98 Fun Facts About Sesame Street

In what year did the television show Sesame Street first premiere?

1969's debut reached only about two-thirds of American TV homes yet drew 1.9 million households; the Muppets were added late, after test screenings found kids tuned out during the all-human street scenes.

Which television producer and psychologist dreamed up Sesame Street after a 1966 dinner party?

Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett hatched the show at her 1966 dinner party, after he described his three-year-old daughter staring at the TV test pattern while she waited for cartoons.

What does Oscar the Grouch call home on Sesame Street?

A trash can: Oscar's can is far bigger inside than out, and he says it holds a swimming pool, an ice rink and his pet elephant, Fluffy.

What does Big Bird regularly order at the lunch counter of Hooper's Store?

A birdseed milkshake is Big Bird's regular order at Hooper's, though he rarely got the owner's name right, calling Mr. Hooper 'Mr. Looper' and other rhyming variants.

What kind of animal is Oscar the Grouch's pet, Slimey?

A worm: Slimey is Oscar's closest companion, and Germany's Sesamstrasse later gave its own Grouch, Rumpel, a pet caterpillar named Gustav who was modelled on him.

Which geometric shape is Telly Monster's absolute favorite?

Triangle is Telly's favorite shape; the street's great worrier began in 1979 as a television-obsessed monster with whirling eyes, hence his name.

In his best-known Sesame Street sketches, Kermit the Frog interviews fairy-tale characters while working as what?

A news reporter: from 1972 Kermit's roving 'News Flash' bulletins dropped in on fairy tales and nursery rhymes, which tended to go wrong around him.

What is the name of Oscar the Grouch's girlfriend?

Grundgetta and Oscar love each other, though the relationship is somewhat rocky, as you would expect when both halves are Grouches.

Which human character appeared in Sesame Street's very first episode in 1969?

Gordon was there from the first episode, in which he shows a girl named Sally around the street; three actors have played him on air, Roscoe Orman for more than 40 years.

Which puppeteer performed Big Bird from Sesame Street's 1969 debut until retiring in 2018?

Caroll Spinney wore the feathers for almost 50 years; in the 1980s NASA even discussed flying him, in costume, aboard the shuttle Challenger, before the plan was dropped.

Big Bird's teddy bear shares its name with which M*A*S*H character?

Radar lives in Big Bird's nest; the name is said to be his performer's tribute to M*A*S*H's Corporal 'Radar' O'Reilly, who slept with a teddy bear of his own.

In 2000, Big Bird was named a Living Legend by which institution?

The Library of Congress named Big Bird a Living Legend in 2000 as part of its bicentennial celebration, honoring Americans who made creative contributions to the nation's life.

How old does Elmo describe himself as being?

Three and a half is Elmo's permanent age, yet in 2002 he put on a suit and tie to testify before a US House subcommittee, urging more money for music education.

Which pet rock belonging to Zoe regularly drives Elmo to exasperation on Sesame Street?

Rocco is the rock Zoe treats as a living friend; a 2004 clip of Elmo fuming that he is 'just a rock' became an internet meme in 2022.

Which Sesame Street Muppet began as the Wheel-Stealer in unaired 1966 commercials?

Cookie Monster grew out of the Wheel-Stealer, who swiped wheel-shaped snacks in General Foods ads that never aired; in a later IBM training film the same puppet devoured a talking coffee machine.

What is the title of the blue biscuit-loving monster's signature song, first aired in the 1971-72 season?

'C Is for Cookie', by Joe Raposo, has its singer reason that a bitten doughnut and the Moon look like a C too, though neither will do.

Where did Big Bird's original puppeteer find inspiration for Oscar the Grouch's voice?

A New York taxi driver snapped 'Where to, Mac?' when the puppeteer climbed into his cab on the way to the studio, and that growl became Oscar's voice.

Oscar the Grouch took his name from which New York seafood restaurant, where Jim Henson relished the rude service?

Oscar's Salt of the Sea was a Manhattan lunch haunt of Jim Henson and Jon Stone; accounts differ on whether its gruff owner or a rude waiter was the model, but the pair kept going back for more.

Which of these is one of Bert's famously dull passions on Sesame Street?

Paper clips sit beside bottle caps, pigeons and oatmeal among Bert's passions; his long-time performer Frank Oz cheerfully called him 'a very boring facet of myself'.

