Sunny days : the children's television revolution that changed America / David Kamp ; foreword by Questlove.
Material type:
TextPublisher: New York : Simon & Schuster, 2020Edition: First Simon & Schuster hardcover editionDescription: xxii, 326 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781501137808
- 1501137808
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
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Dr. James Carlson Library | NonFiction | 791.4502 K15 | Available | 33111009818549 | ||||
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Adult Book
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Main Library | NonFiction | 791.4502 K15 | Available | 33111009635760 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
One of the "Best Books" of the year from The Smithsonian, The Washington Independent Review, and more!
From bestselling writer David Kamp, the "fun, fascinating, and surprisingly touching," ( People ) behind-the-scenes story of the cultural heroes who created the beloved children's TV programs Sesame Street , The Electric Company , Mister Rogers' Neighborhood , Free to Be...You and Me , and Schoolhouse Rock! --which transformed American childhood for the better, teaching kids about diversity, the ABCs, and feminism through a fun, funky 1970s lens.
With a foreword by Questlove.
In 1970, on a soundstage on Manhattan's Upper West Side, a group of men, women, and Muppets of various ages and colors worked doggedly to finish the first season of a children's TV program that was not yet assured a second season: Sesame Street . They were conducting an experiment to see if television could be used to better prepare disadvantaged preschoolers for kindergarten. What they didn't know then was that they were starting a cultural revolution that would affect all American kids.
In Sunny Days , bestselling author David Kamp captures the unique political and social moment that gave us not only Sesame Street , but also Fred Rogers's gentle yet brave Mister Rogers' Neighborhood ; Marlo Thomas's unabashed gender politics primer Free to Be...You and Me ; Schoolhouse Rock! , an infectious series of educational shorts dreamed up by Madison Ave admen; and more, including The Electric Company and ZOOM. It was a unique time when an uncommon number of media professionals and thought leaders leveraged their influence to help children learn--and, just as notably, a time of unprecedented buy-in from American parents.
" Sunny Days is full of such nostalgic jolts...it makes the era a pleasure to revisit" ( The Wall Street Journal ) and captures a wondrous period in the US when a determined few proved that, with persistence and effort, they could change the lives of millions. It is "a lively and bewitching recounting of a particularly ripe period in television and cultural history" ( The New York Times Book Review ) and, as the Los Angeles Times notes, "a sublime book about a variety of creative people coming together not in the pursuit of fame or money, but to enrich the lives of children."
Includes bibliographical references and index.
"In 1970, in soundstage on Manhattan's Upper West Side, a group of men and women of various ages and races met to finish the first season of a children's TV program. They had identified a social problem: poor children were entering kindergarten without the learning skills of their middle-class counterparts. They hoped, too, that they had identified a solution: to use television to better prepare these disadvantaged kids for school. No one knew then, but this children's TV program would go on to start a cultural revolution. It was called Sesame Street. Sesame Street was part of a larger movement that saw media professionals and thought leaders leveraging their influence to help children learn. A year and a half earlier, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood premiered. Fast on its heels came Schoolhouse Rock!, a video series dreamed up by Madison Avenue admen to teach kids times tables, civics, and grammatical rules, and Free to Be... You and Me, the TV star Marlo Thomas's audacious multi-pronged campaign (it was first a record album, and then a book and a television special) to instill the concept of gender equality in young minds. There was more: programs such as The Electric Company, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, ZOOM, and others followed, and captivated young viewers. In Sunny Days, bestselling author David Kamp takes readers behind the scenes to show how these programs made it on air. He draws on hundreds of hours of interviews from the creators and participants of these programs-among them Joan Ganz Cooney, Lloyd Morrisett, Newton Minow, Sonia Manzano, Loretta Long, Bob McGrath, Marlo Thomas, and Rita Moreno-as well as archival research. Kamp explains how these like-minded individuals found their way into television, not as fame- or money-hungry would-be auteurs and stars, but as people who wanted to use TV to help children. This is both a fun and fascinating story, and a masterful work of cultural history. Sunny Days captures a period in children's television where enlightened progressivism prevailed, and shows how this period changed the lives of millions. Nothing had ever happened like this before, Kamp forcefully and eloquently argues, and nothing has ever happened like it since"-- Provided by publisher.