An accidental role model

October 27, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

By MELISSA RAYWORTH

A career path interrupted turned out to be a real blessing.

Roscoe Orman never set out to be an expert on parenting.

Back in the mid-1970s, he was best known for starring as a pimp in the blaxploitation flick “Willie Dynamite.” Young, handsome and socially conscious, Orman devoted himself to the provocative stage shows of New York’s emerging black theater scene and campaigning for civil rights.

He’d also taken a fun, part-time gig playing a guy named Gordon Robinson on a children’s show called “Sesame Street.” But as the third actor to play Gordon in just five years, he had no reason to assume he’d stick around for long.

Today, as a father of four and grandfather of five, he’s been dispensing wisdom and kindness for nearly 35 years as the street’s resident dad. The role of Gordon — a job he once assumed would be a tiny piece of his theatrical career — has turned him into a role model and touchstone for a generation of young parents.

“It’s kind of a humbling experience to have hundreds, thousands of adults and children react to me in that way,” he says. “I became a parent the same year that I began on ‘Sesame Street’ ... I had no idea what I was getting into on either side.”

At live events these days, parents are sometimes more excited than their offspring to meet him. “Elmo, of course, is the favorite among the littlest kids. I tend to come out a little ahead with the grown-ups,” Orman says.

Some ask for parenting advice. Others just want to shake Gordon’s hand.

Classic Gen-X TV dads like Mike Brady, Tom Bradford and Mr. Drummond are long gone. But Orman’s Gordon, a father figure kids grew to trust in the 1970s and 1980s, still inhabits the sunny sidewalks and brownstone stoops of “Sesame Street.”

The preschoolers and the world around them have changed, but Gordon still calmly handles the problems they face. He patiently teaches the alphabet to humans and muppets alike, and even coaxes some warmth from Oscar the Grouch on occasion.

Two other actors played Gordon first, but the role grew once Orman arrived, says Michael Davis, author of “Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street,” due out in December.

“Immediately, Gordon became a much more mature, accessible, warm, multidimensional character who could play comedy but also could play serious,” he says. “He just emanated so much trust and believability. They were very fortunate in their casting of Roscoe, and he was fortunate to find that role. It suits him perfectly.”

He points out that Gordon and Susan have the longest black marriage in the history of television.

“They have successfully used Roscoe in so many situations to project an image of men — not just African-American men but men period — that is so positive and so strong,” Davis says. “It sounds funny, but ‘Sesame Street,’ in a way, prepared the electorate for the age of Obama. For a lot of people in that 20-to-40-year-old range, the first vision they got of a neighborhood where people coexisted harmoniously was ‘Sesame Street.’”

Reasoned and caring

While Orman’s Gordon character has become a role model for reasoned, caring parenting, the real Orman sees himself strictly as a storyteller, and is currently writing and illustrating his second children’s book, “Ricky’s Hunting Lesson,” a follow-up to last year’s “Ricky and Mobo.”

Orman prefers giving parents tools rather than lessons, sharing pieces of his own history to help parents find their way. His 2006 autobiography, “Sesame Street Dad,” touched on his parenting experiences but stopped short of giving outright advice.

This month, he signed on as “chief storyteller” for AudibleKids.com, a social networking and literacy site for kids that offers digital books. He is recording a series of audiobooks (including the Barack Obama biography for young adults, “Yes. We. Can.”) and videos instructing parents on using digital audiobooks to improve their children’s literacy.

Orman says many parents probably feel “left in the dust,” as he does, when grappling with emerging digital technologies. But given that iPods and cell phones are now a central part of kids’ lives, he’s looking to help parents make them as educational as possible.

He likens his new work with AudibleKids to his early days at “Sesame Street,” when many parents and teachers doubted TV could be beneficial for kids. “The television that I grew up with in the 1950s was anything but educational,” he says. Kids loved it, but grown-ups saw it as a little more than a time-waster. “’Sesame Street’ really changed the whole landscape of children’s television forever.”

Something new

It’s the same thing today, he says, with parents’ new concerns about the digital technology that consumes children’s attention. “For many grown-ups who are not as connected to it, there’s a kind of apprehension and fearfulness about something so new and unknown,” he says. “The children, of course, are totally tapped into it. They take it for granted.”

In addition AudibleKids and his book projects, Orman hopes to continue adding to his long resume of film, TV and Broadway credits. And, at 64, he isn’t giving up his gig as Gordon (and his heroic alter ego, “Trash Gordon”) anytime soon.

It’s the job of a lifetime, he says, to be teaching young kids even as their parents are reassured by his presence.

“We really kind of represent something fundamental in terms of their own early development. And now they can share that and have it provided by the same people, by the same program, to their own children. It really is quite unique and very powerful.”