{"id":234682,"date":"2021-04-23T18:05:03","date_gmt":"2021-04-23T15:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/the-civil-rights-rebels-that-created-sesame-street\/"},"modified":"2021-04-23T18:05:03","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T15:05:03","slug":"the-civil-rights-rebels-that-created-sesame-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-civil-rights-rebels-that-created-sesame-street\/","title":{"rendered":"#The civil-rights rebels that created ‘Sesame Street’"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#The civil-rights rebels that created ‘Sesame Street’<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

The revolution will<\/em> be televised \u2014 on a kids\u2019 show, no less, according to a new documentary.<\/p>\n

\u201cStreet Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street,\u201d in select theaters nationwide on Friday and inspired by a Michael Davis book<\/a>, explores how a team of \u201crebels\u201d had the wild idea to educate kids through the democratizing medium of TV \u2014 and create a world inspired by the civil rights movement that still resonates nearly 52 years on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like a ripple effect: pulling people in until they got a dream team of individuals who used the power of television and creativity and really purposeful intention to do something that had never been done before,\u201d Ellen Scherer Crafts, who produced the documentary with her husband Trevor Crafts, told The Post. <\/p>\n

Added Trevor: \u201cWe still have a show that pushes those boundaries and continues to experiment and try new things, and be very social<\/a>ly relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s Television Workshop (now known as Sesame Workshop), the organization that debuted \u201cSesame Street\u201d in 1969, was co-founded by Carnegie Foundation psychologist Lloyd Morrisett and television producer Joan Ganz Cooney, now both 91. <\/p>\n

At times of greater racial and socioeconomic divisions in the late 1960s, the two set their focus on disadvantaged children \u2014 primarily inner-city black children.<\/p>\n

\"A
A new film explores how the founders of \u201cSesame Street\u201d and its crew broke barriers to create educational programming and promote diversity in subtle ways.<\/figcaption>
Sesame Workshop \/ Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe found that those children would enter school three months behind, and by the end of first grade, be a year behind \u2014 and get further and further behind,\u201d says Morrisett in the film, which will be released on video-on-demand platforms on May 7, then on HBO in December. \u201cAnd I wondered whether there was a possibility that television could be used to help children with school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morrisett later app<\/a>roached his friend Cooney \u2014 who had produced documentaries with Channel 13 in New York and had supported the civil rights movement \u2014 at a dinner party she hosted and asked whether this possibility could be made a reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew the answer right away,\u201d says Cooney in the film, adding that American children had nothing else to watch on television but commercials, to the degree many memorized the song lyrics from a popular Budweiser ad. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo me it was clear the kids just adored the medium, so why not see if it could educate them?\u201d<\/p>\n

What followed was a Carnegie Foundation study that found children between the ages of 3 and 5 watched television 54.1 hours per week \u2014 only the hours they slept exceeded that total. <\/p>\n
\"Jon
The late Jon Stone (white shirt) began working for \u201cSesame Street\u201d after Joan Ganz Cooney tapped him \u2014 and he identified with her values.<\/figcaption>
Everett Collection \/ Everett Col<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1968, the show got an initial budget of $8 million ($59.45 million today), the bulk of which came from the federal government, for about 130 hours of television per year. <\/p>\n

There was a need for a staff, and Cooney tapped Jon Stone, who died in 1997 at age 64, to be its director, producer and head writer. Not only was he credited for developing the style and vision of \u201cSesame Street\u201d and enlisting the help of late Muppets creator Jim Henson, but he also identified with Cooney\u2019s values.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what drew Dad in really had to do with her political vision \u2014 and I think when she started talking about inner-city children and the amount of time that kids are spending watching bad television with nothing to do because the parents are working, that\u2019s what pulled him in,\u201d says Stone\u2019s daughter, Kate Stone Lucas, in the film.<\/p>\n

The television professionals teamed up with educators, a first-of-its-kind partnership, to form the Children\u2019s Television Workshop. <\/p>\n

But beyond a young James Earl Jones reciting the alphabet and animations teaching children how to count, the show also aimed for diversity in its casting \u2014 notably including Matt Robinson, an African-American actor and writer who played Gordon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey sold him on what this show could become: something revolutionary,\u201d his ex-wife, Dolores Robinson, says in the film of Robinson, who died in 2002 at age 65.<\/p>\n

