Sesame Street

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture by Elizabeth Purdy

Broadcast on more than 300 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) stations and in more than 140 countries around the world, this widely acclaimed children's television program celebrated its 30th anniversary in 1998. It has won more than 100 of the top awards in its field, including 71 Emmys, two Peabodys, eight Grammies, four Parent's Choice Awards, and the Action for Children's Television Special Achievement Award. Created by Joan Ganz Cooney for the Children's Television Network to provide educational material to inner-city kids, Sesame Street has endured by remaining true to its initial goals while changing with the times. It survived the deaths of Will Lee, who played Mr. Hooper, one of its major characters, and of Jim Henson, its creative force, who made his Muppet characters like Kermit the Frog, Big Bird, and Cookie Monster some of the most familiar faces in American popular culture. Other characters have come and gone, and actors have been replaced over the years, but Sesame Street remained an important program by the end of the century.

The originators of Sesame Street spent several years culling the expertise from relevant fields to present a show that would educate and entertain at the same time. It was geared toward a viewing culture in which the typical child will have spent over 5000 hours watching television before entering first grade, and 19,000 hours by high-school graduation. According to Cooney, none of those involved in the beginning realized that Sesame Street would become an icon of popular culture and a family to which generations of children would belong. From the beginning Sesame Street employed techniques that had been successful in commercials by presenting educational material in the form of fast-paced, highly visual, and oft-repeated commercials. Children who watched the show quickly learned the alphabet, numbers, concepts, and relationships through repetition. The songs sung daily on Sesame Street became part of the repertoire of pre-schoolers and parents alike for the same reason. Over the years, the producers of the show developed a specific curriculum for each season aimed at imparting key information and concepts. For example, in Season 29 the show sought to teach social concepts such as acceptance, cooperation, tolerance, conflict resolution, birth, love, and marriage; practical skills such as addition, computers, drawing, geography, and history; and social awareness of such issues as cultural diversity, handicaps, Native Americans, Hispanic, and Chinese Americans.

The adults who appeared on the show at its outset won their roles by auditioning before real kids who chose only those with whom they felt comfortable; many of them have remained with the show for many years. Over the years, the adults have been chosen to represent specific role models for young children. Maria, played by Sonia Manzano, joined Sesame Street in 1974 as a young teenager who worked at the lending library. She grew up on the show, married Luis (Emilio Delgado) and had a baby, teaching children about love, marriage, and birth at the same time. Bob McGrath, one of the original cast, has continued to provide stability as children grew up and watched the show with their own children. Gordon, played by Roscoe Orman since 1973, was already married to Susan (Loretta Long) when the show began. Later they adopted a son and taught children about adoption. In response to concerns of the National Organization for Women (NOW) that the character of Susan had become a negative role model for young girls, Susan became a public-health nurse. From the show's inception to his death in 1982, Mr. Hooper (Will Lee) ran the neighborhood store, representing the ideal grandfather as he served up love, comfort, and cookies. Sesame Street used his death to help children recognize the importance of memories when someone they love dies and to understand that death is real and final. Other adults have been added to the show, including Buffy St. Marie, a Native American folksinger, comedienne Ruth Buzzi, who uses magical objects in her thrift shop to tell stories to children in the studio and at home, and singer Savion Glover, who entertains and teaches with music.

It was the creative genius of Jim Henson, however, that gave birth to the Muppets, some of the best loved children's characters of all time. Henson had brought the Muppet named Rowlf to national attention on The Jimmy Dean Show and was hired to do a series of commercials with his appealing inventions that were a combination of marionettes and puppets. The first Muppets were simple pieces of cloth that came alive under his hand, and the secret of how the Muppets are made is still closely guarded. Originally, the Muppets were not meant to interact with the adults, but tests revealed that young children paid more attention when their favorites were on screen. This allowed the show's producers to use the Muppets as surrogate children. For example, Big Bird, operated by Carol Spinney, is the epitome of a child who with the best of intentions is often confused and who constantly makes mistakes. One of the best loved plots on Sesame Street concerned the friendship of Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus, who was thought by the whole neighborhood to be invisible for over a decade. One of the best loved Muppets, Kermit the Frog, appeared on the show only for a short time. In the early days, Kermit served as a roving reporter, attempting to discover the truth behind various tales and usually becoming an unwitting part of the story. Henson chose to remove the frog from Sesame Street because he had appeared in commercials before the show aired. Kermit went on to star in The Muppet Show and a series of movies.