The Messiah: Abby sees the best in Oscar, and genuinely doesn't believe that he's that grouchy. That's gotta count for something.
Meaningful Name: It's a play on the stereotypical "magic word" Abracadabra.
Non-Standard Character Design: She, along with other fairy characters in the show, are some of the only Muppet characters designed with irises. To quote the Muppet Wiki:
"Abby's design is an intentional departure from the typical Muppet look because she's not originally from Sesame Street. The implication is that the fairies in her old neighborhood look like her."
Toby Towson, Brian Muehl, Fred Garver, Bruce Connelly
This large, playful Muppet dog is Linda's pet, who understands American Sign Language. Unlike Rowlf, Barkley is not anthropomorphized. When he debuted in Season 9, he was known as Woof Woof. In Season 10, he became Barkley.
Long-suffering roommate and Blue Oni to Ernie's Red Oni. Bert would generally prefer to be left alone with a book than put up with his friend's shenanigans.
Berserk Button: Do not lose his bottle caps or paper clips.
Ho Yay: Guess with whom? Possibly the best-known example in children's television, to the point that there was a recent petition to get the pair married.
Break Out Character: Is the star of the first official Sesame Street movie Follow That Bird, starred in a special where he travels to China, and is the star of other merchandise items such as storybooks, cassette tapes or records. Possibly the first breakout character before Elmo.
Hidden Depths: During the famous episode centered around the death of Mr. Hooper, Big Bird draws various caricatures of the adults - of a quality that you may not normally see from a typical six-year-old.
Carol Spinney is a cartoonist and painter in his down time, overlapping with The Cast Showoff.
Gordon: Why are you walking that way? Big Bird: "Just because." ... (Big Bird learns of Mr. Hooper's death) Big Bird: "Why does it have to be this way?" (Beat) Gordon: "Big Bird, it has to be this way because." Big Bird: "Just because?" Gordon: "Just because."
Start My Own: Because Oscar wouldn't let him join the Grouchketeers.
An Ambiguously Undead purple guy with fangs, a Romanian accent, and a love of counting. He lives in a castle with a number of bats and has been seen dating various Countesses.
Badbutt: Associated with creepy music, castles, bats, etc. like classical vampires, but like the rest of the cast he's completely harmless.
Maniacal Laugh: Although it's been toned down since the '70s, when it was downright alarming.
Ominous Pipe Organ: He plays one during the "Batty Bat" song. Another features in the recurring Number of the Day segment, although admittedly that one isn't very ominous.
Our Vampires Are Different: Official sources vary on whether or not the Count is actually a vampire, but he's certainly got the look down.
Elmo
Kevin Clash
A 3½-year-old monster who speaks in a high-pitched voice and eschews pronouns. Host of the "Elmo's World" segment and the object of 1996's Tickle-Me-Elmo craze.
Military Kid: Yes, believe it or not. This was central to a series of videos specifically made to help military children cope with having a parent deployed, so he subverts most of the typical, negative stereotypes.
Couldn't Find a Pen: Bert asks him to make a shopping list, and the only thing Ernie can find to write with is chocolate pudding. Ernie then makes a list of every writing implement that he couldn't find, adding pudding to the list.
Bert: "He's improving. Last time he used spaghetti sauce."
Hidden Depths: He lays down an amazing saxophone solo during "Put Down the Duckie."
I Can't Hear You: "I can't hear you, Bert. I have a banana in my ear."
Jim Henson: Jim was succeeded by Steve Whitmire, who also took over Jim's other, similar-sounding role (Kermit).
Determinator: The limits he pushes himself to are actually quite admirable.
Flying Brick: Super-Grover apparently believes he's one of these, judging from how often he tries to bend bars and lift heavy objects. He actually is capable of flight, but takeoffs and landings are a problem for him.
Spock Speak: According to original performer Frank Oz, Grover doesn't use contractions (except in songs) because he's obsessed with doing everything right.
Ted Baxter: A mild case. On the whole he's quite personable, but he often introduces himself as "cute, lovable, furry old Grover" and, as Super Grover, usually overrates his problem-solving abilities.