Bert and Ernie share their names with two minor characters from which classic film?

It's a Wonderful Life has a policeman named Bert and his friend Ernie; Sesame Street's writers call the match a coincidence, and the pair walk past the film on a TV in Elmo Saves Christmas.

In Elmo's World, which silent, bumbling character mimes answers to Elmo's questions and usually gets them wrong?

Mr. Noodle, first played by the Broadway actor Bill Irwin, never speaks: the Noodles were kept silent so that Elmo does the talking and children at home can call out the answers.

In a 1971 Little Golden Book, which Muppet begs readers to stop turning pages, dreading the monster at the end?

Grover pleads, ties the pages shut and even bricks them up to stop the reader, only to find that the monster at the end of the book is himself.

What happens whenever Count von Count finishes counting a set of items?

Thunder and lightning roll even indoors, because the Count has his own personal storm cloud hovering overhead; a 1978 bedtime story is titled 'Who Stole the Count's Thunder?'

The Count's castle is home to many bats, a cat named Fatatita, and a wolf named what?

Establishing shots in the 1970s used Central Park's Belvedere Castle, and visitors always remark on the squeaky door.

Which Sesame Street character did the adults finally see in 1985, after years of thinking him imaginary?

Mr. Snuffleupagus was revealed so children would feel believed: amid high-profile stories of child abuse, the writers feared that adults doubting Big Bird taught viewers that grown-ups would not believe them either.

What is Mr. Snuffleupagus's first name?

Aloysius Snuffleupagus is his full name, though friends say Snuffy; a 1992 episode in which his parents divorce was taped but never aired, after it upset and confused its child test audiences.

The landmark episode in which Big Bird learns that Mr. Hooper has died aired on which holiday in 1983?

It aired on Thanksgiving Day, 24 November 1983, chosen so parents would be home to watch with their children; child-development experts helped the writers address the death honestly rather than recast the role.

Which actor played Mr. Hooper from Sesame Street's premiere until his death in 1982?

Will Lee had been blacklisted from mainstream roles after refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee; his Mr. Hooper was named Harold.

A Sesame Street co-creator was a vice president of which foundation, which paid for the show's first feasibility study?

Carnegie money paid for the study, and the Carnegie Corporation then joined the Ford Foundation and the federal government in the $8 million of grants that launched the show.

What was the nonprofit that makes Sesame Street called until June 2000?

Children's Television Workshop was its name from 1968 until June 2000, when it rebranded because, it said, the media world children live in had become so much more than television.

In January 2016, first-run episodes of Sesame Street moved from PBS to which premium channel?

HBO took first-run episodes in January 2016 under a five-year deal, with PBS airing them nine months later; the show later moved to HBO Max and then, in 2025, to Netflix.

What was the title of the 1985 Sesame Street feature film?

Follow That Bird (1985) sends Big Bird to live with a family of dodos in Illinois before he flees home; the second feature, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, followed in 1999.

The first Kermit puppet was made from two ping-pong ball halves and what else?

A coat of Henson's mother's, cut up in 1955, became the first Kermit, who was then a vague lizard-like creature; he was not established as a frog until the late 1960s.

Which song did Kermit first perform on Sesame Street in 1970?

'Bein' Green', written by Joe Raposo, was first sung by Kermit on Sesame Street in 1970 and later covered by Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles; 'Rainbow Connection' came later, for The Muppet Movie in 1979.

Which Sesame Street song reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970?

'Rubber Duckie', Jeff Moss's bath-time ode sung by Jim Henson as Ernie, peaked in September 1970 and earned a Grammy nomination, only to lose to a Sesame Street album that included it.

What kind of pet is Dorothy in the segment Elmo's World?

A goldfish: Dorothy is played by real fish, several each season, and never speaks, so Elmo does the talking and children can answer back.

What is the address of the brownstone at the heart of Sesame Street?

123 Sesame Street houses Bert and Ernie's basement flat; an early idea for the show's title was 123 Avenue B, dropped for sounding too much like a New York City address.

Which Muppet joined Sesame Street in 2006 to give the show a new lead female character?

Abby Cadabby, a fairy-in-training whose name plays on 'abracadabra', arrived in August 2006; the magic that amazes her is ordinary counting and letters, which she calls 'so magic'.

Julia, who joined the TV series in April 2017, is the first Muppet with what diagnosis?

