Grover

Grover describes himself on Sesame Street as a "cute, furry little monster." Grover does not use contractions when speaking, giving him a distinctive vocal pattern in comparison to most television characters. His character is multi-talented, taking on many different roles and professions throughout the series' run.

Grover appears in a lot of recurring Sesame Street segments, including Grover the Waiter, The Adventures of Super Grover, and Global Grover. He also frequently appears in Monsterpiece Theater and The Spanish Word of The Day.

He is the star in the 1971 Sesame Street book: The Monster at the End of this Book, which to this day, remains as a very popular children's book.

Origins
Grover was first seen on The Ed Sullivan Show in a Christmas Eve appearance in 1967. He appeared as Gleep, a monster in Santa's workshop. His voice was a cross between Bert and Fozzie Bear. He later made a cameo appearance on Muppets On Puppets in 1968 with the Rock and Roll Monster.

In his early appearances, he had a more abrasive voice and personality than he eventually would, and he had green fur instead of blue.

In Episode 0083, he appeared in one of Kermit's Lectures, helping Kermit explain the word "In" (Kermit refers to him as "Fuzzy-face" and "The Hairy One").

In season 2 Grover gained his name. His fur became blue and his voice and personality began to change his more permanent manner. 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.

Grover & Kermit
For many years, because of the consistency with which they would appear in skits together, Grover and Kermit the Frog had been considered close friends despite the annoyance of "Froggy Baby" (as Grover would call him... followed by a slap on the back). In 1998, Grover hosted an honors show for Kermit in The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street with an award for Frog of the Year. Grover himself receives a tribute of his own in 2004's A Celebration of Me, Grover.

Personality
Grover, along with Elmo, is one of the more popular characters created during the show's run, partially for his silly manner of speaking and also for his numerous imaginary adventures that children can easily identify with.

At a Museum of Television and Radio seminar in 1992, Frank Oz described his personal affection for the character: "I like Grover because really, he's wiry. He's tough. He gets emotional. But also he tries very hard to help people, and do things right, to the extent that he doesn't use contractions in his words. If there's apostrophes in the script I get, I make the separation, because he doesn't say 'can't'. He says 'can not'... Grover came about organically. I worked on Cookie Monster, I worked on Bert. Grover just kind of happened. I guess that's why I like him."

Appearances
Grover appeared in the following memorable skits (see also, Alter Egos below):


 * Fuzzy and Blue (and Orange) - Grover, Cookie Monster, Herry and Frazzle
 * Over, Under, Around, and Through
 * Sharing - Grover and Prairie Dawn
 * Grover takes the stairs, while Kermit takes the elevator
 * How Do You Do? - Lena Horne sings to a shy Grover
 * Sing After Me - Grover and Madeline Kahn
 * Monster in the Mirror
 * Proud of Me
 * Near and Far
 * Grover visiting Kermit at home to sell him various objects that Kermit doesn't need.

Grover's alter egos

 * Farmer Grover
 * Grover Knover
 * Marshal Grover
 * Super Grover
 * Waiter Grover
 * Elevator Operator Grover
 * Professor Grover
 * Camp Counselor Grover

Trivia

 * In the early days of Sesame Street, Grover had brown fur and was referred to as Fuzzyface.
 * Grover made a special appearance in Episode 518 of The Muppet Show.
 * In recent years, a newer, brighter Grover puppet has been used. The puppet was rebuilt in 2004 for Eric Jacobson.
 * Filmmaker John Landis performed Grover in the finale of The Muppet Movie.
 * According to a Noggin "Nogginoid," Grover is written to represent the psychological age of a 4 year old.
 * Frank Oz has returned for occasional skits, including the Waiter Grover segment from episode 4111, taking place at a Russian restaurant.
 * According to the book Sesame Street Unpaved, Grovers favorite songs are "Monster in the Mirror" and "I Will Survive". However, in What's the Name of That Song?, he says that his favorite song is "What's the Name of That Song?"
 * In the Japanese co-production of Sesame Street, there is an orange monster named Groly, who is similar to Grover in design.
 * When Jim Henson painted his infamous dressing room pipes on The Jack Paar Show, he used a piece of the original green Grover's fur as hair for one of the faces on the pipes.