Oh, Truman, come here!
My commercial is about to be on!
Cool. I'll turn the TV up.
MUSIC Scarlett Johansson.
Viola Davis. Timothy Chalamet.
Joy D 'Olo. Some of the finest actors in our modern age but only one offers an acting class taught out of the back of a discount shoe store and that one is Joy D 'Olo.
Learn from the actress Time magazine once called late with her monthly subscription payment and critics say who?
At the Joy D 'Olo school of acting you'll master all the emotions.
Happy, sad, angry, confused.
How do I update my payment info on the Time Magazine website?
By the end you'll be ready for any role so call now or I'll be so sad.
Aha, fooled you. Acting.
That was an awesome commercial, Joy.
Thanks. Hello? Is this the Joy Dolo School of Acting?
I just saw your commercial, and I need your help.
Is that a giant green capital letter E?
Yeah, I get that a lot, mostly because I am a giant green capital letter E, and right now I need E for experts to help me with my next audition.
What are you auditioning for?
To play the letter E on Sesame Street.
Oh, wow! Well, you came to the right place.
Class is about to begin.
E! I'm double E for extremely excited!
Welcome to Forever Ago from APM Studios.
I'm Joy Dolo here with my buddy Truman from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Hello. And also one giant green letter, E.
Hi. Today, we're talking Sesame Street because E here is hoping to land a big part on that show.
Truman, do you have a favorite Sesame Street character?
I think for sure Rocko.
Rocko? OK. If someone has never seen Rocko, Would you describe what Rocko is?
So Rocko is Elmo's friend Zoey's pet rock.
Yeah, and Rocko drives Elmo nutty.
Because Zoey thinks Rocko is real but Elmo knows that Rocko is a rock.
Do you think that Rocko is a rock or do you think that Rocko is real?
I think Rocko has a beautiful personality.
He's just very calm.
Yes, just a very like kind of shy but very funny when you get to know him type guy I have a an embarrassing question for you.
Can you do an impression of rocco?
There's my impression Do you think that TV shows are capable of changing the world I I think so, you know if they have the space if they have the people who will watch them that can teach good morals, teach to not lie, teach to not cheat, they could change the world.
Oh! I want to change the world!
To empower! I've got to be on Sesame Street.
Well, Letter E, we're going to help you get that part.
And the Joy Dolo School of Acting Methods says, to truly understand a part is to immerse yourself in the history.
In this case, the history of Sesame Street.
Eeeeee! Exciting. We're also going to work on your range of emotion.
Show me happy. Aaaaaaaaah!
I'm elated! Show me mad.
Grrr. I am enraged.
Show me sad. Um... Sad?
That's a tough one for an E.
Um... how about engrossed?
or entertained, or even envious.
Wait, can you only do feelings that start with the letter E?
Uh, no. Well, maybe.
Uh, yes. Ah, I can only emote in letter E, and I can't think of a word for sad that starts with E.
Hmm, that'll definitely limit you.
Let me think about it.
For now, back to history.
You might know Sesame Street as a cute show with talking puppets like Elmo, Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. Plus friendly humans who interact with the puppets.
But Sesame Street actually started as a wild experiment to see if a TV show could help kids become successful adults.
It's a story full of big gambles, wild ideas, haters and doubters, and ultimately a huge win.
Oh, elaborate, please.
I'm all ears. To understand why anyone would think a TV show could change the world, we need to go way back...
...to America in the 1960s.
Rock and Roll was pretty new.
Ford released the iconic Mustang muscle car...
People called each other on phones that were attached to the wall with a long, curly cord. Americans were about to send the first humans to the moon.
There was a feeling that American smarts could solve anything.
But there was a lot that needed solving.
One big problem was that even though lots of people had plenty of money, others were struggling to pay their bills.
And researchers discovered that kids who grew up poor struggled later in life.
They often fell behind in school.
And they didn't make as much money when they were adults.
Then their kids would grow up with less money too.
It was a cycle. But some people thought, hey, if we could just help get those kids ready for school earlier in life, they'd break the cycle.
They'd do better in school, get better jobs, make more money, and their kids would be better off.
Problem solved. Ooh -ee for enticing idea.
