Welcome to Muppet Wiki!
Radar is Big Bird's teddy bear on Sesame Street. He is a brown stuffed bear with a red ribbon around his neck, who was given to Big Bird as a special gift from Mr. Hooper.[1] Much like Ernie's Rubber Duckie, Radar is Big Bird's most treasured possession, and Big Bird often confides in the bear. Many storylines over the years have involved him being ripped, stolen, or missing. In one 1990 episode, after a search at the Bureau of Missing Bears, Colambo, in his first appearance, was hired to find him.
Radar has often been depicted in Sesame Street coloring books and illustrated books over the years, and in the early 1980s, a stuffed toy Radar was marketed. Radar was also featured in Follow That Bird, where Big Bird sent Radar ahead by "special delivery, bear mail" to keep them from being spotted.
The stuffed bear was named by Big Bird's performer Caroll Spinney as a tribute to actor Gary Burghoff, who played Walter "Radar" O'Reilly on M*A*S*H.[2] The two met at a taping of Hollywood Squares, and the bear's name is a dual tribute, reflecting Burghoff's Radar character, who brought a teddy bear to Korea, and the fact that in his private life, Burghoff is known as a painter of birds and an activist for bird preservation. Some had thought the name of the bear was named after a Soviet radar acquisition system known as BIG BIRD. This was untrue, although the two names were amazing coincidental.
In a season 39 episode, Big Bird holds a "nest sale" and bumps Radar into the nest where he is selling toys without knowing. Snuffy accidently sells him to Count von Count who buys all the toys to count them. Kaitlyn then comes back and returns him after the Count gave it to a monster and the monster gave it to her.
Book appearances
- Early Bird on Sesame Street (1980)
- Follow That Bird Activity Book (1985)
- Follow That Bird coloring book (1985)
- A Bird's Best Friend (1986)
- Big Bird's Busy Day (1987)
- A Day in the Country (1988)
- Nothing to Do (1988)
- Cookie Soup and Other Good-Night Stories (1990)
- Sleep Tight! (1991)
- My Name Is Big Bird (1992)
- Mini-Boxes to Color & Share (1992)
- Not the Monster! (1994)
- Rise and Shine! (1996; reworked as Up, Up, Up! in 2011)
- Friends All Day (2002)
- Fun with Friends (2004)
- Boo! (2005)
- Fly Away with Big Bird (2006)
- S is for School! (2006)
- All About Me! (2007)
- Let's Match (2007)
- Grover's 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (2008)
- Lovies (2008)