The Big Bad Wolf

The Big Bad Wolf has been seen on Sesame Street in many different incarnations over the years, although he is most commonly performed by Jerry Nelson (and occasionally by Kevin Clash.)

The earliest version of the Big Bad Wolf appeared in 1971. He was a giant blue shaggy wolf with an angry expression. After that, various different puppets were used, including a purple wolf with moving eyebrows, a wolf with green fur, and another variant of the large blue wolf with a more "generic" expression. In the 90s, the purple wolf became the permanent puppet for the character.

On Episode 4035 in 2003, the Big Bad Wolf's brother Leonard visited Sesame Street, and taught Elmo and Rosita that not all wolves are the same.

One of the more prominent puppets (the purple version) was used for The Wolf in Peter and the Wolf, as performed by Noel MacNeal.