Northern Calloway.

[MIKEBENNIDICT]

Who was David on Sesame Street.


This past January marked the 25 anniversary of his passing.

While and important part of the show sadly he was a troubled man as he suffered though mental illness for most of his adult life if not his entire life time.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Calloway

I know Wiki isn't always accurate but if you type him up you'll more on it.


The following was info taken from the 2008 Publication "Street Gang The Complete History of SS" post on the IMDB page.



http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0130590/board/thread/1455242?p=2&d=125751610#125751610


Kind of wonder why the CTW kept Mr. Calloway on the show nearly 10 years after that incident?


Think Mr. Rogers would of let anyone go if they ever had that kind of trouble.

[MIKEBENNIDICT]

I see this post has been read quite a bit but how do you feel about Calloway's troubles?

[Neighborhood Archive]

I feel like everybody has skeletons in their closets. If we were all held fully accountable for all of our vices and shortcomings, none of us would be employed. I remember being surprised to learn about his struggles and was glad to know that he was not dismissed from his role on the show as a result.

[MIKEBENNIDICT]

Yeah but you gotta admit That incident in Nashville was a bit much.

[mitsguy2001]

Do we even know for sure that incident was true?  And, even if it was true, it is possible that maybe he had a condition that was under control, and that was a one-time incident; maybe he forgot to take his medicine?

What I wonder is, there seems to be several different causes of death listed for him.  I've seen claims that he died of his mental problems, I've seen claims that he died of a heart attack, and claims that he died of stomach cancer.  No idea which is correct, or if it was a combination of issues.

[MIKEBENNIDICT]

What I posted though from the IMDB boards, the poster got the info 2008 publication I mentioned so it looks like the 1980 incident mentioned is sadly true.

[mitsguy2001]

I'm guessing that they were thinking from a kid's perspective, that they didn't want to have to explain why David was gone, despite his personal problems.  Similar to how in that interview, Betty said that she wanted to leave MRN, but Fred did not allow her to (not sure how he could enforce that) since he said that he couldn't tell the kids that Lady Aberlin left.

[MIKEBENNIDICT]

Uh Fred did not have the power to keep anyone who wanted to leave.


Plus you know as well as I do there have been those who have come and gone throughout the years MRN was produced.

[mitsguy2001]

Uh Fred did not have the power to keep anyone who wanted to leave.


Plus you know as well as I do there have been those who have come and gone throughout the years MRN was produced.

I am not exactly sure how Fred was able to stop Betty from leaving when she wanted to, but obviously he never fired her, and your post was saying that Northern Calloway should have been fired.  My point was that Fred never fired Betty since he didn't want to explain to kids that Betty left.  Northern Calloway was probably the same thing.

As for how Fred maybe stopped Betty from leaving: perhaps he asked Betty to sign an agreement saying she couldn't leave.  Or maybe a non-compete agreement saying she couldn't act anywhere else.  I doubt that Fred could have legally enforced it, but it could have been enough to intimidate Betty.  Or maybe Betty feared (or, less likely, Fred threatened) that Fred would be sure that Betty was blacklisted in the acting industry if she left MRN.  Realistically, I doubt that any of this ever happened, but I'm just speculating.

You say that cast members came and went throughout the years MRN was produced.  But in reality, there weren't any major cast members that left, other than the ones who died.