Major funding for backstory is provided by an anonymous donor, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.

From Virginia Humanities, this is backstory.

Welcome to backstory, the show that explains the history behind today's headlines. I'm Brian Ballot.

I'm Ed Ayers.

And I'm Joanne Freeman.

If you're new to the podcast, we're all historians, along with our colleague Nathan Connolly.

And each week, we explore a topic in American history.

For many Americans, nothing brings back wistful childhood memories quite like Sesame Street.

I'll be how to get, how to get to Sesame Street.

Whether it was practicing your ABCs with Big Bird, learning the value of friendship from Burton Ernie, or exploring your emotions with Elmo,

the show has a special place in hearts all across the country.

Since it first aired in 1969, Sesame Street has raked in countless awards and has become one of the longest running children's television shows in history.

But 1966, Sesame Street was nothing more than an idea.

Several of the people at the party were interested in or actually working in television.

That's Lloyd Morissette, the co-founder of Sesame Street.

He says the origins of the show can be traced back to a dinner party in New York City hosted by Joan Cuny, a television producer.

And so I said at one point in the conversation, shown you think television could be used to teach young children.

And her answer was, I don't know, but I'd like to talk about it.

And so, would that question begin the development of what would become Sesame Street?

But to understand why Lloyd would ask such a question, we have to rewind a bit.

Before Sesame Street, he was a psychologist at the Carnegie Corporation, an organization that supports academic policy and childhood development.

At the time, there was lots of talk about the education gap between rich and poor children.

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