Bob McGrath

Appearing July 1-4

Bob McGrath will be appearing on Friday July 1, Saturday July 2, Sunday July 3, and Monday July 4 at 328. Bob McGrath is best known for his role as Bob Johnson on Sesame Street. He is one of the original cast members of Sesame Street, and one of the two longest-lasting human characters on the series along side Susan (played by Loretta Long).

Prior to the launch of Sesame Street in 1969, Bob was the featured tenor on the NBC-TV television singalong series Sing Along with Mitch from 1959 to 1964. He was a singer on the Walt Kelly album Songs of the Pogo, and in the mid-1960s, McGrath became a well-known recording artist in Japan, releasing a series of successful albums of Irish and other folksongs and ballads sung in Japanese. This aspect of his career was the basis of his “secret” when he appeared on the game shows To Tell the Truth in 1966 and I’ve Got a Secret in 1967.

Bob has written many children’s books, including Uh Oh! Gotta Go! and OOPS! Excuse Me Please!.

McGrath has said that his two favorite moments on Sesame Street were Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (a 1978 Christmas special that included a pastiche of “The Gift of the Magi”), and the 1983 sequence that candidly addressed the death of longtime character Mr. Hooper, played by his good friend Will Lee who had died the previous year.