Apart from the giant yellow bird, the red furry monster and the blue Muppet with an insatiable appetite for cookies, “Sesame Street” appears as real as the New York City streets that inspired it.

No matter what your favorite shows are now, there's a good chance, no matter if you're a child or in your sixties, that your first favorite show was Sesame Street. As a child of the '80s who grew up ...