Don Music



Don Music is an agonized composer who made recurring appearances on Sesame Street, starting in Season 5 (1974).

A typical sketch involved Kermit visiting Don in his studio while he tried to write a new song. To help alleviate Don's frustrations and stop him from banging his head against his piano, Kermit would make suggestions and correct Don's mistakes. The usual result was that Don would write a strange version of a nursery rhyme, such as "Mary Had a Bicycle" instead of "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

Don Music appeared in the special Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting. He kept a picture of Sesame Street songwriter and composer Joe Raposo on the wall; and On his piano he often kept a bust of either Ludwig van Beethoven or William Shakespeare.

Don Music stopped appearing in new material after his performer, Richard Hunt, died in 1992, but his segments continued to air as part of new episodes until the end of Season 29 in 1998. According to Sesame Street Unpaved, which was published in 1998, "The character, played by Richard Hunt, was abandoned because of complaints about his alarming tendencies toward self-inflicted punishment. Apparently, kids were imitating his head-banging at home." As the claim about pulling Don's segments was technically premature, it is possible that Unpaved author David Borgenicht had been told by Sesame Workshop that Don Music would no longer be seen as of Season 30, which began in the fall of 1998.

Book Appearances

 * The Sesame Street Dictionary (1980)
 * The New Who's Who on Sesame Street (1989)