Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street

by Michael Davis

EPUB, 2009

Description

Nonfiction. Entertainment. HTML: In advance of the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, comes Street Gang, Michael Davis's compelling--and often comical--story of the creation and history of the media masterpiece and pop culture landmark, told with the cooperation of one of the show's cofounders, Joan Ganz Cooney. Sesame Street was born as a result of a discussion at Cooney's home about the poor quality of children's programming, and hit the air as a big bang of creative fusion from Jim Henson and company, quickly rocketing to success. Street Gang, traces the evolution of the show from its inspiration in the civil rights movement through its many ups and downs--from Nixon trying to cut off its funding to the rise of Elmo--via the remarkable personalities who have contributed to it, and reveals how it has taught millions of children not only their letters and numbers, but cooperation and fair play, tolerance and self-respect, conflict resolution, and the importance of listening. This is the unforgettable story of five decades of social and cultural change, and the miraculous creative efforts, passion and commitment of writers, producers, directors, animators and puppeteers who have created one of the most influential shows in the history of television. Narrator Caroll Spinney, winner of six Emmy Awards and two Grammys, has received both a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Library of Congress's Living Legend award for his work on "Sesame Street." In 2006, Spinney was honored with the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Lifetime Achievement Award..… (more)

Publication

Penguin Books (2009), 400 pages

Rating

(135 ratings; 3.5)

User reviews

LibraryThing member whitreidtan

Not much of a tv watcher as a child (at least as compared to my sister who would willingly watch the test pattern on Saturday mornings while waiting for the cartoons to start), I still logged quite a bit of time watching the marvelous and entertaining Sesame Street. As a college student, I was

thrilled to find a program to download on my bright and shiny, new computer that made Oscar the Grouch pop up and sing "I Love Trash" each and every time you dumped something into your system trash can. I can't even begin to explain how often I created a blank document just to have something to throw away. I knew the world had lost a big soul when Jim Henson died (and a memorial to him found its way onto my dorm door). I watched Sesame Street with my own children. The Sesame Street puppets are a major part of my cultural history and so when I heard about this complete history of Sesame Street, I was thrilled. I even helped railroad my book club into reading it. So nothing could have been more disappointing than to find the book dry and dull and unwonderful.

Starting with the spark that eventually became the origin of Sesame Street, Davis traces the history of children's television in the 60's and the life stories of the major players in the development of the idea that became the Children's Television Workshop. Eventually he tackles the rise of the show itself, detailing the thinking behind the set design, the multi-cultural cast, and even the title of the show itself. There are political and business moves laid bare here and a quick skim through the post-Jim Henson Sesame Street.

Unfortunately, Davis' pre-show tracings consume well over 100 pages of the book and are packed to the brim with inconsequential minutia about other tv shows and the childhoods of the show's developers. It is almost as if he felt that leaving out any of his research would invalidate the time he spent on it. Instead, it made for a deadly boring read. There was little on the personal aspect of the show. None of the interesting tidbits that I hoped to learn. For instance, while mentioning that Oscar was orange in season one, he never tells the reader why a color change was made to this iconic puppet. He does cover some of the bigger strides made on the show, such as the emotional Farewell Mr. Hooper episode following actor Will Lee's death but he ignores other major parts, such as the use of famous guest hosts. The other big omission is that of more recent Sesame stuff. Once Jim Henson died, the book clicked into warp speed, racing toward the end with little commentary on the state of the Street these days and the innovations the CTW is playing with now.

There's very little of the quirky, human interest stuff that makes histories come alive. As a result, this history of Sesame Street takes on the droning tone of a textbook, detailing the uninteresting and missing out on those tidbits that would draw a reading audience, weaned on Sesame Street, in. Personally I would have loved information behind the development of the characters and the puppets. I know the show itself is a trail blazer and has had an immeasurable impact on children's educational programming but reading this "complete history" will make the reader think that it was a quaint idea of its time but something that is no longer relevant (and frankly uninteresting to read about). I just know there's a warm and wonderful Sesame Street story out there. This just didn't tell it.

