Little Jerry

PERFORMER	Jerry Nelson
DEBUT	1971
PATTERN	Green

Revised wardrobe in later appearances.

Little Jerry is the lead singer of Little Jerry and the Monotones and has performed several songs on Sesame Street, including "Four," "Telephone Rock," "Proud," and "Mad".

Little Jerry's original hippie apparel was exchanged in the 1980s for a white and black leather jacket and a chain necklace. In the band's comeback appearance in a 2000 episode, he also sports a pair of sunglasses.

Little Jerry is considered to be male, but in one Shalom Sesame sketch, in which an actress dubbed the character for "Proud," host Mandy Patinkin introduced the rocker as female: "Little Jeri (sic) is loud and proud, and why shouldn't she be?."

Little Jerry was named after his performer Jerry Nelson, who later talked about the character and his group in a 2009 interview:

“Little Jerry was Jeff Moss’ thing. I think deep in his heart he wrote that because he loves to sing bass. They were wonderful pieces. They were so much fun to do.”

Notes

• Although Little Jerry usually appeared as a redhead, he had black hair in one sketch where Grover talked about the word "exit." (First: Episode 0210)
• A similar looking Green Anything Muppet bandleader (and drummer) sang "Spinning Wheel" during Sesame Street's first season. A background hippie closely resembling Little Jerry appeared in two first season sketches, the "Before and After" song (First: Episode 0047) and the "Forward" and "Backward" skit. (First: Episode 0069)

Video appearances

• Rock & Roll! (1990)

Book appearances

• Grover and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum (1974)
• The Sesame Street ABC Storybook (1974)
• Big Bird's Busy Book (1975)
• The Sesame Street Block Party Coloring Book (1977)
• The Sesame Street Dictionary (1980)

Little Jerry with black hair in the "exit" sketch.‎

A green-nosed Little Jerry makes an illustrated cameo in The Sesame Street ABC Storybook.