Sesame Street's Mr. Hooper playing Pacman

Atari_PacMan_USA
Originally uploaded by tohoscope.

Mr. Hooper - A November 1983 episode of the children's program SESAME STREET dealt with the death of actor Will Lee who played store owner Mr. Harold Hooper on the program. Mr. Hooper was a friend of Big Bird and often made him birdseed milk shakes. When Big Bird tries to find Mr. Hooper to give him a portrait drawing, Maria (Sonia Manzano) tells Big Bird "Mr. Hooper died." Big Bird innocently responds "I'll give it to him when he comes back." Then Susan (Loretta Long) regretfully tells Big Bird "When people die, they don't come back." Mr. Hooper willed his store to a young African-American named David who was Mr. Hooper's store assistant. After David, the store passed into the hands of Gina (1989), Mr. Handford (1992), and then to Alan (1998).

TRIVIA NOTE: Sesame Street published a book entitled I'll Miss You, Mr. Hooper (Random House, 1984) as a memorial to Will Lee who died of cancer/heart attack on December 7, 1982. In the early Sesame Street days, Big Bird used to get the name Mr. Hooper wrong, for example "Dooper", "Sooper", "Scooper", "Blooper", "Looper", etc.. Before Will Lee, actor Bob McGrath played the role of Mr. Hooper.

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Check out TV ACRES: Death - Mr. Hooper (Sesame Street) for dialogue transcript from that episode.
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