Barkley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the article on the basketball player Charles Wade Barkley, see Charles Barkley. For the article on the musical group, see Gnarls Barkley. For the article on Truman's vice president Alben Barkley, see Alben Barkley.
Barkley, originally named Woof-Woof, was a dog character on the children's television program Sesame Street. Barkley seems to be an Old English Sheepdog.
Introduced in the less-than-successful A Special Sesame Street Christmas, its original actor Toby Towson notes that Barkley was originally intended to be an acrobatic ape.
Owned by deaf librarian Linda, the character made its formal television debut in the tenth season of the show. Its name changed in the coming episodes from "Woof-Woof" to "Barkley". It is of note that producers and Towson spelt the original name "Woov-Woov".
Around this time, Towson's contract ran out, and Bruce Connelly replaced him.
Barkley was used in the show's closing credit sequence from 1980-1992, in which he and a group of children played in Central Park.
Also, in the Album "Hot Hot Hot Dance Songs", Barkley and Prarie Dawn sang a song called Do the Dog
Barkley remained a major recurring character on the show until the mid- to late-1990s, and rarely appears currently.
