Sesame Seeds (Episode 7): Grover

 

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Sesame Seeds, the series where we look at the progression of a Sesame Street character from humble beginnings to the present day.

The next character up to the plate, and the one with the second most votes is Grover.

Grover, as he has told us many times before, is our cute, adorable, furry, lovable old pal, but how did he get this title? Well stay near, cause the answers aren’t far.

Grover, much like Cookie Monster, goes back to before Sesame Street’s creation. He was one of Jim Henson’s many monsters for the various productions he got to play a part in. He first appeared on a skit on the Ed Sullivan show, where he was a green monster named Gleep who was trying to steal presents from Santa’s workshop with two other monsters.

After that, the green monster would continue to make appearances in other muppet productions, and even made a cameo in the Sesame Street pitch reel.

Then when Sesame Street aired its first season, he was one of the many background monsters used for various sketches, but eventually, like his blue, googly eyed companion, he would gain the building blocks for what he would become.

Starting with episode 125, puppeteered by Frank Oz, he gained the name Grover, and the personality of an over-excited helper and friend for Kermit the Frog, who wasn’t above slapping him on the back every time he’d see him.

And then in 1970, the two would make a new appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

As you can see, Grover had gotten a redesign, with his signature cobalt fur, pink nose, and red bottom lip. And that’s the Grover we would come to know and love, starting with season 2.

Grover now had a higher voice and a distinct way of speaking, that way being that he hardly ever used contractions. But he was still easily excitable and still always willing to help, just like in the first season.

He would still be paired with Kermit very frequently, but he’d also interact with the other main muppets and human cast, and his energetic and spontaneous nature really clicked with the viewers, which would help him grow in popularity.

But Grover wouldn’t just help with lectures, he would also prove his versatility, by working at multiple jobs. The most popular and recurring job being him working as a waiter for Charlie’s Restaurant, where he would try and fail to get orders for a fat blue anything muppet named Mr. Johnson.

But then in 1971, The Monster At The End Of This Book was published.

Written by Jon Stone and illustrated by Michael Smollin, this book was basically Grover’s Tickle Me Elmo moment. It sold two million copies within its first year of publication and boosted Grover’s popularity by an enormous amount.

From there, Grover would go on to not only cement himself as part of the main cast, but one of the most iconic.

He would explain concepts like near and far.

He would have fun interactions with celebrities like Lena Horne, Stevie Wonder and Madeline Kahn.

He would sing some of the greatest songs from the Sesame catalog, like these ones right here.

And starting with season 5, he would develop a new alter ego, known as Super Grover.

A clear-cut parody of Superman. Super Grover sketches revolved around Super Grover attempting to help someone in need, but failing miserably, leaving that someone to solve their problem themselves. With that simple premise and hilarious results, Super Grover was an instant hit.

Like Cookie Monster and E&B, Grover was mostly present for sketches, but would make appearances on the street as well. He helped Kermit interview kids on how Santa gets down chimneys in Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, he would befriend a suit of armor in Don’t Eat the Pictures, and used his Super Grover powers to help find Big Bird in Follow That Bird.

Then the 90s came along, and as Frank Oz got less involved with the show, so did Grover. Though, he would be the character Oz would perform the most in his limited time on the show. In specials, sketches and home videos.

But then, a year after taking over for Bert, Eric Jacobson would become Grover’s other puppeteer in 1998. From there, Grover’s appearances would gradually start to increase.

In 2003, Grover would become one of four hosts for Sesame Street’s spinoff series Play With Me Sesame, along with Ernie, Bert and Prairie Dawn.

But he would also start to make more appearances in not just segments, but street scenes as well. Then, in season 34, he gained his own segment entitled Global Grover. Where he would tell us about different countries he visited and fun things about them.

As the show continued through the 2000s and later the 2010s, Grover was back to being one of the most popular characters, being the second character Elmo would often be paired up with, the first one being Abby.

Then, in season 41, his Super Grover persona got an unnecessary, but still pretty cool upgrade to Super Grover 2.O, with a new segment to boot.

This segment itself was more or less the same as the original SG segments, but with a greater focus put on using your brain and the things around you to solve problems.

Also in 2010, Grover traveled to Israeli to be a part of the new version of Shalom Sesame, alongside Chelsea from That’s So Raven.

When the show transferred to the Home Box Office channel, Grover was one of the few characters that was given a greater focus put upon them. To add to that, he and Cookie Monster seemed to have new positions as comic relief.

And from there, Grover hasn’t really gone through any other significant changes. Well, except for the time people thought he said the f word. (Spoiler alert: He didn’t) And he did get an adaptation of his original storybook, available on HBO Max.

Grover was another one of those characters who I knew existed, but wasn’t crazy about, but now that I’m older, I can appreciate him and the humor he exhibits. Frank Oz has stated a few times that unlike Bert and Cookie Monster, Grover kind of just appeared. And this isn’t just true for his creation, but for his personality and role on the show. Whenever something needs doing, Grover is usually the first one to tackle it head on, i.e. all of the jobs he has.

There’s also his dedication. It doesn’t matter what the situation or concept is, Grover will do everything he can to help, even if he doesn’t know what he’s doing, which almost all of the time.

But above all else, Grover, like Elmo, has an infectious sense of joy and friendly nature that can get to anyone and everyone. Grover has taught us about the joys of helping people, listening to others and above all else, never giving up. And for that, I’ll always appreciate him and be glad that he’s still showing up.

Well, that concludes another episode. So now, I just have one thing left to say: GOODBYE EVERYBODYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!