Prairie Dawn

PERFORMER	Fran Brill
DEBUT	1971
PATTERN	Hot Pink

Prairie Dawn in her natural habitat, playing piano for a pageant.

Prairie in her yellow-trim dress, given to her around Season 29.

In a 2006 appearance on Clips & Quips.

A new Prairie puppet first appeared around 2008. This version combines her original design with a more modern look.

Prairie Dawn with Betty Lou in the View-Master set Green Earth Blue Skies.

File:BettyLou-PrairieDawn-sign.jpg

Betty Lou and Prairie Dawn in the credits of a Season 10 episode.

Prairie reporting on Fairy Tale Emergencies in a 2007 episode.

In 2013, Prairie Dawn made several guest appearances on Germany's Sesamstrasse.

Prairie Dawn is a flustered, level-headed, seven-year-old Muppet girl on Sesame Street. She is famous for writing and directing school pageants featuring her friends, mostly Ernie, Bert, Herry, Grover, and Cookie Monster.

Detail-oriented and efficient, Prairie often aspires to work in broadcasting or journalism, presenting "Fairy Tales Today" on Sesame Street itself; and also serving as a correspondent for the Monster News Network in Sesame Street Stays Up Late! ("I'm not a monster, but it is a job in communications"), and directing the broadcast of Elmopalooza prior to being trapped with Jon Stewart and the rest of the crew.

In addition to her pageants, she has been seen in her own segments, chronicling "The Adventures of Prairie Dawn". From Season 33 to Season 37, she hosted and frequently tried to keep Cookie Monster from eating the Letter of the Day. She can also be seen on the TV series Play With Me Sesame. On that series, Prairie Dawn presented artwork submitted by viewers.

Prairie Dawn has appeared in a number of game show sketches. She has been a contestant on at least two of Guy Smiley's game shows -- "The Triangle is Right" and "What's My Letter?" -- and was also the subject of another Guy Smiley game show, "What's Prairie's Problem?" She has also been a contestant on "Squeal of Fortune", and has appeared in "The New Here is Your Life" sketch about a glass of milk, and made appearances in "The Letter of the Day Games."

Prairie Dawn is sometimes confused with the blond, pig-tailed Betty Lou, as both based on the Hot Pink Little Anything Muppet. Although the two similar looking girls were rarely seen together on screen, they were often paired in book appearances, such as The Sesame Street Sun.

Baby Prairie Dawn and her mom are two of the main characters in Sesame Beginnings.

Despite regular appearances throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Prairie's role on the show has been greatly diminished since season 39, appearing in very little new material outside of a few live appearances. Prairie spoke her first line on the show since 2008 in a season 44 episode and later starred in the 2014 video, Monster Manners, a season 45 sketch and the 2015 special, The Cookie Thief. Prairie said at New York Comic Con, in the time she was gone, she was in a box. (YouTube) (39:51)

Stephanie D'Abruzzo confirmed via her official website that she will be performing Prairie Dawn in new appearances starting in Season 46 following Brill's retirement.

Trivia

• Prairie Dawn's birthday is August 3.
• The character was named after an actress named Prairie Dorn, according to Fran Brill in Sesame Street Unpaved.
• Prairie Dawn's Mom's name is Delta.
• According to The Sesame Street Dictionary, Sammy the Snake is Prairie Dawn's pet.
• Fran Brill has stated that she enjoyed performing Prairie because "since she's a little older I can get away with pushing the envelope with her."
• Prairie apparently wears "Days of the Week" underwear; when Joey Mazzarino checked under her dress for the Henson stitch at The Paley Center for Media (for a screening of Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey), he was asked by Tau Bennett why. Prairie replied, "He was just checking to see what day of the week it was!" This was a gag first done by Frank Oz in between taping.
• Before her retirement in fall 2014, Fran's last performance as Prairie was in The Cookie Thief. Prairie's last line in the special is "I think it may be time for me to retire!"

Appearances

• Sesame Street (1971-present)
• Havin' Fun with Ernie & Bert
• A Sesame Street Christmas (album)
• The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years
• A Muppet Family Christmas
• Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting
• Jim Henson's Memorial
• The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson
• Sesame Street Jam: A Musical Celebration
• Sesame Street: 25 Wonderful Years
• Sesame Street Stays Up Late
• Sesame Street All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever!
• Sing Along Travel Songs
• Elmo Saves Christmas
• Elmo Saves Christmas: Holiday Favorites
• Hot! Hot! Hot! Dance Songs
• Elmopalooza
• Don't Forget to Watch the Movie
• Kids' Favorite Songs
• CinderElmo
• The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
• Kids' Favorite Songs 2
• Play With Me Sesame
• Sesame Street 4-D Movie Magic
• Elmo's World: Bugs
• Bert and Ernie's Word Play
• Elmo's World: Happy Holidays!
• Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
• Elmo's World: Wild Animals
• Beginning Together
• Elmo's World: Friends
• Elmo's Potty Time
• Clips & Quips
• Moving Together
• Ready to Learn
• Elmo's Christmas Countdown
• The Sunny Side Up Show
• Count on Sports
• The Creative Coalition
• Sesame Street's 40th Birthday Party
• The Doctors
• Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
• The AFTRA Music Awards
• Monster Manners
• The Cookie Thief

