We still don’t really seem to consider certain TV worth saving. Even quality educational programming. Lynne Thigpen isn’t the first person in my mind for reasons to do with PBS shows of my youth, and she isn’t the first I’ve had trouble finding an image of. I had to go with a publicity still for James Earl Jones on Square One TV—and when I went to show my son the program itself, all I could find was old, blurry uploads on YouTube. I realize Lynne Thigpen had a long, distinguished career of not playing the Chief, but her work there was good enough so that it should be easier to find a good still.

Like Victor Garber, Thigpen made her screen debut in Godspell. She wasn’t even playing a Biblical figure; she’s credited as Lynne. So she’s playing herself in the deserted Manhattan with Jesus that is that movie. (Have I mentioned that I really don’t like that movie?) Still, she and Garber are the two who had successful enough careers after that to have pictures on their IMDb pages, along with Jerry Sroka, who I’ve never heard of.

And what a career it was. Maybe she was never the biggest star, but she did quiet, consistent, quality work for decades. She was a talent. I’m not going to say everything she was in was good, but she did good work in it. She was a talented actress, and she left such a legacy that an elementary school in her hometown of Joliet, Illinois, was named after her.

Now, while I am the right age for Carmen Sandiego, I am the wrong age for Bear in the Big Blue House. So I have no real feelings about that show. However, her death apparently meant so much to everyone involved in it that the show basically ceased to exist. A planned movie didn’t happen because they didn’t want it to happen without Thigpen. That implies to me that she was also a good person that people wanted to be around. I’ve always said that’s good to know about people whose work you admire.

My seven-year-old is old enough that I should really introduce him to Thigpen’s work. At least the work she did for PBS—she also did two episodes of Sesame Street, for a plot where Slimey was going to the Moon because Sesame Street can be like that. I’ll just have to poke around and see what can be found, for preference not in muddy, grainy YouTube videos. Though goodness knows he watches enough of those on his own.

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