Sesame Street could never have been as successful without the immensely talented team that Joan Ganz Cooney and her colleagues assembled.
Dave Connell, the vice president and executive producer
Samuel Gibbon, producer of the show
Jon Stone, producer and director for over twenty-six years, and responsible for the style of the show. He proposed that the show should be set in a place kids could identify with: a real street, populated with real people.
Jeff Moss, head writer, who told the other writers, “You’ve got two jobs. One is to do a television show that a four-year-old wants to watch. The second is to do a show that you want to watch.”
Jim Henson, probably the most famous Sesame Street associate, the inventor of the Muppets.
Joe Raposo, a musician and composer, who would eventually write such beloved songs as Kermit the Frog’s “Bein’ Green.”
Naming the Show
Coming up with a suitable name for the new show was not easy. Initially it was given the mind-numbingly boring title, “The Preschool Educational Television Show.” That wasn’t supposed to be its permanent name, of course, but it seemed that the creators could never agree on what to call it. Jokingly, they referred to it as “The Itty-Bitty, Nitty-Gritty, Little Kiddie Show” which morphed into “The Farm and City, Dog and Kitty, Itty-Bitty, Nitty-Gritty, Little Kiddie Show.” Talk about a mouthful! Finally, they were down to the wire and had to decide on a name, so they picked the one that they least disliked: Sesame Street. Some of the creators were afraid that kids wouldn’t be able to pronounce it, but they decided that it was their best choice.