Roosevelt Franklin's Voice

[D'Snowth]

I know and have read that Matt Robinson (the first Gordon) dubbed Roosevelt Franklin's voice, but obviously Roosevelt Franklin was around just a little longer than Matt was, and I know he's had two other voices and I was wondering who else did Roosevelt Franklin's voice? Was Jerry Nelson one of them? Because one of his other voices sounds a lot like Robin's voice.

 

[JLG]

I haven't seen much of Roosevelt except a few Noggin clips and #406 on Old School Vol. 1, but it definitely sounds like Jerry Nelson doing him by the middle of the '70s. In the beginning of #406, though, it really still sounds like Matt Robinson to me, but he'd left the show by then, so I guess Nelson was just really good at imitating him. However, eventually he let that slip away and the voice became higher and higher. I don't know when they shot the "Camp Wannagohoma" skit where Roosevelt is included among Grover's band of campers (sometime in the 80s, most likely), but by then the voice had evolved fully into Nelson's "Robin" mode.

 

[minor muppetz]

ctually, I think that Roosevelt's voice sounds completely different from Matt Robinsons natural voice (assuming that Robinson didn't talk in a phony voice when playing Gordon).

 

[JLG]

It does. I just meant that what were apparantly Nelson's earlier performances as Roosevelt sound very much like Robinson's.

 

[D'Snowth]

So Jerry DID do Roosevelt Franklin after Matt Robinson (voice wise that is)?

 

[minor muppetz]

It's been speculated (I don't know if there are any official sources for this information) that Matt Robinson stopped playing Gordon to focus on a producing career, but he still could have performed the voice of Roosevelt Franklin. Since he only performed the voice, he obviously wouldn't have needed to have spent as much time at the studio as he would have if playing Gordon. I imagine that he could have easily spent one day (or even one hour) recording all of Roosevelt's lines for a whole season. After all, Ruth Buzzi still provides Suzie Kabloozie's voice even though she stopped playing Ruthie years ago.

 

[anytimepally]

I don't know when they shot the "Camp Wannagohoma" skit where Roosevelt is included among Grover's band of campers (sometime in the 80s, most likely), but by then the voice had evolved fully into Nelson's "Robin" mode.

but wasn't Farley in the "Camp Wannagohoma" skit as well? wouldn't Jerry have been performing him?