---
title: "Sesamstraat Random Episode Picker"
author: Bob Rubbens
publish_timestamp: 2026-01-19T16:01:34+01:00
state: published
template: template/post.mako
id: 001aed9e-acc7-463f-aed9-8c7e0353f00b
---

For all those busy parents; the *one* thing nobody asked for, but which everyone needed, is finally here!

I made a [Sesamstraat](https://npo.nl/start/serie/sesamstraat) episode randomizer. The NPO Start website was just getting *too* janky on our slow TV laptop. When you visit <https://bobrubbens.nl/project/sesamstraat>, your browser is redirected to a random Sesamstraat episode on [NPO Start](https://npo.nl/start).

I expect this will shave many parents hours off their daily childcare routine, as it has done for me. Enjoy!

# Technical details

I *braincoded* [a script](./scrape_sesamstraat_episodes.py.html) that scrapes episode URLs off Sesamstraat's NPO Start pages. As the NPO Start webpage for Sesamstraat contains a json object containing exactly this information, this just requires some string/HTML/JSON mangling and a few HTTP `GET` requests. The episode URLs are then written to a json file in my website repo, which turns it into a redirecting webpage whenever my website is deployed.

Child can do the laundry, as we say in Dutch!

The only downside is that I need to run the scraping script manually if the NPO Start website changes. If you've been getting redirected into 404's, let me know and I'll rerun the scraper.