Michael Davis (1) (1952–)
Author of Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street
For other authors named Michael Davis, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Michael Davis has worked for the Baltimore Sun and Chicago Sun-Times. From 1998 - 2007, he was the senior editor and family TV columnist for TV Guide. Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street is his first book. (Bowker Author Biography)
Works by Michael Davis
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1952-04-22
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Northwestern University (MA|Journalism)
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (BA|Psychology) - Occupations
- journalist
Head Start teacher - Short biography
- [from author's website]
Michael Davis has held an array of top leadership and creative positions at digital news sites, magazines, newspapers and broadcasting outlets. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University during the 1986-87 academic year. Later he wrote the New York Times non-fiction best seller Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street and is a co-executive producer of the feature-length documentary film adapted from the book.
He received his undergraduate degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master's in journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, where he later taught as an adjunct professor. He describes himself as a storyteller who helps others become better storytellers. - Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Davidson, North Carolina, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- North Carolina, USA
Members
Reviews
"If Sesame Street is the most successful show on television, it is also the most analyzed, criticized, evaluated, debated, debunked, championed, viewed with alarm, pointed to with pride, interpreted, misinterpreted, and overinterpreted media event since William Randolph Hearst declared war on Spain:---Ron Powers, television critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, 1970 (one year into the life of "Sesame Street").
Conceived in 1965 by television producer Joan Cooney and experimental psychologist show more Lloyd Morrisett, and born in 1969, "Sesame Street" became an overnight success after four years of gestation.
In Street Gang, Michael Davis takes us through the entire history of "Sesame Street". From research into how children watch television and learn (short segments, "jingles", colors, animation) to the decision to have Sesame Street, itself, an inner city street, to funding, to hiring everybody both in front of and behind the cameras.
Davis includes small biographies on each of the players as they arrive on the scene. The reader gets to know "Gordon and Susan" (Matt Robinson/Roscoe Orman and Loretta Long), Jim Henson and Frank Oz, Joe Raposo and Jon Stone, and countless other professionals and entertainers who strove to make "Sesame Street" the most innovative children's program on television yet.
Street Gang also gives a bit of background on earlier children's programming..."The Howdy Doody Show", "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" and, possibly most importantly, "Captain Kangaroo".
Writers and producers (including Jon Stone) from "Captain Kangaroo" were involved in the development and production of "Sesame Street". The character of Mr. Hooper (portrayed by Will Lee) was created as homage to Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo). Although, reading through Street Gang, one would think it was actually Oscar the Grouch (brought to life by Caroll Spinney) who was meant to mirror Keeshan.
This is probably the most comprehensive book you will ever read about any television show. Yet, far from being a dry tome, author Michael Davis keeps Street Gang flowing (much like "Sesame Street", itself) with quick moving scenes, so the reader is never bogged down in the details that could easily become tiresome, such as the financial and political wranglings in creating and keeping this show on the air. Davis gives us just enough at just the right time to keep the story flowing.
If you have any doubt about whether you should read Street Gang, pick it up, read the prologue...and then enjoy the rest of the book. show less
Conceived in 1965 by television producer Joan Cooney and experimental psychologist show more Lloyd Morrisett, and born in 1969, "Sesame Street" became an overnight success after four years of gestation.
In Street Gang, Michael Davis takes us through the entire history of "Sesame Street". From research into how children watch television and learn (short segments, "jingles", colors, animation) to the decision to have Sesame Street, itself, an inner city street, to funding, to hiring everybody both in front of and behind the cameras.
Davis includes small biographies on each of the players as they arrive on the scene. The reader gets to know "Gordon and Susan" (Matt Robinson/Roscoe Orman and Loretta Long), Jim Henson and Frank Oz, Joe Raposo and Jon Stone, and countless other professionals and entertainers who strove to make "Sesame Street" the most innovative children's program on television yet.
Street Gang also gives a bit of background on earlier children's programming..."The Howdy Doody Show", "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" and, possibly most importantly, "Captain Kangaroo".
Writers and producers (including Jon Stone) from "Captain Kangaroo" were involved in the development and production of "Sesame Street". The character of Mr. Hooper (portrayed by Will Lee) was created as homage to Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo). Although, reading through Street Gang, one would think it was actually Oscar the Grouch (brought to life by Caroll Spinney) who was meant to mirror Keeshan.
This is probably the most comprehensive book you will ever read about any television show. Yet, far from being a dry tome, author Michael Davis keeps Street Gang flowing (much like "Sesame Street", itself) with quick moving scenes, so the reader is never bogged down in the details that could easily become tiresome, such as the financial and political wranglings in creating and keeping this show on the air. Davis gives us just enough at just the right time to keep the story flowing.
