Word: cooney
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...Workshop hired him. In fact, Henson hesitated to join the show, since he did not want to become stuck as a children's entertainer. Nonetheless, few would disagree that it was primarily Bert and Ernie, Big Bird, Grover and the rest who made Sesame Street so captivating. Joan Ganz Cooney, who created the show, once remarked that the group involved with it had a collective genius but that Henson was the only individual genius. "He was our era's Charlie Chaplin, Mae West, W.C. Fields and Marx Brothers," Cooney said, "and indeed he drew from all of them to create...
Recognizing that the show required a sound research base, Cooney, an entertainment executive, interviewed a number of developmental psychologists, seeking someone to serve as the intermediary between the researchers and those working in the entertainment industry...
...Cooney turned to Harvard's Gerald S. Lesser. Lesser was her first choice because the University was a leader in the field of developmental psychology at the time and Lesser was unique in that he had experience in children's television as well as developmental research...
...Cooney's important early production decisions was the move to hire away Captain Kangaroo's production team. This was a key decision, Lesser says, because "there were very few people with experience with hour-long daily shows except Captain Kangaroo people...
...Cooney received mail from parents who said their learning-disabled children were learning their ABC's--and the parents were proud...