# Bob (and Luis AND Gordon) from Sesame Street axed. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 28, 2016, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-and-luis-and-gordon-from-sesame-street-axed/761127 "2016-07-28T18:28:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-and-luis-and-gordon-from-sesame-street-axed/761127/21 "2016-07-29T16:06:04Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Jesus, Bob McGrath is 84 years fucking old. I sure hope you’re just joking OP; your childhood shouldn’t be retroactively ruined because a few cast members had “only” a 40 year run on a kids show you liked. Chill. You can make your point without being all threadshitty. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-and-luis-and-gordon-from-sesame-street-axed/761127/22 "2016-07-29T16:49:21Z")
From Sesame Street’s [Facebook page](https://www.facebook.com/SesameStreet/posts/10154407485854549): > [@Sesame Street](#): > > Bob McGrath, Emilio Delgado (“Luis") and Roscoe Orman (“Gordon") remain a beloved part of the Sesame family and continue to represent us at public events. To us, and for millions of people worldwide, they are a treasured part of Sesame Street. Since the show began, we are constantly evolving our content and curriculum, and hence, our characters, to meet the educational needs of children. As a result of this, our cast has changed over the years, though you can still expect to see many of them in upcoming productions. As we’ve stated previously, Sesame Workshop retains sole creative control over the show. HBO does not oversee the production. From an [article](http://www.toughpigs.com/veteran-human-cast-members-let-go-from-sesame-street/)on Muppet fan blog Tough Pigs: > [@Tough Pigs](#): > > But as those who have kept track of the show know, over the past 12 years or so, Bob’s role has been down to approximately one group musical number per season, while the other long-tenured humans have had their prominence dwindle to one or two street scenes per season. In interviews, McGrath has become fond of saying that it feels more like a hobby than a job. **So if you’re going by screen time, there’s not a lot of difference between eight minutes a season and zero minutes a season.** So, like, chill out. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-and-luis-and-gordon-from-sesame-street-axed/761127/23 "2016-07-29T16:58:04Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > > Why do they need to be “paid back”? Were they not paid a salary for “DECADES”? > > actually no for a long time they weren’t paid until the early-mid 80s … when cwt started the toys … What are you saying? These people were volunteers on the television show for more than a decade? That seems implausible. ---
**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-and-luis-and-gordon-from-sesame-street-axed/761127/24 "2016-07-29T17:21:57Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Jesus, Bob McGrath is 84 years fucking old. I sure hope you’re just joking OP; your childhood shouldn’t be retroactively ruined because a few cast members had “only” a 40 year run on a kids show you liked. ☹ I had a crush on Bob as a kid. Now I’m sad. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-and-luis-and-gordon-from-sesame-street-axed/761127/25 "2016-07-29T18:00:10Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Strictly speaking, it did: it moved from PBS to HBO. Which still strikes me as weird and wrong. It serves to minorly beef up their online streaming service, HBO Go. and the episodes run on PBS free of charge(free to PBS, too) later. It was a phenomenal deal for PBS. They now get the show free, completely free, if they just wait awhile. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-and-luis-and-gordon-from-sesame-street-axed/761127/26 "2016-07-30T00:30:21Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > actually no for a long time they weren’t paid until the early-mid 80s … when cwt started the toys … How could that be? They couldn’t have worked for free. I know Roscoe Orman (“Gordon”) has been acting in small film roles for quite a long time, and I saw Emilio Delgado (“Luis”) in a small part in _Law & Order_ but I’ve never seen Susan or Bob in anything. Being that it was Public TV I’m sure they made only a fraction of what any network show would pay, but they still had to make a decent living. I do remember in the 80s when congress became annoyed that although CTW (the Children’s Television Workshop) was raking in billions from Sesame Street & Muppet merchandise they still claimed they needed govt money for the show. BTW I was a first generation Sesame Street kid. I not only remember that [Orman was the ‘_third_’ Gordon, I remember that Oscar was originally orange\*!\*](http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Gordon) ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-and-luis-and-gordon-from-sesame-street-axed/761127/27 "2016-07-30T00:45:12Z")
[Maybe not.](http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2016/07/29/sesame-street-evicting-three-its-most-beloved-long-time-residents/) ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-and-luis-and-gordon-from-sesame-street-axed/761127/28 "2016-07-30T16:05:38Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > Chill. You can make your point without being all threadshitty. I wasn’t threadshitting. I think it’s reasonable to have some sadness tinged nostalgia with this news. The OP’s anger and sense of betrayal was over the top. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-and-luis-and-gordon-from-sesame-street-axed/761127/29 "2016-08-01T14:41:24Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I’m a tiny bit sad because I feel like they helped raised me. But I’m not too sad because most actors would kill to be able to work on the same show for 30+ years. And they had a good run. > > Gen Xers need to let Sesame Street belong to another generation. Agreed. We original viewers are not Sesame Street’s target audience. I had to remind myself of this numerous times ten years ago when my oldest was watching. That’s why we have Youtube and Avenue Q. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-and-luis-and-gordon-from-sesame-street-axed/761127/30 "2016-08-01T16:02:52Z")
Seems to me that for the children’s understanding of it, they should have had a show where the old cast moved out of the city so the kids could process their sudden disappearance. Or let them say “We’ve been fired! This is brought to you by the letters F and U.” ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-and-luis-and-gordon-from-sesame-street-axed/761127/31 "2016-08-03T06:56:44Z")
I remember when Will Lee, Mr. Hooper, died. They had to have a whole show explaining death to the Sesame Street audience. Big Bird had made some kind of gift for Mr. Hooper and the other adults had to remind him that Mr. Hooper had died. Big Bird got a little sad then said, “Oh well, I’ll give it to him when he gets back!” and the adults had to explain that Mr. Hooper wasn’t coming back, that he could never come back. Extremely powerful performance by Caroll Spinney as Big Bird, probably the greatest performance of his career. Still, maybe retiring is a better idea. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-and-luis-and-gordon-from-sesame-street-axed/761127/32 "2016-08-03T08:11:30Z")
Word around the campfire is that there’s been some “miscommunication” about the status of the actors. > **[Sesame apologizes for 'misunderstandings' over the status of longtime cast](https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/tv/ct-sesame-street-aplogizes-over-stars-20160802-story.html)** > > Sesame Workshop has apologized for what it calls "misunderstandings around the changing cast roles at 'Sesame Street.'" ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-and-luis-and-gordon-from-sesame-street-axed/761127/33 "2016-08-03T14:21:35Z")
My beef wasn’t that they were leaving/retiring but that they had been “fired” Apparently that’s not strictly true… [Emily Litella] **Never mind** [/Emily Litella] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-and-luis-and-gordon-from-sesame-street-axed/761127.md?page=1)