Mr. Hooper plays Pac-Man ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

Did you know that Mr. Hooper - the friendly store owner on 'Sesame Street' - was a big Pac-Man junkie?

Mr. Looper was played by the late Will Lee. In the '50s, Lee was blacklisted for alleged communist ties. But after Children's Television Workshop hired him and began Sessifying the airwaves all up, Lee began landing parts in TV commercials like there was no tomorrow.

He even appeared in this commersh in the early '80s for the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man:



(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juH2qHYX9aI)

Since I assume Atari no longer makes anything related to Pac-Man, I feel I can maintain my integrity by embedding that ad here.

Many folks today lament what a disappointment the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man was. I had the Atari 800 version, but I believe it was much different from the 2600 version, as it looked different from that which appears in Mr. Hooper's ad.

In fact, when the little girl says, "Those are supposed to be the ghosts," it's fitting because they don't look anything like the ghosts in the 800 or arcade version.

I think this came out just before Atari squandered zillions promoting a video game based on 'E.T.' that was such a disaster that nobody purchased it - forcing Atari to bury all the unsold copies.

The 'E.T.' debacle was widely blamed for a decline in interest in video games lasting for years.