Happy 45th Birthday, Sesame Street! Walk on Down to Where the Air Is Sweet

But it was Cooney's brilliant decision to hire Jim Henson to create characters for the show that really got kids hooked. Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, Grover, and Big Bird (whose nest I spotted on the set here) — all there since the beginning — boiled complex emotional issues into preschool-sized pieces to truly make the show a hit.