Street Gang: The Complete History Of Sesame Street (2008) - Plot & Excerpts
Unfortunately, this history of Sesame Street was not at all what I was expecting. For a complete history, it leaves out many of the stories of the actors who were featured on the show as well as giving short shrift to the stories that the show itself told. For instance, there's no mention of the theatrical movie "Follow That Bird" despite that being a huge milestone for Sesame Street. This book is more of a history of the creation of Sesame Street and the beginnings of the concept of educational television. There's some dirt on the people who brought it to life but not much life in the story itself. I was riveted by this book, but it's hard to say why. In telling the story of Sesame Street, it manages to be a pretty good story of the dawn of children's television. I learned that while Howdy Doody was the first big smash hit of children's TV, Cowboy Bob Smith who played the title role hated his fans and treated them pretty poorly when the camera wasn't on him. A staffer on Howdy Doody, Bob Keeshan, was so affected by watching the way children were treated on the show that he vowed to treat children with the highest respect when he later created and performed the title role in Captain Kangaroo. Thing was that Keeshan treated children with much more respect than he did his staffers and peers. Two staffers who quit in a feud with Keeshan and another who left more cordially all ended up as primary creators of Sesame Street. So the progression of influences was pretty direct.I didn't know the name of Joan Ganz Cooney, the administrative brain behind Sesame Street, before I read this. I also got a peek at Jim Henson behind the scenes, though the book didn't get sucked into making this a story about the Muppets. There are a lot of fascinating details here, including an account of the Henson's feud with Disney and the last hours of his life. The love and frustration everyone felt for Henson comes out even in text.Thing is, there are SO many people involved in the creation and evolution of something like Sesame Street, and this book tries to give you a few pages of biography on ALL of them. You spend a lot of time juggling names, and the author assumes that once he's given his bio thumbnail, he need only refer to the person by first or last name, and you'll instantly know who he's talking about. This probably could have been done more gracefully.Also, about 80% of the book is about the rise and triumphs of Sesame Street, and sometimes the adoration gets to be hard to bear. Then it gives a quick summary of the low points of the show at the end. Not exactly a balanced tale.But hey, I couldn't put it down. YMMV.
What do You think about Street Gang: The Complete History Of Sesame Street (2008)?
Disappointing. Too much background and not enough about the show itself
—zoel
The story is great, but I often was lost in the name dropping.
—Summer
