Video: 'Sesame Street - Episode 0158 (1970)'

(Monday, October 5, 1970) — The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), an American public broadcaster and television program distributor, began broadcasting today as a successor to National Educational Television (NET), on NET stations in the United States.

Promising new original programming to supplement existing NET favorites like Sesame Street and The French Chef, PBS introduced U.S. television viewers to the BBC’s 13-part documentary series Civilisation.

Video: 'BBC Kenneth Clark's Civilisation 01 The Skin of our Teeth'

A press release noted that PBS “no longer burdened by the name National Educational Television, opens its new season this Monday with fond hopes of living up to its billing as the ‘fourth network.’ By whatever name it is known, non-commercial television seeks to offer the viewer a difference this fall. And nothing exemplifies the difference quite like Civilisation, as the English spell it…”