David gets dissed

[fuzzygobo]

Poor David. Throughout the 70's and into the 80's, he and Maria were quite an item, but he sometimes had trouble winning her over.
One day he was really going to impress her by learning Spanish, so he hit the books.
He was going to invite her to Hooper's to have a soda "Te invito a tomar una soda."
David dutifully wrote the phrase down, and memorized it until he knew it by heart.

He found Maria outside, and was going to show off his bilingualism, but totally went blank.
Meanwhile, Big Bird finds the sheet of paper David wrote the phrase on, practices it, and says it out loud in front of Maria and gets it right on the first try (he must have taken hints from Abelardo on Plaza Sesamo.)

Maria is swept away by Big Bird's newly-acquired Spanish tongue, and the two go off for a soda together.

Maria gets the date,
Big Bird gets the girl,
and David gets the shaft.
Sometimes, even on Sesame Street, life stinks.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

What? Is this an episode?

 

[Mo Frackle]

Sometimes, even on Sesame Street, life stinks.

Reminds me of Avenue Q. Hmmm.... I wonder where David and his grandmother REALLY went to after he moved away.

Poor David. Then again, poor Luis. In the early episodes, he didn't have a love interest.

When Luis and Maria started to express interest for each other, was there ever an episode that mentioned the previous David-Maria relationship?

I vaguely remember someone mentioning an episode where Big Bird and Snuffy promise David that they still love him even if Maria doesn't. David tells the two that he's happy for Maria and Luis, and will remain good friends with them.

 

[D'Snowth]

Poor David. Then again, poor Luis. In the early episodes, he didn't have a love interest.

When Luis and Maria started to express interest for each other, was there ever an episode that mentioned the previous David-Maria relationship?

All I know about the whole situation was that is was apparently Debbie Spinney's idea to bring Maria and Luis together romantically, and I think CTW felt it was a way of showing that sometimes, we don't marry the first person we hook up with; at the same time, I think the problems with Northern Calloway behind-the-scenes probably hendered what the writers and producers could do with David any further (don't forget, during one of his crazy episodes, he actually acted on an impulse and went over to Allison Bartlett's university to propose to her, which kind of freaked her out).

 

[Mo Frackle]

Right, I remember reading about that in "Street Gang". Poor Northern. At least he understood CTW's reasons for letting him go.

 

[D'Snowth]

You have to give them credit though, that was kind of a gutsy move to keep him on as long as they did, in spite knowing how unstable he was; they certainly didn't want any bad publicity circling around "David" since the kids liked him so well.

 

[Mo Frackle]

Yeah, it was a smart move for the sake of the show and its audience.

 

[D'Snowth]

If they were worried about bad publicity then, just think of how much the worry would be doubled, maybe even tripled today, with paparazzi, tabloids, TMZ, all those dipsticks... it'd be ALL OVER the news, the papers, the magazines, etc: "David from Sesame Street Caught Doing Something Bad! Parents Boycott Show! Kids Crying Their Eyes Out!"

 

[fuzzygobo]

What? Is this an episode?

It wasn't a whole episode, just a street scene, back around Season 8. And with the street scenes, unlike cartoons or Muppet inserts, if you missed it, chances are you wouldn't catch it again. Then you might have to wait years, or even decades. So far, this one hasn't shown up on Noggin/Old School/youtube/Sprout/Sesame Workshop, or anywhere else outside of the memories of me and a few others old enough to remember.

For a lot of you who weren't around back then, I'm sorry for what you missed out on.