Talk: Abby Cadabby's father

Abby's father in Abby Cadabby's Rhyme Time

I haven't read Abby Cadabby's Rhyme Time, so I don't know what information is in the book, besides what is shown in the single illustration posted here. But given the fact that Abby's parents are divorced and live in different houses, and that her daddy is shown as being green (not purple); is it possible that the male member of "the family Cadabby" shown tucking Abby into bed in is Abby's step-dad or possibly just another relative. Is there information in the book that identifies the vested male fairy as her father or is just an assumption? -- Brad D. (talk) 03:27, December 12, 2012 (UTC)

Since we know from timeframes that the book predated the divorce project and decision to use Abby this way, it's basically the same as the earlier book versions of Elmo's dad before he officially became Louie, and it happens with other characters. The current "parental" wording is fine, although personally I'm sure the illustrator intended the character to be Daddy Cadabby or whatever, given the time. Or again, given that parents change design all the time in books, we can pretend it's predivorce and then Dad took a trip to Swamp Mushy Muddy. Any explanation like that is just us speculating (for that matter, we'd have to try to explain how Abby first moved to Sesame but then supposedly the divorce happened while she was there and could explain to Gordon but not to anyone else, and also when she switched from Mrs. Goose's school to Flying Fairy School and all that). Continuity is hard, let's go shopping. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 21:40, December 12, 2012 (UTC)

I kind of had a similar question. I know Muppet canon is almost impossible sometimes, but are we treating the divorce as canon, even though they're not mentioning it on the show? Are they making online videos as if they're part of the show, or do they not care if a video contradicts the show? -- Ken (talk) 06:31, December 13, 2012 (UTC)

The resource videos actually *have* been consistent. Outside of a continous storyline involving Louie and his later appearance in Sesame Beginnings and the design used in books, there's Rosita's dad Ricardo coming home in a wheelchair. While previous appearances of Rosita's Family (which presumably had her father in there somewhere, though not pinpointed) didn't have anyone in a wheelchair, two 2010 books depicted him, just as he is in the resource videos (and as for the divorce, on the show itself they've only ever mentioned the Fairy Godmommy so that also makes it easier), so in those cases they were deliberately consistent (but with so many books and authors and illustrators, even though they seem to keep closer track nowadays, it's still easy to have variants and at the time of the book, I doubt anyone expected Abby's parents to become significant; Elmo's weren't, and varied a bit in looks, until the resource videos, and of course there's the classic Grover's Mommy conundrum). As is, we also count Elmo's cousins introduced specifically in resource videos who never have and likely won't appear on the show. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 06:59, December 13, 2012 (UTC)