Surprising that he stuck it out for this long. Well, rest in peace.
On a related note, anyone remember Pryor's Place? Kind of a Krofft attempt at Sesame Street, with puppets and about a half dozen characters, all played by Richard Pryor. (Yes, THAT Richard Pryor. Hey, George Carlin hosted the US version of Thomas the Tank Engine!)
The show was a little more, um, challenging than Sesame Street, with one kid being caught in the middle of a divorce. Instead of choosing to live with his mother or father, he asked to be raised by his grandmother. As a child of divorced parents myself, my reaction was "Uh, what? The kid doesn't get to CHOOSE his family arrangement in this situation. The court doesn't let him make ANY decisions. I can believe that half the cast all bear a striking resemblance to Richard Pryor and that these rotty-looking puppets are alive, but what you're showing now is straight up fantasy."