Beautiful Day Monster
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The Beautiful Day Monster is a Muppet that debuted on The Ed Sullivan Show. Caroll Spinney, Dan Redican (1989), Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Jim Henson, Kevin Clash, and Richard Hunt have all performed the character.
Originally conceived by Henson as one of three monsters for a series of never-aired ads for a General Foods snack product called "Wheels, Crowns and Flutes", the characters were aptly named the Wheel-Stealer, Crown-Grabber and Flute-Snatcher.
Although the commercials were never shown the characters were kept by Henson. The Flute-Snatcher became Snake Frackle, a background monster from The Great Santa Claus Switch and The Muppet Show. Wheel-Stealer eventually evolved into none other than Cookie Monster, and Crown-Grabber became Beautiful Day Monster. He was so named because his very first appearance was on The Ed Sullivan Show as a monster which constantly tries to ruin a little girl's beautiful day (she eventually turns the tables on him).[1] In this first appearance he was performed by Jim Henson himself.
Beautiful Day Monster then appeared numerous times on season one of Sesame Street.[2] His appearance changed slightly over the episodes, but he was always rather frightening looking, and not just in terms of a kid's show. First having small, narrow eyes (as he did on the original Sullivan sketch) he was soon given large, bulging eyes and hairy eyelashes, then articulated eyelids. In one especially creepy early appearance with Ernie & Bert he was even shown having four eyes![3] For his Sesame Street appearances he was performed by Frank Oz.
Probably because of his excessively scary appearance the character was retired from Sesame Street after only one season. He appeared once on The Muppet Show (rebuilt to look slightly less scary) in a sketch with guest host Paul Williams as a travel agent customer who keeps asking, "Ya got anything cheaper?" For this appearance he was performed by Richard Hunt. Since then he has only had minor appearances.
The original version of Beautiful Day Monster as seen
on The Ed Sullivan Show
Also the original version (left) this time in an early Sesame Street appearance
The scary 2nd version (left) on Sesame Street. Also note
the 'mini-me' version of him on the right in front of Splurge
The 3rd version that appeared on Sesame Street the most
The rare, one time only, 4-eyed version
The 3rd version in his famous Sesame Street Lulu appearance
The slightly 'less-scary' 4th version that
appeared on The Muppet Show
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