Roosevelt Franklin Elementary School.

[Cookie fan]

Roosevelt Franklin

Very interesting muppet, I personally thought he was really cool. A few may think of him being negative apart from the stereotyping as I read about- some may say he was too disruptive and all that. What do you think about the muppet that was Roosevelt Franklin? I truly missed his cool antics. Does anyone think that his character could have undergone a makeover to stay on the show?

 

[Tim]

Well, I know the press dubbed him "the first soul puppet". I always liked him and his mother, especaily the Freudian bit with "Gordon and Suan" doing the voices.

And I've still got my original Fisher-Price puppet!

 

[fuzzygobo]

For the life of me, I could never understand the logic as stated in the Unpaved book about Roosevelt Franklin being taken off for being in any way a negative stereotype.

It's true that in the later classroom scenes, some of the kids may have acted a little rambunctious, but just about the rowdiest thing they ever did was throw paper airplanes. Pretty tame stuff compared to what really goes on in some schools.

Roosevelt Franklin was really Matt Robinson's baby. Jim Henson may have done the puppetry and Joe Raposo helped with the songs, but it was Matt Robinson's vision to have a hip Muppet inner-city kids could identify with.

Roosevelt was Sesame Street's first "breakout" star. He was the first character to have his own album (The Year of Roosevelt Franklin, Columbia Records, 1970) which Robinson really got to show off his talents. And Roosevelt was a great vehicle for him to teach kids that having knowledge is power. And if you put street smarts and book smarts together, nothing can stop you. And Roosevelt was really close to his family and friends. On the album, he stressed the virtues of sharing, caring for others. and promoting self-esteem.

I dare anyone to find anything negative about that.

 

[Kiki]

I love Roosenvelt Franklin, he's so cool, so hip, v.v. popular on SS during the 70's. I've actually got a reasonably old puppet of Roosenvelt and I found a record of his ('My name is Roosenvelt Franklin') at a car-boot sale a couple of years... and I'm still kicking myself for not getting it! Mind you, it wasn't the best quality, it was lookin' a bit 'how's your father' if you know what I mean. It's a shame they got rid of him. Sure he was a little rowdy in the classroom, but arn't all kids? It wasn't *that* bad, was it? I thought it was ludicrous.
I'd like to see s'more of our little pal, actually!

 

[mikebennidict]

For the life of me, I could never understand the logic as stated in the Unpaved book about Roosevelt Franklin being taken off for being in any way a negative stereotype.

It's true that in the later classroom scenes, some of the kids may have acted a little rambunctious, but just about the rowdiest thing they ever did was throw paper airplanes. Pretty tame stuff compared to what really goes on in some schools.

Roosevelt Franklin was really Matt Robinson's baby. Jim Henson may have done the puppetry and Joe Raposo helped with the songs, but it was Matt Robinson's vision to have a hip Muppet inner-city kids could identify with.

Roosevelt was Sesame Street's first "breakout" star. He was the first character to have his own album (The Year of Roosevelt Franklin, Columbia Records, 1970) which Robinson really got to show off his talents. And Roosevelt was a great vehicle for him to teach kids that having knowledge is power. And if you put street smarts and book smarts together, nothing can stop you. And Roosevelt was really close to his family and friends. On the album, he stressed the virtues of sharing, caring for others. and promoting self-esteem.

I dare anyone to find anything negative about that.

I guess the groovy jive talk was what they meant by a negative steriotype but I agree with you that it wasn't all that bad that they had to can him for that. I do sort of see the concern for the rowdy classroom behavior but all that could of done was tone it down some.

 

[Chris Gawley]

When I as a kid, I used to love the Roosevelt Franklin Elementary School Sketches! I thank everyone who posted some of the old sketches on youtube.com, & I look forward to possibly seeing more of them in the upcoming "Old School" box set!

I do have some questions, though.

1) Several characters were voiced by members of the human cast (Susan, Maria, etc). Does anyone know if the people providing the voices were controlling the muppets? How did those actors feel about lending their voices to muppet characters, & why have none done so since then?

2) In the beginning of the sketches, you see 7 muppet characters singing the school song. I can remember 4 of the 7 muppet's names (Smart Tina, Baby Breeze, Hard-headed Henry Harris, & Roosevelt Franklin). Does anyone remember what the other 3 muppet character's names were, or if they even had names?

3) Does anyone remember exactly how many classroom sketches they were?

 

[mikebennidict]

We already have a thread on RF. What did you start another one?

 

[Chris Gawley]

I can answer that with 3 repies.

1) The other thread asked a specific question that required a specific answer, just as mine does. I didn't want to deter that thread from having that paricular member's question answered any more than I want this thread detered from having my questions answered!

2) Why the heck not?!? This is a forum for open discussion, where anyone can ask any question they want! If there are threads that are separate yet similar, who cares???

3) You seem to have a smart-mouthed remark for just about anything anybody posts on this site! What's your problem??? None of the rest of us go out of our way to belittle any topic you've raised! While any assistance you can provide will always be appreciated & welcomed, if you don't have anything friendly or helpful to post, please keep your remarks to yourself!

 

[Cookie fan]

Hail to thee, our alma mater, roosevelt franklin (Baaahhh)....ELEM-EN-TARY SCHOOL....ELEM-EN-TARY SCHOOOOOOOOOOOL....

You gotta love that intro!!! I really wish they did'nt retire his character. Even if Matt Robinson left, probably they could've used someone else to do the voiceover.

 

[minor muppetz]

1) Several characters were voiced by members of the human cast (Susan, Maria, etc). Does anyone know if the people providing the voices were controlling the muppets? How did those actors feel about lending their voices to muppet characters, & why have none done so since then?

I am sure that the voice actors weren't also performing the Muppets. The regular performers did (though I don't know who each performer actually did). And the actors have lended their voices to Muppets outside of these sketches. Emillio Degardo performed a Muppet voice in the song Me, Loretta Long performed the voice of the mother in Five People in my Family, Bob McGraph performed one of the brothers in Five People in my Family, and Northern Calloway performed a hipster in a sketch about shapes.