HBO has unveiled a first look at its upcoming Sesame Street documentary Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street. Watch it below.
The film, which is set to premiere December 13th, takes a look at the earliest days of the beloved, long-running children’s television show — from its conception and development to its takeoff as a national treasure — all told through interviews with the artists, educators, and cast members who helped create the magic.
“This was an experiment. Children were watching a tremendous amount of television. So why not see if it could educate them?” a number of interviewees explain via confessional. “Our target audience were inner city children. We had struggled with the idea of the setting for the show. I wanted to capture that New York energy because, to the three-year-olds cooped up in the room upstairs, the action is on the street.
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Street Gang also explores the show’s groundbreaking diversity and impact on culture, with the trailer including both Stevie Wonder’s 1973 appearance on Sesame Street and the boycott of the show in the suburbs of Jackson, Mississippi over the number of Black cast members featured on screen.
Taking a page from the book Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis, the documentary will be available to stream on HBO Max following its premiere on the subscription network.
More recently, Billie Eilish stopped by Sesame Street earlier this month to perform a kid-friendly duet of her hit single “Happier Than Ever” with The Count. Meanwhile, Senator Ted Cruz launched an anti-vaxx Twitter tirade after Big Bird got his COVID-19 vaccine ahead of the Season 52 premiere.
