When the show premiered, it wasn’t the beloved Big Bird and Elmo experience that people think of today. “In 1969, Sesame Street unveils and there is a African American couple who live in the same neighborhood with their white neighbors — yes, with Big Bird and several other Muppets — but it’s a very integrated cast. The first time this [was] ever seen on television in Jackson, Miss., the public television station received a lot of complaints and they stopped airing the show. Miraculously, a commercial station in Jackson said ‘if the public station won’t air it, then we will.’ This is just an example of how groundbreaking this was.”- NPR