Bob McGrath visited us in our homes daily through at least two generations over more than 40 years as the longest-running human character on Sesame Street.
I was an early watcher of Sesame Street, when it first came on the air in the fall of 1969. I was finishing my Master's thesis and I had papers spread out across my parents' living room floor. At 4 o'clock one day I decided to take a break. I put the TV on. It was tuned to Channel 13 PBS, which my parents had been watching the night before. Before I could tune away to another station, I got caught up watching this new fast-paced children's show with puppets and a few humans including Bob.
Sesame Street became a daily habit for me for the rest of that year. And I became a regular watcher again years later as my own kids were young.
I was lucky enough to meet Bob a few times when Sesame Street won Christopher Awards over the years and I was handling PR for the events. But the best was the first time I met him, unexpectedly.
It was around 1988 and I was attending a luncheon at Chanel 13, representing my client McDonald's, which was an underwriter of the show. My cab got hung up in traffic so I arrived after everyone was already seated. Someone from Channel 13 brought me to table that had an empty seat.
I apologized, introduced myself and then all the others went round the table to introduce themselves. Finally, the man immediately to my right turned to me and said "Hi, I'm Bob McGrath." I couldn't catch myself as I went into fan mode.
"Bob!" I shrieked. He smiled as my face turned beet-red. When I regained my composure I told him how I had found Sesame Street while working on my Master's thesis. He thought that was a hoot.
Through lunch we had a nice chat about children's TV and how much he loved working on Sesame Street.
I'm fortunate to have that memory.
Bob will be missed by millions of kids of all ages.
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Bob was a lot more than a Sesame Street cast member. His bio, here in The Hollywood Reporter, is interesting.
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