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LibraryThing member SR510

To say that I went into this wanting -- and expecting -- to like this book would be an understatement. I love Sesame Street. It is entirely possible that Sesame Street taught me to read. And I met the author at a panel and book signing, and he appeared to be an extremely nice guy.

I just wish he'd

written a better book.

This is a book that spends lots of time obsessing over some aspects of Sesame Street's creation, while glossing over details and leaving out other important bits entirely. Chapters are spent on Captain Kangaroo, both in its own right as a predecessor, and as a training ground for several people who would later work on Sesame Street, including Tom Whedon, Jon Stone, and Dave Connell. Much is made of bad blood between Stone and Connell from that program, culminating on page 137 with "They would never be bowling partners, but they did agree to work together. Over time and true to form, Connell was more successful at burying past differences than Stone."

That, boys and girls, is what we call "foreshadowing." It is the sort of thing one takes as a setup, holding in the back of one's mind, waiting for the bit where Stone snaps and trouble breaks out. But in this book, that bit never comes. The tension between the two is never mentioned again.

Chekhov advised playwrights never to bring a gun onto the stage if they didn't intend to fire it. The author of this book heaps guns onto the mantel and judges that good enough.

Perhaps more to the point, this is a "complete history of Sesame Street" that spends about two chapters on Captain Kangaroo and one sentence on Roscoe Orman, who's played Gordon since 1974.

(Matt Robinson, the first Gordon, gets a few pages, but there is no mention of him leaving, let alone any explanation given for why he did, or any mention of how children -- or anyone else -- reacted to the switch. For that matter, Hal Miller, who played the role between the two, isn't mentioned at all.)

It's a nice try, I suppose, and there's some good material here. But the complete history of Sesame Street has yet to be written.

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LibraryThing member tiamatq

When I was in grad school, I signed up for a class called Death and Literature. The description sounded awesome and I was being a bit morbid. What it turned out to be was a philosophy class in literature class clothing, which resulted in me reading Heidegger for weeks at a time, only occasionally

broken up by "She" or "Dracula." The few moments of awesomeness did not make up for the fact that I was dragged through "Being and Time." And that's what reading "Street Gang" is like.

This is not a complete history of Sesame Street. This is a slog through the personal histories of several of the key players who created Sesame Street: Joan Ganz Cooney, Jon Stone, David Connell, Sam Gibbon, and Jim Henson. And when I saw histories, I mean you learn about their parents' upbringing, their upbringing, schooling, weird relationships, everything! This book is hyper-detailed, bogging it down. What isn't about family history is about how the show got funded, which has the potential to be interesting if we weren't forced to walk through every step of the process. And, of course, we do. You finally get to the genesis of the show and its characters and stories in Chapter 12... so if you want just that, skip to page 166.

To finish my complaint on the book's completeness, it skims a fair amount of the 1980s (compared to the detail of earlier chapters) and gives very little info on the mid-1990s and beyond. This is probably because management changed at the CTW and Davis does not fawn over these people. Elmo is the most-covered subject during this time period.

I'd also have to say that the writing structure is incredibly awkward. Readers are flung forward and backward and forward again in time within the span of a few paragraphs, all usually to tell a story that usually doesn't need telling. Like did I need to know that Cooney's personal assistant attended her abusive ex-husband's funeral for her, so she could report back to her boss on how it went? Or should the moment Jane Henson steps forward to speak and Jim Henson's funeral really be the time Davis first brings up that they had had marital problems?

That's not to say that there aren't fascinating stories about Sesame Street, its creation, and its creators. The book is full of them, but you have to be patient and dig around to get them, and I'm not sure it's really worth your time. You do gain an appreciation for how ground-breaking this series was and still is. You also wonder if maybe it was a requirement that you have a terminal illness in your future, as much of the end of the book is dedicated to all the contributors to the show who died of cancer, AIDs, or other diseases. It's kind of frightening how many people involved in the show have died.

