Carole Hart

Carole Hart was an American writer and television producer.

Hart and her husband, Bruce, were part of the start-up of Sesame Street. The show’s producer asked her and her husband, a budding comedy writer and lyricist, to come up with sample material for the show, which debuted in 1969.

Bruce Hart was credited with writing the lyrics for the Sesame Street theme song, and Carole Hart had a writing credit on an early episode whose guest stars included Burt Lancaster and James Earl Jones. But the two stayed with Sesame Street only a short time.

The best known of Hart’s projects was Free to Be … You and Me, which she co-produced with actress Marlo Thomas. The project started as a record and book in 1972 and, fueled by their runaway success, was turned into an ABC television special in 1974, which featured celebrities in songs and skits that offered children alternatives to the entrenched roles society urged upon them. The program won an Emmy for outstanding children’s special.

Hart’s other projects included Hot Hero Sandwich, a TV series, aimed at teenagers, that she created with her husband in 1979, and Sooner or Later, a 1979 TV movie she wrote with her husband that starred singer Rex Smith.

Hart died January 5, 2018, in Manhattan, New York. She was 74.