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* '''[[Miss Piggy]]''' - [[Frank Oz]] (1976 - 2002), [[Eric Jacobson]] (2001 - present)
* '''[[Miss Piggy]]''' - [[Frank Oz]] (1976 - 2002), [[Eric Jacobson]] (2001 - present)
* '''[[Pepe the Prawn]]''' - [[Bill Barretta]] (1996-present)
* '''[[Pepe the Prawn]]''' - [[Bill Barretta]] (1996-present)
* '''[[Pops]]''' - [[Jerry Nelson]] (1980-81, 1992, 2002) ''(character is semi-retired)''
* '''[[Pops (Muppet)|Pops]]''' - [[Jerry Nelson]] (1980-81, 1992, 2002) ''(character is semi-retired)''
* '''[[Rizzo the Rat]]''' - [[Steve Whitmire]] (1978-present)
* '''[[Rizzo the Rat]]''' - [[Steve Whitmire]] (1978-present)
* '''[[Robin (Muppet)|Robin]]''' - [[Jerry Nelson]] (1971-2005)
* '''[[Robin (Muppet)|Robin]]''' - [[Jerry Nelson]] (1971-2005)

Revision as of 21:14, 9 January 2007

File:Jim Henson's Muppets.png

The Muppets are a group of puppets and costume characters, and the company created by Jim Henson. Individually, a Muppet is properly one of the puppets made by Jim Henson or his Creature Shop – though the term is often used erroneously to refer to any puppet that resembles the distinctive style of The Muppet Show and Sesame Street characters, the term is both an informal name and legal trademark linked to the characters created by The Jim Henson Company. After frequently changing hands since the death of creator Jim Henson in 1990, The Muppets have been owned by The Walt Disney Company, through the Muppets Holding Company, since early 2004.

The word "Muppet" itself was said by Henson to have been created by combining the words "marionette" and "puppet"; however, Henson was also known to have stated that it was just something he liked the sound of, and he made up the "marionette/puppet" story while talking to a journalist because it sounded plausible. [1]

Muppets are distinguished from ventriloquist "dummies", which are typically animated only in the head and face, in that their arms or other features are also mobile and expressive. Muppets are typically made of softer materials. They are also presented as being independent of the puppeteer, who is usually not visible, hidden behind a set or outside of the camera frame.

Appearance

The most common design for a Jim Henson Muppet is a character with a very wide mouth and large protruding eyes. The puppets are often molded or carved out of foam rubber, and then covered with fleece. Yarn, nylon string, or (most commonly) ostrich feathers are used to create hair. As there is no "eye store" from which they can be purchased, Muppet eyes are often made (as in the case of the original Kermit) from ping-pong balls, from fishing floats, or from a hemispherical toy called a Wacky Stax. Muppets may represent humans, anthropomorphic animals, realistic animals, robots or anthropomorphic objects, extra-terrestrial creatures, mythical beings or other unidentified, newly imagined creatures.

Operation

The puppeteer typically holds the puppet above his head or in front of his body, with one hand operating the head and mouth and the other manipulating the hands and arms, either with two separate control rods or by "wearing" the hands like gloves. One consequence of this design is that most Muppets are left handed as the puppeteer uses his right hand to operate the head while operating the arm rod with his left hand. There are many other common designs and means of operation. In advanced puppets, several puppeteers may control a single character; the performer who controls the mouth usually provides the voice for the character. As technology has evolved, the Jim Henson team and other puppeteers have developed an enormous variety of means to operate puppets for film and television, including the use of suspended rigs, internal motors, remote radio control, and computer enhanced and superimposed images. Creative use of a mix of technologies has allowed for scenes in which Muppets appear to be riding a bicycle, rowing a boat, and even dancing onstage with no puppeteer in sight.

Famous Muppets

File:Fishinvid1024.jpg
The Muppets in Weezer's 'Keep Fishin'"

Famous Muppets include Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Rowlf the Dog, Beaker, Scooter, and Animal. The most widely known television shows featuring Muppets are Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, and The Muppet Show. A recurring adult-oriented cast of Muppets (in a setting known as The Land of Gorch) were part of the first season of Saturday Night Live. Other, less popular series have included The Jim Henson Hour and Muppets Tonight. The puppet characters of Farscape, The Storyteller, The Hoobs, and Dinosaurs, as well as from the films Labyrinth, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Dark Crystal, are not considered Muppets, although they were also made by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. For a history of Jim Henson's Muppets, see Jim Henson.