I can't say that I really recommend this book. Mostly, I recommend the middle of this book. Unless you're looking for a history and finances lesson, with some Muppets thrown in for good measure.

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LibraryThing member kaelirenee

My earliest memories of childhood all involve Sesame Street. My baby blanket had embroidered pictures of Big Bird and the gang and I carried that thing around until I was 10. I knew I had to read this book.

And that is the only reason I spent so long reading it. The prologue was a wonderful

remembrance of Jim Henson (yes, I remember exactly where I was when I learned he'd died) and almost had me in tears. Then the next 11 chapters were a slow slog through personal histories of anyone associated with the early days of the show. And their parents. And assistants. And spouses. And all the other childrens' shows and all their stars' histories. The sentences and paragraphs were convoluted, which exacerbated the back and forth history the author gave of all these people (I really did not need to know about Joan's dad's suicide or how she felt about going to a Catholic high school).
After over a hundred pages, I'd read about Captain Kangaroo, the Ding Dong School, Howdy Doody, Romper Room, and a myriad other shows. I got a detailed description of the station screens. But I got nothing about Sesame Street. This book would have been saved by a better editor.

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LibraryThing member readermom

I have heard writing described as weaving a tapestry. This was a book that you could see the weaving being done. The author gives half-chapter biographies of all the people involved in creating Sesame Street, starting from way before they met. Eventually all the threads converge and you have a

public television show. It was an enjoyable read, and I learned some things, but a lot of those things I didn't really want to know. For example, the politics and bickering involved in making a television show; I knew it was there, didn't appreciate so many pages explaining it in detail. The liberal policies of mid-60s intellectuals wasn't all that high on my interest list either.
What you hope for in a book like this are amusing anecdotes and a new insight into people you already knew. There were some of both, but since the real story was the development, the book gave a cursory look at the actual production of the show.
And I now feel really old because this year is Sesame Street's 40th anniversary.

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LibraryThing member brianjayjones

An informative, almost clincal, look at the people and personalities involved in bringing Sesame Street to life. Manage your expectations, though -- this is no year-by-year review of what occured on the show. In fact, the first show doesn't even air until slightly over mid-way through the book.

Mostly, it's the story of a core group of educators, advocates, producers, financers, artists, and entertainers who turned a dinner party question -- "Can television be used to teach children?" -- into an International Institution.

Nearly all the players in here are committed to their cause and brilliant in their own ways -- and most of them also have ways of making the others around them crazy, whether its the egomania of songwriter Joe Raposo, the perfectionism of the do-it-all Jon Stone, or even Jim Henson's handwringing over being typecast as a Children's Puppeteer. The true hero here -- and thus the recipient of the most ink -- is Joan Ganz Cooney, who holds the organization together through sheer force of will and the power of her personality.

Again, manage your expectations. If you're looking for vignettes about the show and its sketches, Sesame Street Unpaved is probably the better book for you. This one is the behind-the-scenes look at the mechanics of creating, writing, directing, producing and, yes, politicking an enormously successful children's show

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LibraryThing member kristenn

Interesting, fun, and frequently poignant. There's an extensive history of children's television prior to Sesame Street, which was a nice bonus and a good foundation for the main story. I watched the show in the mid to late 70s, so a lot of the later characters and controversies were new to me.

(Well, I'm aware of Elmo, of course.) Like many people, I had always just associated Sesame Street with Jim Henson, so it was pretty eye-opening to see just how many talented, accomplished people were required to make something of that quality. Plus all the heavy academic research that went into it. It's a good message about sweat equity vs luck.

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LibraryThing member knitgeisha

I wasn't very impressed with this book. He spends too much of the book talking about the backgrounds of the people involved with Sesame Street. I was expecting stories about the 20 years of the show but there is hardly any behind the scenes info. Special guest stars on the show only get a couple of

sentences of coverage. His style of writing is pretty dry.

