The very night of Ernie & co.'s intervention, Grover poured all his booze down the sink and dumped the rest of his drug stash into the toilet. For a monster who had spent virtually every day for 3 years drunk, it was incredible how easily he walked away from it all. "Grover's life is inspiration," said Cookie Monster at the time. "Maybe someday me can overcome me addiction to cookies. On second thought, no. Me like cookies too much." Grover jumped into a frenetic exercise schedule, got on a macrobiotic diet and spent his spare time doing volunteer work for various charities. "It was so nice to have the old Grover back," remarked Ernie. "We felt like a team again."

It was a new decade- the eighties- and there were changes afoot on Sesame Street. Mr. Hooper had died, suddenly the adults could see Snuffleupagus and Maria had broken up with David and taken up with Luis. Gone were the days of the Twiddlebugs, Roosevelt Franklin and Herry Monster- it was time for some new cast members to liven things up. One of these new recruits was a seemingly innocent baby monster named Elmo.

"When Elmo came on board, he was just so wide-eyed and full of wonder," says Grover today. "I mean he was only 3 & 1/2. I kind of took him under my wing and became like a big brother to him." Elmo started out as a bit player, one of many monsters that were used for the odd sketch here and there. But Grover saw something in Elmo that reminded him of himself at that age, and he pushed Ernie to increase Elmo's role in the show. "Looking back," says Grover, "I guess I was kind of signing my own death warrant, wasn't I?"

In 1985 Elmo decided to undergo an operation that would permanently change his voice to sound like that of a baby monster's at 3 & 1/2. Nevermind that he was already 5 at this point. Though it was only a rumour at the time, the change was instantly noticeable and striking, and many of the cast members were shocked. Bert has remarked in a recent interview that "it became obvious to me that this little monster was a lot more cunning and manipulative than he appeared. He seemed to have a master plan for his career set out from a very young age."

And indeed, Elmo's plan started to work. His popularity grew and grew in the mid-to-late eighties, and he no longer needed Grover's help in getting parts on the show. Instead, Grover started to be passed over for certain parts that called for a cute furry monster. "How could I compete with a permanent 3 & 1/2 year old? He not only had that voice, he referred to himself in the third person and acted like he had absolutely no idea what was going on in the world. The kids, especially the little ones, ate it up." Grover started to worry that Sesame Street wasn't big enough for two loveable cute furry monsters, and unfortunately for him and for those of us that had grown up loving him, his fears were to prove well-grounded.