STREET GANG: HOW WE GOT TO SESAME STREET

US, 2021, 107 minutes, Colour.

Directed by Marilyn Agreto.

This is an extraordinary showbiz story! It began in 1969, certainly pioneering for those times, the era of civil rights, assassinations, the Vietnam war, protests, hippies and drugs, a more permissive society – and is still influential well into the 21^st century.

The film runs for 107 minutes and moves fairly rapidly. It provides a historical overview of the idea behind Sesame Street, the desire for some kind of educative children’s program, encouraged by Joan Gens Cooney who appears throughout the film reflecting on her long experience.

The other significant contributor to the development of Sesame Street was Jon Stone, writer, producer, director, dedicated to the program over several decades, idealistic, not always easy to get on with, but a driving force. Archival footage of interviews with him as well as interviews with members of his family.

Characters were invented and developed from the late 1960s, comic characters, puppets, who would embody a variety of attitudes – and then become part of the drama for educating the youngest of audiences, with many examples shown of explaining and communicating the letters of the alphabet.

Everybody knows The Muppets. One of the great advantages of Sesame Street was the meeting with Jim Henson, a comic genius with puppets, creating characters, acting, personifying a variety of characters, especially Kermit. Sesame Street employed a great number of puppeteers, many of them interviewed and commenting on their work. The most prominent of these was Frank Oz who later became a film director as well as the link with Yoda in the Star Wars films.

The program was on public television, experienced some difficulties, especially in the South because of the emphasis on African-American and Hispanic characters in times of segregation. However, this was overcome during the decades, many African-American actors performing, and interviewed here.

Also important was the music, the songs, and interviews with various musicians and composers like Joe Raposo and Christopher Cerf. Big Bird was important and there are many scenes in this documentary showing his presence, and interviews with Carroll Spinney.

There are a great number of talking heads in the film, discussing all kinds of aspects of programming, crises, the death of a principal actor (and the discussions about how to communicate the reality of death to the young audience, with the puppets, and with actual children).

And, there are many excerpts from the program to entertain – and to instruct.

As said, the film is comparatively brief for such a big topic, based on a substantial book by Michael Davis, but an interesting and enjoyable introduction to the world of Sicily Street.

A range of personalities who are seen with The Muppets