The original plan was for him to be imaginary. For a long time, no one else on Sesame Street could see him. But it became upsetting to viewers that everyone laughed at Big Bird when he said Snuffy was real, so they wrote an episode where he introduced himself to everyone and from then on he was a regular part of the cast.
More than just upsetting to viewers, the messaging of Snuffleupagus was leading to kids thinking that adults wouldn’t believe them if they were being harmed:
The fear was that if we represented adults not believing what kids said, they might not be motivated to tell the truth. That caused us to rethink the storyline: Is something we’ve been doing for 14 years—that seemed innocent enough—now something that’s become harmful?
The original plan was for him to be imaginary. For a long time, no one else on Sesame Street could see him. But it became upsetting to viewers that everyone laughed at Big Bird when he said Snuffy was real, so they wrote an episode where he introduced himself to everyone and from then on he was a regular part of the cast.
Also,Snuffy’s original design was kinda creepy.
More than just upsetting to viewers, the messaging of Snuffleupagus was leading to kids thinking that adults wouldn’t believe them if they were being harmed:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brief-history-sesame-streets-snuffleupagus-iidentity-crisis-180957351/
Oh, wow. The reveal might have happened after I’d aged out of the show.
Thanks for the correction!