Sesame Street is one of the largest early childhood interventions ever to take place. It was introduced
in 1969 as an educational, early childhood program with the explicit goal of preparing preschool age
children for school entry. Millions of children watched a typical episode in its early years. Well-designed
studies at its inception provided evidence that watching the show generated an immediate and sizeable
increase in test scores. In this paper we investigate whether the first cohorts of preschool children exposed
to Sesame Street experienced improved outcomes subsequently. We implement an instrumental variables
strategy exploiting limitations in television technology generated by distance to a broadcast tower
and UHF versus VHF transmission to distinguish counties by Sesame Street reception quality. We
relate this geographic variation to outcomes in Census data including grade-for-age status in 1980,
educational attainment in 1990, and labor market outcomes in 2000. The results indicate that Sesame
Street accomplished its goal of improving school readiness; preschool-aged children in areas with
better reception when it was introduced were more likely to advance through school as appropriate
for their age. This effect is particularly pronounced for boys and non-Hispanic, black children, as well
as children living in economically disadvantaged areas. The evidence regarding the impact on ultimate
educational attainment and labor market outcomes is inconclusive.