Roosevelt Franklin was a Muppet featured on the children's television series Sesame Street during the early 1970s. He is purple with shaggy black hair that stands on end. His name is word play on the name of US President Franklin Roosevelt. Sesame Street cast member Matt Robinson, who also played Gordon, provided Roosevelt Franklin's voice.
Franklin is an intelligent boy who often speaks in rhyme or scat. Franklin began to appear less frequently in episodes created after the mid-1970s until he no longer was on the series.
Roosevelt Franklin usually appears in scenes with his mother, voiced by Loretta Long, who plays Susan on the series, and Roosevelt frequently recited poetry. Later scenes are set in a classroom, in which Roosevelt appears to fill in for an absent teacher.
Franklin is featured on a 1971 record album called The Year Of Roosevelt Franklin, which was reissued in 1974 as My Name Is Roosevelt Franklin.
Famous quotes containing the words roosevelt and/or franklin:
“I do not know that the United States can save civilization but at least by our example we can make people think and give them the opportunity of saving themselves. The trouble is that the people of Germany, Italy and Japan are not given the privilege of thinking.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“It was one of the rules which above all others made Doctr. Franklin the most amiable man in society, “never to contradict any body.””
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)