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LibraryThing member Othemts

The title says "Complete History" but I'd adjust that to read "The Thorough Behind the Scenes History" of Sesame Street. In fact this book contains a lot of pre-history of Sesame Street. It is 100 pages into the book before Davis begins even covering the creation and planning for the series. The

first section of the book instead includes in-depth biographies and family histories of key personnel behind the show: co-creator Lloyd Morrisett, Muppet creator Jim Henson, puppeteers Carroll Spinney and Frank Oz, and the star of this book Joan Ganz Cooney, co-creator and executive producer of Sesame Street.

In between the biographies are some chapters on the state of childrens' television in the 50's and 60's, much of it execrable, but a couple of shows are spotlighted - Kukla, Fran, and Ollie and Captain Kangaroo. Both shows inspired Sesame Street and the latter provided a core group of production staff. Following this, there's about another hundred pages of the actual research and creation of the show before Sesame Street debuts on Nov. 10, 1969 to rave reviews.

All of this back story is well-written and quite fascinating but then the ensuing forty year history of the show feels painted over in broad strokes. Davis highlights some of Sesame Street's finer moments in the 70's and 80's and the challenges faced in the 90's when the television executives begin to interfere with the artistic creativity of the writers and performers to encourage marketing in place of education. The last chapters of this book read like an obituary page as the many figures the reader meets in this book decline and die.

Overall this is a well-researched and fascinating book. I found it hard to put down the book even as it veered off into biographical and historical tangents. I just wish the same amount of detail could have been put into describing the history of the show Sesame Street as the viewers saw it.

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LibraryThing member susanbevans

I finished Michael Davis' Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street last week, but have been at a loss as to what to say in my review. But after ruminating on my subject for a few days, I feel that I can now attempt a fair criticism of the book.

Let me begin by saying that Street Gang was

an extremely well-written and thoughtfully researched work of non-fiction. The information contained within the book in in-depth and meticulous, providing the reader with a sympathetic look into the lives of the amazingly talented group of people behind one of the most phenomenally fun educational programs of our time. Street Gang is an astonishingly balanced and respectful history of the creative presence behind Sesame Street, and the process that went into making it an extraordinary success.

That being said, I hate to tell you that I really did not particularly enjoy this book. I think the reason I did not appreciate it as much as many other reviewers have probably has more to do with my age than the fact that it was not good. Sesame Street premiered about nine years before I was born, and I grew up watching it on PBS. Truthfully... I never did actually grow up, and from time to time I still tune in to see what's happening on the street. It was my love for Sesame Street and all things puppet that drew me to Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street in the first place. Unfortunately, it just couldn't live up to my expectations.

I found Street Gang to be awfully dry. The story of the conception of Sesame Street was interesting, but regrettably the first half of the book is completely bogged down in biographies of "every government bureaucrat and PR lackey that worked on the show during its formative years." I was hoping to read more about the development of the show, and the impact Sesame Street had on children's television in the 21st century. What I found in Street Gang was more a history of all the people that had a hand in making the show happen, and not much about the characters - the real beating heart of Sesame Street.

Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street was overly detailed and much too focused on giving the complete personal histories of the key players in the making of Sesame Street: Joan Ganz Cooney, Jon Stone, David Connell, Sam Gibbon, and Jim Henson. It's just not what I was looking for.

So, I'm in a quandary on how I should rate and recommend this book. If I rate it solely on the writing and information, I would give it 4 stars - if I rate it based on the fact that it was too dry for my taste and I was very disappointed after reading it, I would give it 2 stars. So I'm going to split the difference and give it 3 stars. As for recommending it to other readers, my advice is just to understand what you'll be getting from Street Gang (and what you won't). If you do a little research beforehand - read some good and bad reviews - you probably won't be disappointed.