Autism: Julia began in a 2015 online initiative, 'See Amazing in All Children', before joining the TV cast in April 2017; her puppeteer drew on raising her own autistic son.

Rosita, Sesame Street's bilingual turquoise monster, is of what heritage?

Rosita is Mexican, a turquoise monster from Mexico introduced in 1991 and performed by Carmen Osbahr; originally designed as a fruit bat, she lost her wings in 2004 and regained them in 2021.

What colour was Oscar the Grouch during Sesame Street's first season?

Orange in season one, Oscar turned green the next season; the show's own story is that a visit to Swamp Mushy Muddy did it.

How does the performer inside Big Bird work the bird's head?

One raised arm: the right hand, held straight up, works the head and neck of the 8-foot-2 bird, the left arm fills one wing, and a small monitor inside the suit shows the puppeteer the scene.

Which Sesame Street regular, played by a deaf actress for three decades, introduced viewers to sign language?

Linda was played by Linda Bove, who is deaf like her character; the street's librarian mirrors Bove's own degree in library science, earned at Gallaudet.

Sesame Place, the theme park that opened in 1980, is in which US state?

Pennsylvania: Sesame Place opened in Langhorne, outside Philadelphia, in July 1980, and added 'Philadelphia' to its name after a second park opened in San Diego in 2022.

Kami, the first HIV-positive Muppet, was created for a co-production in which country?

South Africa: Takalani Sesame introduced Kami in 2002 to fight AIDS stigma; UNICEF later named her a Champion for Children, while her creation drew objections from some US lawmakers.

What are the Sesame Street aliens that chant 'yip yip yip' at telephones and clocks officially called?

The Martians, also known as the Yip Yips, try talking to a telephone in animal noises and mistake a clock for a human.

Which puppeteer made Elmo a star in the mid-1980s after a frustrated colleague tossed him the puppet?

Kevin Clash caught the puppet when Richard Hunt, who disliked the part, threw it to him and asked what he could do with it; Clash's answer was a kind, loving little monster.

How does Elmo characteristically refer to himself?

In the third person: Elmo says 'Elmo' rather than 'I', a habit the show's makers defend as mimicking the way many real preschoolers talk.

Which act took 'Sing', a song written for Sesame Street, to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973?

The Carpenters turned the children's tune into their seventh gold single. It also reached No. 1 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart.

Which puppeteer originated Bert, Grover and Cookie Monster and later performed Yoda in Star Wars?

Frank Oz also gave The Muppet Show its Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear. His Sesame Street trio later passed to Eric Jacobson and David Rudman.

Count von Count of Sesame Street borrows his accent from which actor's screen Dracula?

Bela Lugosi's Count Dracula gave the puppet his exaggerated European accent. In his early years he even swept on screen holding his cape over his face.

Which state's TV commission voted in 1970 not to air Sesame Street because of its integrated cast?

Mississippi reversed the vote 22 days later, once it had made national news. A commission member had said the state was "not yet ready" for the show.

Which Tony-winning musical, with puppet roommates Rod and Nicky, is a grown-up parody of Sesame Street?

Avenue Q drew on the real thing: all four of its original principal puppeteers were Sesame Street performers, and one of its creators had interned on the show.

Unlike the other Sesame Street Muppets, Kermit the Frog has belonged to which company since 2004?

Disney acquired Kermit in 2004, while Sesame Workshop owns the characters that were created for Sesame Street.

Margaret Hamilton alarmed parents in 1976 by reprising her villain from which film on Sesame Street?

The Wizard of Oz's Wicked Witch appeared alongside Oscar the Grouch, and producers were flooded with letters from parents who found the episode too frightening.

Which actor filmed test shorts for Sesame Street before its launch and is often cited as its first celebrity guest?

James Earl Jones made the biggest impression on test audiences by slowly counting to ten, though a Carol Burnett segment was actually the first to air.

Which toy company made Tickle Me Elmo, the giggling plush behind the 1996 Christmas shopping frenzy?

Tyco priced the doll at $28.99, but scalpers were reselling it for as much as $1,500 by the end of that year.

In which New York City borough has Sesame Street been taped since 1993, at Kaufman Astoria Studios?

Queens took over from Manhattan, where the show had been taped for its first twenty-four years, once the producers decided they needed more space.

Which pop star's 2010 duet with Elmo was pulled from Sesame Street over complaints about her outfit?

