Millions of children have learned how to get to “Sesame Street” since the beloved series premiered exactly 52 years ago. Documentary producer Joan Ganz Cooney and experimental psychologist Lloyd Morrisett formed the Children’s Television Workshop in 1968. Now renamed Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit began producing “Sesame Street” to ready young children — especially from underprivileged backgrounds — for kindergarten. First filmed at Manhattan’s Teletape Studios for National Educational Television — a precursor to PBS — the show brought together actors, animation, celebrity cameos, and personable puppets, many built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.
Episode one followed Gordon (Matt Robinson), a teacher introducing his young new neighbor to the characters inhabiting their block. Viewers met handmade puppets Big Bird (voiced by Caroll Spinney), Bert (voiced by Frank Oz), Ernie (voiced by Henson), and Kermit the Frog (Henson), plus a then-unnamed Cookie Monster (Oz), and an orange Oscar the Grouch (Spinney). Grover, Count von Count, Elmo, and Snuffleupagus — Big Bird’s onetime imaginary friend — joined the cast over the next 17 seasons. Later Muppet additions included Rosita, who is bilingual; Julia, who has autism; and Karli, who is in foster care. More than 30 international versions of “Sesame Street” have debuted since, and the American original has won 209 Emmy Awards.
