Sesame Street Kid

Large Green text on a  yellow background with a green outer ring. 

Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, through the use of Jim Henson’s Muppets, short films, and animation created the educational television show Sesame Street. The show not only continues to run, it has also evolved with the changing culture of American television. Sesame Street was one of the first educational programs to create curriculum and educational goals. Furthermore, Sesame Street was the first show to evaluate the educational effects that it had. In the 1970s the television show was known for its minority cast and was quickly becoming an American institution. In the 1980s the show expanded its curriculum to discuss relationships, ethics, and emotions. Initially, because of recommendations from child psychologists, the Muppets and humans did not interact; however, after finding that children were not interested in the human segments, the producers had Henson create Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch to interact with the humans in the street segments.