Beautiful Day Monster is a blue Muppet monster best remembered from his appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1969, ruining a girl's beautiful day. Three years before, he began life as The Crown-Grabber in an unaired commercial for Wheels, Crowns and Flutes. He has made several appearances in the early years of Sesame Street, on The Muppet Show, and several other Muppet projects. Wherever the Beau
tiful Day Monster goes, destruction and mayhem soon follows. Although the monster was known as "Beautiful Day Monster" behind the scenes,[1] he has had many names on Sesame Street, such as "Fred," (in an early Sesame Street skit) "Harold," "Snookie," "Lulu," and "Windy." He was also a contestant on a 1969 Sesame Street game show, "The Mr. Game," where he was named "Ralph" and had a wife, also a contestant. For a few sketches, the monster was turned into a female character with a dark black wig, a necklace and a pink ribbon. After the first season, Beautiful Day Monster and most of the other early Sesame monsters were replaced by friendlier looking monsters with brighter colors. A small Beautiful Day Monster (used in the original Ed Sullivan sketch when the monster has shrunk) was used alongside the regular-sized monster to demonstrate the difference between 'little' and 'big', where he was known as "Frank." For The Muppet Show, the Beautiful Day Monster puppet was reconstructed and his teeth removed to give him a less frightening appearance. In one memorable sketch in episode 108, he asked a travel agent (Paul Williams) about the cost of a trip to Pittsburgh. No matter what the travel agent offered, Beautiful Day Monster asked "You got anything cheaper?" until the agent dropped a weight on him, flattening him enough to send him by mail. This was his only major appearance in a Muppet Show sketch, although he appeared several times behind Gonzo during the final moment of "The Muppet Show Theme." The flattened version of the puppet would appear in the At the Dance sketch in the next episode, wearing a wig and dancing with Rowlf.
