Sunny Days: The Children’s Television Revolution that changed America by David Kamp is a 2020 Simon & Schuster publication.

What a fun and informative look back at a special time for children’s television. Because I was right at the perfect age for this creative, and educational explosion of children’s programming, I can’t say I was aware of the behind-the-scenes history of these programs or how they were received by children and their parents.

This book takes us through the early days of children’s educational programming, introducing us to beloved people like Fred Rodgers and Jim Henson before they were household names. The politics, the funding, the complaints and praises- the staples of these programs, how they came into existence and the impressive impact they had on children and our society, is a fascinating journey to take.

I will confess that some portions of the book, especially in the beginning, was a little dry, but it became more and more interesting as it went along.

Because Big Bird appears on the cover of this book, one might presume the book is hyper-focused on Sesame Street, but it isn’t. The book covers many other educational programs- including Schoolhouse rock- which I LOVED- I still know all the words, if that tells you anything.

Personally, Captain Kangaroo was the program I was able to watch most often due to our inability to pick up more than one or two TV stations in the rural area I lived in. Occasionally, I could get ‘Electric Company’ to come in, but I don’t recall being able to watch Sesame Street until later- when I was probably too old for it- but still watched it on occasion, anyway.

Mr. Rodgers was also difficult for me to see very often- but later in life- younger cousins and my own children, who adored Fred Rodgers, gave me a second chance to fully enjoy his lovely, gentle way of teaching children.

Despite being aware of these programs -some of which I sampled growing up- and then fully enjoyed later with my own children, I never fully grasped the impact these shows had on our nation overall. Children were not the only ones who benefited from these programs- adults learned to read because of them, as well!!

Yes, these shows opened an entirely new world for children. It was healthier than watching blatant advertising geared towards kids or watching silly shows with no valuable content. These shows dared to introduce diversity and realism, appealing to kids from all walks of life and for the most part, these progressive steps were embraced by parents from all political stripes, while teaching children important lessons and preparing them for school and for success, no matter their personal backgrounds.

While I don’t always agree with everything these shows teach and have questioned some issues addressed from time to time-especially considering the age of the viewing audience, I have to look back now and think- What a great achievement!!

Sadly, times have changed, politics has affected federal funding, which has waxed and waned since the late seventies, but the effects these shows had on our country has been a long lasting one and continues to impact future generations, even though the formats have changed and we’ve lost so many of the important figures that helped create positive, educational options for children.

This is a wonderful bit of history to explore, it’s full of nostalgia and feel-good inspiration, I wish we could have bottled it up back then! It’s a spirit lifter, but it also shows we have some key elements missing today that need to make a comeback…

4 stars ( )

3+ review here ( )

As the subtitle suggests, Sunny Days chronicles the children’s television revolution that took place in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Television was still a fairly new medium and up to that point, kids’ shows had been shouty, slapstick shows like Howdy Doody or Soupy Sales. It had not occurred to anyone that television could be used to educate children. Educational programming began with the inception of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and Sesame Street. Mr. Rogers Neighborhood was a gentle program, focused on children’s feelings and their inner selves, while Sesame Street was a fast paced program focused on preschoolers, specifically disadvantaged preschoolers, learning their letters, shapes and numbers. From there, children’s television took off with other shows such as Schoolhouse Rock! and Free to Be You and Me.

A good portion of Sunny Days is focused on Sesame Street, which makes sense because they started it all. I didn’t realize how much painstaking research went into developing the show before it started filming. It’s no accident that it’s so successful and that it actually does teach children. It’s amazing how progressive it was in the beginning years. I don’t think a children’s show could get away with showing a mother actually breastfeeding her child in today’s world, like Sesame Street did when Buffy nursed her son Cody and explained what she was doing to Big Bird. They also broke ground in terms of how diverse the cast was.

