Happy Birthday, Sesame Street

Photo from Google Images/PBS

It began happening 53 years ago today on television screens across America -- millions of kids started to learn "how to get to Sesame Street!”

The beloved children's series premiered on November 10, 1969.

Documentary producer Joan Ganz Cooney and experimental psychologist Lloyd Morrisett formed the Children’s Television Workshop in 1968. The nonprofit began producing “Sesame Street” to ready young children — especially from underprivileged backgrounds — for kindergarten.

First filmed at Manhattan’s Teletape Studios for National Educational Television — a precursor to PBS — the show brought together actors, animation, celebrity cameos, and personable puppets, many built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.

More than 30 international versions of “Sesame Street” have debuted since, and the American original has won 209 Emmy Awards.

A survey once found that 95% of all American preschoolers had watched the show by the time they were three.