Betty Lou

PERFORMER	various
DEBUT	1969
PATTERN	Hot Pink

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Betty Lou with some Anything Muppets.

Betty Lou with Prairie Dawn in a 1991 View-Master reel, Green Earth Blue Skies.

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Betty Lou and Prairie Dawn in the credits of a Season 10 episode.

Prairie Dawn and Betty Lou on The Phil Donahue Show

Betty Lou is a young girl from Sesame Street, and has been variously played over the years by Jim Henson, Frank Oz (in the game show "Pick Your Pet", where she's called Lucy Jones), Caroll Spinney, Fran Brill, Marilyn Sokol (in the songs "The Subway" and "I Want a Monster to Be My Friend"), and Lisa Buckley.

She is made from the Hot Pink Little Anything Muppet, much like Prairie Dawn. Prairie and Betty Lou are sometimes difficult to separate. For example, sesamestreet.org once used an image of Prairie for both her character page and Betty Lou's. (As of December 2009, though, the site has replaced the picture with one of Betty Lou.) A 1994 document from the CTW archives also indicates the difference between the girls by their hair. Additionally, when Fran Brill would perform Betty Lou, she would generally use a different voice for her than the one she would use for Prairie Dawn.

During the early years, Betty Lou was a minor character who was performed by whoever was available to perform her. She seemed to appear more in books than on the show. Apart from singing "I Want a Monster to Be My Friend" (credited on The Sesame Street Monsters! album as "Little Girl"), notable appearances included singing "Amigo" with her bilingual friend Carlos in a sketch from the mid-80s, and serving as lead singer (backed by Grover and various Anythings) for the song "Exercise" in the 1980s. She was an extra in the song "Listen to the Bells" and, according to the Sesame Street 35 Years Anniversary Game, she once opened up a medical program for dolls called the "Betty Lou Clinic."

As part of an increased attempt by Children's Television Workshop to balance the number and prominence of the male and female characters, Betty Lou appeared on a more regular basis, in street storylines and not just inserts, beginning around 1993. Lisa Buckley became her consistent performer, and Betty Lou developed an interest in collecting dolls before fading once again into the background. One episode found her "despondent over the evil spell cast on her doll's lost love, Prince Ted." Her 1990s renaissance was notably captured in original framing material in the 1996 video Do the Alphabet and in the song "Girl of the World."

Betty Lou lives with her mother. She has a baby sister, seen in the book Grover Learns to Read. She also has a little brother named Herbie, who appeared in at least one book, The Sesame Street Bedtime Storybook.

