Sesame Street's Bob McGrath
Today I’m going to do something a little bit different and talk about one of my favorite TV characters who has passed away. The Colorado Radio Blog wants to send its deepest condolences to the family of Bob Mcgrath. Bob Mcgrath played Bob Johnson the music teacher on Sesame Street for 30 plus years. He passed away at the age of 90 with complications of a stroke. He was an original member of Sesame Street, He died at his home in New Jersey. He was born on June 13, 1932 and passed away December 4, 2022.
Barbara Walters (who just passed away) said, “Bob who is he? The man behind the Alphabet songs, and the great sorting games, and songs. What was he really like?" Barbara went to Sesame Street to find out. They sang a verse of "People in your Neighborhood" together.
Even though I never knew Bob personally, I feel like I got to know him through Sesame Street After watching that segment, it made me wan"t to pursue a news job. I’m doing something much better with my podcast.
A New York times article on his passing said, "When he first auditioned for the show, it was an old fraternity friend who told him about the project. He wasn’t interested in the project at first. The friend told him it was a Kid’s show on PBS. He had never seen a Muppet or ever heard of Jim Henson the puppeteer. After looking at some of the animation and some of the segments of the show he knew this show would be different. One thing that I didn’t know from this article was what the Sesame Street stage looked like. The article described it this way: The set was an urban brownstone stoop in front of a building's dark green doors and beside it’s collection of garbage cans. The article said that the character of Bob was reliably Easy going, and polite whether he was dealing with Oscar the Grouch, Elmo the red monster, or Big Bird. He was always this way whether he was singing the song “ People in your Neighborhood”, talking about concerns with young kids and Muppets, or visiting grouchy town with Oscar the Grouch which is one of the most popular scenes of the show.
Bob Mcgrath had this role on Sesame Street from 1969 through 2016. In 2016, Bob, Rosco Orman who played Gordon, and Amelio Delgado who played Louis were fired from the show. Fans of the show for a long time were angry about this including me. How could this show do this? I wondered to myself. I grew up with Bob’s calming presence on the show. I didn’t think it was fair for them to fire Bob, and the other cast members of the show.
The show Sesame Street wasn’t the same without them there. The show Sesame Street I knew growing up, and the show it is now are very different. The show now is a half an hour instead of an hour. The show now teaches different concepts than what I remember growing up. Bob was a big part of teaching concepts during the show If you would like to check out an interview that Bob and Amelio did together at one of the Comic Cons you can find it on YouTube. They explained why they were let go.
The first time I remember hearing Bob was on the Sesame Street book and record. The first words I remember from this record was “Hello Everybody.” The first song I remember Bob singing when I was listening to this record was I’ve got two. Which was a song about the things on a person’s body that they have two of. The song started out in my third favorite key which is C and went up three keys to E flat Sometimes when Bob would start a song, he would have simple instructions which made the listener feel very comfortable to join into the song.
I also loved that the human cast were very encouraging to each other. When one of them would sing one of the verses. Gordon in particular was hesitant about singing his verse. It seemed to me that Bob made it easy for him. The second song I remember from this record was the song was called What Babies are Called. Bob sang this one with Susan who was played by Loretta Long. Bob and Susan had a great friendship on the show. This song was written by Joe Raposo who was a writer of some of the songs for Sesame Street. I have heard both versions of the song, and I think that Bob and Susan’s version was the best version. After they sang some of the lines, they put in their own reactions to what they were singing about. For example: Susan would sing: Lions and Leopards have cubs which is the proper thing for them to do.” Bob’s reaction to this was very proper.”
Bob interacted well with the Muppet characters on the show. Anyone watching or listening to the show would be able to understand this. Later on, in the same album after Oscar sang "I love Trash", Bob Mcgrath said after the song that singing that song must have made Oscar very happy. Oscar had trouble admitting that. Bob said he could tell by the smile on his face. Oscar’s nick name for Bob Mcgrath was Mr. Blue eyes because of his eyes. They were blue.
Bob Mcgrath was always good about picking up on emotions from the Muppet characters. In one of my favorite shows, Big Bird was disappointed and angry that Granny Bird wasn’t coming to visit. Bob Mcgrath recognized that emotion and gave Big Bird some constructive ways to deal with his anger and disappointment.
The last memory I would like to share is A Christmas song that Bob used to sing on Sesame Street, and he put it on Bob Mcgrath Sings Christmas Album “Keep Christmas with You.” In this song we are reminded to keep the Holidays and the memories with us all through the year. I hope everyone has a great holiday season and a happy New Year.
I'll miss Bob.
Thanks for tuning in.