World Famous Comics: Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street
Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street
By: Michael Davis Publisher: Viking Adult Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Viking Adult Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 384 Publication Date: December 26, 2008
Product Description: The story of one of the most important and beloved shows on television—how it got started, nearly failed, and was saved by Elmo
When the first episode aired on November 10, 1969, Sesame Street revolutionized the way education was presented to children on television. It has since become the longest-running children’s show in history, and today reaches 8 million preschoolers on 350 PBS stations and airs in 120 countries.
Street Gang is the compelling and often comical story of the creation and history of this 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 the result of a discussion at a dinner party 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’s trying to cut off its funding to the rise of Elmo—via the remarkable personalities who have contributed to it. Davis reveals how Sesame Street has taught millions of children not only their letters and numbers, but also 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 the writers, producers, directors, animators, and puppeteers who created one of the most influential programs in the history of television.
Couldn't finish it I thought this would be a fun read when I took it out from the library. I got to about page 50 before it was due, and I decided not to renew it. I found I enjoyed the small passage about Captain Kangaroo than all the descriptions of the preparations for the main topic of the book. To make sure I wasn't making a mistake, I checked the reviews here, and I think the Washington Post review has it right: "Street Gang is mired in unnecessary details, endless litanies of names and prose that is several shades more purple than the skin of Count von Count." I would have given it two stars, but that's unfair since I never finished it.
a really great read So many interesting little tid bits of information... i loved this book!! Having grown up with Sesame Street in the '80s, I never knew just how groundbreaking the show was, and continues to be. I also never knew how much drama went on behind the scenes. I found this book to be thoroughly entertaining from start to finish and would suggest it to just about anyone.
AN ENJOYABLE READ I really enjoyed Street Gang and found it well written, thorough, and vividly descriptive. It was funny, touching and, clearly, exhaustively well-researched. I loved all the juicy details about the many players involved in bringing this ground-breaking series to the screen. Sesame Street was social engineering at its finest - not just for teaching ABC's and 123's but for the way it portrayed people of different backgrounds living, working and playing together. The book does a great job setting the show in the context of the children's shows that came before and bringing to life the many people involved in its inception. As someone who works in the kids TV industry, I can attest that the book rings true and is a testament to the many talented, dedicated people who work hard to entertain and educate children - and no one does that better than Sesame Workshop. They wrote the book on kids TV, and Michael Davis wrote the book on them!
Hoping for a better book y 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.
A slog through early Sesame Street history 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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