Children and Television

Gerald S. Lesser, a Harvard professor of education and developmental psychology who served as Sesame Street's first educational director, explains how the program was produced and how the Children's Television Workshop was formed, along with its philosophy of teaching. He wrote it early in the show's run to judge whether it worked, to lay out what its writers, researchers and producers were trying to do, and to answer critics. Its four parts move from the proposal through planning to broadcasting and the lessons learned, and Lesser describes the research behind the show and his own part in it. Co-creators Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett contribute a foreword and an introduction, and Maurice Sendak supplied cartoons.

Mulley Communications owner Damien Mulley said it tells how Sesame Street came to be and shows the remarkable planning and research behind it.