Book appearances

• The Together Book (1971)
• Bert's Hall of Great Inventions (1972)
• More Sesame Street Finger Puppets (1972)
• Sherlock Hemlock and the Great Twiddlebug Mystery (1972)
• The Sesame Street 1, 2, 3 Storybook (1973)
• The Sesame Street ABC Storybook (1974)
• See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Smell No Evil (1975)
• Bert's Big Band Paint-with-Water Book (1976)
• The Sesame Street Neighborhood Coloring Book (1976)
• The Sesame Street Postcard Book (1976)
• Paper Doll Players (1976)
• Ernie and Bert's Counting Book (1977)
• The Sesame Street Block Party Coloring Book (1977)
• The Sesame Street Mystery Coloring Book (1977)
• The Exciting Adventures of Super Grover (1978)
• The Sesame Street Bedtime Storybook (1978)
• A Day on Sesame Street (1979)
• The Amazing Mumford Forgets the Magic Words! (1979)
• Anybody Can Play (1980)
• Down on the Farm with Grover (1980)
• Early Bird on Sesame Street (1980)
• The House That Biff Built (1980)
• I Can Do It Myself (1980)
• I Like School (1980)
• Look What I Found! (1980)
• The Sesame Street Pet Show (1980)
• The Sesame Street Storybook Alphabet (1980)
• Show and Tell (1980)
• The Tool Box Book (1980)
• What Did You Bring? (1980)
• The Amazing Mumford Presents the Magic Weather Show (1981)
• The Count Counts a Party (1981)
• I Have a Friend (1981)
• Prairie Dawn's Upside-Down Poem (1981)
• Put & Play Magic Show (1981)
• Put & Play Yucchy Book (1981)
• The Sesame Street Circus of Opposites (1981)
• The Sesame Street Sun (1981)
• Which One Doesn't Belong? (1981)
• Big and Little Stories (1982)
• City (1982)
• A Day at School (1982)
• First Day of School (1982)
• In & Out, Up & Down (1982)
• Monster (1982)
• A Sesame Street Christmas (1982)
• Everyone Makes Mistakes (1983)
• People in Your Neighborhood (1983)
• The Sesame Street Question and Answer Book About Animals (1983)
• Big Bird's Copycat Day (1984)
• My Doll Is Lost! (1984)
• Grover Sleeps Over (1984)
• Big Bird Can Share (1985)
• Big Bird Says... A Game to Read and Play (1985)
• Ernie's Finish the Picture (1985)
• Grover's Book of Colors (1985)
• Sign Language ABC (1985)
• The House of Seven Colors (1985)
• ABC (1986)
• Find the Shapes (1986)
• A My Name Is Annabel (1986)
• Baby Animals on the Farm (1986)
• Count to Ten (1986)
• Sesame Street ABC (1986)
• Through the Year (1986)
• I Want a Hat Like That (1987)
• The Runaway Soup and Other Stories (1987)
• A Rainy Day on Sesame Street (1987)
• Shape Up! (1987)
• Going Places (1988)
• It's a Secret! (1988)
• Just Like Ernie (1988)
• A New Playground on Sesame Street (1988)
• Oh, I Am So Embarrassed! (1988)
• The Sesame Street ABC Book of Words (1988)
• When is My Birthday? (1988)
• A My Name Is Alice (1989)
• Come As You Are (1989)
• Great Monsterpieces (1989)
• Happy Mother's Day! (1989)
• Museum of Monster Art (1990)
• 1-2-3 (1991)
• Halloween Party (1991)
• Quiet Time (1991)
• Sesame Street 123 (1991)
• Betty Lou's Bad Mood Blues (1992)
• Feeling Fit: Postcards to Color and Send (1992)
• Friends & Family Lace-Ups (1992)
• Grover's 10 Terrific Ways to Help Our Wonderful World (1992)
• Mini-Boxes to Color & Share (1992)
• Elmo's Little Playhouse (1993)
• Elmo's Mother Goose (1993)
• Imagine... Big Bird Meets Santa Claus (1993)
• Around the Corner on Sesame Street (1994)
• Elmo's Big Lift-and-Look Book (1994)
• No More Diapers! (1995)
• B is for Books! (1996)
• Elmo's Twelve Days of Christmas (1996)
• Rise and Shine! (1996; reworked as Up, Up, Up! in 2011)
• Elmo Loves You! (1997)
• Elmo's Christmas Colors (1997)
• Elmo's Tricky Tongue Twisters (1998)
• It's Not Easy Being Big! (1998)
• Elmo's Ducky Day (2000)
• Sesame Street Library (2001)
• Sesame Street Museum (2001)
• Clap Your Hands! (2002)
• Elmo Look and Find (2002)
• Fun with Friends (2004)
• Sesame Street Musical Pop-Up Treasury (2007)
• What's Different? (2009)

Character Merchandise

• Applause PVC figures
• Applause finger puppets
• Applause rag doll
• Barettes and hair bands
• Betty Lou Bean
• Comics Spain PVC Figure
• German Minikins PVC figure
• Grolier monthly resin ornament
• Knickerbocker rag doll
• Mini Collection plush
• Muppet Miniatures figures
• Paper cups
• Paper Doll
• Tyco Super Blocks figure
• Betty Lou trading card
• Tote bag