People in Your Neighborhood

Cooney turned to Harvard's Gerald S. Lesser. Lesser was her first choice because the University was a leader in the field of developmental psychology at the time and Lesser was unique in that he had experience in children's television as well as developmental research.

Lesser was appointed chair of the Board of Advisors, and he coordinated the show's research from then on.

The resulting 18 month planning process included a series of five seminars, two of which were held at the GSE, the other three in New York.

Each seminar had a particular focus, honing in on social development, language, numerical reasoning, problem solving and perception.

Based at the University, Lesser says he naturally "turned to all my colleagues at Harvard" in his quest for researchers.

The seminars brought together entertainers and scholars. According to Lesser there were about 30 people in each seminar, about half of whom were involved in the television industry, and the other half in academia. Producers, authors of children's books--including Maurice Sendak--teachers and scriptwriters all participated.

"We're not kiddie entertainers," Hyslop says. "People with skills in adult areas brought grown-up skills to address how you do an intelligent and loving show for kids."

Chall credits Lesser with being able to bring together people with "definite ideas" and find ways to iron out their differences.

One of Cooney's important early production decisions was the move to hire away Captain Kangaroo's production team. This was a key decision, Lesser says, because "there were very few people with experience with hour-long daily shows except Captain Kangaroo people."

As an added bonus, the Captain Kangaroo crew knew Frank Oz.

"[Oz] and Jim [Henson] worked together and they invited Jim and Frank to the seminars for their creative input," Lesser says.

Henson and Oz proved "so helpful we knew we had to have them," he says.

The seminars in effect came to serve as informal auditions, as the team searched for "Creative people who really understand that this is an educational program," Lesser says.

"Jim immediately hooked onto educational thinking," he says. "While it was fairly easy to find either scholars or creative people, it was difficult to find both in one person."