Children's television programming typically creates fictional urban spaces with internal geographic logic—Sesame Street existing as navigable location within the show's fictional universe. The phrase "how to get to Sesame Street" references becoming oriented within a fictional geographic space. Yet occasionally, someone demonstrates knowledge of fictional location access that transcends their apparent exposure to the source material.

In 1999, children's media researcher Dr. James Peterson was analyzing Sesame Street viewership patterns when he encountered something unusual. Audience surveys included reports of individuals describing accurate directions to Sesame Street's fictional location, despite the show never explicitly establishing geographic coordinates or access directions. Peterson initially presumed creative audience engagement, then realized something more uncomfortable: that certain viewers appeared to have actually visited the location.

Peterson concluded his research without publication, noting in summary that certain fictional spaces appeared to have acquired real geographic coordinates when accessed by specific individuals. Television studies forums occasionally reference the phenomenon as "fictional location actualization"—where fictional spaces acquire real geographic presence specifically for individuals who understand them with sufficient comprehension. The implication remains unsettling: that fictional geography becomes real when someone understands the fiction completely enough.