NEW YORK - Here's a kids show that still boasts plenty of street cred.
Now beginning its 35th season, "Sesame Street" remains a daily desination for millions of preschoolers, an evergreen cityscape as much a part of their world as any other play space.
It's been that way for generations of kids, as any of the show's estimated 74 million "grads" will recall from "Sesame Street Presents: The Street We Live On." This retrospective airs on most PBS stations 8 p.m. EST Sunday, then serves as the season opener the next day (check local listings).
Even if you haven't caught "Sesame Street" since around the time it premiered Nov. 10, 1969, you will be struck by how things seem much like you left them. The Muppets; the diverse community of humans; the letters and numbers that "sponsor" each hour.
Even parts of the 'hood are the same, notably the set for the brownstone apartment building at 123 Sesame St. (as it exists on Stage G at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens). Now nearly 35 years old, it should qualify for landmark status.
Clearly "Sesame Street" was designed for the ages by the "urban planners" at the upstart Children's Television Workshop (now renamed Sesame Workshop). But the era that gave rise to "Sesame Street" remains part of its culture.
A tell trace lives on in the theme song: "Sunny day, everything's A-OK." Popularised by pioneers of the U.S. space program, the term A-OK is as identified with the 1960s as granny glasses and tie-dye jeans.
So, perhaps, is the idealism surging in those years. Four months before "Sesame Street" premiered, that can-do spirit had helped put things right for the nation's kids.
"'Sesame Street' grew out of the Great Society programs," says executive producer Lewis Bernstein, referring to the Johnson adminisrations's social initiatives. "That was a period when politics, educational needs and the social milieu all converged to say, 'You influence kids at an early age and you can give them the skills they need to nagigate their way through school and life.'"
And, with the civil rights movements at full throttle, racial equality became another part of the show's message.
"When I first came here (in 1972) there were a lot of ex-hippies working here with a spirit of Let's Change the World. Maybe some of us have cut our hair," Bernstein says with a chuckle, "but the passion hasn't changed."
Early on, the "Sesame Street" brand of passion paved the way to many kids-show innovations: the racially integrated cast, the inner-city setting, the fast-paced, bite-sized structure of each episode.
"Sesame Street" gathered caring, flesh-and-blood adults to offer guidance and support for the childlike Muppets. It brought in celebrity guests to catch the eye of parents, who, after watching with their kids, then "naturally reinforce and extend the learning for the child," Bernstein says.
A place with sunny days and everything A-OK, "Sesame Street" blended authenticity with aspiration: "Life dosen't exist in most place like it does on 'Sesame Street,'" Bernstein acknowledges. "But if we don't model it, it'll never exist."
Today, after 4,057 episodes, more than 8 million viewers tune in at least once a week. The show remains a top 10 weekday program among children aged 2 to 5, with its preschool audience up 9 percent in 2002-03 from the season before.
"Preschoolers' needs haven't changed," Bernstein says. "But the world has changed so much! So we've tried to take what's going on and stay a step ahead of it with the lessons we offer to kids."
