Grover had to book time off from his hectic schedule at Charlie's to make it to the first Sesame Street audition. It is a day he will never forget. "What a motley crew," he says. "Cookie Monster was even wilder then than he ever appeared on television. Oscar was this little orange punk with a chip on his shoulder [his fur later turned green when he eventually stopped bathing entirely]. And I will never forget Big Bird. He was a big, naive kid from the Midwest, but oh so full of spunk." By all accounts, Grover's audition was a disaster. "To this day, I do not know how I wound up getting the Sesame Street gig. I was reprising an act Fozzie and I had done together years before, but I forgot half of the lines. I was tripping over garbage cans and screaming like an imbecile."

But Grover's natural charm impressed Ernie, and despite Bert's objections, he pushed to have Grover included in on the first season. "From the start, it was Ernie. I can say this now since I don't have to work with the guy anymore, but Bert always was a big old sourpuss. Nothing is ever good enough for him unless it somehow involves pigeons or bottlecaps." Ernie and Grover were to become fast friends over the coming years, a friendship that would later drive a wedge between Ernie and Bert's relationship.

The early episodes of Sesame Street were a revelation: here was a group of disenfranchised monsters and assorted animals and humans launching a major television show with virtually no budget, yet which was brilliant, funny and educational all at once. Before the first season was over it soon became apparent that Grover's magnetic energy translated very well to the small screen and he wouldn't be going anywhere soon.

"Those were the happiest days of my life," recalls Grover. "Many of those skits were improvised and there was a nice loose energy on set which helped to spark a lot of creativity. Cookie always kept everybody laughing, Oscar was the butt of all jokes, and Big Bird was like everybody's favorite big brother. I never wanted it to end."

And indeed, it seemed as if the good times would never end for Grover and company in the seventies. Grover's recurring characters such as The Waiter and the Singing Telegram Monster and skits such as "Near and Far" were instant classics. The record and book deals were flying fast and furious by 1974. The show became the most widely-watched children's television program in the world, and the characters were loved and recognized by people everywhere. With the Muppets (as they had come to be known) dominating children's programming, there began to be talk of a more adult-oriented show to expand the audience even further. While a great opportunity for some, The Muppet Show would prove to be the first in a long series of dissapointments for Grovski Carbunkle that would embitter him towards the entertainment industry for good.