Abby's Flying Fairy School

Character launch

Abby Cadabby was first mentioned in TV Guide ahead of Sesame Street's 37th season, and a press kit followed shortly after. Her first appearance on the show was on August 14, 2006, the season premiere. An interview scheduled for August 10, 2006, on NBC's Today Show was canceled due to a special report on the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot. She did appear for a brief chat on August 14 with Ann Curry and Lester Holt before the weather segment, and later that day, she completed a satellite tour of local stations across the U.S. She was also set to be ABC World News' "Person of the Week" on August 11, 2006, but was pre-empted by a segment on a dog rescuer from Hurricane Katrina and the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. Instead, she was featured on the August 18 broadcast with the teaser "Femininity comes to Sesame Street," and was noted as the first three-year-old to receive that honor. She appeared on NPR's All Things Considered on August 11, 2006. In 2007, a balloon of Abby was part of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The following year, she played Alice in the direct-to-DVD film Abby in Wonderland, based on Lewis Carroll's story. She was also in the Sesame Street Live tours When Elmo Grows Up from 2007 to 2009 and the 2012-2013 leg of Elmo Makes Music. In the 2014 DVD Elmo's Super Numbers, she appeared at NumberCon as One-Da Woman, a play on Wonder Woman. For Season 49 in 2018, her look changed: her dress became a skirt with flower sparkles, a flower-print t-shirt, and hair clips shaped like daisies and ladybugs, hinting at her love for tending her fairy garden. Abby also hosts Sesame Street's autism initiative.