Street Gang - The Complete History of Sesame Street

Zusatztext 76105354 Informationen zum Autor Journalist, editor, educator, and producer Michael Davis was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He covered children's television as a senior editor and Family Page columnist at TV Guide. Learn more at www.michaeldavis-streetgang.com. Klappentext Coming soon as a documentary from Focus Films, The New York Times bestselling account of the story behind one of the most influential, durable, and beloved shows in the history of television: Sesame Street. "Davis tracks down every Sesame anecdote and every Sesame personality in his book . . . Finally, we get to touch Big Bird's feathers." -The New York Times Book Review Sesame Street is the longest-running-and arguably most beloved- children's television program ever created. Today, it reaches some six million preschoolers weekly in the United States and countless others in 140 countries around the world. Street Gang is the compelling, comical, and inspiring story of a media masterpiece and pop-culture landmark. Television reporter and columnist Michael Davis-with the complete participation of Joan Ganz Cooney, one of the show's founders-unveils the idealistic personalities, decades of social and cultural change, stories of compassion and personal sacrifice, and miraculous efforts of writers, producers, directors, and puppeteers that together transformed an empty soundstage into the most recognizable block of real estate in television history. Prologue Joan Ganz Coney walked toward the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 112th Street, lost in a fog of grief. Ahead were the crenelated parapets that crown the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, a Gothic Revival Glory on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Black limousines lined the curbside, clogging the street, as NYPD officers waved their arms in a futile effort to get vehicles moving. The sidewalks were overrun by pedestrians, hundreds of them, all moving toward the cathedral steps. Cooney walked alongside mothers with toddlers clutching Ernie dolls, students playing hooky from school, executives in crisp suits, Midtown secretaries in heels, Latinas in scoop-necked tops, and bohemian types sporting jeans, running shoes, and long ponytails. It was May 21, 1990, five days after Jim Henson, her friend and creative partner since 1969, had died from a runaway strep infection gone stubbornly, foolishly untreated. There was no other word to describe his passing other than shocking, and it was played just that way in the papers and on the nightly news. People who didn't know him wept as if a favorite uncle had died, that subversive adult who sat with the adults at Thanksgiving but would have preferred dinner at the kids' table. They came out in force for the public memorial, filling the vast, vaulted sanctuary, even more than the organizers of the event had anticipated. Some five thousand attendees filled the pews, standing in the antechamber and spilling into the aisles. The overflow was so great that people had simply dropped their backpacks, folded up their strollers, and sat on the hard stone floor. Clustered row upon row near them were mourners bound by their years together working for and with the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), the nonprofit corporation Cooney helped build. Cooney took a seat next to Christopher Cerf, one of the founding fathers of "Sesame Street." From the alter, the congregation was an impressionistic canvas, dappled with a profusion of spring green. That was to be expected. Just as teams, tribes, and nations have representative colors, Jim Henson owned Kermit green. Cooney's thoughts wandered to Kermit and the early days of "Sesame Street." Reminders of that time were everywhere. Sitting nearby was Frank Oz, who in 1969—Sesame's debut year—became a Henson protégé, having joined the Muppets right out of high school. For more than twenty years, Oz had been uptight Bert to...

About the author

Journalist, editor, educator, and producer Michael Davis was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He covered children's television as a senior editor and Family Page columnist at TV Guide. Learn more at www.michaeldavis-streetgang.com.

Product details

• Authors: Michael Davis
• Publisher: Penguin Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 27.10.2009
• EAN: 9780143116639
• ISBN: 978-0-14-311663-9
• No. of pages: 400
• Dimensions: 138 mm x 215 mm x 20 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; Non-fiction book > Music, film, theatre; Television, PERFORMING ARTS / Television / General