The Robinson family (Sesame Street)

The Robinson family is a fictional family in the children's television series Sesame Street. The family consists of husband Gordon, a schoolteacher, and his wife Susan, a nurse. Later, the family expands to include their adopted son Miles, as well as Gordon's sister Olivia, and his father Mr. Robinson. As African Americans, the family was created as leads for the show, originally targeted to underprivileged inner-city children (and possibly to teach its viewers to be accepting of all races, and to address the issue of racism). Even as human roles were slowly reduced over the years, their characters maintained a constant presence.

Character and production history

Inception

Sesame Street was created, through private and federal grants, as a television series to "give the disadvantaged child a fair chance at the beginning," as co-creator Joan Ganz Cooney wrote in the 1967 study The Potential Uses of Television in Preschool Education.