Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street proves that Sesame Street was always a political show

The New York Times

The HBO documentary, premiering Monday, shows how Sesame Street was political from the beginning with a cultural purpose. "As Street Gang lays out, the show’s very setting — a city street, not a fantasy castle or picket-fenced house — said something about the range of children it sought to welcome," says James Poniewozik. "The racially diverse cast of grown-ups and kids said something. Sesame Street was open and public and real, as real as a block where humans hung out with furry monsters could be." Sonia Manzano, who played Maria, says: "I saw it as a political show" because of its casting and its determination to raise conversations that kids’ TV wasn’t used to having.