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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For the National Road Safety Foundation, we're doing a virtual media tour, hitting TV stations around the country with messages for National Teen Driver Safety Week.
Click here to see how a station in Mississippi used our interview and coupled it with comments from a local teen driver, her dad and a local driver ed teacher.
We have interviews with about 20 stations in markets including New Orleans, Toledo, New York, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, Richmond, Portland OR and more.
A perfect end to a great story. "Better Call Saul."
Every summer, teen car crashes and deaths spike. An average of 9 teens die on the roads every day during the summer months.
The National Road Safety Foundation, along with SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), is making a push to put safe driving on the minds of teens this summer, to help make this the safest summer ever.
In addition to a massive social media campaign involving tens of thousands of SADD students nationwide, we're doing a virtual media tour. Along with my associate Michelle Anderson at The National Road Safety Foundation, we're doing remote interviews with TV stations nationwide.
Click here to see one Michelle did with a station in Lansing yesterday. I did some in Hartford and Providence Tuesday, and I'm about to go on with the NBC station in San Antonio in a few minutes.
We have more lined up with stations in Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago, Toledo and more as we're trying to get teens -- and all drivers -- to slow down, pay attention and always buckle up.
For The National Road Safety Foundation, we're mounting a virtual media tour to talk about the dangers of distraction during National Distracted Driving Awareness Month.
I was the spokesperson yesterday, as we kicked off the tour with two TV interviews in Tennessee and Minnesota.
Here's a clip from the segment that aired last night and this morning on KAAL-TV ABC in Rochester, Minnesota. I'm thrilled to see that the 8-1/2 minute story began with some comments from Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, talking about distracted driving. She's been a vocal supporter of tougher distracted driving legislation since back in 2010, when I met her at the first National Distracted Driving Summit convened by then-Sec. of Transportation Ray LaHood.
Lots more to come during the next two weeks. Stay tuned
NBC announced this week that it has sold all its inventory of commercial spots for this year's Super Bowl. Some advertisers spent as much as $7 million for a single 30-second ad.
Yes, it's true that the game and all the hoopla that surrounds it gets big audiences. And some of the ads get talked about and shown and re-shown online. But I wonder how many people actually see the ads.
Commercial breaks are when many people make a run to the kitchen or a run to the bathroom. Who stays to watch a 2- or 3-minute commercial break? And of you do watch, how many actually remember any specific ad or who sponsored it.
I wonder what else might a business do with $7 million? Lower prices? Pay employees more? Put some into programs that benefit people in need?
Just sayin'.