Happy 40th Birthday, Sesame Street!

40 years! Well, makes sense, since I vividly remember watching the show as a child. Sesame Street was truly groundbreaking when it launched in 1969. It has since become the longest-running children’s show in TV history.

From my generation down, we take much of the genius of Big Bird, Grover, Snufflelufugus &  friends for granted. The fact is, Sesame Street was a pioneer and was actually launched as an educational television program to benefit inner city children. The multi-racial kids interacting together in an urban setting  was quite the departure from the “Leave it to Beaver” scenery. Little did the show’s producers know that its popularity would set new standards and such an enduring legacy.

Here’s a 7 minute NPR interview with Joan Cooney, the entrepreneur visionary wholaunched the show with the late Jim Henson. His puppetry genius helped “establish Sesame Street’s delicate balance between fun and learning” as he once put it.

Sesame Street’s 40th anniversary is marked by the launch of an expectedly colorful and animated website, which really, is aimed at preschoolers and their parents. But for the rest of us? Check out the treasure trove that is the Classics Clips video library! Remember Monsterpiece Theater? Count Dracula? Bob and Maria? Ernie’s rubber-ducky-you’re-the-one? Geez, I could just go on and on… This brings on a good, warm & fuzzy kind of nostalgia.