But how do you execute such an all -encompassing plan?
That's where TV comes in.
Lots of people had TVs back then.
In fact, more Americans had TVs in their homes than toasters or telephones.
Speaking of which, I just found this old 1960s TV in my closet.
Whew! Let's switch it on and see what TV was like back then.
Color TV was still new in the 1960s, but there were only a few channels you could watch. And unlike today, where you can watch pretty much whatever you want, whenever you want, Back then there were set TV schedules.
A show would come on at a certain time and that was it.
You either watched it at that time or you missed it.
And if you felt like turning the TV on at a random hour, you had to watch whatever was playing at that time.
Oh, like this show!
Hey kids, it's Spriggles the Clown here on Topsy Turvy town, the show where fun is always on tap.
In a little bit I'm gonna throw a pie in mean old Mr. Beansworth's face.
But first, have you seen these nifty topsy -turvy town toys?
Available now! This one of me has real pie throwing action.
Jeez! That's a toy commercial wrapped in a show.
Let's change the channel.
It's the Rugged Rustler.
An old latoon sheriff.
Look, Rustler. I'm taking a snoot and riding off.
And you can't stop me.
Oh, yeah? My fists of fury and my lasso of the law have something to say about that.
Get back here! Whoa.
Ugh! Oh! E -gads! There was a lot of advertising and fighting on TV back then.
Where were the educational shows?
Back then, there were only a handful of educational shows, and they usually weren't popular.
Still, kids in the late 1960s were watching a ton of TV.
By some estimates, preschoolers were watching an average of 54 hours of TV a week.
That's, like, eight hours a day.
Which leads us to a fateful morning when one little girl was watching TV and it would inspire something huge.
The little girl was a three -year -old named Sarah Morrison.
It was around 6 .30 in the morning.
Back then TV didn't even have shows until 7am.
Before that, it just showed a single image called a test pattern.
Usually a test pattern was just a picture of some circles and squares.
Sarah didn't care, she stared at the TV screen glued.
Her dad Lloyd found her like this.
Sarah, what are you doing?
Watching. But there's nothing on right now.
I know. Lloyd thought to himself, wow, TV can really grab a kid's attention.
What if we could use that power for good?
A few days later, he told that story to a woman named Joan Ganz Cooney, and it sparked an idea in her that would change the world.
Wow, this reminds me of the time I was eyeing an elephant who was entertaining an exasperated eel.
Um, letter E, how is this like watching an elephant try to entertain an eel?
Both experiences had me at the edge of my seat.
So, what eventually happened?
Oh, you'll find out.
Right after we play a round of...
First Things First!
So this is the game where we take three things from history and try to put them in order of which came first, second, and most recent in time.
Today's three things are characters from Sesame Street.
So, we've got Elmo, the lovable red monster, Snuffleupagus, the furry elephant creature, and the Count, a vampire who loves numbers.
Oh, one ha -ha -ha. Two ha -ha -ha.
Three characters ha -ha -ha!
That was a good impression, huh?
That's a great impression.
Thank you so much. Truman, what do you think started on the show first, which was second, and which showed up most recently?
So, I know that Elmo is a big part of Sesame Street and a face scene throughout the world.
So I'm guessing that Elmo came first. That's my first guess.
That's good, that's an educated guess.
Yeah, and then I remember Count very very well from lots of things.
And so I'm guessing he came second because I saw him more on the show.
And then I'm guessing Snuffleorus.
Snuffleupagus. Snuffleupagus.
have you seen Snuffleupagus?
Do you know the big furry elephant?
I know I've seen him.
Yeah. But I don't remember where.
Probably on Sesame Street.
You didn't see him at the grocery store.
Yeah. Yeah, that's where I saw him.
That's true. Well, that's cool too because if it's probably like the most recent, then it probably wouldn't be like in your memory storage.
Yeah, that's why I'm guessing Order number one, Elmo came first. Number two, Count number three, Snuffleupagus.
Okay, Elmo won Count Second and Cephalopagus Third. Correct.
Okay, we'll hear the answers at the end of the episode right after the credits.
So stick around. We're working on an episode all about jobs that people used to have in the past, but don't exist anymore today.
But we want to know, what job do you think will exist in the future that doesn't exist today?
