The producers of Sesame Street believed education through television was possible if they captured and sustained children's attention;[73][74] this meant the show needed a strong appeal.[75] Edward Palmer, the CTW's first Director of Research[76] and the man Cooney credited with building the CTW's foundation of research,[38] was one of the few academics in the late 1960s researching children's television.[77] He was recruited by the CTW to test if the curricula developed in the Boston seminars were reaching their audience effectively.[77] Palmer was also tasked with designing and executing the CTW's in-house research and with working with the Educational Testing Service (ETS).[76] His research was so crucial to Sesame Street that Gladwell asserted, "... without Ed Palmer, the show would have never lasted through the first season".[77][note 13]