Grover sings "What Do I Do When I'm Alone?"
An early version of Grover.
"Faaaaaar!"
Grover's alter-ego, Super Grover.
Marshal Grover with Fred the Wonder Horse.
An old Grover puppet, which was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 2013.
Grover is a Sesame Street character who describes himself as a "cute, furry little monster". Grover rarely uses contractions when speaking, giving him a distinctive vocal pattern, in comparison to many other television characters. His character is multi-talented, taking on many different roles and professions throughout the series' run. He loves to help people, but is very bad at it.
Grover appears in several recurring Sesame Street segments, including Waiter Grover; Super Grover; and Global Grover. He also frequently appears in Monsterpiece Theater and the Spanish Word of the Day segments. He was one of the hosts of Play with Me Sesame, with his main roles being in interactive music sequences, as the self-proclaimed "moving and grooving monster".
Grover's 1971 storybook The Monster at the End of This Book was a best-seller for the Little Golden Books series, and remains a popular children's book today. Several sequels to the title have followed, and Grover has since been featured in dozens of books.
Origins[]
The character who would eventually become Grover was first seen on The Ed Sullivan Show in a Christmas Eve appearance in 1967. He appeared as Gleep, one of the monsters who plot to steal toys from Santa's workshop. He made early cameos in The Muppets On Puppets (1968) with the Rock and Roll Monster, and in Muppet Puppet Plays (1969). He also appeared in the Sesame Street Pitch Reel in the boardroom sequences, clad in a necktie.
During the first season of Sesame Street, this darker-furred monster made several appearances, like many of the puppets recycled from earlier productions. In Episode 0125, the character was named Grover. A 1970 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show marked the first use of Grover's current design with blue fur and a pink nose. By Season 2 of Sesame Street, Grover's voice and personality began to change to what we know today. The green-furred puppet would be used again as Grover's mother in a sketch in which Grover is afraid of the dark, and has trouble sleeping.
See also Proto-Grover.