Like a mechanic for flying cars?
Truman, what do you think?
Any ideas about jobs of the future?
I think that we're going to automate a lot of jobs.
So I think we're going to have jobs that help AI, and like proofreading AI's work.
Ah, to make sure the AI is getting it correct.
Yeah. I see. That's a really good guess.
And that's probably going to happen.
Listeners, record yourself describing what job you think will exist in the future.
And send it to us at ForeverAGO .org slash contact.
and while you're there you can send us episode ideas, questions, and drawings.
Like, maybe you wanna draw a picture of your favorite Sesame Street character, or me hugging a Sesame Street character.
Me and Elmo, best friends draw that picture.
It's exciting. Brain's On Universe is a family of podcasts for kids and their adults.
Since you're a fan of Forever Ago, we know you'll love the other shows in our universe.
Come on, let's explore.
Forever ago, I'm their biggest fan.
I also love Smash Boom Best, a fun debate podcast for kids and families.
Listen, I will play you Smash Boom Best. You will love it!
To refresh your memory, the ugly duckling goes like this.
A bunch of duck eggs hatch, And the cute little ducklings go quack, quack, quack.
Mother Duck is super happy with her eggs when, quack, the last one explodes and out comes the - Zorp!
Where did the signal go?
Must find Smash Boom Best, now!
Listen to Smash Boom Best wherever you get your podcasts.
This is Forever A Go.
I'm Joy. I'm Truman.
And I'm a giant green capital letter E.
Joy is educating me about acting so I can land a role on Sesame Street.
Hmm, I still need to teach you to act Let's try this.
What's the saddest memory you have?
Oh, probably the time I unexpectedly elbowed Ed Sheeran at an Earth Day event.
I was so embarrassed.
Good. Channel that into acting sad.
I am feeling entirely...
Gah. I can't do it.
Oh, don't worry, E.
We'll keep working on it.
But back to Sesame Street.
So far, we learned that researchers in the 1960s wanted to help kids from poorer homes do better in school.
And TVs were everywhere.
So people started wondering if you could use TV to teach these kids.
That's where the mastermind of Sesame Street stepped in.
Her name was Joan Ganz Cooney.
Joan was a go -getter TV producer who had many important documentaries for grown -ups, but nothing for kids.
She wanted to test the idea that TV could teach. O -E, for an experiment.
I love it. What happened next?
Well, to make a difference, this new show had to do three things.
One, it had to be educational.
Two, it had to show kids a world that looked like theirs.
After all, if they couldn't relate to it, they'd be less likely to watch. And three, it had to be super fun, or else they definitely wouldn't watch. Three simple things, but no easy task.
Sounds like the time I tried to enter an eggplant into an envelope and enshrine it on Mount Everest. Uh, sure.
So, first step, educational.
Joan rounded up the top experts in child development.
Together they figured out how to best teach kids basic things like counting and letters.
Next, make it relatable.
Joan and her team wanted to reach kids who lived in cities.
So they set the show on a typical New York City street.
At the time, cities like New York were struggling.
Lots of families living in the city were poor.
And the schools there often didn't have enough money to spend on high -quality resources.
But Joan wanted kids to see cities in a positive light.
She also wanted to have actors on the show who were Black and actors that were White, so Black and White kids would see themselves in the characters.
This seems normal to us now, but having actors of different races on a kids' TV show was a big deal back then.
In the 1960s, black Americans were fighting to be treated the same as white Americans.
This became known as the Civil Rights Movement.
Joan hoped kids would see black and white people in the show treating each other as equals, and they'd learn to do the same.
So that leaves the last goal.
Make a show that's entertaining.
Luckily, Joan had a secret weapon.
An egg? Oh, an eagle!
No! An engine! It wasn't an E word. It was a man who made some of the most entertaining puppets ever, Jim Henson.
At first Jim Henson didn't want to do a kids' show.
His dream was to make puppet shows for grown ups.
But Joan was super convincing.
He agreed to be a part of her experiment.
Jim worked with writers and puppeteers to dream up all kinds of characters for the show.
From a fuzzy grouch living in a garbage can, to a 7 -foot tall fluffy yellow bird. Joan also enlisted the help of songwriters, musicians and animators to make cool cartoons, catchy songs, and skits.
