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The Robinson family (Sesame Street)

''Sesame Street'' was created, through private and federal grants, as a television series to "give the disadvantaged child a fair chance at the beginning," as co-creator Joan Ganz Cooney wrote in the 1967 study ''The Potential Uses of Television in Preschool Education.''

Especially before the inclusion of the Muppets in Street scenes, ''Sesame Street'' was centered on Gordon and Susan. As per suggested by Harvard psychologist Jerome Kagan, Cooney advised in ''The Potential Uses'' that a series should feature a male lead, to "provide continuity from one segment to another, establish the tone, and function, subtly, as the master teacher." A male teacher would both encourage kids to emulate an intelligent adult, and "defeminize the early learning atmosphere." The decision to create such a character was backed up by research in the US government study ''The Negro Family: The Case for National Action''. Known better as the Moynihan report, Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan suggested "the Negro community has been forced into a matriarchal structure which, because it is so out of line with the rest of the American society, seriously retards the progress of the group as a whole." His report suggested that, after the slavery-era of US history, the rise of out-of-wedlock births, absent fathers, and female-headed families only perpetuated cyclical poverty.

In his memoirs, Roscoe Orman who portrays Gordon Robinson commented that "what the character most significantly symbolizes, his most distinguishing and praiseworthy attribute, may lie in the simple fact that he is a man of African descent who for over three decades has been a respected and beloved father figure to young people of all races and all social classes all across America and beyond." He continues to say that while "born in a country that was founded and has continued to thrive upon the subjugation of his ancestors, he harbors no hatred or thirst for revenge but, on the contrary, is a model of patience, understanding, and civic responsibility who embraces all of humankind."

Orman went on to describe his on-screen wife, Susan, as an "exemplary model of African-American womanhood" and the couple's on-going relationship "in sharp contrast to the prevailing images of black men that have been projected within mainstream American culture since and especially prior to ''Sesame Street’''s premiere and certainly during the formative years of my own generation."

Feminists objected to the character of Susan because they felt she fulfilled stereotypes they were against, that of a stay-at-home wife. Historian Robert W. Morrow defends her creators, stating that their goal was presenting Gordon as a strong black male capable of supporting his family. ''Sesame Street'''s producers responded to this criticism by making Susan a nurse during the show's second season, and by introducing Gordon's sister, Olivia, in 1976. Provided by Wikipedia