, creator of
The Muppets, in 1989
Jim Henson created many
Muppet characters for the purpose of appearing on
Sesame Street. His involvement with the show began when he and one of the creators,
Joan Ganz Cooney, met in the summer of 1968 at one of the show's five three-day curriculum planning seminars in Boston. Author Christopher Finch reported that director
Jon Stone, who had worked with Henson previously, felt that if they could not bring him on board, they should "make do without puppets". Henson was initially reluctant, but he agreed to join
Sesame Street for social goals. He also agreed to waive his performance fee for full ownership of the
Sesame Street Muppets and to split any revenue they generated with the
Children's Television Workshop, the series' non-profit producer. The Muppets were a crucial part of the show's popularity and it brought Henson national attention. In early research, the Muppet segments of the show scored high, and more Muppets were added during the first few seasons. The Muppets were effective teaching tools because children easily recognized them, they were predictable, and they appealed to adults and older siblings. During the production of
Sesame Streets first season, producers created five one-hour episodes to test the show's appeal to children and examine their comprehension of the material. Not intended for broadcast, they were presented to preschoolers in 60 homes throughout Philadelphia and in daycare centers in New York City in July 1969. The results were "generally very positive"; children learned from the shows, their appeal was high, and children's attention was sustained over the full hour. However, the researchers found that although children's attention was high during the Muppet segments, their interest wavered during the "Street" segments, when no Muppets were on screen. This was because the producers had followed the advice of child psychologists who were concerned that children would be confused if human actors and Muppets were shown together. As a result of this decision, the appeal of the test episodes was lower than the target. The Street scenes were "the glue" that "pulled the show together", so producers knew that they needed to make significant changes. The producers decided to reject the advisers' advice and reshot the Street segments; Henson and his coworkers created Muppets that could interact with the human actors. These test episodes were directly responsible for what writer
Malcolm Gladwell called "the essence of
Sesame Street—the artful blend of fluffy monsters and earnest adults". Since 2001, the full rights for the
Sesame Street Muppets have been owned by Sesame Workshop, as the CTW was renamed in 2000.
Muppets Big Bird • Performed by
Caroll Spinney (1969–2018),
Matt Vogel (1997–present) One of the series' three main protagonists along with Elmo and Cookie Monster, and the first Muppet to appear on the show was
Big Bird, a curious 8-foot-2-inch tall yellow bird believed by writer Shalom M. Fisch and Dr. Lewis Bernstein to be a
canary, On special days, he wears a white collar and colorful
necktie. Big Bird's best friend is
Aloysius Snuffleupagus (better known as "Snuffy"), who was portrayed as the bird's
imaginary friend from the adults' perspectives until revealed to the human cast in 1985.
Oscar the Grouch • Performed by
Caroll Spinney (1969–2018),
Eric Jacobson (2015–present) Also living outside of the building is
Oscar the Grouch, a trash can-dwelling creature belonging to his own unique species, who is portrayed as a habitual pessimist and was designed to give children "permission to feel grouchy—and to demonstrate differing opinions". Oscar and Big Bird were specifically created for the reshooting of the "Street" scenes with the idea that they would be able to interact with the human characters. For his part, Oscar has several friends of his own despite his pessimism; these include the Grouch's pet worm, Slimey,
Bert and Ernie • Bert: Performed by
Frank Oz (1969–2006),
Eric Jacobson (1999–present) • Ernie: Performed by
Jim Henson (1969–1990),
Steve Whitmire (1993–2014), Billy Barkhurst (2014–2017),
Peter Linz (2017–present) Two other Muppets who have appeared on the show since its beginning are
Bert and Ernie, a pair of best friends with contrasting personalities;
Ernie is portrayed as a free-spirited trickster who loves his
rubber duck, while
Bert is the world-weary foil to his friend's naïve trouble-making, and shows himself to be obsessed with things like
pigeons and paper clips. The
debate on these characters'
sexuality is highly disputed, but as of September 2018, Bert and Ernie are confirmed to not have any sexuality, as do the other characters on this list.