A, B, C, D, E, F, D, H, I, T, K, L, M, N, O, P, U, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, A, B, C, D...
Uh, just put it right there, Dudley.
Okay. Today, I would like to show you the letter D. Now this is the capital D, and where's the small d, Dudley?
Uh, I ate it for dinner.
Well, get me another one.
Yeah, okay. There you go.
Thanks. Now, as Dudley suggested, the word dinner begins with a D.
Dudley, mind your manners.
Don't chew with your mouth open.
Me too. Oh, boy, are you square.
You don't move. You're always the same, all four sides the same length.
One, two, three, four.
All four corners square as a box.
I have three sides and I can make them as long or as short as I want.
Then they tested it, over and over again.
They'd play the show for kids and notice the exact spots kids got bored.
Then, they'd go back and redo those parts to make them even more fun.
And then, they'd play the new version for kids to see if it had worked.
By the end, they had created the most well -researched, most tinkered with, most elaborate kids TV show ever.
And they called it Sesame Street.
Wow, what an exceptional tale.
But I got to say, when you talk about all this tinkering and studying, all these people weighing in, it sounds like too many cooks in the kitchen.
A recipe for an E, epic fail.
A lot of people thought it would fail.
It costs millions of dollars to make.
And remember, the people who made Sesame Street didn't just want it to be good.
It had to be so good it would change lives.
The first episode of Sesame Street aired on November 10, 1969.
Sally, you've never seen a street like Sesame Street.
Everything happens here.
You're gonna love it.
They're playing games.
Hi, Bob. Say hello to Sally.
She just moved to the neighborhood.
Hi, Sally. Nice to see you.
Lots of people tuned in, almost two million households.
And guess what, they loved it!
Critics loved it too.
The team could have easily made a flop, but instead they made magic.
I knew it, I wasn't worried at all.
There was pushback though.
Some parents and teachers said the show was too fast paced and too flashy.
That it was bad for kids attention spans.
Others didn't like that the show had white and black actors working together.
In Mississippi, officials banned the show for that reason, But the officials got so much pushback from the public they quickly changed their minds.
Yeah, but the people who created Sesame Street weren't just trying to make a good show.
You said it was an E for experiment.
Did it do what they wanted it to do?
Did it help poor kids do better in school?
Actually, it helped all kids who watched it do better in school, regardless of how much money their families had, which was a big win for them.
But it did not break the cycle that led to some families struggling more with money and jobs.
Right. It didn't stop poor kids from struggling altogether, either.
Since the 1960s, we've learned a lot more about why some kids have a harder time than others.
Turns out, there are a lot of complicated reasons for this and there's no simple fix.
But still, Sesame Street did a lot of good and it's still doing good today.
Okay, wow. I feel E for energized!
I know! Imagine if the show was a flop.
We'd never get to know Bert and Ernie.
Imagine if Cookie Monster was cancelled after one season.
Not Cookie! Imagine if, dare I say it, the most popular emuppet never existed.
Elmo? Yes. Imagine.
No, Elmo. I feel so...
emo just thinking about it.
Wait. I found my sad word, emo, emotional.
Joy, you're a genius.
That's what my resume says, and my business cards, and the vanity license plate on my car.
Thanks Joy and Trueman.
I am ready to give this audition E for everything I've got.
See you tomorrow after I get this part.
E! Yeah, it's so fun to think that the show was such a huge gamble when it started.
For sure. Researchers wanted to find a way to teach preschoolers basics like numbers and letters before they got to school, especially kids living in poorer homes and cities who needed a little extra help.
It took a visionary like Joan Ganz Cooney to figure out that a TV show could do that.
Yeah, and it's amazing how they took ideas from scientists and teachers and entertainers to make something that was both fun and educational.
Totally. Speaking of Sesame Street, I wonder how our pal E did at the audition today?
Joy, Truman, E for exciting news!
You got the part of E on Sesame Street?
Sadly, no, but I did get a part.
Get this. I am playing the number three.
Yeah, look, I may be a capital E, but if I turn this way, I look just like a three.
The casting director thought I was so convincing they gave me a recurring role.
