According to Chall, it was finding these unique people and bringing them together that was Lesser's strength.

"By happenstance and good fortune they formed a good team. Each of them brought unique creativity and talent. All you need is that and luck," Hyslop says.

Introducing the Letter "J"

The seminar series was a painstaking process of melding research and creative energy.

"Nothing was laughed at, it was all taken seriously and investigated," Chall says.

Sheldon H. White '50, a developmental psychologist at Harvard then at the GSE who was involved in the seminars says the team relied on observational research.

"There was work going on with someone watching four year olds near TV sets to see what draws children to the set. For example: animals do, talking down to them doesn't," he says.

White explains that the researchers assumed that children, having short attention spans, would be playing near the television set, focusing alternately on their games and the show.

"We had to design a program to draw a child to the television set and pay attention," he says.

At the time, Chall had just finished reviewing literature on how children learn to read and had written a book concluding that phonics are "quite fundamental in learning to read."

Based on her findings, she pushed for including the alphabet in the show. Many had resisted the idea, criticized learning the alphabet as a useless rote exercise.

The major disagreement among the show's planners Chall says "was between those who wanted it to be primarily social, and they very much resisted any type of academic learning."

But, Chall insisted and the alphabet became central to Sesame Street.

"It was a fabulous show right from the start. It [the alphabet] was more fun than anything else. They had celebrities reciting the alphabet," she says. "Children learned."

And, according to Chall, the response teaching the alphabet garnered was one of the first indications of the show's viability.