 The Carnegie Corporation , one of Sesame Street 's first financial backers , hired Cooney , a producer of educational talk shows and documentaries with little experience in education , during the summer of 1967 to visit experts in childhood development , education , and media across the US and Canada . She researched their ideas about the viewing habits of young children , and wrote a report on her findings entitled " Television for Preschool Education " , which described out how television could be used as an aid in the education of preschoolers , especially those living in inner cities . Cooney 's study became the basis for Sesame Street ; full funding was procured for its development and production and the creation of the Children 's Television Workshop ( CTW ) , the organization responsible for producing the new show . According to Gikow , the show 's financial backers , which consisted of the US federal government , the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Ford Foundation , insisted on " testing at critical stages to evaluate its ultimate success " . 