Even though most of the shows in this book other than Sesame Street were just a few years before my time, I still thoroughly enjoyed this history of children’s television. I bookmarked several things that I’m going to search for on YouTube so that hopefully I can see them for myself. The only problem I had with Sunny Days is that there are so many people – producers, writers, creators, etc. who are mentioned throughout that it was hard to keep track of who was who. I would have loved a list of people and their job descriptions for reference.

Even if you’re a young whippersnapper and you didn’t grow up watching these shows, I think you’ll still enjoy this book – especially if you have an interest in pop culture. Recommended. ( )

In the early 1970s a group of people got together to create an experiment known as Children's Television. Their primary goal was to see if television could be used to better prepare disadvantaged preschoolers for kindergarten. They developed a number of shows designed to help children learn. They did this at a moment of monumental political and social change in the United States. They started a cultural revolution in which children were treated like thinking, reasoning individuals.
Kamp covers the history of those involved in creating this great experiment - the television executives, writers, actors, publishers, musician, directors, and producers. The shows that are discussed include: Captain Kangaroo, Mr Roger's Neighborhood, Sesame Street, The Electric Company, The Magic Garden, New Zoo Revue, Schoolhouse Rock, Free to be.., and my favorite, Zoom.
My favorite part - besides the chapter about Zoom - was learning about Ursula Nordstrom. Nordstrom is first mentioned in a chapter that discusses how children's television shows of the time lagged behind children's publishing in treating children as people. Ursula Nordstrom was a publisher and editor in The Department of Books for Boys and Girls at Harper & Row. Her goal was to publish books that "gave children credit for innate intelligence' and she liked to 'cultivate authors who took seriously the interior lives of children" She liked to say that she was publishing "Good books for bad children" while the rest of the industry was publishing parent approved bad books for good children. Among the books she is responsible for publishing are Harriet the Spy, Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, Where the Wild Things Are, and The Giving Tree.
One sad note -- which I was unaware of, because I don't have children- is that Sesame Street has been bought by HBO and can now be seen exclusively on that cable pay-network. This potentially takes Sesame Street away from many of the disadvantaged preschoolers it was initially created to help. Children whose families can't afford HBO or a streaming service may never get to see Sesame Street.
I listened to this on audiobook. The narrator, David Sadzin, did an excellent job.
I bought this book after seeing a story in the paper based on the chapter about Zoom. The book did not disappoint, it held my interest throughout - and in audiobook format, that is unusual for me. Recommended. ( )

I bought this book without even doing my usual sampling preview, once I discovered it was not only about all of my favorite childhood TV shows, but was also written by the same author of THE UNITED STATED OF ARUGULA, one of my favorite metafood books.

It's about the wild creative atmosphere around educational children's programming in the late 60s and early 70s. Sesame Street, of course... Roosevelt Franklin... some Mr. Rogers... but I really liked all the coverage of the lesser-known local favorite, Magic Garden. And the shout-out to Joya's Fun School! I really liked Joya.

This book really pushed a lot of my memory buttons, but I think the weirdest trigger memory of all was when they covered "Berna-dette's" Zoom intro. Honestly whenever I hear the name "Bernadette" I tend to flash back to that intro; all I remembered was she did something with her arms while they played a kind of celeste-sounding musical bit. I didn't remember her being Chinese, or that the arm thing was supposed to give the illusion that she had no elbow joints or something. But they really spent a lot of time on it in the book, and now I know ALL about it. And it sent me back to watch some of the original Zoom show intro numbers, and OMG were they bad.

Speaking of bad, then there was the New Zoo Revue. I was very, very little when I used to watch and enjoy this show; and while probably none of the kiddie shows that I watched were true favorites with the parents and older brother in the house, I remember everyone PARTICULARLY hating on the New Zoo Revue. "They can't even sing," my mother protested, and I was little enough that this puzzled me. "They CAN sing," I argued. They were right there on the TV singing. But even in my memory I remember some really awful singing, something along the lines of "With Doug, and Emmy Jo, every day's a different shooooooow!" half-shouted and half-sung in a monotone.

Good times! Oh wait, I guess GOOD TIMES will be a different book altogether. ( )