Cookie Monster • Performed by
Frank Oz (1969–2004),
David Rudman (2001–present) Also appearing on the show are an unidentified species of furry characters referred to as "monsters". but ironically also likes enjoying healthy foods as well; he will eat anything and everything in sight, regardless of whether it's food or not. He often goes "Om nom nom nom nom!" whenever he is eating something, His signature song is
C is for Cookie, He also started in several recurring segments where he tried to not resist on eating a cookie that has the letter of the day on it, started in several cinematic styles trailer parodies of famous movies, and even ran a food truck with Gonger from the Furchester Hotel. He also is depicted to be a chef/baker due to his love of food (especially cookies)
Zoe • Performed by
Fran Brill (1993–2015),
Jennifer Barnhart (2016–present) Zoe is an orange 3-year-old female monster who is "simultaneously dainty and strong, practical and impulsive" and is Elmo's best friend. She has a pet rock named Rocco; and loves to dance ballet.
Rosita • Performed by
Carmen Osbahr (1991–present)
Rosita is a bilingual turquoise 5-year-old female monster who speaks both English and Spanish. and has a superhero alter-ego named "Super Grover", who is more well-meaning than helpful.
Count von Count (The Count) • Performed by
Jerry Nelson (1972–2012),
Matt Vogel (2013–present) In addition to Ernie and Bert, recognizable humanoid Muppets appearing on the show include
Count von Count, a friendly and harmless, but number-obsessed
vampire based on
Bela Lugosi's interpretation of
Count Dracula. The Count has been confirmed to be of an
Indian descent, explaining the love of numbers as his being directly related to
Aryabhata.
Prairie Dawn • Performed by
Fran Brill (1971–2015),
Stephanie D'Abruzzo (2016–present) Prairie Dawn is a methodic and driven young girl who loves to write and direct
pageants featuring her friends. ====
Elmo==== • Performed by
Kevin Clash (1984–2012),
Ryan Dillon (2013–present) One Muppet monster who became a household name and main icon in the show's recent history is
Elmo, a small, red monster with a
falsetto voice, representing the 3-year-old child, and usually referring to himself from a
third person perspective. Elmo became what his eventual performer,
Kevin Clash, considered a "phenomenon" after Clash took over the role in 1984, and his popularity ultimately grew to the point where he became what writer Michael Davis called "the embodiment" of
Sesame Street. Typically, he is portrayed as friendly and cheerful, he has a distinctive giggling laughter, and every so often he falls over backwards to amuse viewers, such as in the 2002 video,
Elmo Visits the Firehouse (except that Maria caught him on that occasion). In 1998, the Muppet got his own segment occupying the last 15 minutes of the show, "
Elmo's World", in which he explored child-centered topics from two worlds of
live action and
computer animation, which looked like "a child's squiggly crayon drawing come to life". "Elmo's World" continued until 2012, when it was alternated by another segment starring the character, "Elmo the Musical". Later, "Elmo's World" returned in 2017, with a new revamped version. Elmo is one of the main protagonists along with Abby Cadabby, Cookie Monster and Grover. He has two pets: a fish named Dorothy and his puppy Tango.
Abby Cadabby • Performed by
Leslie Carrara-Rudolph (2006–present) While the rights to Muppet characters from other productions were sold to
The Walt Disney Company in 2004, Sesame Workshop continued to fully own the
Sesame Street Muppets; as a result, Sesame Workshop was and is allowed to have new Muppets designed and built for the show. These have included
Abby Cadabby, a four-year-old pink
fairy-in-training, who was introduced in 2006 to increase the number of the show's female Muppets; Her stepbrother, Rudy, was introduced to the show in the summer of 2017.
Julia • Performed by
Stacey Gordon (2017–present) Julia is the first Muppet with
autism on the show, introduced in 2017, who was created to familiarize young children with the
autism spectrum. She is four years old.
Two-Headed Monster • Left Head: Performed by
Jerry Nelson (1978–2000),
Joey Mazzarino (2001–2016),
Eric Jacobson (2016–present) • Right Head: Performed by
Richard Hunt (1978–1992),
David Rudman (1998–present) Two-Headed Monster teaches cooperation while speaking in baby-like gibberish but with heavy accents.
