Northern Calloway

[mikebennidict]

well he had at least had been there since 71 because the earliest SSU show with him was a 1971 episode.

 

[timandalexis]

Im not 100% sure....

I grew up in Nashville, TN and for years I have remebered watching the news and seeing a reoprt about David from sesame street going crazy (mentioned depression in report) and streaking through Nashville in just a superman t-shirt. I say this not to down the man as he was one of my favorites growing up, but to add to the comment someone made earlier that its interesting how the tabloids and news shows tend to leave Sesame Street's actors alone as far as hounding them and trashing their lives, especially when something goes wrong. That news report was on one channel and I dont ever remember hearing anything else about it. Ever. Period. Sometimes I wish they would do that about all public figures. Im tired of hearing about everyone's dirty laundry all the time.

Tim

 

[DancingLauren]

What the **** would depression have to do with going crazy and streaking with a superman T-Shirt?!??! A truly depressed person would NOT have the energy or motivation to do that. Geez... I dont know where some of these rumors get started, but they are not by people who know anything about psychology. Ive also heard that he "died from depression", which isnt possible, unless you committ suicide. They should just say "he committed" suicide then, not that he died from depression. My lord.

END RANT.

 

[Mark The Shark]

I grew up in Nashville, TN and for years I have remebered watching the news and seeing a reoprt about David from sesame street going crazy (mentioned depression in report) and streaking through Nashville in just a superman t-shirt. I say this not to down the man as he was one of my favorites growing up, but to add to the comment someone made earlier that its interesting how the tabloids and news shows tend to leave Sesame Street's actors alone as far as hounding them and trashing their lives, especially when something goes wrong. That news report was on one channel and I dont ever remember hearing anything else about it. Ever. Period. Sometimes I wish they would do that about all public figures. Im tired of hearing about everyone's dirty laundry all the time.

Tim

Northern Calloway is not the only "Sesame Street" regular to have been the subject of a scandal. I don't recall all the details, in fact, I don't even remember this at all myself, but a friend told me he had read something in a tabloid (so some of it probably has a basis in fact, and some of it probably doesn't) regarding Roscoe Orman and some scandal involving fathering a child out of wedlock. But that's all second-hand information, and as I said, I myself never heard or read anything about this. I only mention it to point out that Northern Calloway is not the only performer with "dirt" to be dug up on him. Also, let me add that I like, enjoyed and respect both Northern Calloway and Roscoe Orman as performers. I never met either of them (although Roscoe Orman did make a personal appearance at a local mall a decade or more ago and I would have liked to have gone to meet him, but I was actually working in the building at the time and could not get away; however, I was able to look down to see the top of his bald head shining up at me on the second level for a moment, so I at least caught a glimpse of him).

As far as I can tell, though, the whole thing about Northern Calloway "going berserk" and all that really was a separate thing altogether from his subsequent illness and death (though if mental illness was a factor--which I don't know, not having known the man personally--then who knows if the two things were somehow related). But the "running around naked" incident happened in September of 1980, and he passed away in January 1990, almost a decade later.

As to why "Sesame Street" never dealt with the actor's death on the show: Northern Calloway left after the 1988-1989 season, and was written out of the show (so I've read; I was not watching the show then) with the explanation that David had moved to Florida. Based on some things I have read on the internet (which is all I know about this), that episode was produced and aired *before* Northern Calloway's death. So the character's absence already had been dealt with and explained, and though Northern Calloway passed away soon afterwards, "David" never died, he just "moved away." So it really would not have made any sense to bring the subject of death into it at that point, since the character was gone and his absence already had been explained.

If anyone wants to read the article from the Nashville Tennessean (September 20, 1980) regarding the earlier incident with Northern Calloway, it can be "Googled" at

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=n...19083434.01066.00000824@ng-fi1.aol.com&rnum=1

 

[Animal Jam]

Northern Calloway doing the Emmys

I was watching my schoolhouserock DVD.. and Northern calloway was on it! He was doing the 1976 Emmy awards for best children's show. the nominees were Mister Rogers neighborhood,Sesame Street,and,Schoolhouse Rock.

 

[Mark The Shark]

Northern J. Calloway Vs. Marvel Comics

I was digging around on the internet yesterday and I happened upon a couple of court cases involving a suit filed by Northern Calloway against Marvel Comics (which then countersued him), over intellectual property rights to a screenplay Northern Calloway had written. If you're interested, it can be found at

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=493&invol=120

and

http://www.tourolaw.edu/2ndCircuit/Pre95/91-9118.html

There's a lot of "legalese," but some of it made some interesting reading...

 

[dvakman]

Wow.

The Northern Calloway saga just gets stranger and stranger.

Hey Mark!!!

 

[sesamelover]

David and Maria

I'm so glad someone else remembered David and Maria being a 'couple'!
No one else I know remembers that!

At the risk of being a rumor monger...maybe he had hiv or aids or something.
Back in the 80's that was big taboo, and perhaps that's why the events of his death were never mentioned.

 

[Whatever]

going crazy and streaking through Nashville in just a superman t-shirt.

One of my friends did that, carrying a flashlight, in his parents' restaraunt in Kentucky as a little kid.

 

[dvakman]

He wrote a children's book too?

http://Info