The Case of the Missing Gordon

In 1969, the Children's Television Workshop produced an an unaired test pilot for Sesame Street shown only to a focus group of children.

After incorporating the data gathered by the test pilot and other sources, the first ever episode of Sesame Street – Episode 0001 -- debuted. The actor who played Gordon in Episode 0001 was Matt Robinson, who held the role through season 3. In seasons four and five, Hal Miller took over; and since season six, Roscoe Orman has played the role. However the actor who played Gordon in the test pilot is currently unknown.

In celebration of the show's 40th anniversary in Sesame Workshop, we went through rooms full of Sesame Street archives – everything from clips and stills to letters and pay stubs - and came up empty.

Sesame Workshop has asked everyone they could think of - actors, producers and puppeteers who have been on the show since its inception - including Joan Ganz Cooney, Bob McGrath, Loretta Long, and Caroll Spinney - but have been unable to uncover the true identity of the actor.

The official anniversary book Sesame Street: A Celebration - 40 Years of Life on the Street, there was one page containing a photo of the original Gordon with a caption revealing that Sesame Workshop didn’t know who he was.

When Michael Davis wrote Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street, he interviewed many people involved with the show and was given access to thousands of pages of documents... and he didn’t find out anything about the original Gordon. In the book, Davis quotes Jon Stone as saying, "At the last moment we cast an actor with whom no one was completely happy..." Later, Davis describes him as "a person in the neighborhood that children would run away from, not to."

In 2011, Sesame Workshop launched an Internet campaign via sesamestreet.org and Facebook, entitled "The Case of the Missing Gordon", in an attempt to track down the original actor. The campaign asks that any clues, even if it's seemingly esoteric or mundane, can be emailed to wheresgordon@sesameworkshop.org.

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