An alternate universe · The Real Story
Wait, how much of this is real?
MossStreet is fiction. But its premise sits on two completely true careers that nearly touched in real life — and one fork in 2000 where they did.
A Harvard graduate and classically trained actor (Royal Shakespeare Company, LAMDA), Franklin reinvented himself as a television producer and spent six years running Sesame Street at Children's Television Workshop. Across his TV career he produced over 800 hours of programming on PBS, NBC, CBS, ABC and HBO, collecting an Emmy, a Peabody, a Christopher Award, and the Japan Prize among thirty-plus honors.
A former professional actor and fashion entrepreneur (co-founder of Shamask), Murray opened MOSS at 146 Greene Street in SoHo in 1994: a store staged like a museum, where a bottle opener got the same reverence as a crown jewel. Over eighteen years it mounted more than a hundred exhibitions, launched designers like Hella Jongerius in America, and made "design" a word America finally understood.
This is the moment MossStreet rewinds. In real life, Franklin joined Murray as life and business partner, became President of MOSS through its expansion years, and co-authored the book Please Do Not Touch (Rizzoli, 2018). The store closed in 2011; both men went on to new chapters (Moss Bureau, Design Miami/). In this universe, he stays at CTW instead — and the gallery comes to him.
Everything else on this site — the episodes, the neighbors' opinions about vitrines, the trash can lid's provenance — is invented with affection.
For the actual timeline, iconic objects, press quotes, and sources: moss.asimplenoise.com
"Once in a hundred years, a shopkeeper may emerge with a vision powerful enough to alter the culture." The Washington Post, 2003 — about the real shop