Katy Perry had filmed a reworked 'Hot n Cold' with Elmo to teach children about opposites. The clip had already gone up on YouTube, which is where the fuss began.

Which singer rewrote her hit '1234' as a Sesame Street song counting monsters, chickens and penguins?

Feist counted only as high as four in her rewrite, with Elmo and three other monsters lining up to be counted.

Which soul star played 'Superstition' live in the studio on a 1973 episode of Sesame Street?

Stevie Wonder was riding high: the single had reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 that January, before he played it in episode 514.

Which vocal group sang the counting on Sesame Street's animated Pinball Number Count segments?

The Pointer Sisters sang over a funky backing by San Francisco Bay Area jazz musicians. The eleven cartoons ran on the show from 1977 until 2002.

Which nonsense song from an Italian film about Sweden did the Muppets perform in Sesame Street's fourteenth episode?

Mah Nà Mah Nà was written by Piero Umiliani, and the show picked it up after one of its creators heard the track on the radio.

In the Sesame Street song 'Put Down the Duckie', Ernie must set aside his rubber duck to play which instrument?

Saxophone advice comes from Hoots the Owl, because Ernie squeaks his duck every time he tries to play. A string of celebrities joins in on the song.

A clingy Muppet shaped like which letter grabbed Smokey Robinson as he sang on Sesame Street?

U kept squeezing and grabbing him as he sang "U Really Got a Hold on Me", a rewrite of his own "You've Really Got a Hold on Me".

Which Goodfellas actor played Donald Trump spoof Ronald Grump in Sesame Street's 25th anniversary special?

Joe Pesci took the part in 1994 as a tycoon who plans to demolish Sesame Street to build Grump Tower, until Oscar the Grouch refuses to move out of his way.

Which folk singer, a Sesame Street regular until 1981, breastfed her infant son Cody in a 1977 episode?

Buffy Sainte-Marie, who wanted to teach viewers that "Indians still exist", has called the scene the first time breastfeeding was shown on television.

Sesame Street's "Yip Yip" aliens, who look rather like jellyfish, are visitors from which planet?

Mars is home to the Yip Yips, who speak a mix of English and a Martian vocabulary that consists mostly of "yip" and "nope".

Sesame Street's opera-star Muppet Placido, named after a famous real-life tenor, is which kind of bird?

A flamingo, Placido Flamingo is a pun on Plácido Domingo, and the Spanish tenor duetted with his feathered namesake in a 1989 anniversary special.

Guy Smiley, the Sesame Street Muppet who fronts 'Here Is Your Life', is billed as America's favorite what?

Game show host is his calling: the first sketch to use his name was a spoof of The Newlywed Game with a monster couple as the contestants.

At his piano, Sesame Street composer Don Music cries "I'll never get it right" and then does what?

He bangs his head on it until Kermit the Frog helps him finish the lyric. A bust of Beethoven looks on from the instrument.

The Amazing Mumford, Sesame Street's W.C. Fields-style magician, casts his tricks with the words "À la" what?

Peanut butter sandwiches are his magic words, though the spell is no guarantee: his tricks often go awry.

Which large, shaggy Sesame Street dog, owned by Linda, was originally named Woof-Woof?

Barkley knows a few words of American Sign Language, and he went along for the 1983 TV special Big Bird in China.

Which tiny Muppet family lives in a milk carton in Ernie's window box on Sesame Street?

The Twiddlebugs are Thomas, Tessie and their children Timmy and Tina, who make their home among the flowers.

In Sesame Street's Charlie's Restaurant sketches, which long-suffering blue customer is served by Grover?

Mr. Johnson, also called Fat Blue, is balding and mustachioed. Grover has gone on to bungle other customer-service jobs at his expense.

Which Sesame Street monster, a girl who loves to sing and dance, keeps a pet rock named Rocco?

Zoe arrived in 1993 to give the show another strong female Muppet, and she counts Elmo as her best friend.

What is the name of Elmo's puppy, introduced in a 2021 animated special and named for her love of dancing?

Tango made her debut in Furry Friends Forever: Elmo Gets a Puppy, and a puppet version of her then joined the show itself.

Sesame Street's title, the one its producers "least disliked", borrows the magic phrase of which folk-tale hero?

Ali Baba's "Open sesame" gave the show its name, though some of the team feared that young children would find the title too hard to pronounce.

Which streaming service became a worldwide home for new Sesame Street episodes when season 56 premiered in 2025?

