HBO Announces Street Gang, A New Sesame Street Documentary

HBO's reliably excellent Documentary Films unit has announced that in 2021 it will be airing Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street on HBO and HBO Max. The new documentary explores links between the civil rights movement of the late 1960s and frames the popular children's television series as a "revolutionary experiment to harness the burgeoning power of television and create an educational, impactful, and entertaining show."

Street Gang will chronicle the show's first 20 years, starting in the late 1960s, when socially conscious media executive Joan Ganz Cooney and Sesame Workshop co-founder Lloyd Morrisett teamed with visionary Muppets creator Jim Henson and acclaimed children’s television writer and director Jon Stone to craft the iconic and uplifting world of Sesame Street.

Rather than portraying the show as one that belonged to a particular audience or social movement, the documentary will "take audiences inside the minds and hearts of the Sesame Street creators, artists, writers and educators who together established one of the most influential and enduring children's programs in television history."

Street Gang is directed by documentarian Marilyn Agrelo (The Electric Company, Moscow Cat Theater). The film's co-producers include Trevor Crafts (Manson Family Vacation), Ellen Scherer Crafts (Lantern City), Lisa Diamond (Explained), and Brian O’Shea (Young Ones).