Your Thoughts: Street Gang – The Complete History of Sesame Street

[CensoredAlso]

Oh, some of the people behind the scenes are was entertaining people. They have great senses of humor that affected the type of humor that this show is famous for.

Yup, and the precursors to Sesame Street, like Ding Dong School and Howdy Doody.

 

[frogboy4]

Eisner is now officially 100% evil in my eyes. I do not like that man. Bad man!

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Eisner is now officially 100% evil in my eyes. I do not like that man. Bad man!

Yea, I agree! If you had problems with him fore you definitely will look at him with different eye's after reading this book.

Yup, and the precursors to Sesame Street, like Ding Dong School and Howdy Doody.

Yeah. It's funny to me how so many key people who ended up working for this show and The Workshop pretty much dreaded children's television shows and didn't want any part of it. But after seeing, hearing or viewing parts of Sesame Street in some way, they totally wanted in. They didn't view it like a children's television show at all.

 

[Son of Enik]

I finally finished "Street Gang" two nights ago and was thoroughly impressed. So many behind the scenes and lowdown dirt stories, and I must admit I also shall never look at Michael Eisner the same again. I also was shocked to learn about Bob Keeshan...who knew that Captain Kangaroo was such a jerk?
In contrast to "Unpaved", (which I also own and LOVE) "Street Gang" is the real deal. No color photos and Bios of the Muppets, no poems, no songs, this is something I've waited for. I have always been interested in what went on behind the scenes and Michael Davis has brilliantly brought to us a fine narrative of what it took to get Sesame Street on the air and what it took to sustain it's supremacy as the #1 Children's TV show of all time. Yes the rise of Nickelodeon and Disney Channel seemed like a threat to the throne during the 80's and 90's, but I truly believe that SS will go down in history as not only the best Kid's TV show of all time, but as the show that taught generations of children like myself our letters and numbers, but more importantly taught us to appreciate the world around us and to accept people no matter their race, religion or disabilities.
Other than Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, Sesame Street taught us to love...what could be wrong with that?

 

[TopperFraggle]

Street Gang- My review- SPOILERS

I have mixed feelings about this book. For those that haven't read it, I'd say close to 75% is backstory of the people involved with getting the show on it's feet and gathering the significant funding. This means there are significant bios on Directors, producers, writers, not to mention whole chapters on the childrens shows they came from, mainly Captain Kangaroo and Howdy Doody. While informative, the result of all of that exposition was that by the time they got to where Sesame Street was in production, the rest of the book felt very rushed. Also they'd take you through the bio of somebody and you'd finally get to how they got into Sesame Street, and suddenly you'd back up and start with the birth of another important contributer. I don't know how this could have been changed, for they certainly gave a lot of people thier due, but it made for frustrating reading.

The book is really the story of Sesame Street from Joan Ganz Cooney's perspective, who sounds like a fascinating woman. Obviously she's more than integral to the Sesame Street story, but I felt that the author wasn't telling us about Sesame Street so much as he was telling us about her involvement with it. Even when he would do a section about other Cast Members or contributors it always came back to when they met Cooney for the first time or what she thought of them. There were some interesting anecdotes about some character origins, ideas for the show, etc... but far too few. After the initial season, the 70s are pretty much handled as a chapter, the 80s as a chapter, and then into the current times. There is a chapter on the cast, mainly those who were added after the first season, but any kid knows, Maria, Luis, and David, are just as much a part of Sesame Street as the Muppets, and neither human cast or puppets got as much time in this book as I would have liked.

I will say you come away from the book with a very good sense of just how groundbreaking the show was, and how it was viewed in the context of that era. It's a bit hard to remember nowadays with so many choices for kids shows, that back then, nobody made television with the intention of benefiting kids. It was all about doing whatever you could to hook them and keep them hooked. Sesame Street obviously did that too, but that was the icing around the educational cake.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

I also was shocked to learn about Bob Keeshan...who knew that Captain Kangaroo was such a jerk?

You know? It's funny about people like Bob Smith or Bob Keeshan. Although Bob Keeshan was a little better in that he actually was genuinely like and cared about children and was just difficult to work with. Where as Bob Smith just didn't rally like kids at all. But I was watching this biography on Fred Rogers, and Lavar Burton was saying that before he actually met Fred that his first thought was this guy has to be some kind of act... It couldn't be for real. But after meeting him he saw that Fred was just who he is and that he is just like the guy you see on TV and not an putting on some kind of facade. Lavar was kind of taken back because it was the first time that he had really saw someone on television who was just honest and their true self and not some image. He said that that was the first time he realized that you could be on television and just be yourself.... Just be honest with people.

I think that surprises a lot of people with him. But children respected him for his honesty.

 

[goshposh]

I just finished listening to the audio version. And I LOVED it! Caroll Spinney did a wonderful job. Now I need to buy the book.

 

[quailsound]

moved by the prologue

thanks for the automated birthday wishes. i bought the street gang book for myself for my 30th when i got it and balled through the prologue! so far am thrilled by the format and dedication in this book. i so very appreciate being apart of this group, its how i found out about this book, and henson is a potent part of my growth, mr davis in his prologue fully explained my sentiment.
cheers!

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Actually it was thanks to Elmo that the Muppets were saved from Eisner's and Disney's Hands for good! Do not hate on Elmo too much because his success saved the Sesame Street characters, this show and possibly the workshop itself. And I think he's a bit more deserving of it then we give him credit for after reading this book.

 

[Son of Enik]

Actually it was thanks to Elmo that the Muppets were saved from Eisner's and Disney's Hands for good! Do not hate on Elmo too much because his success saved the Sesame Street characters, this show and possibly the workshop itself. And I think he's a bit more deserving of it then we give him credit for after reading this book.

I second that thought.