Despite the good intentions of the producers, Sesame Street stirred controversy and was criticized from various corners shortly after it's release. In 1970 it was banned from airing in Mississippi by the state commission because they felt Mississippi was not yet ready for it's "highly integrated cast of children."
Social scientist Urie Bronfenbrenner said the show was too wholesome, while Latino groups and feminists were very unhappy with the show's depiction of Latinos and women. Leon Eisenberg, a psychologist, felt that Sesame Street's urban setting was superficial and he felt that inner-city children—with their own unique problems—would not be able to relate.
Despite these teething problems, Sesame Street went on to win twenty awards which included three Emmys, a Peabody Award and an award from the Public Relations Society of America in 1970.
In 1998, consumer Advocate, Ralph Nader called for a boycott of the show, claiming that it was "exploiting impressionable children" by airing advertisements of playground equipment before and after each show.
But the awards kept rolling in, and the show was even the subject of retrospectives at the Smithsonian Institution and the Museum of Modern Art!
