Sesame Street is a daily series for children that has been airing on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) stations since 10 November 1969. The series was created by Joan Ganz Cooney for the Children's Television Workshop, a company formed in 1967 with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the U.S. Office of Education, and a variety of foundations. Sesame Street often employs the style of TV commercials in segments designed to teach numbers, letters, and other preschool concepts. The hour-long show is a mixture of live-action scenes set in a fictional urban neighborhood, short documentary and animated sequences, and segments featuring Muppets, puppet characters created by Jim Henson.
Sesame Street quickly developed a large audience of both children and their parents. Muppet characters like Ernie, Bert, Oscar the Grouch, the Cookie Monster, and Big Bird have penetrated children's culture almost to the degree that Disney characters have. The Children's Television Workshop continues to earn income from licensing agreements with manufacturers of toys, garments, food products, and other items bearing these characters' images.
Arguments are occasionally made that the frenetic and highly entertaining style of the show has contributed to a decrease in the attention spans of children. Nevertheless, most people agree that the show set a high standard for instructional TV for children.
Bibliography
Polsky, Richard M. Getting to Sesame Street: Origins of the Children's Television Workshop. New York: Praeger, 1974.
