Sesame Street's co-founder, Lloyd Morrisett, passed away at the age of 93. Sesame Workshop reported that Lloyd passed away on Monday, but no cause of death has been given.
Keep reading for more details.
Sesame Street's co-founder, Lloyd Morrisett, passed away at the age of 93. Sesame Workshop reported that Lloyd passed away on Monday, but no cause of death has been given.
Keep reading for more details.
The experimental psychologist created the educational children's television program with Jim Henson, the Muppets' creator, and TV writer Joan Ganz Cooney.
Without Lloyd, "Sesame Street" wouldn't exist, according to Cooney, since
"it was he who first came up with the idea of utilizing television to teach children basic abilities, such as alphabet and numbers."
In December 1965, Lloyd became interested in the possibility of utilizing television to educate children after observing how engrossed his 3-year-old daughter Sarah was watching it with the family.
A few months later, he asked Cooney the same issue at a dinner party, and together they discovered the solution through "Sesame Street."
Morrisett was referred to as "esteemed and beloved" in a statement released by Sesame Workshop.
Lloyd was thrilled by the potential of technology and constantly thought about new ways it could be used to educate. He was a clever, insightful, and above all, kind leader of the Workshop for decades.
Morrisett and Cooney co-founded the Children's Television Workshop in 1968, which later took the name Sesame Workshop. Morrisett pioneered in his area for using television to teach young children basic skills.
He was an organization board member from 1929 to his death. He was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
He graduated from Oberlin College with a BA in philosophy in 1951 and later joined the college's board of trustees, serving as chairman from 1975 to 1981.
On November 10, 1969, public television stations broadcast the debut episode of Sesame Street, which is still broadcast today.
The children's educational television program has well over 4,000 episodes and is still strong today.
The program has 222 Emmy Awards and 11 Grammy Awards as of 2021.
For their efforts on Sesame Street, Cooney and Morrisett both won Kennedy Center Honors in 2019. This was the first time a TV program had been recognized at the ceremony.
The announcement comes a little over two months after Bob McGrath, one of the show's original non-Muppet regular characters, passed away at the age of 90.