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LibraryThing member mkschoen

Wow. I had such high hopes, but man, this was poorly written. Davis seemed compelled to include every random fact he discovered while researching the book, whether or not it had any remote relation to Sesame Street, or was even mildly interesting. One hundred and twenty pages into a 350 page book,

and we're only up to a written proposal that maybe there should be a television show that tries to educate kids. But we've had time for mentions of Fred Friendly taking on McCarthy, the number of bridges constructed as part of the Works Progress Admisitration's budget, and the revelation that Joan Cooney's Jewish grandfather was a charter member of a restricted country club in Pheonix (Cooney was Henson's partner and one of the founders of Children's Television Workshop).And the language, well, it's just painful. "As autumn turned to winter in 1929, a direful shadow crossed the continentm like biblical darkness falling upon Egypt." "Collegiate rivals Harvard and Yale can each claim a measure of paternity for Sesame Street. During the show's three-year gestation period, from 1966 to 1969, researcher, faculty leaders and graduates of both Ivy institutions touched nearly every phase of its development." Oh my lord.

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LibraryThing member dsafire

Entertaining, informative and well written, this one is as advertised. Does not focus on Jim Henson overly, discusses more the production and business side of things than the creative.

LibraryThing member bookwormteri

For being about a humorous and affectionate series, this was one DRY book. I love Sesame Street, and this book was very thorough, but tough as hell to read in spots. The character creation was fascinating, as was hiring the performers and learning their backstories. But that does not save this

book. I wanted more, more behind the scenes stories, more cast relationships, more character creation. I did not need to know about Joan Cooney's childhood, nor was I interested in reading 100 pages of history of Captain Kangaroo. I picked up a book about Sesame Street, right? There were some interesting spots, but unless you are a HUGE fan, skip it.

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LibraryThing member irkthepurist

possibly a little dry at times, but possibly necessarily so, this is more the story of the children's television workshop than "sesame street" itself. that said, it's entertaining throughout and is full of fascinating moments. i would have liked a lot more of the context of the series - as a

british viewer, i'd have liked more on american children's television such as where "sesame street" fitted in with something like "mr roger's neighborhood" but having said that - i will treasure four things from this book for life. firstly, the incident with the raccoons and the spider monkeys. secondly, buffy saint-marie's son's name. thirdly, the german's idea of what "sesame street" might be able to do. and finally jim henson's gift to frank oz. all these moments are worth finding a copy of this book. not perfect, but fascinating all the same...

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LibraryThing member riotex

The subtitle says it all - The Complete Story of Sesame Street. I grew up with Sesame Street and picked this book up on impulse. It is definitely very complete - I cannot imagine there is a fact about Sesame Street - from idea through recent years - that is not covered. This is not a light-hearted

review of the show - but a true history.
I found it a little dry at times, but it definitely covers all of the fact from the idea for the show, where they found most of the original talent (Captain Kangaroo), raising initial funds, etc. Two aspects of the Sesam Street story I found interesting is how a well-funded public/private endowment kids show (Sesame Street) displaced a private commercial enterprise (Captain Kangaroo). I also found it interesting that even Barney gets some treatment in this book.
If you are looking for a light read - this is NOT the book - if you want an exhaustive and complete history of the Childrens Television Workshop - this is for you.

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LibraryThing member lalawe

As a child of the 80's, Sesame Street will always have a special place in my heart. That probably explains why I found this book, a history that seems to focus mainly on the genesis and first essential years of the show, so enthralling. What is amazing is that despite the challenges faced by the

crew - money, derision that their experiment of teaching kids with TV is a worthwhile gamble, personality problems, egos, marital strife - the core focus of Sesame Street remained on the children.

There are a few problems with the book. The narrative tends to jump around - I was puzzled sometimes as to exactly when the events described were happening - but overall, it's fun. The sheer number of people included was also confusing - some would pop in, not show up for a few pages, and then pop back in the fray a chapter later. The amount of information is just overwhelming.

