Thursday, November 10, 2005

"Can you tell me how to get...how to get to Sesame Street"...

"Sesame Street", designed as an educational tool for pre-schoolers, debuted on November 10, 1969. This legendary, pioneering public television show combined education and entertainment and brought it to a level of excellence that not even the show's creators envisaged...

The show's original format called for humans to be shown in plots on the street with segments of animation, live action shots and Muppets all interacting. The show was shown to test groups for immediate feedback and then finely tuned to perfection. "Sesame Street" has received more Emmy Awards than any other program. The original series has been televised in 120 countries with more than 20 international versions produced...

The show was originally seen on National Education Television and late in the first year was moved to NET's successor, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). It was taped on 81st Street & Broadway in Manhattan and then moved to its current location, the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens. Brooklyn Heights was the model for the set used on "Sesame Street", it was where the creators of the show lived at the time...

How big does "Sesame Street" remain 36 years since its inception ? In an average week 5.6 million households with 7.5 million viewers watch the show. And tell me anyone alive today who doesn't know these characters: "Big Bird", "Oscar the Grouch", "Bert and Ernie", "Kermit the Frog" and "The Muppets"...

And finally, tell me the name of anyone alive who hasn't heard this song:

"Sunny day, sweepin' the clouds away, on my way to where the air is sweet. Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street"...

More November 10 Memories...

1775) The U.S. Marines are organized under authority of the Continental Congress...

1928) Faced with a scoreless tie at halftime, Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne asks the "Fighting Irish" to "win one for the Gipper", an Irish player who died 8 years earlier. The Irish do, beating undefeated Army 12-6 at Yankee Stadium...

1956) Billboard's annual DJ poll finds that Elvis Presley is the most-played Pop & Country male artist...

1957) The largest regular season crowd (102,368) in NFL history watches the Rams-49ers play in Los Angeles...

1963) Detroit's Gordie Howe scores his 545th goal breaking the record set by Maurice "Rocket" Richard (that record would be broken by Wayne Gretsky in 1989)...

1965) The Rolling Stones are #1 with "Get Off My Cloud"...

1967) The Moody Blues release "Nights in White Satin"...

1969) "Sesame Street" debuts (feature story)...

1969) Gene Autry receives a gold record for "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", a song released 20 years earlier...

1973) David Essex's "Rock On" is released...

1974) Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO) top the charts with "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet"...

1975) The ore-hauling ship Edmund Fitzgerald and its crew of 29 vanish on Lake Superior during a storm (inspiring the Gordon Lightfoot hit, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald")...

1980) CBS News anchor Dan Rather claims he was kidnapped in a cab but it turns out that Dan refused to pay his cab fare (what's the cab fare Kenneth ?)...

1982) The Vietnam Veterans Memorial opens to visitors in Washington, DC...

1982) Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev dies at 75...

1984) Backup Maryland QB Frank Reich stages one of the greatest comebacks in college football history throwing 6 TDs in the second half and overcoming a 31-0 deficit to beat Miami 42-40 (Reich will orchestrate another big comeback in the NFL)...

1991) Cleveland QB Bernie Kosar ends his NFL record of 308 passes without an interception on the losing end of a 32-30 game against the Philadelphia Eagles (the Browns set a club record for largest lead blown: 23-0)...

1993) John Wayne Bobbitt is acquitted on the charge of marital sexual assault against his wife Lorena Bobbitt (Lorena a.k.a. "The blade" is later acquitted of malicious wounding of her husband. Just one big happy couple)...

1994) Jazz singer Carmen McRae dies of a stroke at 72...

1996) Miami's Dan Marino becomes the first quarterback in NFL history to pass for more than 50,000 yards...

1997) WorldCom Inc. & MCI Communications Corp. agree to a $37 billion merger...

2003) Country and Rock stars gather to pay tribute to the late Johnny Cash (who passed away in September '03) by doing his songs at the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville...

Happy Birthday To...

1924) Russell Johnson (The Professor on 'Gilligan's Island')...

1935) 'Jaws' actor Roy Scheider...

1944) Lyricist Tim Rice...

1947) "Please Come to Boston" singer Dave Loggins...

1948) Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Greg Lake...

1949) Dancer Ann Reinking...

1956) Sinbad...

1959) Mackenzie Phillips...

1977) Brittany Murphy...

Commentary...

Some interesting things you may not know about 'Sesame Street':

The company founded by the late Jim Henson who created the Muppets is now run by his son. The workshop is located where his father had it, on the Upper East Side...

Joe Raposo who wrote "The Sesame Street Theme" and several other songs for the show was a Harvard graduate. Raposo died in 1989...

"The Electric Company" is a Sesame Workshop produced show which is taped where "Sesame Street" is currently taped...

Funding for 'Sesame Street' is provided for by the Ready To Learn The No Child Left Behind Act, U.S. Department of Education, PBS, Chuck E. Cheese and McDonald's. Major funding for 'Sesame Street' is provided for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from "Viewers Like You"...