Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street

Marilyn Agrelo

Street Gang is a document attesting to their lasting influence—and to why, even though it may seem to have plenty of competition now, a show like Sesame Street will never be made again.

Vulture

Archive - Festival 37
Director: Marilyn Agrelo
USA 2021
107 minutes
English
Subtitles in Hebrew

Inspired by the activism of the late 1960s, socially conscious television executive Joan Ganz Cooney and Sesame Workshop co-founder Lloyd Morrisett conducted a revolutionary experiment: to harness the burgeoning power of television and create an educational, impactful, uplifting and entertaining show that could reach children nationwide, especially those living in urban areas. Cooney recruited trailblazing Muppets creator Jim Henson and acclaimed children’s television writer and director Jon Stone to craft the iconic and beloved world of “Sesame Street.”

STREET GANG: HOW WE GOT TO SESAME STREET reintroduces this visionary “gang” of mission-driven artists, writers, and educators that audaciously interpreted radical changes in society and created one of most influential and impactful television programs in history.

Filmography: An Invisible Sign (2010), Mad Hot Ballroom (2005).

An Online conversation with the team