Overall, a fascinating read.

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LibraryThing member GBev2009

A largely disappointing book. Most of the book is about the genesis and development about Sesame Street which is interesting from the educational standpoint of the show, but the discussion of the time the actual show was on the air seems sparse. There are some nice anecdotes and not so nice ones as

well. (The demise of Northern Calloway, who played David, is disturbing.)

Hardly a complete history, but an okay read.

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LibraryThing member mandochild

I was very excited when I first saw this book and couldn't wait to read it. It is extremely well researched and painstaking in its detail. And maybe that's the trouble for me. I only survived the first five chapters! I didn't even make it one third of the way through! And it seemed to take me

absolutely forever just to make it that far. Unfortunately I felt like I was drowning in detail and never actually moving forwards. Because I didn't start out knowing the names of the people involved, the background history of each person was challenging to read, because, with so much detail, it was actually hard to work out sometimes which person I was meant to be concerned about, and which others were the relatives or significant influences.

The history of children's television is fascinating, but I just seemed to be swimming backwards against the tide. So unfortunately I don't appear to be intelligent enough for Street Gang. I had heard many years ago that a Baha'i was responsible for the creation of Sesame Street, and that its purpose was the promulgation of such principles as universal education and unity in diversity. Well, the show certainly promotes those principles, but whether there was ever any specific religious design to that end I never got far enough to find out!

I wanted to plough my way through, but there are just too many books and too little life in which to read them... But I do hope that I will find another opportunity to learn about this wonderful show.

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LibraryThing member Kewpie83

I wanted to like this book. I was excited to pick this up and start reading. Unfortunately, the book very much let me down. Truth be told, I don't think this is the kind of story best told with written word, but rather would better suit a TV documentary. As a person trying to get into the

children's television business, I was hoping for a little insight on the creative end of Sesame Street, more so than the business end prior to Sesame Street, which the beginning of the book definitely pushed.

Overall, It wasn't my kind of book. I can't recommend it whole-heartedly, but worth taking a peek at if you're at all interested.

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LibraryThing member sriemann

I tried to put my review for this on right after I read it, but I was foiled by poor wifi access. So the short version is that I liked this book because it was thorough in touching all the different things that affected Sesame Street's creation, nostalgic for me when I recognized different skits

and scenes, and well-written in that it kept me reading right along.

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LibraryThing member retropelocin

"If Sesame Street is the most successful show on television, it is also the most analyzed, criticized, evaluated, debated, debunked, championed, viewed with alarm, pointed to with pride, interpreted, misinterpreted, and overinterpreted media event since William Randolph Hearst declared war on

Spain:---Ron Powers, television critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, 1970 (one year into the life of "Sesame Street").

Conceived in 1965 by television producer Joan Cooney and experimental psychologist Lloyd Morrisett, and born in 1969, "Sesame Street" became an overnight success after four years of gestation.

In Street Gang, Michael Davis takes us through the entire history of "Sesame Street". From research into how children watch television and learn (short segments, "jingles", colors, animation) to the decision to have Sesame Street, itself, an inner city street, to funding, to hiring everybody both in front of and behind the cameras.

Davis includes small biographies on each of the players as they arrive on the scene. The reader gets to know "Gordon and Susan" (Matt Robinson/Roscoe Orman and Loretta Long), Jim Henson and Frank Oz, Joe Raposo and Jon Stone, and countless other professionals and entertainers who strove to make "Sesame Street" the most innovative children's program on television yet.

Street Gang also gives a bit of background on earlier children's programming..."The Howdy Doody Show", "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" and, possibly most importantly, "Captain Kangaroo".

Writers and producers (including Jon Stone) from "Captain Kangaroo" were involved in the development and production of "Sesame Street". The character of Mr. Hooper (portrayed by Will Lee) was created as homage to Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo). Although, reading through Street Gang, one would think it was actually Oscar the Grouch (brought to life by Caroll Spinney) who was meant to mirror Keeshan.

