Sesame Street Writer Tony Geiss Passes
The longtime children’s television fixture wrote scripts as well as songs for Sesame Street; he also co-wrote several animated features.
Tony Geiss, an award-winning producer, writer, composer and author who was known for his work on the classic children’s series Sesame Street, died January 21, 2011, in Valhalla, New York. He was 86.
During his many years as a staff writer and songwriter on Sesame Street, Geiss frequently reamed with Judy Freudberg. In addition to numerous scripts, Geiss wrote or co-wrote several popular songs for the iconic children’s series.
Geiss was born in New York City on Nov. 16, 1924,. He graduated from Walden High School in Manhattan and spent two years as a radar technician in the Navy before enrolling at Cornell University. There, he met his wife, Phyllis Eisen, to whom he was married for more than 60 years. She died a year ago.
He wrote for The David Frost Show, and first joined Children’s Television Workshop, the production company of Sesame Street, as a writer on the health series.
He also wrote for such stars as Dick Cavett and Bill Cosby.
In 1985 he co-wrote his first feature film Follow That Bird, after which he and Freudberg co-wrote the animated features An American Tail and The Land Before Time. He was also head writer for several Sesame Street and Land Before Time home videos.
Geiss won 17 Daytime Emmy Awards and earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for the 1983 special Don't Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
On July 20, 2004, Geiss had the distinction of being interviewed by the Television Academy Foundation’s Archive of American Television. During the one-and-a-half-hour interview, conducted in New York City by Archive director Karen Herman, Geiss spoke in great detail about his 28-year association as a writer of the classic children’s series Sesame Street.
He described the basics of writing for the show, the importance of research, and his composition of the show's classic songs including “Butterfly” and “Elmo’s World.” He also talked about key creative talent from the series, including Joan Ganz Cooney, Jon Stone and Joe Raposo.
Additionally, he discussed his early years as a writer on such television series as WNET’s Emmy-winning How to Be Mayor of New York and his work on Comedy Tonight, The David Frost Show and various local New York broadcasts.
The entire interview is available online here.