Sesame Street Says Adios to Bob, Gordon, and Luis!

Say it ain't so Sesame! The Street we love is about to loose a few more humans.

Long time resident of Sesame Street, Bob McGrath (Bob) was recently interviewd by a fan at Florida's Supercon where he announced that himself along with other longtime cast members Emilio Delgado (“Luis”), and Roscoe Orman (“Gordon”) had been "let go" from the show.

As heard on the MuppetCast podcast, McGrath said:

"As of this season, I completed my 45th season this year. And the show has done a major turnaround. It’s now gone from an hour to half an hour, and HBO has gotten involved also. And so, they let all of the original cast members go, with the exception of Alan Muraoka, who’s still on the show and he’s probably 20 years younger than the rest of us, and Chris Knowings, who’s also young, and they’re terrific, wonderful people and really great actors and performers."

Muliple outlets including Today have picked up the story and some seem to imply this was HBO's way of "retooling" the show. As far was we know, the HBO deal didn't give the premium cable network any creative control, so this appears to be all Sesame Workshop's decision. 

As our friends at ToughPigs pointed out, “All cast members except Alan and Chris” would mean that Loretta Long’s Susan and Alison Bartlett’s Gina will also no longer be on the TV show."  

One report said Loretta Long would still be on the series even hough she has't appeared in quite some time. 

In addition to McGrath, Delgado, and Orman, it looks like Nitya Vidyasagar (Leela) was let go as well. 

Might this continue be part of the "Soul of Show" fight that forced head writer Joey Mazzarino to exit the beloved children's show last year?  We'll see. If anything, it definitely feels agist. 

In the past year the show has added two new cast members:
Ismael Cruz Cordova (Armando/ Mando)

and Suki Lopez ( Nina)

But Sesame Street has always featured not only people of multiple nationalities and backgrounds, but peopel of all ages as well. Mr. Hooper, Mr Cranford, and Ruthie come to mind. 

While working on this article Sesame Workshop released the following statement:

Bob McGrath, Emilio Delgado (“Luis”) and Roscoe Orman (“Gordon”) remain a beloved part of the Sesame family and continue to represent us at public events.  To us, and for millions of people worldwide, they are a treasured part of Sesame Street. Since the show began, we are constantly evolving our content and curriculum, and hence, our characters, to meet the educational needs of children. As a result of this, our cast has changed over the years, though you can still expect to see many of them in upcoming productions. As we’ve stated previously, Sesame Workshop retains sole creative control over the show. HBO does not oversee the production.

We look forward to seeing Bob, Luis, and Gordon back on the street as much as possible.

Update: Emilio Delgado has released the following statement: 

Thanks to everyone for your love and appreciation of Bob, Luis & Gordon. It's very gratifying to experience the outpouring of love and appreciation from our fans. My dear friend and colleague Roscoe (Gordon) prepared a statement that speaks for all of us. It accurately sums up the current news about the fate of Bob, Luis & Gordon ...
"To all of you who have expressed your appreciation and support for the years of work and service to Sesame Street by me and my colleagues, Ithank you! Due to your overwhelming reaction regarding the status of myself and others on the show, the new producers of Sesame Street have reached out to us with an expressed desire to continue our longstanding relationship, to be initiated with a meeting in September. Hopefully, this will result in the inclusion of veteran cast members in upcoming productions. I look forward to sharing with you at such time, the results of that conversation. Thanks again for your loving support and devotion to Sesame Street and to what it has meant to the children of the world."