'Pioneers of THIRTEEN' review: memory lane
Children's series "Sesame Street" debuted in the fall of 1969. Credit: Sesame Workshop / Richard Termine
The new Ch. 13 (it had been WNTA, a commercial station based in New Jersey) would have neither sitcoms nor Westerns, nor -- for that matter -- much money. The new WNDT (for New Dimensions in Television) had its call letters changed to WNET, for National Educational Television, in 1970. Though not quite a foundling, the station felt like one at first as it sought to attract contributors, donors and attention. "We did do shows on a shoestring," says Joan Ganz Cooney, one of the founders of Children's Television Workshop, which launched "Sesame Street" in 1969. She began her career at Ch. 13 as a producer.
"Commercial TV was too narrow an artery for the scholar, the artist, the writer, the teacher, the poet -- for all those people who were not having access to commercial television," says Bill Moyers. Ch. 13 would open its doors and arms to many of them, and a glorious history began. This four-parter covers the station's history through the '90s and beyond.
After all, Ch. 13 was a child of the '60s. But then there was everything else -- the trailblazers that changed television for the better: "Black Journal," Joseph Louw's "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Special," Frederick Wiseman documentaries (like "Titicut Follies"), many music programs (like "Jazz Casual") and, of course, "Sesame Street."
