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Cynthetiq · 12-04-2006, 07:07 AM

well looks like there will be a switch like Lionel Jefferson (The Jeffersons), Darren Stevens (Bewitched), Steve (Blues Clues) before Yellow Wiggle...

Quote:

December 4, 2006
Hush, Mama, Don’t You Cry, a New Yellow Wiggle Will Sing
By JACQUES STEINBERG
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The millions of families with preschool-age children around the world who have bought CDs and DVDs featuring the Wiggles, the Australian foursome known as much for their cheery color-coded jerseys as their catchy tunes, have long treated the band with an ardor reminiscent of the screams that greeted the British pop invasion.

So when Greg Page, 34, the band’s lead singer since its inception 15 years ago, announced on Thursday that he was resigning after being diagnosed with a serious illness that leaves him frequently lightheaded and unable to dance and leap to the group’s most energetic hits, it was the equivalent of John Lennon or Paul McCartney quitting the Beatles. That comparison is not so far-fetched considering Mr. Page’s high visibility within the band, which estimates it has sold more than 15 million DVDs and CDs in the United States alone in less than a decade, and in light of his role as singer and co-writer of most of its repertory of original rock and pop compositions.

And yet, there have already been signs that however much Mr. Page may have meant to the group, the transfer of his trademark yellow jersey to a new yellow Wiggle — a longtime backup singer and dancer for the band named Sam Moran — was not particularly traumatic for the Wiggles’ core audience (children 2 to 5).

The effect on parents is another matter: Mothers attending their concerts have been known to tell interviewers that they regard the nearly 6-foot-5 Mr. Page, among other bandmates, as a matinee idol, and in Australia — where the group is currently on tour — there is now a grass-roots “Wear Yellow to the Wiggles” campaign being organized “to say a proper goodbye to Greg.”

Among the dozens of mothers who have been pouring their hearts out on message boards on the band’s Web site (thewiggles.com) in recent days was one American woman — she lists her hometown as “Greg Rocks!, U.S.A.” — who described how Mr. Page’s singing soothed her during a recent divorce, and went on to say, “I am extremely sad that future live Wiggling experiences won’t mean seeing Greg.” She added, “It will never be the same.”

The band’s young fans may well prove more adaptive, if only because they probably associate Mr. Page as much with his shirt color as his face. Four years ago, another cadre of preschoolers watched Steve, the character who had long been host of Nickelodeon’s “Blues Clues” series, pass the baton to another actor, playing Steve’s brother Joe, with no apparent disruption. And, in its 37-year history, “Sesame Street” has lost several main characters, including Will Lee, the actor who played the shopkeeper Mr. Hooper. Mr. Lee died in 1982, and his passing, both in real life and later in its depiction on the show, became a television touchstone.

Nonetheless, in a ritual repeated in numerous kitchens and playrooms around the world, Wendy Haller, 33, a preschool teacher from Longmeadow, Mass., said she sat her son, Matthew, 3½, down on Thursday morning and — as the band’s TV show played on the Disney Channel — told him: “Greg is not going to be a Wiggle any more. He is going home to be with his family.”

Ms. Haller then logged on to the band’s Web site to show Matthew a video clip that Mr. Page had prepared. In it, he explains that his illness (orthostatic intolerance) often makes him feel unbalanced and faint while standing because of a loss of blood pressure. While chronic, it is not thought to be life-threatening.

In the clip’s most emotional moment, Mr. Page, uncharacteristically clad in a black dress shirt, then presents his successor with the bright yellow jersey — or skivvy, as it is known in Australia — that has forever been his Wiggle uniform, whether on television or in more than 200 live performances a year in Australia, New Zealand, Britain and the United States.

After several viewings, Ms. Haller said her son assured her, in so many words, that he was at peace with the news: “He said: ‘Sam is a new Wiggle. Greg is not going to be a Wiggle anymore.’ And he was fine with it.”

Much is riding on whether families are willing to embrace Mr. Page’s handoff to Mr. Moran, 28, whose original training was as an opera singer. In addition to all those CDs and DVDs with titles like “Yummy Yummy” and “Wiggly Safari,” there are Wiggle toys, books and games inspired by the band and its supporting cast of characters, which include a dinosaur named Dorothy and a dog named Wags. The members of the band, who collectively earned nearly $40 million last year, were the highest-paid entertainers in their native Australia the last two years, according to BRW, an Australian business magazine.

As it turns out, the three remaining Wiggles — Anthony Field (blue), 43; Murray Cook (red), 46; and Jeff Fatt (purple) 53, each an original member — said they had initially struggled over whether to go on permanently without Mr. Page, who only recently received a definitive diagnosis after mysterious, intermittent fainting spells (some backstage) forced him to miss 150 live performances over the last two years. On those occasions, Mr. Moran had stepped in as understudy to Mr. Page, whose last live appearance was at a concert in August in Providence, R.I., after which he collapsed.

In a telephone interview from Sydney early Saturday morning, Mr. Field, his voice breaking, described how, after the farewell video was shown in Mr. Page’s absence at a hastily arranged press conference on Thursday, the reality of the situation had finally sunk in.

“We kept thinking he was going to come back,” said Mr. Field, who returned to Australia late last month after the Wiggles performed to sold-out arenas in two dozen American cities, including several nights at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, all without Mr. Page.

“We thought he was going to get back in the big red car, ‘Toot Toot, Chugga, Chugga,’ ” Mr. Field added, evoking the band’s signature anthem, which they often sing while riding onstage in, naturally, a customized red convertible. “It didn’t happen.”

Mr. Page, through the group’s publicists, has declined all interview requests.

Mr. Field and Mr. Cook said that they and Mr. Fatt ultimately decided to go on because they thought that was what their young audience would want; neither performer mentioned money as a factor. They said they had drawn sustenance from the positive reaction to Mr. Moran — who got visible thumbs-up signals from the crowd after a performance in Perth on Thursday, hours after the press conference.

And was there ever any talk of retiring that yellow skivvy and giving Mr. Moran a new color?

“It did cross our mind,” Mr. Field said. But in the end, the band decided, “the Wiggle colors are those colors.”