Netflix picked up the new episodes along with 90 hours of older ones, while the series went back to premiering on PBS the same day.

Which two Sesame Street neighbours fell in love, married and had a daughter named Gabi in a late-1980s storyline?

Maria and Luis wed because actress Sonia Manzano had married and become pregnant in real life, which gave the writers the idea.

Ji-Young, the guitar-playing girl who became Sesame Street's first Asian American Muppet, has which heritage?

Korean American Ji-Young is seven years old, loves skateboarding, and has been performed by puppeteer Kathleen Kim since her 2021 debut.

Elmo testified before a US congressional subcommittee in 2002, urging lawmakers to increase funding for what?

Music education was his cause: the furry red witness appeared before a House appropriations subcommittee at the request of Congressman Duke Cunningham.

Which Princess Bride actor played Huxley, the greedy blanket-stealing villain of The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland?

Mandy Patinkin, The Princess Bride's Inigo Montoya, played Huxley as a man who steals whatever he can grab and then claims it as his own.

In the 1983 special Don't Eat the Pictures, the Sesame Street gang is locked overnight inside which New York landmark?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art supplied the title too: Cookie Monster eyes its paintings of food and has to sing himself out of eating them.

Sesame Street's makers followed it in 1971 with which reading series featuring a young Morgan Freeman?

The Electric Company used sketch comedy to build reading skills in elementary school children, with Freeman as a smooth hipster called Easy Reader.

Which broadcaster refused to air Sesame Street after its children's chief said the show sounded like "indoctrination"?

The BBC's Monica Sims also called it "a dangerous extension of the use of television", so the commercial network ITV showed the series in Britain instead.

Which family upheaval was the subject of a 1992 Snuffy episode that Sesame Street shelved after test screenings?

Divorce confused the children who saw it: many came away believing that any argument between their own parents would end in one, so the episode never aired.

Galli Galli Sim Sim, with its dancing pink lion Boombah, was the Sesame Street co-production made for which country?

India got its version in Hindi, sprinkled with a few English words per episode, even though the country has more than 15 official languages.

Fluffy, a pet that Oscar the Grouch keeps at home on Sesame Street, is which unlikely kind of animal?

An elephant fits because Oscar's home is far bigger on the inside than it looks, with room as well for a back door and a gate to his hometown of Grouchland.

On Sesame Street's Monsterpiece Theater, the presenter in a smoking jacket spoofs which real PBS broadcaster?

Alistair Cooke of Masterpiece Theatre became "Alistair Cookie", who ate his pipe at the end of each sketch until the prop was dropped in the late 1980s.

Which disco-era star sang on Sesame Street Fever, the 1978 album whose cover put Grover in John Travolta's place?

Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees appeared "courtesy of his children Melissa and Spencer", and the Saturday Night Fever spoof was certified gold.

Which early Sesame Street Muppet, voiced by Matt Robinson, attended an elementary school named after himself?

Roosevelt Franklin, his name a US president's in reverse, was phased out after staff worried that his rowdy classroom behaviour set a bad example.

Rosita, Sesame Street's guitar-playing bilingual monster, was originally designed to resemble which winged animal?

A fruit bat was the model, and Rosita was first billed as "the monster of the caves". Her wings were removed in 2004 and restored in 2021.

Zari, a six-year-old girl Muppet, joined Baghch-e-Simsim, the Sesame Street co-production of which country, in 2016?

Afghanistan's version made girls' education a main aim, and Zari's outfit mixed elements from several ethnic groups so that she belonged to no single one.

Which Belgian jazz musician played the harmonica solo on early versions of Sesame Street's theme?

Toots Thielemans was made a baron by Belgium's king in 2001, and his harmonica can also be heard on the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack.

Which composer wrote Sesame Street's theme song and has his framed photo on the studio wall of Don Music?

Joe Raposo also saw one of his tunes for the series, "The Square Song", turn up in the 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Which future film star appeared in Sesame Street's third season as a character called Rafael the Fix-It Man?

Raul Julia, later Gomez in The Addams Family films, was making his name on Broadway when he was cast in the part.

Sherlock Hemlock, Sesame Street's detective who overlooks the big clues, owns a dog with which fitting name?

Watson tends to find the big clues that his master misses. Hemlock himself is a parody of Basil Rathbone's film portrayal of Sherlock Holmes.