A few questions about classic Sesame Street

[Gordon Matt]

Greetings. I was a member under a different user name here a number of years ago, but could not access my old account. I have occasionally "lurked," but signed up again tonight. I was a viewer of Sesame Street pretty much from the beginning (I was just at the right age when it went on the air and probably stayed for the first four or five years) and in the last 10-15 years got interested again (especially when some of the vintage shows were running on the Noggin channel). I've learned a lot of stuff about the show's early years, but a couple things elude me...

(1) Roosevelt Franklin -- Matt Robinson (the original Gordon) was his voice, and Loretta Long (Susan) was the voice of his mother, right? My memory is that the skits with Roosevelt and his mother came before the classroom ones, and looking at Muppet Wiki seems to confirm this. A few things about Matt Robinson and Roosevelt Franklin...

1. I have read that even after Matt Robinson stopped playing Gordon, he continued to write skits for Roosevelt Franklin and perform his voice for a couple years -- do all the classroom skits date from this period? I note Roosevelt appears in a street scene at the top of show #406 (the fourth season premiere and the first show with Harold Miller as Gordon). Granted, he just says "R is for Roosevelt," which could even be audio from an old skit, but that seems pretty cool to me. I read somewhere years ago that in some later skits (sports-related) someone thought Jerry Nelson did Roosevelt's voice. Any confirmation of this?
2. I have read that Hardhead Henry Harris (in the Roosevelt Franklin Elementary School skits) was voiced by Roscoe Orman. The voice sounds to me like it could very well be Orman, but I note that character appeared before Orman joined the cast. Unless they were retroactively added to repeats of earlier shows? (A couple are on Old School Volume 1.)
3. Supposedly Roosevelt was kicked off the street by the mid-1970s but I have seen Roosevelt segments listed in shows at Muppet Wiki even into the early 1980s. ???

(2) For a good number of years they did 130 shows each season, but for some bizarre reason Season 2 (1970-71) had 145 shows -- a full three weeks worth of extra episodes just that one year. Has anyone ever explained why they did this, and then never did it again? Also -- again, looking at Muppet Wiki -- apparently, some or all of the new regulars from the third season actually joined at show #261, not #276 like I had thought. That almost makes it seem like the 15 additional episodes were an afterthought? I remember in my youth, the show aired at least twice, maybe three times a day, and I don't recall it being the same episode repeated (although I could be mistaken about that). In the first season or two, they'd sometimes run a marathon of episodes on Saturday. I wonder if they were just replaying that week's shows for viewers who for some reason couldn't watch during the week?

(3) What the heck was the deal with Harold Miller anyway? The "Street Gang" book doesn't even mention him at all. When Roscoe Orman replaced him, did he "jump" or was he "pushed?" I've seen his website, and he appears to be proud of having played Gordon.

(4) Those early "test shows" produced before the series actually got underway -- one is on Old School Volume 2 as an extra -- anyone know if the other four still exist? One reason I question it is, going by the eventual nationally-seen show, cast credits would have been shown on Fridays. Since we know CTW had difficulty identifying the actor who played Gordon (who we now know to be Garrett Saunders) (I know, here we go with the Gordon stuff again) I would think the first thing to do would have been to look at the end credits on Friday's show -- if it existed!

Sorry to be such an anorak with this. These are just a few mysteries for me. Inquiring minds want to know!

 

[minor muppetz]

(1) Roosevelt Franklin -- Matt Robinson (the original Gordon) was his voice, and Loretta Long (Susan) was the voice of his mother, right? My memory is that the skits with Roosevelt and his mother came before the classroom ones, and looking at Muppet Wiki seems to confirm this. A few things about Matt Robinson and Roosevelt Franklin...

You're right about the voices. It seems like all known skits with Roosevelt and his mother came before the earliest-known appearance of a classroom sketch. I wonder if the mother was dropped by then or what (though I can't think of a reason why they'd need to drop his mother in favor of putting Roosevelt Franklin in school).

1. I have read that even after Matt Robinson stopped playing Gordon, he continued to write skits for Roosevelt Franklin and perform his voice for a couple years -- do all the classroom skits date from this period? I note Roosevelt appears in a street scene at the top of show #406 (the fourth season premiere and the first show with Harold Miller as Gordon). Granted, he just says "R is for Roosevelt," which could even be audio from an old skit, but that seems pretty cool to me. I read somewhere years ago that in some later skits (sports-related) someone thought Jerry Nelson did Roosevelt's voice. Any confirmation of this?

I've often wondered about that. The 40th anniversary book says that Matt Robinson preferred behind-camera work to on-camera, but doing the voice of Roosevelt wouldn't be on-camera work, and even if he was busy producing/directing/whatever for other shows, he could easily just spend a day recording all of his dialogue for a season (since those used the cast members as voice actors pre-recording them anyway). The earliest-known classroom sketch is from season 4, and the 40th anniversary DVD includes one listed under season 4 segments.

I have read that Hardhead Henry Harris (in the Roosevelt Franklin Elementary School skits) was voiced by Roscoe Orman. The voice sounds to me like it could very well be Orman, but I note that character appeared before Orman joined the cast. Unless they were retroactively added to repeats of earlier shows? (A couple are on Old School Volume 1.)

I'd be surprised if Roscoe Orman did the voice before being cast as Gordon. In segments from before season 6, he only gets brief dialogue, which doesn't sound too different from sketches where he has a lot of dialogue. I don't really think it sounds like Roscoe Orman, but there are sources that he was the voice. I feel it kinda sounds like the different voice Robinson used for Roosevelt in the season one "Roosevelt Franklin Counts" and "Roosevelt Franklin's Alphabet" songs.

(3) What the heck was the deal with Harold Miller anyway? The "Street Gang" book doesn't even mention him at all. When Roscoe Orman replaced him, did he "jump" or was he "pushed?" I've seen his website, and he appears to be proud of having played Gordon.

The 40th anniversary book mentions that Miller "wasn't a good fit" as the character. In fact it seems like books on the show don't talk much about Hal Miller in the role. Street Gang doesn't talk about too many recasts (and in fact it only briefly talked about Roscoe Orman playing Gordon, with no sections on Matt Robinson leaving).

(4) Those early "test shows" produced before the series actually got underway -- one is on Old School Volume 2 as an extra -- anyone know if the other four still exist? One reason I question it is, going by the eventual nationally-seen show, cast credits would have been shown on Fridays. Since we know CTW had difficulty identifying the actor who played Gordon (who we now know to be Garrett Saunders) (I know, here we go with the Gordon stuff again) I would think the first thing to do would have been to look at the end credits on Friday's show -- if it existed!

I've wondered that as well. I'd like to think it still exists in the vaults. I've read that every broadcast episode exists (and that Sesame Workshop has restored/made digital copies/preserved every episode a number of times over the years), though the pilots might be an exception. I also wonder if maybe the fifth pilot didn't have credits (I've read that some unaired pilots, like the Little Mermaid series pilot that The Jim Henson Company made for Disney, don't have on-screen titles/credits).