Others In addition to these regular characters, others that occasionally appear are: the Twiddlebugs, a family of cute and innovative insects; game show host
Guy Smiley; construction workers Biff and Sully; Herry Monster, a burly blue monster who does not know his own strength; Forgetful Jones, a "simpleton cowboy" and even
Kermit the Frog, the flagship character of
The Muppets.
The Three Bears from the story of
Goldilocks appear in Muppet form on
Sesame Street.
Telly Monster, a violet-red worrywart who overthinks everything, was described by writer David Borgenicht as "neurotic", and was originally portrayed as a
television addict; Murray Monster, a dark orange monster with an energetic, outgoing personality and a sense of quick wit, who hosts a segment at the beginning of each episode called "Word on the Street".
Humans The original human cast, chosen by Stone, consisted of four characters. The first character to be introduced to the show was Gordon
Robinson, a "well-liked and respected" African-American ultimately portrayed as a science teacher; he was played by Garrett Saunders on the test pilots, by
Matt Robinson in the early years of the actual series, The other three original human characters were Gordon's wife Susan, played by
Loretta Long; portrayed by
Will Lee until his death in 1982; and
Bob Johnson, a music teacher played by
Bob McGrath. Unlike what was done for most children's television series at the time, the producers of
Sesame Street decided against using a single host and cast a group of ethnically diverse actors, with, as
Sesame Street researcher
Gerald S. Lesser put it, "a variety of distinctive and reliable personalities". Stone did not audition actors until the spring of 1969, a few weeks before the show's five test pilots were due to be filmed. Stone videotaped the auditions, and researcher Ed Palmer took them out into the field to test children's reactions. The actors who received the "most enthusiastic thumbs up" were cast. For example, when the children saw Long's audition, they stood up and sang along with her rendition of "
I'm a Little Teapot". As Stone said, casting was the only aspect of the show that was "just completely haphazard". Most of
Sesame Streets cast and crew found their jobs through personal relationships with Stone and the other producers. Bob's former girlfriend was
Linda (
Linda Bove), a librarian who communicated using
American Sign Language, and who became the longest-running deaf character in television history. In 1985, Gordon and Susan adopted a shy child, Miles, who was later age-progressed into a fun-loving teenager who formed his own band. Luis marries Maria (
Sonia Manzano) in 1988, and their daughter, Gabi, was born the following year. When Lee died (and Mr. Hooper with him),
Sesame Street dealt with his death in what Davis called a "landmark broadcast" Gina Jefferson (played by Alison Bartlett O'Reilly) started on the show as a teenager working at Hooper's Store, later ran a day care center, and eventually became a veterinarian. The most recently introduced human characters on
Sesame Street include Chris (
Chris Knowings), Gordon and Susan's nephew, who works part-time at Hooper's Store; Indian-American laundromat owner Leela (
Nitya Vidyasagar); and Armando (
Ismael Cruz Córdova), an energetic Latino writer and "techie [who] loves his gadgets". Mr. Noodle, a major character in the "Elmo's World" segment, was played by
Broadway actor
Bill Irwin, who had previously worked with Arlene Sherman (one of the show's executive producers) in short films for
Sesame Street. When he became unavailable, Sherman asked her friend
Michael Jeter to replace Irwin as Mr. Noodle's brother Mr. Noodle. Jeter was in the role beginning in 2000, until his death in 2003.
Kristin Chenoweth played Mr. Noodle's sister Ms. Noodle,
Animated characters In addition to its "variety of distinctive and reliable personalities", In 2008, Bert and Ernie got their own
Claymation segment called "Bert and Ernie's Great Adventure", in which they explore the world, going on "active adventures in exotic locations", according to
Sesame Street executive producer
Carol-Lynn Parente. The following year, Abby Cadabby got her own computer-animated segment, "Abby's Flying Fairy School", where she takes fairy training classes from her teacher Mrs. Sparklenose, along with her classmates Gonnigan and Blögg. Additionally, several
DC Comics characters were licensed for use in animated segments on the show during its first season, including
Batman and
Superman. Animated characters rarely if ever interact with the human and Muppet characters, with the exception of Smarty. Smarty debuted in 2017 season 47 of ''
Elmo's World''. Smarty is a sentient
smartphone who can look things up in order to learn about them, and gives that information to Elmo and the audience. ==References==