\u201cEqually important, maybe even more important, was the fact that \u2018Sesame\u2019 was a neighborhood where people of all races, kids and adults and monsters live together,\u201d says composer, lyricist and writer Christopher Cerf in the documentary.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Emilio Delgado, a Mexican-American, and Sonia Manzano \u2014 who\u2019s Puerto Rican \u2014 joined the cast of \u201cSesame Street,\u201d adding to the cast\u2019s diversity.<\/figcaption>
photo: Richard Termine\/\u00a9CTW\/Cou<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stone\u2019s vision was to present an integrated cast without making any specific overtures to the viewer. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never beaten that horse to death by talking about it,\u201d Stone says in an interview for the show\u2019s second season. \u201cWe simply show it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, in 1971, Sonia Manzano \u2014 a Puerto Rican \u2014 and the Mexican-American Emilio Delgado joined the cast to play Maria and Luis, respectively.<\/p>\n

There were, however, divisions over how to approach diversity when it came to the show\u2019s puppets. <\/p>\n

In 1970, Robinson advocated to have \u201cSesame Street\u201d introduce Roosevelt Franklin, a purple-colored Muppet whom he created to represent a black child.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Matt created Roosevelt Franklin because he was tired of pretending that everybody blended in together,\u201d his ex-wife Dolores says in the film. <\/p>\n

\"Matt
Matt Robinson (second from right) created Roosevelt Franklin (third from right) to serve as a black Muppet.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHe loved the message of \u2018Sesame Street,\u2019 but he wanted children of color to be recognized as children of color because, in real life, those children knew they were different. They knew they were brown, so why couldn\u2019t they be brown? Why couldn\u2019t their difference be recognized?\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson wanted Franklin to speak like young black kids, according to 2020\u2019s \u201cSunny Days: The Children\u2019s Television Revolution That Changed America<\/a>,\u201d using slang such as \u201cBe cool.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, critics \u2014 including African-American show advisors and staffers \u2014 believed the character represented someone \u201csimplistically black,\u201d according to that book. <\/p>\n

In the film, Dolores details how black parents complained Franklin reinforced attitudes that blacks are more musically inclined and whites are more intellectual. Despite the Muppet\u2019s popular appearances, the character vanished after 1975.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Matt, Roosevelt Franklin represented truth,\u201d she says. \u201cHe knew they meant well, but it was the beginning of the end for him. And then he left \u2018Sesame Street.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Of this progressive schism, film producer Ellen Scherer Crafts told The Post: \u201cI think that would be natural for anything that\u2019s lasted half a century.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\""Sesame
\u201cSesame Street\u201d Muppet Karli, a character who\u2019s in foster care, revealed her mother was battling a drug addiction \u2014 all in an effort to address the opioid crisis.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In recent years, the show has once again embraced representation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what \u2018Sesame\u2019 did, and continues to do well, is be a place where children can come to understand very complicated things in a very safe and loving way,\u201d said Ellen. \u201cThey set that up from the very beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, for instance, Sesame Workshop \u2014 as part of a social-justice initiative \u2014 announced it would teach children \u201cThe ABCs of Racial Literacy\u201d with two black Muppets, Wes and his father, Elijah. One conversation shows Elmo asking why Wes\u2019 skin is brown. <\/p>\n

Last June, \u201cSesame Street\u201d and CNN held a 60-minute town hall for children and families to discuss racism \u2014 aired in direct response to the May 2020 death of George Floyd, who was killed when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than 9 minutes \u2014 to discuss prejudice, empathy and embracing others. <\/p>\n

\u201cSesame Street,\u201d in an online-only 2019 segment, even addressed the opioid crisis with a foster-care Muppet who revealed her mother is battling a drug addiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is continuing to be the experiment of children\u2019s television, which is rare,\u201d said producer Trevor Crafts. \u201cEverything changes about \u2018Sesame Street\u2019 and that\u2019s the amazing part \u2014 is that they continue to push the boundaries of what they thought was right, and then they change because the world changed.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

For forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

If you want to read more News<\/a> articles, you can visit our News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#The civil-rights rebels that created ‘Sesame Street’” The revolution will be televised \u2014 on a kids\u2019 show, no less, according to a new documentary. \u201cStreet Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street,\u201d in select theaters nationwide on Friday and inspired by a Michael Davis book, explores how a team of \u201crebels\u201d had the wild idea…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":234683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/sesame-street.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[103166,70363,60673,10574,4937,5197,103344],"class_list":["post-234682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-4-23-21","tag-civil-rights","tag-diversity","tag-education","tag-racism","tag-sesame-street","tag-sesame-workshop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}