Sesame Place Texas: Closed

On January 11, 1985 Sesame Place in Irving Texas announced that they would not be reopening. 

A spokesman for Busch Entertainment (the owner of the park) said attendance was lower than expected due to fierce competition and targeting a limited segment of the overall market.

Image from Mid Cities Daily News

The picture above is from October of 1985. They had removed the Big Bird head from the entrance and gutted the interior. All of the usable pieces of equipment was removed and shipped to Sesame Place in Langhorne or other parks owned by Busch Entertainment.

Busch refused to put the park up for sale for a while, hoping to find a new use for the space. However, it was eventually sold and razed.

The park was located at the corner of Highway 183 and Esters Road in Irving Texas (near the Dallas Fort Worth Airport.)

Today that corner includes a Walmart, a Best Western and various restaurants.

Posted by Guy Hutchinson

The Entrance To Sesame Place Texas

Image from Flickr

Above we see the entrance to Sesame Place in Texas in a shot from the early 1980s.

Below, Sesame Place in Langhorne, also in the early 1980s.

Image from Henson

Texas Advertisement: Free Tickets

Here is an ad for a drawing to win Free tickets to the Sesame Place in Texas. The ad promoted a newspaper contest that ended on June 23, 1982.

The Oak Ridge Boys video

In 1982 The Oak Ridge Boys put out a video for their song "Thank God For Kids". It was filmed at the (then) new Sesame Place in Irving Texas. Below are some screen-caps from the video.

The first image shows a kid inside the Texas version of Crystal Climb. It's hard to tell if this was inside or outside. The Texas Sesame Place had more indoor space than the PA park does, so this is possible they had an indoor Crystal Climb.

Behind Crystal Climb a large sign advertising Big Bird's Sesame Place Play Court, which was the name of the outside area of the Texas park, but I can't tell if that is the entrance or if he is already in Big Bird's Sesame Place Play Court!

 All images  (C) 1982 MCA Nashville

The image shows Big Bird at Sesame Studio. There was one in Langhorne, too. The video shows this Big Bird was animatronic and moved his mouth up and down. I don't know if the Langhorne ever moved.

Here is a good look at the entrance to Sesame Place Texas. This Sesame Place had a 40,000 square foot building that guests entered through Big Bird's mouth, much like the head of Big Bird Bridge.

 The difference in Texas was that the bridge behind Big Bird's mouth was indoor.

Sesame Place in Langhorne did (and still does) have a number of indoor attractions. The Texas park had all of those attractions in a single building, whereas Sesame Place Langhorne had them in 4 separate buildings.

The Oak Ridge Boys video also gives us a look at the Sesame Studio Neighborhood Replica and the Ernie in the bathtub photo spot. Both were in Langhorne as well.

The video is a nice way to get a look at the Texas park. It was open for such a short time and there isn't much other video available to the public.

Posted by Guy Hutchinson

Sesame Place Texas Ad: How to Get Closer to your Kids

1982 Advertisement

Here is an ad from 192 the promoted Sesame Place in Irving Texas. The park had a different layout than the one in Langhorne, but many of the same experiences.

This ad promotes "dozens of outdoor elements" including The Count's Ball Room, Ernie's Bed Bounce and The Amazing Mumford's Water Maze. All of which were in the Pennsylvania park at that time.

The Texas park closed down in 1984.

Sesame Beach

Sesame Beach was a beach themed play area at Sesame Place in the early days of the park.

1988 Image from YouTube

The area featured large yellow letters (both an A and a Z), some play equipment and sand.

Image from YouTube

In an adjoining play area (that may have been considered part of Sesame Beach) there was a very small version of the ball pit and a climb on train.

 1988 Image from YouTube

 1988 Image from YouTube

Today Grover's World Twirl occupies this space.

 Image from Google Street Views

There is another beach area in the park, Sand Castle Beach, which opened with Sesame Island in the early 1990s.

 Image from Google Street Views

Baby Bear

Baby Bear is a walk-around character that debuted in 2005 at Sesame Place.

The character debuted on Sesame Street in the early 1990s. He wears short overalls with his name on them. On TV he doesn't usually wear any clothes.

He is still listed as a character on the Sesame Place website but doesn't appear in any of the current shows or the Neighborhood Street Party parade.