This is probably the most comprehensive book you will ever read about any television show. Yet, far from being a dry tome, author Michael Davis keeps Street Gang flowing (much like "Sesame Street", itself) with quick moving scenes, so the reader is never bogged down in the details that could easily become tiresome, such as the financial and political wranglings in creating and keeping this show on the air. Davis gives us just enough at just the right time to keep the story flowing.

If you have any doubt about whether you should read Street Gang, pick it up, read the prologue...and then enjoy the rest of the book.

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LibraryThing member ChristineEllei

How can you resist a book with Oscar the Grouch on the cover? My children loved Sesame Street and on occasion, in a pinch – don’t cringe at the thought – it was indeed an electronic babysitter. Having been fortunate enough to be a stay at home mom while my children were preschoolers I like to

think I had a big impact on their early education, however, I must give Sesame Street its due in helping them start kindergarten knowing more than the basics.
Mr. Davis does a superb job of giving us the history not only behind the creation of Sesame Street but also of the iconic shows (Howdy Doody, Captain Kangaroo) that were to precursors to this longest running children’s show on television. The little pieces of history and trivia about the actors were priceless tidbits.
Starting out as dinner table conversation the concept of educational children’s programming fell firmly into the hands of Joan Ganz Cooney. She did the research and initiated the funding. The first two thirds of the book deals with these topics, so for die-hard Sesame Street fans it may seem a little tedious, but keep reading, the importance becomes apparent.
Mr. Davis clearly explains how this show was ground breaking on so many levels – it incorporated multiculturalism, dealt with age and gender issues, it did not shy aware from real life issues such as birth, death, marriage, love and loss, pain and pleasure.
Of course the chapters dealing directly with the creative side of the program were not only interesting but fun. The history of puppetteering and the meeting of minds between Jim Henson and Frank Oz are fascinating.
Interestingly enough Mr. Davis does not gloss over the less attractive aspects of the show and its production including, the progression of the show to its current form, the behind the scenes tensions, actors coming and going and being human, and the sale to Disney Corporation.
The book draws to a close with a beautiful recollection and tribute to Mr. Henson’s memorial service.
Having read some other reviews of the book, readers are saying there were many things left out. I say how can you possibly include everything? In my opinion this a wonderful tribute to a piece of programming history and all the people involved in making it happen. I listened to the audio version narrated brilliantly by Caroll Spinney (the long time voices of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch).

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LibraryThing member melydia

Like many in my generation, I grew up watching Sesame Street, but I didn't know anything about it behind the scenes. I didn't know, for example, that Sesame Street was in some ways the beginning of modern public television. It was groundbreaking in so many ways, from its format to the vast body of

child development research on which it relied. I had this vague idea that Jim Henson was behind most of it, but while the importance of his amazing Muppet characters cannot be overstated, he neither created nor wrote the show, and many of the actors and puppeteers on Sesame Street weren't even involved in Henson's other projects.

I probably stopped paying any attention to Sesame Street sometime in the late 1980s, so I would have appreciated a little bit more recent history, but the description of the show's genesis and how everyone found their way onto it was simply fascinating. Definitely recommended to any fan of children's television. A warning, though: the book starts with Jim Henson's memorial service, so be prepared to get a bit choked up right off the bat. It gets happier after that, though.

A note on the audio: this book is read by Caroll Spinney, AKA Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. There's even a bonus interview with him at the end. Truly charming.

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LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill

This book was not was I was expecting. This book is about the people behind Sesame Street, everyone from the creators and producers to the actors and puppeteers. This book doesn't pull any punches. They talk about the good, the bad and the ugly in each person's life. It was well written and very

engaging. Even though the book wasn't what I was looking for, it was interesting enough for me to continue reading and enjoy it.

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LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill

engaging. Even though the book wasn't what I was looking for, it was interesting enough for me to continue reading and enjoy it.

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