Elmo Muppeteer Kevin Clash resigns from Sesame Street

[brkndwnbus]

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/kevin-clash-elmo-puppeteer-resigns/?smid=tw-share


From the New York Times: "Kevin Clash, the longtime voice and puppeteer behind Sesame Street’s Elmo character, has resigned in the aftermath of allegations — which Sesame Workshop had previously said were unfounded — that he had an underage sexual relationship"

 

[SSLFan]

I really hope he reconsiders this. What happened to him was a part of his personal life, and no way did it affect his work on the show. He's been with the show almost 30 years, I was hoping they would let this pass. However, it seems it's Mr. Clash's personal decesion, not SW. Still, I'm very sad to hear this news, to me Kevin IS Elmo, heart and soul. Whoever takes over has some HUGE shoes to fill. Very sad, sad, day man. Such a huge loss to the show.

 

[charlietheowl]

Not really sure what to say here. It looks like Clash and SW came to an agreement that he was going to be too much of a distraction to the continued running of Sesame Street and its related endeavors. I have seen on Gawker that another person has came forward with similar allegations against Clash; it remains to be seen what will come of that story if anything.

 

[brkndwnbus]

Yes, another person has come forward. The accuser is suing Clash for $5 million. The story is on TMZ's website.

 

[Slackbot]

This is very sad. I'm not going to express my opinion of the situation, as it involves speculation on Clash's private life. I just hope that justice is done. And that, if Clash's name is cleared, that he can return to Sesame Street.

"The penalty for false accusation is worse than the penalty for theft."
-- The World's Oldest Fraggle in Inspector Red

 

[D'Snowth]

I wonder if this is going to affect Kevin's reputation with the other end of the Muppet spectrum as well... don't forget, before he ended up devoting most, if not all, of his time to SST, he was also quite a fixture with the Classic Muppets as well; his involvement with SST has limited his time with the Classic Muppets considerably, so I'm really curious about this.

Considering Disney owns the Classic Muppets, I remember reading a few years ago when David Ogden Stiers came out, he said Disney was, for the most part, a gay-friendly studio to work with, maybe, perhaps, Kevin could use that to fall back on?

Either way, I have a feeling that this may actually end up affecting SST more than we think, not just because of Elmo, but really, Kevin's become almost like the new Jon Stone of the show, with his heavy involvement behind the scenes... maybe Joey can take on a little more responsibility since he's gotten more and more involved behind the scenes too. But again, as previously mentioned, whoever is going to be the new Elmo has some HUGE shoes to fill.

 

[ncchuck]

this is hard for me ...im speechless and very depressed i was praying it was over and kevin could get back to work , i just want to cry this is really some of the worst news i could have expected from this mess that I think tmz started.

 

[D'Snowth]

That's the unfortunate thing about the entertainment industry, especially in this day and age of social media and such, nobody's private life is completely private, not even Kevin's.

At the same time though, this is also a lesson that needs to be learned, not just from Kevin, but from the likes of General Patreaus, Anthony Weiner, et al: when you're in the public eye like that, if there's something about you that you don't want people to know about, don't do it.

 

[animalrescuer]

Well, the damage has been done. I don't know what to say at this point. And now another person is suing him? People should leave Kevin alone and leave his personal life out of it!

Now that Kevin is gone, could this be the end of Sesame Street?

 

[CBPuppets]

This was the first I've heard of this! I just pray that Justice will be served! I practically grew up watching Elmo when I was a Kid...