Destined Bystander: He (or, at least, the puppet that would later come to be him) first appeared in a single scene in Follow that Bird.
The Owl Knowing One: Not all-knowing, but he's wise enough to know you can't play the sax with a rubber duck in your hand, and that carrots are healthier than cookies.
Kermit the Frog
Jim Henson, then Steve Whitmire
The Muppet Show's easily flustered host, here usually playing a roving news reporter in a trench coat.
Call Back: He makes a surprise appearance in "Elmo's World: Frogs", where he is shown lounging in his apartment.
Cross Over: Kermit once made routine guest appearances, frequently playing off Grover and Cookie Monster. Alas, the frog seldom appears these days.
Jim Henson: His definitive role; Kermit and Ernie aren't that different, acoustically speaking. This is especially apparent in Bert and Ernie's Muppet Show guest appearance, where Ernie appears and speaks immediately after Kermit introduces the pair.
Loud Gulp: The idea of a frog eating a fly makes him nauseous.
Reality Subtext: Kermit was Put on a Bus because Disney bought out the Muppets. He still appears now and again in the occasional cameo or legacy segment.
Somewhere A Herpetologist Is Crying: This is Zigzagged in one scene, in which Bob lists frog facts, and Kermit insists that frogs act more like people, with human diets and apartment buildings.
A fluffy orange monster with a round, oversized jaw who rose to fame by hosting a variety of recurring segments; namely Word on the Street and Murray Has a Little Lamb. These are unique in that they're kept separate from the regular Sesame Street scenes by being set in the "real world" where Murray has largely unscripted scenes interacting with "normal" people.
The Cameo: Very rarely appears in "street scenes." Joey Mazzarino has said that he prefers for Murray to be kept in the "real world" a la Uncle Traveling Matt.
Early-Bird Cameo: Murray made several appearances before he was first called by name on screen.
Epic Fail: A lot of his first attempts at the focal activity in the segment results in this. Once, while trying a high-kick in a Dance School segment, he not only sends himself flying onto his back, as he is wont to do, but manages to kick himself in the face in the process.
Palette Swap: His design is an orange variant of a purple monster, named Filfil, from the Egyptian co-production. In fact, most of the crew just called him "Filfil" until someone came up with "Murray."
Extreme Omnivore: A variant. He hates foods most would consider nice or healthy, but loves noxious combinations of food that are technically still edible... just really gross. Like sardine ice-cream. Again, it's a species trait.
Oscar's mission in life is to be as miserable and grouchy as possible, and pass that feeling on to everyone else. When a visitor knocks on his trash can — invariably interrupting him from a nap or an important task — Oscar greets them with a snarl. He complains that he wants to be left alone, although when he's left entirely to himself, he's dissatisfied — there isn't anybody around to irritate or complain to.
Vitriolic Best Buds: He's easily a Type 1 with any of the nice Sesame Street residents that like being sweet and chummy with him, especially Elmo and Telly; although he and Maria are more of a Type 2.
What Could Have Been: Jim Henson originally intended Oscar to be purple, but TV cameras in 1969 couldn't handle that color. The first-season orange Oscar was abandoned for the same reason.
Once an Episode: There is a whole set of sketches where Prairie Dawn tries to keep Cookie Monster away from a Letter of the Day Cookie. Guess how that turns out.
Mentors: Rosita takes Gina's son Marco under her wing, because he is Guatemalan.
Military Kid: Like Elmo, Rosita has to deal with having a military father. Her father comes home injured and confined to a wheelchair, and she has a hard time adjusting to the consequent changes.
Sherlock Hemlock
Jerry Nelson
A somewhat inept detective. Like many others, he's fallen by the wayside over the past decade or so.
Captain Ersatz: It goes without saying that he wears a deerstalker cap and tweed Inverness cape.
Missed Him by That Much: In his early appearances he'd wander off before anyone other than Big Bird could spot him, leading to speculation that he was BB's Imaginary Friend.
