'Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street': Documentary Coming To HBO In 2021

Sesame Street is about to re-enter the spotlight in a major way. Not only is there a new theme park supposedly on the way and a major motion picture starring Anne Hathaway and Chance the Rapper that's slated to be released in 2022, but HBO has a new documentary about the making of the classic children's series that will debut in 2021.

HBO Documentary Films' Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street will take audiences "inside the minds and hearts of the Sesame Street creators, artists, writers and educators who together established one of the most influential and enduring children's programs in television history." Learn more about the upcoming documentary below.

Sesame Street Documentary Coming to HBO

Here is the project's official synopsis:

In the late 1960s, socially conscious media executive Joan Ganz Cooney and Sesame Workshop co-founder Lloyd Morrisett took on a revolutionary experiment: 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 "Sesame Street."

Inspired by the civil rights movement, STREET GANG: HOW WE GOT TO SESAME STREET focuses on the first two experimental and groundbreaking decades of "Sesame Street," highlighting this visionary "gang" that audaciously interpreted radical changes in society and engaged children in ways that entertained and educated them like never before.

Marilyn Agrelo, who has worked on children's programming like The Electric Company and previously directed a doc about kids and education, is behind the camera as the director of this documentary. The story of Sesame Street has been well documented in films devoted to some of its stars like I Am Big Bird: The Carol Spinney Story or Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey, to projects like Sesame Street: 50 Years and Still Sunny! and The World According to Sesame Street which take a more macro view of the show's impact. With the HBO stamp of quality, this new documentary could very easily end up being one of the most popular depictions of how the classic educational series came together – and maybe even the definitive look at how Jim Henson and company laid the template to entertain generations of kids.Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street will hit HBO sometime in 2021 and will be available to stream on HBO Max.