I'm gonna be a number.
That's amazing! Way to show range as an actor.
Thanks. Now I have to go home and practice getting into character.
Three is me, I -I am three.
Three, you see! Not an e.
E -E -E -E -E -E -E -E. Oh, and when you're famous, don't forget to tell them who trained you.
I take coupons. I bet that's another actor who wants my help.
Hello, Joydolo School of Acting Joydolo speaking.
Time magazine? I told you the check is in the mail.
This episode was written by Sandin Totten.
It was produced by Nico Gonzalez Whistler and Ruby Guthrie.
It was edited by Shayla Farzan.
fact checking by Nico Gonzalez Whistler.
Engineering Help from Alex Simpson with Sound Design by Rachel Breeze.
Original Themed Music by Mark Sanchez.
We had additional production help from the rest of the Brains on Universe team, Molly Bloom, Rosie DuPont, Anna Goldfield, Lauren Humpert, Joshua Wright, Mark Sanchez, Charlotte Traver, Anna Wegle and Aaron Waldosilase.
Beth Pearlman is our Executive Producer and the executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Kavati and Joanne Griffith.
with. Okay, Truman, are you ready to hear the answers for First Things First?
Yes, I am. Oh my gosh.
Roll up your socks and put a napkin in your lap.
Here comes the answers.
As a reminder, your order was ELMO and then the count, and then Snuffleupagus is the most recent.
Totally. All right.
Let's see what is going on.
Okay, You did pretty good.
You did pretty good.
I did. First up was actually Snuffleupagus.
Really? Yeah. So, Snuffleupagus was from 1971.
Interesting. Yeah. Mr. Snuffleupagus is also called Snuffy, and he's not an elephant, even though he has a trunk.
He's just like a made -up creature.
For a long time, people on Sesame Street thought he was just Big Bird's imaginary friend, because Snuffy would hide whenever Big Bird tried to bring other people over to see him.
Yeah. But finally, other people saw him, and he soon became a key part of the Sesame gang.
That's awesome. So yeah, Snuffleupagus was first. He did great.
Completely biffed it.
But I'll tell you what you didn't biff, you got number two right.
It was the count. Count Von Count is from 1972, so like a year later from Snuffleupagus.
Yeah. So he's a vampire, like Muppet who loves counting.
And he lives in a creepy castle with some bats.
and he drives a wicked cool purple convertible car called...
Do you know the name of his car is?
I don't wait. Wait...
Is it like the Counter or something?
That's a really good guess.
The counting. It's called the Countmobile.
Oh! Yeah. I could have gotten that too.
The Countmobile! That makes sense!
Yeah. And it has purple bat wings.
That's so cool! Why is he trying to be like Batman though?
He's copy... Copycat.
Copycat? The Count is a copycat.
But he's a vampire!
He's a vampire copycat.
He's a vampire copycat.
He's a vampire copycat.
We're just repeating each other.
Yeah, we are. But last but certainly not least is Elmo.
Elmo wasn't invented until 1980.
Really? And that was the most recent.
Even though he's been around a long time, he wasn't the Elmo we know right away.
A few different puppeteers use the Elmo puppet, but he was a minor muppet until one young puppeteer gave Elmo his falsetto voice and bubbly personality.
That's so interesting.
Can you do an Elmo voice?
I would try it, but I would rather not embarrass myself.
I honor you and I respect that.
But would you like to try it?
I, oh, ohhh, hold on Elmo, whoa whoa!
My name's Elmo! Yeah!
That was really good!
So after that, Elmo grew to be one of the most recognizable children's characters of all time.
So out of all three of those, what surprised you the most?
Um, I think the fact that surprised me the most is that I got all of them wrong except for Count.
Except for Count, you got the Count, yeah.
I got Count right. I'm happy about that though.
But I'm sad about the Countmobile.
Yeah, I feel like you did a really good job though because like, I would think Elmo would be the oldest one cause that's the one that's the most iconic.
Yeah, he's like Elmo.
Yeah, he is Sesame Street.
He like, he's the one that goes on all the interviews.
Oh yeah. Join us next week for a new episode all about the jobs that don't exist anymore.
Thanks for listening.
See you next time!
