. She has filmed in Europe and throughout the Soviet Union, from Moscow to Siberia, and in Ukraine, Armenia, and the Baltics. Lance Rogoff executive produced Ulitsa Sezam, the Russian adaptation of Sesame Street, between 1993 and 1997. She also produced Plaza Sesamo in Mexico, which aired throughout Latin America and in the United States. In addition to her television work, Lance Rogoff has reported as a journalist on Soviet underground culture for major international media outlets. She published an early expose of gay life behind the Iron Curtain in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1983. And in 1985, ABCs 20/20 aired Lance Rogoffs film, Rock Around the Kremlin, featuring banned Soviet rockn roll artists who, ten years later, she recruited to compose original music for Ulitsa Sezam. Between 2011 and 2020, Lance Rogoff served as the CEO and founder of an edtech firm that produced KickinNutrition.TV, a musical comedy cooking show whose mission is to promote nutrition learning and health equity in urban and rural low-income communities. Lance Rogoff is an associate fellow at Harvard Universitys Art, Film, and Visual Studies department and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New York City with her husband Ken Rogoff. They have two children, Gabriel and Juliana.

Writing a book is harder than I had thought and more rewarding than I could ever have imagined. I would like to acknowledge my extraordinary debt to the many individuals who contributed to this book. Writing Muppets in Moscow gave me the opportunity to reconnect with many former colleagues living in Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet territories. I am so grateful for their magnanimity and trust in allowing me to interview them and for sharing their stories of passion, artistic genius, and tireless commitment: Volodya Grammatikov, Tamara Pavliuchenko, Irina Borisova, Dr. Anna Genina, Katya Komalkova, Sergei Novikov, Vika Lukina, Nana Grinstein, Masha Rybasova, Sasha Sklyar, Seryozha Zineevich, Katya Fedorovna, Elena Lenskaya, and Uliana Savilieva. The Russian production and research teams included more than four hundred souls. Without their remarkable dedication, faith, and efforts, there would be no story.

I am also grateful to my former Sesame Street colleagues who generously agreed to be interviewed for this book: Baxter Urist, Gary Knell, Dr. Charlotte Cole, Luis Santiero, Dr. Valeria Lovelace, Dan Victor, Steve Miller, Anna Connolly, Cooper Wright, Jeanne Taylor Hard, Mark McNease, Gregg Gettas, Brett Pierce, Ginger Knickman, Bunny Lester, David Britt, and Emily Swenson. Additionally, thanks to Chris Cerf, a generous friend, for sharing his advice over the years and for his support. Thanks also to puppetry wizards Ed Christie, Marty Robinson, Kevin Clash, and Nigel Plaskett for agreeing to be interviewed and endlessly entertaining me with their incredible memories of collaborating with the Moscow team to create the Slavic Muppets and train the Russian puppeteers.

Ulitsa Sezam was built on the shoulders of the brilliant creators of Sesame Street. I felt lucky to walk in their footsteps and grateful to Sesame Workshop, the Jim Henson Company, and all my coworkers who were instrumental in making the Russian series a success, especially the late Lisa Simon, Jon Stone, and my dear friend Arlene Sherman. Thanks also to Bernard Meniere, Bernard Lukey, and Elena Koustova (formerly of Nestl) for speaking with me and Simon Hewitt for connecting Sesame Workshop to Nestl.

As regards Muppets in Moscow, I am immensely indebted to my brilliant editors who helped to bring this memoir to life: Dana Isaacson, who masterfully reduced the length of my manuscript; Julianna Haubner for her early suggestion to add more dialogue; and Paris Spies-Gans for her penetrating intelligence and attention to detail. Their efforts made this book eminently more readable than it would otherwise be. This book would not have come to fruition without the benevolence and thoughtful input of Marti Leimbach, a close friend and great fiction writer who literally held my hand, gently guiding me through the writing process, and also edited the final manuscript.

I am truly grateful to Gail Ross, my phenomenal agent, for taking a chance on me and for her wise counsel at every turn, and my smart and savvy publicists, David Kass and Sandi Mendelson of Hilsinger-Mendelson, who made the promotion of this book a pleasure instead of a chore. Thanks also to Maislinn Helfer, my sparkling media director, for her tremendous creativity and organization; David Potashnik for his organization and ability to remain calm through any crisis; and Jen Hegarty, media impresario extraordinaire, for her friendship and kindness in helping me get the word out about my book.

I thank my publisher, Rowman & Littlefield, and all the talented and committed people for their efforts bringing my book to market, and most especially my editor, Christen Karniski, for her discerning insights and guidance at every twist.

Thanks also to Emily Lahey-Shoov, the voiceover artist of Muppets in Moscow, for her inspired, pitch-perfect performance, aided by master audio engineers Jordan Rich and Ken Carberry at Chart Productions.

Thanks, Max Evry, for the genius cover designhe is a true friendand Ian Fried, a talented graphic artist who produced the final cover, as well as Nick Holmes for my author photo.

I am also very grateful to Robin Hessman, who generously opened her beautiful steel-trap mind, selflessly sharing her memories of our time in Moscow making Ulitsa Sezam. For more than two decades, we have shared a wonderful friendship.

To Leonid Zagalsky, my dearest friend of more than thirty years, I am enormously indebted for his unflagging support and honesty. As my closest confidant during the filming of Ulitsa Sezam, I often consulted him while writing this book. I am eternally grateful for his advice, generosity, and, most importantly, great sense of humor.

For help with Russian translation and transcription, I thank Geordie Sinclair Kenyon and Stephan Gerald Kuehler for conducting research at the Harvard University Libraries. Im also indebted to several academics for their detailed analysis of historical events in 1990s Russia, which provided essential context for understanding larger political and historical events that impacted the production of Sesame Street: Arkady Ostrovsky, Masha Gessen, David Hoffman, Ben Mezrich, David Remnick, Karen Dawisha, Ben Judah, Angela Stent, Anne Applebaum, Fiona Hill, Catherine Belton, and Peter Pomerantsev. Thanks also to early champions of this story: Tina Bennet, Jonathan Karp, Svetlana Katz, and Amy Lamott.

At every step of this literary journey, I was guided and encouraged by my wonderful siblingsAndy, Emily, Stephan, and Kate, and their spousesand also many friends who patiently put up with my monomaniacal conversations about this story for two years: Beth Mendelson, Elodie Goirand, Andreas Xenophontos, Lisa Randall, Sabine Howard, Suzanne Priebatsch, Julie Wolf, Judy Warner, Max Burley, Anne McElvoy, Martin Ivens, Jim Kryzanski, Katherine Craven Kryzanski, Amy Spies, Gary Gans, Ned Temko, Annie Corbett, Sasha Borofsky, Louiza Mosendz, David Blaine, Holly Davis, David O. Russell, Nadia Zamoul, Lori Gottileb, Jean Korlitz, Cornelius Fischer, Maya Popa, Jessica Prato, Anna Tse, Josh Horowitz, Barbara Guggenheim, and the late Joe DeCola and Bert Fields.

My family has been my greatest source of strength throughout this long project. My children, Gabriel and Juliana, pushed me to believe that my story was actually cool and to this day freak out their friends with tales of their crazy mother. Their delight in my story gave me the encouragement I needed. I am also deeply grateful to my daughter for all her advice and tireless efforts. And to my lifelong partner Ken, who has read more versions of this book than Ive put pen to paper and always been there for me, I am grateful for his love and unwavering support.