If you have any doubt about whether you should read Street Gang, pick it up, read the prologue...and then enjoy the rest of the book. show less
Like many in my generation, I grew up with Sesame Street. It was an integral part of my childhood, so as an adult I was thrilled to find a book about the show's conception and history. I found this book absolutely fascinating. The sheer vision behind the show was astounding, as was the dedication of all involved. I actually teared up when Davis was writing about Jim Henson's funeral. Davis did a fantastic job detailing Sesame Street's predecessors, its creation, and it's evolution over the show more years. show less
To say that I went into this wanting -- and expecting -- to like this book would be an understatement. I love Sesame Street. It is entirely possible that Sesame Street taught me to read. And I met the author at a panel and book signing, and he appeared to be an extremely nice guy.
I just wish he'd written a better book.
This is a book that spends lots of time obsessing over some aspects of Sesame Street's creation, while glossing over details and leaving out other important bits entirely. show more Chapters are spent on Captain Kangaroo, both in its own right as a predecessor, and as a training ground for several people who would later work on Sesame Street, including Tom Whedon, Jon Stone, and Dave Connell. Much is made of bad blood between Stone and Connell from that program, culminating on page 137 with "They would never be bowling partners, but they did agree to work together. Over time and true to form, Connell was more successful at burying past differences than Stone."
That, boys and girls, is what we call "foreshadowing." It is the sort of thing one takes as a setup, holding in the back of one's mind, waiting for the bit where Stone snaps and trouble breaks out. But in this book, that bit never comes. The tension between the two is never mentioned again.
Chekhov advised playwrights never to bring a gun onto the stage if they didn't intend to fire it. The author of this book heaps guns onto the mantel and judges that good enough.
Perhaps more to the point, this is a "complete history of Sesame Street" that spends about two chapters on Captain Kangaroo and one sentence on Roscoe Orman, who's played Gordon since 1974.
(Matt Robinson, the first Gordon, gets a few pages, but there is no mention of him leaving, let alone any explanation given for why he did, or any mention of how children -- or anyone else -- reacted to the switch. For that matter, Hal Miller, who played the role between the two, isn't mentioned at all.)
It's a nice try, I suppose, and there's some good material here. But the complete history of Sesame Street has yet to be written. show less
I just wish he'd written a better book.
This is a book that spends lots of time obsessing over some aspects of Sesame Street's creation, while glossing over details and leaving out other important bits entirely. show more Chapters are spent on Captain Kangaroo, both in its own right as a predecessor, and as a training ground for several people who would later work on Sesame Street, including Tom Whedon, Jon Stone, and Dave Connell. Much is made of bad blood between Stone and Connell from that program, culminating on page 137 with "They would never be bowling partners, but they did agree to work together. Over time and true to form, Connell was more successful at burying past differences than Stone."
That, boys and girls, is what we call "foreshadowing." It is the sort of thing one takes as a setup, holding in the back of one's mind, waiting for the bit where Stone snaps and trouble breaks out. But in this book, that bit never comes. The tension between the two is never mentioned again.
Chekhov advised playwrights never to bring a gun onto the stage if they didn't intend to fire it. The author of this book heaps guns onto the mantel and judges that good enough.
Perhaps more to the point, this is a "complete history of Sesame Street" that spends about two chapters on Captain Kangaroo and one sentence on Roscoe Orman, who's played Gordon since 1974.
(Matt Robinson, the first Gordon, gets a few pages, but there is no mention of him leaving, let alone any explanation given for why he did, or any mention of how children -- or anyone else -- reacted to the switch. For that matter, Hal Miller, who played the role between the two, isn't mentioned at all.)
It's a nice try, I suppose, and there's some good material here. But the complete history of Sesame Street has yet to be written. show less
Like many in my generation, I grew up watching Sesame Street, but I didn't know anything about it behind the scenes. I didn't know, for example, that Sesame Street was in some ways the beginning of modern public television. It was groundbreaking in so many ways, from its format to the vast body of child development research on which it relied. I had this vague idea that Jim Henson was behind most of it, but while the importance of his amazing Muppet characters cannot be overstated, he show more neither created nor wrote the show, and many of the actors and puppeteers on Sesame Street weren't even involved in Henson's other projects.
I probably stopped paying any attention to Sesame Street sometime in the late 1980s, so I would have appreciated a little bit more recent history, but the description of the show's genesis and how everyone found their way onto it was simply fascinating. Definitely recommended to any fan of children's television. A warning, though: the book starts with Jim Henson's memorial service, so be prepared to get a bit choked up right off the bat. It gets happier after that, though.
A note on the audio: this book is read by Caroll Spinney, AKA Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. There's even a bonus interview with him at the end. Truly charming. show less
I probably stopped paying any attention to Sesame Street sometime in the late 1980s, so I would have appreciated a little bit more recent history, but the description of the show's genesis and how everyone found their way onto it was simply fascinating. Definitely recommended to any fan of children's television. A warning, though: the book starts with Jim Henson's memorial service, so be prepared to get a bit choked up right off the bat. It gets happier after that, though.
A note on the audio: this book is read by Caroll Spinney, AKA Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. There's even a bonus interview with him at the end. Truly charming. show less
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