the buzz log

"Sesame Street" wants your help in solving a mystery: the case of the missing cast member. The original actor who played Gordon on the show's unaired pilot cannot be found. He was last seen teaching kids about the letter D and dancing with Ernie and Bert. But that was 42 years ago, in 1969.

The actor Roscoe Orman later made the role of Gordon his own, but that wasn't until the show's sixth season. Two others played Gordon before him. And mystery Gordon -- an unnamed actor -- played the part for a pilot only seen by a small group of kids. That show was stored in a vault for 40 years, and it was reviewed only in 2009, for the program's 40th anniversary. That was when the show's producers unearthed the original show with the original Gordon and set out to find him.

Two years later, the producers are stumped, and they're asking the public to help them locate the man who played an important, if off-air, part of "Sesame Street" history.

According to the show's website, if the man in their video looks even vaguely familiar, viewers should email wheresgordon@sesame.org with their tips: "It could be something seemingly small; something like 'my great aunt once said that her third cousin was almost on Sesame Street' or 'there was a person in my neighborhood who said he was on Sesame Street in the late 1960s.'"

Not that the show's creators haven't tried to find him: They've scoured the show's old paystubs, and they've even asked Caroll Spinney (aka Big Bird) to strain his brain for any memory of the mystery man. Nada.

Watch a video of the unaired pilot here.