Grover

Grover is a blue Muppet character on the popular PBS/HBO children's television show Sesame Street. Self-described as lovable, cute, and furry, he is a blue monster who rarely uses contractions when he speaks or sings. Grover was originally performed by Frank Oz from his earliest appearances. Eric Jacobson has performed the character regularly from the year 1998 onwards. Origins A prototype version of Grover appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on Christmas Eve in 1967. This puppet had greenish-brown fur and a red nose. He also had a raspier voice – somewhat like Cookie Monster's – and was played a bit more unkempt than Grover would later behave. The monster was referred to as "Gleep", a monster in Santa's workshop. He later made a cameo appearance in The Muppets on Puppets in 1968 with the Rock and Roll Monster. In 1969, clad in a necktie, he appeared in the Sesame Street Pitch Reel in the board-room sequences. During the first season of Sesame Street, the character was nicknamed "Fuzzyface" or "The Hairy One," though neither would be used for his actual name. The muppet was not yet the "cute" character he would become, and he was not all that different in personality from the other monsters with whom he interacted. In his book The Tipping Point, author Malcolm Gladwell notes that the character "was used in promotional films for IBM". The puppet first received the name "Grover" on May 1, 1970. In an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on May 31, 1970, the character acquired his present appearance with blue fur and a pink nose. In this appearance, Kermit the Frog tried to sing "What Kind of Fool Am I?" (accompanying himself on piano), but Grover repeatedly interrupted him. The true Grover "officially" debuted in the second season of Sesame Street.