Thu, 03/04/2010 - 14:47 — myrnag

 
  As testimony to the fact that a really good concept can start small and generate an international business, the celebration of Sesame Streets’ 40th anniversary took place on Monday, November 9, 2009. Indeed, it was a “sunny day, chasing the clouds away,” when the triangular patch in the middle of Broadway across from Lincoln Center normally known as Dante Square was temporarily renamed for the anniversary occasion, “123 Sesame Street.”
  Three hundred fifty employees of the Children’s Television Workshop all decked out in company t-shirts lined up on the steps of Lincoln Center to witness Joan Ganz Cooney the originator of the concept of using television as a learning device for inner city children accept a proclamation from the Mayor’s office commending the show for its educational contribution to children the world over and its affiliation with New York City.
  As for this blogger, I was there to celebrate my own daughter’s history with Sesame Street. As a child, she made some appearances on the show; and as an adult she has been a publicist on their behalf for many years now. 
   “Joan Ganz Cooney, who was a television producer, cooked this up at a dinner party with Lloyd Morriset who was then at the Carnegie Corporation in New York. They came up with the idea of producing a television program that teaches school readiness rather than advertising jingles. They knew that children were glued to the television… I think our founder felt that we could use this magnetic appeal,” remarked Gary Knell, CEO of Sesame Workshop.("Muppet Diplomacy:  An Interview with Gary Knell, April 2007)

   “Sesame Street reaches children around the world, but without a doubt, New York City is its home,” acknowledged Ms. Cooney. “It’s wonderful for the city to recognize where it all began.”
 
   Additionally, Ms. Cooney humbly acknowledged that she was honored and thrilled to be a part of the longest street in the world extending to more than 140 countries, and generating so much industry and capital for our city. She noted that the cast members and Muppets had brought her concept to life, even though they had less than a year’s worth of budget when the show began. 
  Still, there was no Internet then.   Knell believes that kids and parents are just accessing media differently today.  “Children are using applications that weren’t invented back when we started the show, and media and technology is getting faster, smaller, and cheaper…This was the first year we have ever seen more people and more children access Sesame Street content off television than on television. That’s through video on demand, that’s through iTunes, that’s through YouTube, that’s through our website.”
  (Gary, don’t forget online articles publicity like this one that gives you an on-the-scene look at a monumental moment.) “It’s through all of the different ways in which we are spreading our content now because that’s where the audience is going.
  “The TV Interactive technologies give us all the ability to have a more vibrant, richer learning experience than one-way television.... So we’ve got to be in those spaces today just as we were in 1969.” (360blog, Sesame Street and the Future of Learning – Interview with Sesame CEO Gary Knell)
  Sesame Street underscores to those with good ideas, all things are possible with a terrific team and great persistence.   Cheers to them all, especially Big Bird who is still played by the 75 year old Caroll Spinney!