The word on the ‘Street’ is gentrification
TV’s most popular kids show adapts to a new era
Elmo has moved from an apartment to a historic brownstone. Oscar the Grouch’s dwelling includes recycling and composting. Abby Cadabby tends an urban community garden. Big Bird’s nest is perched in a tree like a trendy eco-hotel.
The word on the Street is gentrification.
After 45 years of airing for free on PBS, Sesame Street will charge viewers an admission fee. Starting January 16, the show will launch on premium cable network HBO. It’ll be shown on public television nine months later.
In 1966, television producer Joan Ganz Cooney and psychologist Lloyd Morrisett envisioned ways to use the addictive power of TV to create content for children that went down “more like ice cream than spinach.” Three years and 8 million federal dollars later, the Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) was created and the first episode of Sesame Street aired.
The show won immediate acclaim. Sesame Street’s creators relied heavily on the advice of academics and child psychologists to guide its programming. Which is part of the reason why the show was comfortable taking risks. It was the edgiest kids’ show ever, tackling heavy issues like divorce, death and HIV/AIDS.
The set was designed around an urban brownstone to make the neighborhood look familiar to inner-city children. Cooper also hired Evelyn Payne Davis, a former development director for the New York Urban League, to ensure the show attracted viewers in poor, black areas. By 1979, 90 percent of children from low-income, urban homes regularly watched Sesame Street.
But despite its longstanding popularity, and Elmo’s ubiquitous presence in children’s homes around the world, funding issues arose as early as 1978. By 1981, the federal government stopped funding the show entirely.
Corporate sponsorship of Sesame Street began in 1998. But even with support from corporate sponsors and nonprofits, the show’s largest source of income came from videocassette and DVD sales, which plummeted with the rise of online streaming. On Sesame Street’s 40th anniversary, as the show found itself falling behind the likes of Dora the Explorer and Spongebob Squarepants in ratings, the organization laid off 20 percent of its staff. In 2015, Sesame Workshop lost $7.4 million, and operating revenues fell nearly 10 percent.
In an era when YouTube and Netflix reign supreme, Sesame Street’s former model stood no chance for survival. By signing on with HBO, the program has found a way to recover from plunging DVD sales and reach out to audiences increasingly consuming streaming and on-demand television. In a way, by gentrifying 123 Sesame Street, HBO is saving the beloved brand. The network is installing new stained-glass walls, rooftop decks, skylights and — of course — free wifi, in order to keep its lights on and attract paying customers.
Nostalgic viewers should take comfort, however. Sesame Workshop Creative Director Brown Johnson told the New York Times that HBO had absolutely no creative interference in Sesame Street’s new seasons. And hipster vibes aside, young children who are meeting Elmo and Big Bird for the first time will pay no mind to the Street’s new look. While the show’s funding and platform have dramatically changed, its devotion to research-based child development will not cease.
In the spirit of Sesame Street’s mission, the coming seasons plan to focus on kindness. “What is going on in this world today is not very kind,” Johnson told the Times, “so why not really make kindness part of a curriculum that kids need to practice?”
Sesame Street may be gentrified, but it’s charm remains.
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