Utah

Utah is the 45th state of the United States of America.

• Robert A. Hatch, who later became the Children's Television Workshop's vice president for public affairs in 1972, was born in Salt Lake City in 1931. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Utah State University in 1952.

• Jim Henson offered Caroll Spinney a job on Sesame Street when both attended the national puppetry festival in Salt Lake City in 1969.^[1]

• Gedde Watanabe, a Japanese-American actor born in Utah, played Hiroshi on Sesame Street from 1988 until 1991.

• The touring exhibition The Art of the Muppets was on display at the Salt Lake ART Center in Salt Lake City from October 11 to December 1, 1986. It is the exhibit's last known venue.

• In the Farscape episode "A Human Reaction," Jack Crichton tells John Crichton that D'Argo is being flown to a military base in Utah.

• From September 28 to 30, 2005, Brian and Heather Henson celebrated "50 years of the Jim Henson Company" at the Salt Lake City Library, screening a selection of movies, archive material and clips of upcoming projects, while offering several Q&As and autograph opportunities.

• On January 21, 2006, The World According to Sesame Street premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Salt Lake City.

• Throughout 2006, a PBS commercial featuring Elmo and Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. of Utah aired locally for the Healthy Habits for Life initiative.

• A 2010 episode of Sesame Street featured a Super Grover 2.0 skit, in which the investigative super hero helps out a Cactus in Monument Valley, Utah, to find the perfect ball for him to play with.

• On January 23, 2011, Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, and had five public, as well as several private and press screenings. Director Constance Marks, Kevin Clash, Carol-Lynn Parente, Elmo and entourage were in attendance.

• From December 11 to 14, 2014, Santino Fontana and nine Sesame Street characters appeared as special guests on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas concert series Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. A CD album as well as a home video DVD of the concerts were released on October 16, 2015.

• On January 29, 2016, Caroll Spinney, together with wife Deb Spinney and Oscar the Grouch, attended a special screening of I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story at The University of Utah's Kingsbury Hall, screening on the very same stage that Jim Henson first saw Caroll perform on in 1969 before he asked him to join his company. The event was bookended by a VIP donor reception, and an on-stage Q&A following the screening.

• On January 30, 2021, the local Sundance Film Festival was set to premiere the documentary Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street, though due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was changed to occur online through the festival's website, opening up participation in either of the two screenings to a limited, nationwide audience (but geoblocking it internationally). The second screening was scheduled for February 1, 2021.

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