Nerd Dads Review: STREET GANG

One of the more interesting things I learned during the course of reading Michael Davis', STREET GANG: The Complete History of Sesame Street, is that Jim Henson didn't actually create the series. This may not be news to most, but having grown up with Sesame Street = Henson as one of those universal constants, I had never thought about it before. Discovering that he was not, in fact, the original architect of the series has actually raised my appreciation of what he and his puppeteers accomplished. As difficult as it is to create something worthwhile when it's your vision start to finish, it's immeasurably harder when you're brought in late in the game.

Unfortunately, once the book reveals this little nugget of info, the writing then becomes dry and somewhat difficult to slog through for about the first 150 pages or so. While I appreciate the efforts of the various individuals involved in the development of the single greatest children's television phenomenon the world has ever seen, however a good 50 pages could have been trimmed form the front of the book, tightening things up and improving it immensely.

As soon as Henson enters the Sesame Scene, however, the book flows much more smoothly and is far more entertaining. From this point on, the book's largest strength, aside from the various Sesame Street cast member bios (some of which are amazingly uplifting, while others are genuinely heartbreakingly sad), is it's ability to present the development of the show into a historical context, highlighting the fact that much of the long road to getting it on the air occurred alongside Martin Luther King's movement and eventual assassination. This information provides an invaluable insight into the world that Sesame Street was birthed into, and accentuates just how amazing it is that it made it to the airwaves in the first place, much less with it's groundbreaking and revolutionary goals and presentation intact.

NERDIMATUM: Ultimately, this is a book worth reading for any fans of Henson or Sesame Street, but you do have to exhibit some patience while it gets around to the meat of the subject matter.