Book appearances

• Grover and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum (1974)
• Bert's Big Band Paint-with-Water Book (1976)
• Paper Doll Players (1976)
• The Sesame Street Mix or Match Storybook (1977)
• The Sesame Street Cookbook (1978)
• The Exciting Adventures of Super Grover (1978)
• The Sesame Street Library (1978)
  • The Sesame Street Library Volume 4
  • The Sesame Street Library Volume 13
  • The Sesame Street Library Volume 14
  • The Sesame Street Library Volume 15
• Ernie's Work of Art (1979)
• A Day on Sesame Street (1979)
• Sesame Stories (1979)
• Anybody Can Play (1980)
• Down on the Farm with Grover (1980)
• Fix It, Please (1980)
• Frazzle's Fantastic Day (1980)
• I Can Do It Myself (1980)
• I Like School (1980)
• The Sesame Street Dictionary (1980)
• Show and Tell (1980)
• Special Delivery (1980)
• The Tool Box Book (1980)
• A Day in the Life of Oscar the Grouch (1981)
• Prairie Dawn, Reporter (1981)
• Prairie Dawn's Upside-Down Poem (1981)
• Put & Play Space Puppets (1981)
• Put & Play Yucchy Book (1981)
• The Sesame Street Circus of Opposites (1981)
• What Do You Do? (1981)
• When Is Saturday? (1981)
• City (1982)
• A Day at School (1982)
• First Day of School (1982)
• A Sesame Street Christmas (1982)
• The Little Red Hen (1983)
• People in Your Neighborhood (1983)
• The Sesame Street Word Book (1983)
• The Sesame Street Treasury (1983)
• I Think That It Is Wonderful (1984)
• A Silly Sesame Street Story: The Three Little Pigs (1984)
• Trace & Color Alphabet (1984)
• Big Bird Can Share (1985)
• Big Bird Says... A Game to Read and Play (1985)
• Big Bird's Book of Rhymes (1985)
• Ernie's Finish the Picture (1985)
• Grover's Book of Colors (1985)
• I Can Count to Ten and Back Again (1985)
• My Sesame Street Yearbook 1985
• Sign Language ABC (1985)
• ABC (1986)
• A Bird's Best Friend (1986)
• A My Name Is Annabel (1986)
• Baby Animals on the Farm (1986)
• Big Bird Goes to the Doctor (1986)
• Find the Shapes (1986)
• Sesame Street ABC (1986)
• Through the Year (1986)
• Colors (1987)
• The Colors of Spring (1987)
• I Want a Hat Like That (1987)
• A Rainy Day on Sesame Street (1987)
• Big Bird's Square Meal (1988)
• Going Places (1988)
• A New Playground on Sesame Street (1988)
• The Sesame Street ABC Book of Words (1988)
• A My Name Is Alice (1989)
• Come As You Are (1989)
• Museum of Monster Art (1990)
• 1-2-3 (1991)
• Be My Friend (1991)
• Halloween Party (1991)
• Sesame Street 123 (1991)
• We're Counting on You, Grover! (1991)
• Happy and Sad, Grouchy and Glad (1992)
• Rain Forest Adventure (1992)
• Shapes: Stand-ups to Color & Share (1992)
• Elmo's Mother Goose (1993)
• Jim Henson: The Works (1993)
• From Trash to Treasure (1993)
• Bright and Early with Elmo (1994)
• Elmo's Big Lift-and-Look Book (1994)
• B is for Books! (1996)
• Elmo's Lift-and-Peek Around the Corner Book (1996)
• Rise and Shine! (1996; reworked as Up, Up, Up! in 2011)
• The Bunny Hop (1997)
• Elmo's Christmas Colors (1997)
• Pumpkin Patch Party (1997)
• Sesame Street Unpaved (book) (1999)
• Elmo Says Achoo! (2000)
• Sounds of Sesame Street (2000)
• Watch Out for Banana Peels (2000)
• Sesame Street Doctor's Office (2001)
• Clap Your Hands! (2002)
• Look and Find Elmo (2002)
• Listen to Your Fish (2003)
• Elmo's World: Sports! (2004)
• Fun with Friends (2004)
• Elmo's Easy As ABC (2005)
• Red or Blue, I Like You! (2005)
• Discovering Letter Sounds (2006)
• Abby Cadabby's Rhyme Time (2007)
• Elmo & Friends Picture Stories (2007)
• Friendly, Frosty Monsters (2007)
• I'm a Helper (2007)
• Music Player Storybook (2007)
• Sesame Street Musical Pop-Up Treasury (2007)
• Sesame Street Super Sticker Book (2007)
• What Makes You Giggle? (2007)
• Elmo Animal Mix & Match (2008)
• I Can Do It! (2008)
• Our Kind of Bird (2008)
• Storybook ABCs (2008)
• Waiting for Cookie (2008)
• What Do You Hear, Dear? (2008)
• What's the Word on the Street? (2008)
• Count to 10 (2009)
• Love, Elmo (2009)
• Sesame Street: A Celebration - 40 Years of Life on the Street (2009)
• Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood? (2009)
• Busy Friends (2010)
• Out & About (2010)

Character Merchandise

• Prairie Dawn Puppet
• Prairie Dawn PVC
• Groiler monthly resin ornament
• plush doll from applause

See also

• International Prairie Dawn
• Prairie Dawn Through the Years
• Prairie Dawn Sketches