RobKirkpatrick.com

Happy 40th birthday to Sesame Street, which debuted on PBS on November 10, 1969. 

The popular children’s television show originated out of a 1966 Carnegie Institute initiative to determine how television might be used to educate children, especially those from low-income families. Joan Ganz Cooley was awarded an $8 million grant to establish the Children’s Television Workshop, which created the show.

Two days before its debut, NBC broadcast a thirty-minute preview of the show, entitled This Way to Sesame Street.

As Malcolm Gladwell  wrote in The Tipping Point, “Sesame Street was built around a single, breakthrough insight: that if you can hold the attention of children, you can educate them.”

Also premiering in the Fall 1969 television season: the then-risque Love, American Style and the squeaky clean Brady Bunch.

Thanks again go out to Mark Page and everybody at Telling Pictures for including me in the documentary Sex in ‘69: The Sexual Revolution in America, which broadcast Monday night on the History Channel.  If you missed it, you can read more about it and buy a copy of the DVD (http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=464960).  And, of course, my book is also available from the History Channel online store.

I think the highlight for me was seeing myself speak while juxtaposed with scenes of Natalie Wood in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. 

And to Margo Sappington, the great choreographer behind Oh! Calcutta!: You’re awesome, and next time you’re in New York, let me know if you’d like to meet for coffee.

-Rob

In a year of riots and protests – including the Harvard Student Strike, People’s Park, the War Moratorium, the Days of Rage, and the occupation of Alcatraz – perhaps the most pivotal in terms of lasting influence were the Stonewall Riots, which occurred 40 years ago this weekend in Greenwich Village. The uprising of patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street, against a police raid inspired local residents, gay and straight, to join in. Forty years later, it stands as one of the most important rallying moments in the history of the gay and lesbian rights movement in America.

Read this recent New York Times story on Stonewall here: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/police-records-document-the-stonewall-uprising/?hp

…and, of course, you can read more about the Stonewall Riots in 1969: The Year Everything Changed, available now from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, or directly from the publisher.  Visit my book page for links to purchase.

Ps. I also discuss Stonewall, as well as other colorful incidents from the year, in the upcoming History Channel program Sex in ‘69: The Sexual Revolution in America. Air date coming soon!

- Rob

Tune in now to the SNY (SportsNewYork) television station to see Miracle in New York: The Story of the ‘69 Mets, narrated by Tim Robbins, on the story of an Amazin’ year: http://www.sny.tv/index.jsp