Stepping into entertainment, he made his debut in 1962 as a singer with Mitch Miller’s PG-rated ensemble. Miller had a hit TV series and string of records under the “Sing Along With Mitch” banner that featured wholesome singers delivering pop standards. McGrath also appeared with Miller’s ensemble for a residency at Las Vegas’ Desert Inn during the summer of 1964. At a time when Beatlemania was sweeping the nation, McGrath was delivering “Danny Boy” and “On the Street Where You Live” in a Vegas showroom.
By the mid-1960s, McGrath was actively pursuing his solo recording career as well as acting. In 1966 he signed with Columbia Records’ Japanese label, Nippon Columbia. For a time McGrath performed regularly in Japan.
In 1969, McGrath stepped into his signature role on “Sesame Street.” The pathbreaking children’s program, championed by media pioneer Joan Ganz Cooney, was a pop culture force from its debut on the then-fledging PBS network in November 1969.
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The series marked the medium’s most significant effort to use television as a vehicle with national scale for reaching small children with educational content. McGrath was part of an ensemble of actors who shared the “Sesame Street” screen with the distinctive Muppet characters created by Jim Henson, another media visionary, that included Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster and Grover.
McGrath was indelibly associated with “Sesame Street” for the rest of his career. But he never expressed public frustration with typecasting. In addition to the weekly TV series, McGrath appeared in numerous “Sesame Street”-related productions such as 1996’s “Sesame Street: Elmo Saves Christmas,” the 1985 theatrical release “Follow That Bird” and 1978’s “A Special Sesame Street Christmas.” He also made numerous appearances on behalf of the show in the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and “The Mike Douglas Show,” among other specials.
“Not only is it a great job working with great people, but knowing the impact that ‘Sesame Street’ has had on millions of kids all over the world has to be the most gratifying thing that anyone could possibly hope for. Having the opportunity of doing this has been phenomenal,” McGrath told the Television Academy’s Archive of American Television in 2004.
