Long before Bert, Ernie, Big Bird and Elmo were cultural icons with a generation of loyal followers, they had a mission.

In the late 1960s Joan Ganz Cooney, a producer at a New York City public television station, became convinced that the medium could be used for early childhood education.

Targeting her efforts especially towards 3 to 5-year-old children from low income families, Cooney drove the creation of Sesame Street. First airing in 1969, the program aimed at preparing underprivileged preschoolers for kindergarten.

Celebrating its upcoming 30th season, Sesame Street went on the road this year. "Sesame Street Unpaved," a college tour, brought members of the cast and crew to Harvard's Graduate School of Education (GSE) in a sort of homecoming this May.

Several decades ago, many scholars from the GSE as well as Harvard's psychology department, were integral in shaping the now famous program.

Jeanne Chall, a Harvard researcher involved in the planning of Sesame Street, says the reasons for the show's success are simple.

"This was a show, not by actors, writers, or performers. No, from the beginning and throughout it was the scholars."

Can You Tell Me How to Get...

For all its levity, Sesame Street grew from a very extensive research base.

Planning for the show began in 1967. At the time, Headstart programs were just beginning, and scholars were faced with a mounting bulk of evidence showing that children in poverty were doing poorly in school.

"The whole idea was to help lower income children," Chall says.

Alfred Hyslop, one of the first producers of the show, says "the basic idea was that since kids apparently learned a lot from animation, we [could] use commercial techniques [like animation] to teach."

Hyslop, along with Sesame Street's creators, praise the unique skills Cooney used to realize her brainchild.

"She had skill at getting the right people together. Also, she was able to raise money, and persuade people to put millions into children's programming. That's hard to do, even now," Hyslop says.

Recognizing that the show required a sound research base, Cooney, an entertainment executive, interviewed a number of developmental psychologists, seeking someone to serve as the intermediary between the researchers and those working in the entertainment industry.