Alan Muraoka

For us adult fans of Sesame Street, the question is always asked: Who is your favorite character on The Show? This is formost in my mind because being burnt out on the History of SS article, I decided to tackle a list this time: List of characters in Sesame Street. Of course, that begs another question: how is that taking a break? I never said I wasn't obsessive.

Anyhoo, if you were to ask me, "Christine, who's your favorite human character on SS?" I'm sure you may expect me to say Gordon, and if you did, you'd be dead wrong. My favorite character on SS is Alan. During my research for The List, I found this image of Alan, made-up for another role. He's greyed-up, but I think he's very attractive here. What a great smile!



I decided that Alan was my favorite human character on The Show after an episode that aired a few years ago. After looking it up in Muppet Wiki, it was Episode 3993, which aired in 2002. Alan and Gordon are playing chess when Big Bird passes, chasing a bouncing box. Alan leaves the game to catch the box to take it to the Mail-It Shop. I gained so much respect for Alan, both as a character and as an actor, that he'd be willing to do something so silly for The Show. It also doesn't help that now that Bob McGrath's as old as dirt, he's currently the best looking male on The Show.

Oh, the box ended up being from Big Bird's granny-bird: that month's installment of the Letter of the Month club, "a joyful jumping J", as the Wiki puts it.