Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street isn't your ordinary documentary

NBC News

"It would be easy for the Sesame Street documentary, Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street, to tip into hagiography: After all, it’s a beloved show and singular in how it approaches children’s television — possibly even deserving every accolade," says Ani Bundel. "But director Marilyn Agrelo's deep dive behind the scenes of the show’s early years is remarkably clear-eyed both about the series and the people who made it." Bundel adds: "Sesame Street is now a show that a majority of us take for granted — a series that’s always been there, and one of a very few things that, still, is truly universal. Sing 'Pinball Number Count,' 'One of These Things,' or the show’s indelible theme song and just about every person under the age of 80 who grew up in America will get the reference. But this isn’t just your ordinary documentary in which aging producers reminisce; the film surprises by diving into stories that are rarely talked about. It celebrates the idea that this was a show deliberately aimed at urban, minority youth, and that the setting of 'The Street' was to appeal to what those kids supposedly knew. But the documentary also doesn’t flinch away from the sometimes uncomfortable sight of very earnest white people passionately fretting over education gaps while oblivious to the structural racism at play in their own writers’ room and actions." ALSO: Street Gang reveals the story behind Roosevelt Franklin, the first Black Muppet.