About this title: Marking the 40th anniversary of "Sesame Street, Street Gang" traces the story of one of the most important and beloved shows on television--how it got started, nearly failed, and was saved by Elmo. Two 16-page b&w photo inserts.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Very Good. Former Library book. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: FINE. Superb, crisp, clean, unread hardcover with some light shelfwear to the dust jacket and a remainder mark to one edge-VERY NICE! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Adult
Date Published: 12-26-08
ISBN-13:9780670019960ISBN:0670019968
Description: FINE. Superb, crisp, clean, unread hardcover with some light shelfwear to the dust jacket and a remainder mark to one edge-VERY NICE! 1.46 lbs. read more
Description: Good. 0670019968 Standard used condition ie. These are good quality new books from the publisher with a bump, shelf wear, or some sunfading to outer edges of book. Has remainder mark. read more
Edition: First Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Penguin Group, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780670019960ISBN:0670019968
Description: Fine in Fine jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. "What I appreciate about Michael Davis's new book on Seasame Street in the depth of his research and how he spotlights those people who deserve to have more light shed upon them for their great contributions to the show. And what's refreshing is how he does not run away from conflicts that sometimes occurred behind the scenes, which were part of the creative energy of the show. He has really captured the spitit of how Sesame Street came to be. A ... read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Adult
Date Published: 2008-12-26
Description: New in New jacket. New, unread hardcover book with publisher's inventory mark. We ship 6 days a week, generally within 24 hours; single CDs and DVDs upgraded to 1st class! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Press, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780670019960ISBN:0670019968
Description: Fine in Fine jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Like-new condition. Appears unread. NO remainder marks or price clippings. Price inside dustcover: $27.95. Tight spine, bright pages. 380 pages. Illustrated with photos. NO writing, marks or tears. Synopsis "Davis tracks down every Sesame anecdote and every Sesame personality in his book...Finally, we get to touch Big Bird's feathers. " The New York Times Book Review Sesame Street is the longest-running-and arguably most beloved-children's television ... read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780143116639ISBN:0143116630
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Edition: First Edition ~1st Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Press, New York
Date Published: 2008
Description: Vg in vg jacket, in fresh mylar cover, with publisher's press release laid in; some lite bumping to board edges, curling to top of front jacket panel else a tight square unmarked copy in unclipped dust jacket. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Pr
Date Published: 2008-12-26
ISBN-13:9780670019960ISBN:0670019968
Description: NEW. Hardcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780670019960. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Adult
Date Published: 2008-12-26
ISBN-13:9780670019960ISBN:0670019968
Description: New in New jacket. New, unread hardcover book with publisher's inventory mark. We ship 6 days a week, generally within 24 hours; single CDs and DVDs upgraded to 1st class! read more
"While this is billed as a "complete" history of Sesame Street, that isn't quite the case. It starts out very strong, giving a great sense of what children's TV was prior to Sesame Street, and the story of Sesame's origins is fascinating and well-told. Once the show gets off the ground, though, the tale starts to lose momentum and cohesiveness; Davis, faced with a wealth of information, seems to have had difficulty in figuring out how to translate that into a narrative, and the book suffers. Particularly annoying is that almost the entirety of the 80s skipped over, so there is no elaboration on the stories I've always found to be interesting, like the tale about how Snuffy went from Big Bird's imaginary friend to being acknowledged as real -- the story I've always heard is that the Sesame writers were concerned about having Big Bird consistently disbelieved, thus giving children the impression that they might be disbelieved over matters of importance. The book doesn't even touch on this, however, nor does it really discuss how the show's pedagogy evolved over the years. Instead there is some not-very-in-depth dscussion of the marketing of Elmo and Zoe, and very little dicussion of how the Children's Television Workshop evolved into the entity it is today. The story of Sesame Street just trails off into a non-ending, which sadly seems to be the way the show itself is going, in my opinion. The book is worth reading for the first half, but overall it goes into more detail than a casual reader will care about, and not enough detail for Sesame Street aficionados."
"To say that I went into this wanting -- and expecting -- to like this book would be an understatement. I love Sesame Street. It is entirely possible that Sesame Street taught me to read. And I met the author at a panel and book signing, and he appeared to be an extremely nice guy.
I just wish he'd written a better book.
This is a book that spends lots of time obsessing over some aspects of Sesame Street's creation, while glossing over details and leaving out other important bits entirely. Chapters are spent on Captain Kangaroo, both in its own right as a predecessor, and as a training ground for several people who would later work on Sesame Street, including Tom Whedon, Jon Stone, and Dave Connell. Much is made of bad blood between Stone and Connell from that program, culminating on page 137 with "They would never be bowling partners, but they did agree to work together. Over time and true to form, Connell was more successful at burying past differences than Stone."
That, boys and girls, is what we call "foreshadowing." It is the sort of thing one takes as a setup, holding in the back of one's mind, waiting for the bit where Stone snaps and trouble breaks out. But in this book, that bit never comes. The tension between the two is never mentioned again.
Chekhov advised playwrights never to bring a gun onto the stage if they didn't intend to fire it. The author of this book heaps guns onto the mantel and judges that good enough.
Perhaps more to the point, this is a "complete history of Sesame Street" that spends about two chapters on Captain Kangaroo and one sentence on Roscoe Orman, who's played Gordon since 1974.
(Matt Robinson, the first Gordon, gets a few pages, but there is no mention of him leaving, let alone any explanation given for why he did, or any mention of how children -- or anyone else -- reacted to the switch. For that matter, Hal Miller, who played the role between the two, isn't mentioned at all.)
It's a nice try, I suppose, and there's some good material here. But the complete history of Sesame Street has yet to be written."
"Wow. I had such high hopes, but man, this was poorly written. Davis seemed compelled to include every random fact he discovered while researching the book, whether or not it had any remote relation to Sesame Street, or was even mildly interesting. One hundred and twenty pages into a 350 page book, and we're only up to a written proposal that maybe there should be a television show that tries to educate kids. But we've had time for mentions of Fred Friendly taking on McCarthy, the number of bridges constructed as part of the Works Progress Admisitration's budget, and the revelation that Joan Cooney's Jewish grandfather was a charter member of a restricted country club in Pheonix (Cooney was Henson's partner and one of the founders of Children's Television Workshop).
And the language, well, it's just painful. "As autumn turned to winter in 1929, a direful shadow crossed the continentm like biblical darkness falling upon Egypt." "Collegiate rivals Harvard and Yale can each claim a measure of paternity for Sesame Street. During the show's three-year gestation period, from 1966 to 1969, researcher, faculty leaders and graduates of both Ivy institutions touched nearly every phase of its development." Oh my lord."
"This is just a wonderful book .. but boring in places where they tell too much administrative stuff. It was important to them .. but boring to read in a 15 second sound bite world.
The Street Gang was an impossible mission that was carried out well. You will love reading it."
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