It’s hard for me, a former child superfan of “Sesame Street,” to write about the show without sounding mawkish. It’s even harder now that I’ve got two small children of my own. So I might as well ...

Apart from the giant yellow bird, the red furry monster and the blue Muppet with an insatiable appetite for cookies, “Sesame Street” appears as real as the New York City streets that inspired it.