The clear star of the Education School program was Elmo and his puppeteer Kevin Clash. Elmo stole the show repeatedly by questioning an especially earnest panelist, or simply by sitting on the shoulder of the person next to him.

Indeed, when panel moderator Pamela Green, vice president of Children's Television Workshop, announced Clash's part Emmy-award win, Elmo became rather agitated.

"Emmy should have gone to Elmo," the furry red muppet said. "Elmo could have put it in his bag."

When members of the audience questioned the availability of old episodes, Green took the opportunity to announce that CTW and Nickelodeon have entered into a partnership to launch "Noggin," a digital children's entertainment network that will show, among other things, old Sesame Street shows. The announcement was quickly followed by an audience request for an address to which interested job-seekers could send resumes.

During the informal discussion that followed panelist comments, and the Vreception afterward, panelists told theirfavorite muppet stories, some apocryphal, somesimply hilarious.

Kermit the frog began life as muppet creatorJim Henson's aunt's coat. Grover did not start outas a blue monster and Oscar the Grouch wasoriginally orange. In fact, many "star" muppetsbegan as AMs (Any Muppet), new muppets created forbit parts that may later rise in popularity.

The most memorable stories told during thereception following the panel discussion dealtwith children's desire to maintain the illusionthat muppets are real. Clash said that when kidstalk to him with Elmo present, "they don't evensee me."

Loman concluded by saying that Sesame StreetUnpaved has already provided them with a chance tosee what college students think about the shownow, as graduates of Sesame Street.

"It's good for us to get out of our cave andsee what college students think," he said