 Matt Robinson was, however, the voice of Roosevelt Franklin, a purple Muppet meant to represent an African American boy.While the skits with the character musically provided reading and writing concepts, critics found his jive-talking to be a cultural stereotype, and the producers of the series removed him.Roscoe Orman provided the voice of one of Roosevelt's classmates, Hardhat Henry Harris, before joining the series as the third actor to play Gordon.