Real After All: He is revealed to the adult cast thirteen years after his debut, in order to encourage kids to be more honest with their parents. It was an emotional experience for the characters and actors.
Telly
Bob Payne, then Brian Meuhl, then Martin P. Robinson
A mildly neurotic, easily discouraged monster. Was best friends with Oscar; now best friends with Baby Bear.
Non Indicative Name: It's an artifact of his early "watched too much TV" phase.
On One Condition: Telly is allowed to sit in on Gordon's science class in one episode, as long as he is quiet.
Story Arc: He spends several episodes with a broken arm.
You Watch Too Much X: A big aspect of his character at first. While more physical activity is being encouraged now, his obsession does still occasionally show up.
With Friends Like These: Was once sort-of-friends with Oscar, of allpeople. Three guesses how that usually went. Thankfully, he later found a much better friend in Baby Bear.
Two-Headed Monster
Richard Hunt and Jerry Nelson, then Peter Friedman, Joey Mazzarino and David Rudman
Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Usually appears in order to teach the merits of cooperation or sound out words phonetically.
Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Aside from having prominent eyelashes and a smaller pink nose, she usually sports a necklace and bracelets along with her hair decs.
Monsters
A heterogeneous group of furry creatures, many of whom share the last name "Monster." Examples include Telly, Cookie, Herry, Grover, and Elmo.
Big Ol' Unibrow: As mentioned under Oscar's entry, it's a species trait.
Bizarro Universe: Grouch society mirrors human society (right down to similar celebrities — Dan Rather-Not and Donald Grump, for example), but they prefer unhappiness and filth to happiness and cleanliness.
Blue and Orange Morality: As explained above, they dislike (often downright condemn) nice and pleasant things, and like things that most other people would find unpleasant. Although a bit odd, it sounds simple enough, right? Well, this also means that they like feeling miserable, and yet the nice things they hate make them miserable, which they like and... yeah. Try not to think about it too hard.
The Anything Muppets (known internally as "AMs") are "blank" Muppets with interchangeable features and clothing, and allow puppeteers to create new characters without having to build the Muppets from scratch. Famous Anythings include Guy Smiley, the Count, and Prairie Dawn.
She started out as an assistant at Hooper's Store during The Eighties. A lot has changed since then.
Character Development: In the span of twenty four years, she has assisted at Hooper's store and a daycare, gone to veterinary school, opened a veterinary practice, and adopted her own son, Marco.
Hot Mom: Her current occupation, aside from being a veterinarian.
Instant Sedation: In one episode, books on the Letter of the Day and the Number of the Day have this effect on Marco.
Irony as She Is Cast: According to Muppet Wiki, Allison Bartlett O'Reilly is allergic to dogs. However, Gina doesn't treat any real ones.
The Other Darrin: Roscoe Orman, the current and longest-running Gordon, is the third actor to play the character (the fourth, if you count the uncredited actor in the week of test episodes from summer 1969). And the only one without a 'fro.
Disabled Snarker: She once subbed for Oscar. That's got to count for something.
Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Averted at actress Linda Bove's request. Both the actress and the character are deaf, but Bove specifically requested that her deafness not be treated as the defining aspect of the character, and that the writers not shy away from jokes about ASL.
An oddly dressed Vaudevillian mime who lives outside the window of Elmo's World. The role is occasionally performed by Mr. Noodle's brother Mr. Noodle, his sister Miss Noodle, or his other sister Miss Noodle.
The Ditz: The Noodles' role is to provide a character to whom 3-year-old viewers can feel superior.
One Steve Limit: Averted. Of course, all the Noodles are pretty much interchangeable.
The Speechless: When a Noodle vocalizes, he or she usually produces a French horn or animal sound.
Olivia
Gordon's sister and a professional photographer.
The Cast Showoff: Alaina Reed's career began in Broadway musicals. She often took the opportunity to show off her singing chops.
Susan
Gordon's wife and, as such, a maternal figure to those around her.
Girls Need Role Models: Invoked. She started off as a housewife; in the second season she became a nurse in response to concerns that the series marginalized women.
