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

[frogboy4]

Getting *too* far off topic is against forum policy, but it didn't get near that far IMHO. Usually when remarking about it is best to add something on-topic to discuss. So I'll add a little something that's been on my brain.

So far Street Gang has elaborated too much on Cooney's biography instead of finding it's way back to Sesame Street. It's frustrating. Those bits are interesting but I read in slow periods at work and I have found it challenging to immerse myself in learning about her distant heritage and relatives decades or centuries before the show's creation. I'd rather hear more about the time she spent actually working on Sesame. I've barely cracked the book, but it's taken this sharp dull turn for me. Does it get better? Does it get back to the Street?

 

[Grundgetta2800]

Getting *too* far off topic is against forum policy, but it didn't get near that far IMHO. Usually when remarking about it is best to add something on-topic to discuss. So I'll add a little something that's been on my brain.

So far Street Gang has elaborated too much on Cooney's biography instead of finding it's way back to Sesame Street. It's frustrating. Those bits are interesting but I read in slow periods at work and I have found it challenging to immerse myself in learning about her distant heritage and relatives decades or centuries before the show's creation. I'd rather hear more about the time she spent actually working on Sesame. I've barely cracked the book, but it's taken this sharp dull turn for me. Does it get better? Does it get back to the Street?

I had the same problem... I just skimmed through that part. The story gets good when its starts talking about Northern Calloway (David) and Sonia Manzano (Maria). I also liked the backround of Captin Kangaroo. There are also some really good descriptions of the muppets.

 

[MuppetsRule]

Getting *too* far off topic is against forum policy, but it didn't get near that far IMHO. Usually when remarking about it is best to add something on-topic to discuss. So I'll add a little something that's been on my brain.

So far Street Gang has elaborated too much on Cooney's biography instead of finding it's way back to Sesame Street. It's frustrating. Those bits are interesting but I read in slow periods at work and I have found it challenging to immerse myself in learning about her distant heritage and relatives decades or centuries before the show's creation. I'd rather hear more about the time she spent actually working on Sesame. I've barely cracked the book, but it's taken this sharp dull turn for me. Does it get better? Does it get back to the Street?

That was my feeling as well. I really had to fight to get to the later parts. It eventually gets back to Sesame Street, just takes time.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Yeah! The book does pick up!

 

[SSLFan]

Yeah, it does take time, but it's worth it once you get to 'Sesame'.

 

[Super Scooter]

I noticed that. Not that the Joan Cooney bio wasn't interesting, but it should have stuck more to Sesame Street. Her bio belongs in her autobiography if it ever gets finished.

That's another thing. Reading this book made me want to read Jon Stone's memoir. It's a shame it was never published.

 

[dwmckim]

The book is a marvelous treasure trove of info but for a work touting itself as "the complete history" it really spends a way disproportionate amount of the formation - it doesn't even get to the airing of the show until well in the middle of the book (it's in my car as i type this but if i'm not mistaken it doesn't happen until chapter 13 or 14). Then we kind of get a whirlwind tour of everything after with essentially a chapter on year one, a chapter on the 70's, the 80's and the 90's/00's.

For every well detailed account of stuff that might usually get left out of books like Northern Calloway's decline, there's also glaring ommissions like talking about what caused Matt Robinson to step away from the role of Gordon (the second Gordon Hal Miller isn't even mentioned at all) - at least there seems to be some stuff coming up about Roscoe Orman's Gordon in the paperback edition updates, but this really stuck out as something that one would expect. (Speaking of the various Gordons, the book fails to name the actor who played Gordon in the test shows, though this is i suspect more out of respect for not wanting to slander or embarass him since he's really maligned in the book - i'm sure somewhere in the archives someone would have been able to provide his name if Davis wanted to publish it)

I had a feeling re-reading the book that perhaps Davis, being aware of the other 40th aniversary book forthcoming (more of a coffee-table Sesame Unpaved type book) that he felt more like focusing on the formation and stuff that wouldn't end up being duplicated by its "companion".

While the stuff in the first third-to-half of the book is great stuff and all leads to stuff that happens later, it's very much like reading a biography of a person - i often get a little bored reading the first chapters about the person's childhood and development before accomplishing the things in life that caused a biography to be written in the first place that i often find myself reading the first chapter (or subchapter) or two then skipping ahead to a chapter/section in the middle - then back to chapter two, another middle chapter etc - once it became clear how much Street Gang was going to be a bit overly focused on the development, i followed the same approach when i read it the first time.

 

[Grundgetta2800]

The book is a marvelous treasure trove of info but for a work touting itself as "the complete history" it really spends a way disproportionate amount of the formation - it doesn't even get to the airing of the show until well in the middle of the book (it's in my car as i type this but if i'm not mistaken it doesn't happen until chapter 13 or 14). Then we kind of get a whirlwind tour of everything after with essentially a chapter on year one, a chapter on the 70's, the 80's and the 90's/00's.

For every well detailed account of stuff that might usually get left out of books like Northern Calloway's decline, there's also glaring ommissions like talking about what caused Matt Robinson to step away from the role of Gordon (the second Gordon Hal Miller isn't even mentioned at all) - at least there seems to be some stuff coming up about Roscoe Orman's Gordon in the paperback edition updates, but this really stuck out as something that one would expect. (Speaking of the various Gordons, the book fails to name the actor who played Gordon in the test shows, though this is i suspect more out of respect for not wanting to slander or embarass him since he's really maligned in the book - i'm sure somewhere in the archives someone would have been able to provide his name if Davis wanted to publish it)

I had a feeling re-reading the book that perhaps Davis, being aware of the other 40th aniversary book forthcoming (more of a coffee-table Sesame Unpaved type book) that he felt more like focusing on the formation and stuff that wouldn't end up being duplicated by its "companion".

While the stuff in the first third-to-half of the book is great stuff and all leads to stuff that happens later, it's very much like reading a biography of a person - i often get a little bored reading the first chapters about the person's childhood and development before accomplishing the things in life that caused a biography to be written in the first place that i often find myself reading the first chapter (or subchapter) or two then skipping ahead to a chapter/section in the middle - then back to chapter two, another middle chapter etc - once it became clear how much Street Gang was going to be a bit overly focused on the development, i followed the same approach when i read it the first time.

That's a really good description. I felt the same way. There were some parts I couldn;t put down and others that I was happy to skim through. I have a greater respect as well as sympathy for Northern Calloway now... All though, one problem that still sits with me is, why does it say he died of stomach cancer online , Davis claimed that it was EDS caused by a seizure. Never the less after reading the whole part about his decline, I'm sure it affected all those people who worked with him. Truely say to go to youtube now and here him on that nature skit with the fish singing "I'm beautiful". Boy did he have talent.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

That's another thing. Reading this book made me want to read Jon Stone's memoir. It's a shame it was never published.

Yeah! Really hoping those get published someday too. Would love to read them!

 

[CensoredAlso]

I don't mind that they concentrated a lot of Cooney's background, this is the best place to do it really. Sesame Street is her baby! It may not be the part most people are interested in, but it is important.