Street Gang & Sesame Street

Face2Face with David Peck

Trevor and Ellen Scherer Crafts and Face2Face host David Peck talk about Street Gang, revolutionary ideas, the definition of genius, lightening in a bottle, TV as a wasteland and Kermit the Frog.

Trailer

Find out more about Street Gang here.

Synopsis:

Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street takes us inside the minds and hearts of the Sesame Street creators, artists, writers, and educators who, together established one of the most influential programs in television history.

In late 1960s, Joan Ganz Cooney, a socially conscious female television executive was working in the fledgling world of public television. She was asked by friend Lloyd Morrisett, who worked for the Carnegie Corporation of New York and who specialized in the psychological studies of pre-school children, to take on revolutionary experiment. Could Joan create a children’s show that would "master the addictive qualities of television and do something good with them?"

Inspired by the civil rights movement, Joan and Lloyd took this experiment one step further and began to envision using the new medium of television to educate all children, and specifically reach America’s "inner city" children to help close the educational gap that systemic racism and poverty had created. It was the right project, at the right time, and she needed the right group of people to make it happen.

To harness the burgeoning power of television and create an educational, impactful, and entertaining show that could reach children nationwide. Cooney recruited visionary Muppets creator Jim Henson and acclaimed children’s television writer and director Jon Stone to craft the iconic and uplifting world of what became Sesame Street.

Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street focuses on the first two experimental and groundbreaking decades of Sesame Street, highlighting this visionary "gang."

With interviews with the original surviving creators, and their families, we hear and see how “the gang” came together. They share stories of the challenges and stumbling blocks involved to create the show and its iconic characters, and also speak to confronting boundaries that came their way with unflinching purpose. All with a wicked sense of humor, and pure joy. The gang knew that they were part of something that was special, critically important, and bigger than themselves.

Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street reintroduces the world to Joan’s gang. With exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, and original cast and creator interviews, audiences will meet the people that audaciously interpreted radical changes in society and engaged children in ways that entertained and educated them like never before.

Now is the perfect time to tell the story of the show’s origins and inspire people to use purpose, and the power of creativity, to make a positive impact in our world.

About Trevor and Ellen:

Known for creativity, flexibility, and a sense of humor, Trevor Crafts is a Producer/Director whose work has won an Emmy®, the LATV Festival, and 13 additional industry awards.

With a visionary creative drive, strong leadership abilities, and a true understanding and passion for the cinematic arts, Trevor has spent his career creating dynamic stories with striking visuals featuring strong characters.

His proven track record of leading studio teams to produce innovative story-driven content has helped film projects like the recently completed Sundance 2021 Premiere Street Gang: How We got to Sesame Street (2021) a feature length documentary on the origins of Sesame Street distributed by Screen Media and HBO, based on the book of the same name. Other Films include 7 Splinters in Time (2018) 12 Feet Deep (2016), Experimenter with Peter Sarsgaard and Winona Ryder (2015) which premiered at Sundance, Manson Family Vacation from the Duplass Brothers (2015), Deep in the Heart (2013) and Smokewood, Nevada (2013).

In publishing, Trevor is currently working on The Unseen Photos of Street Gang a photo book of behind-the-scenes pictures from renown photographer David Attie. Also he recently released The Not-So Secret Society Graphic Novel for middle readers, published by BOOM! Studios, under their KaBoom imprint. BOOM! Studios also published his original IP series Lantern City in 2015.

Ellen Scherer Crafts started her career in entertainment producing special events to include headline entertainment for Cesar’s Entertainment and live boxing co-productions with HBO and Telemundo. She went on to prominent roles in promotion and marketing in the corporate arena executing large scale meetings and product launches for Fortune 500 companies all over the world.

Ellen partnered with her husband and producer Trevor Crafts to build Macrocosm Entertainment, helping to market their original transmedia property Lantern City and co-create the original children’s property The Not-So Secret Society. Ellen is a producer on the anticipated documentary Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street premiering in 2021.

Image Copyright and Credit: Macrocosm and levelFilm.

F2F Music and Image Copyright: David Peck and Face2Face. Used with permission.

For more information about David Peck’s podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here.

With thanks to Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

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