After earlier unsuccessful attempts, The Walt Disney Company finally bought the Muppets in 2004. Exceptions include characters appearing on Sesame Street (as they were previously sold to Sesame Workshop), the Fraggles of Fraggle Rock, along with the above-mentioned non-"Muppet"-brand characters.

The Muppets' popularity has been so expansive that Muppet characters have been treated as celebrities in their own right, including presenting at the Academy Awards, making cameos in Rocky III and An American Werewolf in London, and being interviewed on the newsmagazine 60 Minutes. Kermit the Frog was interviewed early on in Jon Stewart's run on The Daily Show, and Michael Parkinson once famously interviewed Miss Piggy on his UK chatshow.

Muppet-like and Muppet-inspired puppets star in the 2004 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Avenue Q (which disavows any relationship with Sesame Workshop or the Jim Henson Company).

Regional usage

In Great Britain and in Ireland the word muppet has come to be used as a mild term of abuse, meaning a stupid, incompetent, or moronic person, or the obvious interpretation of someone who is inanimated or somehow not there. It can also be applied (in the United Kingdom but not in Ireland) to an aesthetically displeasing individual.

The Swedish translation mupp is often used in a similar manner.

The term muppetry is also rapidly gaining popularity as a description for an individual, or group of people collectively behaving in a muppet like fashion. The origins are believed to have come from workers in large organisations, who were unhappy with the low to non-existent level of thought or application, that other colleagues put into their work. For example - "I'm sorry the figures will be late this quarter, due to the high amount of muppetry going on in the accounts department", or "Gregory's muppetry appears to have been infectious."

Cultural references

Some Muppets and their performers

There are only there major, unretired classic characters that have always been portrayed by one puppeteer. Two of them are Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Zoot, since they're performed by Dave Goelz, the only major Muppet performer who joined the Henson company before the early 1970s who hasn't since retired or passed away. (Gonzo technically only has Goelz as a perfomer, though an identical puppet with a different name was performed by someone else.)

The third unretired major classic character is Robin the Frog, performed by Jerry Nelson; the character has simply not been used again since Nelson's retirement in 2004-05.

Several minor characters, such as George the Janitor and Marvin Suggs (both performed by Frank Oz) only have one performer as well, but they have not been seen in some time.

Of the newer puppeters (1978-present), several of their characters have only been performed by one person: Bobo, Clifford, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Johnny Fiama, Marvin Suggs, Pepe, Rizzo the Rat.


Films and Specials

Jim Henson films (as director)
Sam and Friends (TV) (1955-61) (directed most episodes, except when he was traveling)
Time Piece (experimental short film) (1967)
Youth '68 (TV) (1968)
The Cube (TV) (1969)
Sesame Street (TV) (certain segments) (1969-90)
Hey Cinderella! (TV) (1970)
The Frog Prince (TV) (1971)
The Muppet Musicians of Bremen (TV) (1972)
The Muppets Valentine Show (TV) (1974)
A Muppet Family Christmas (TV) (1987)
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (TV) (1977)
The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show (TV) (1982)
The Dark Crystal (1982) (co-director with Frank Oz)
Fraggle Rock (TV) (1983-87) (select episodes)
Rocky Mountain Holiday with John Denver and the Muppets (TV) (1983)
Labyrinth (1986)
Tale of the Bunny Picnic (TV) (1986) (co-director)
The Storyteller (TV) (1987) (select episodes)
The Jim Henson Hour (TV) (1989) (one episode)
Dog City (TV) (1989)
Song of the Cloud Forest (TV) (1989)
Jim Henson's MuppetVision 3D (Disney-MGM Studios 3D Film) (1991)
Frank Oz films
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
Brian Henson films
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Muppet Treasure Island (1996)
Jim Frawley films
The Muppet Movie (1979)
Tim Hill films
Muppets from Space (1999)
Kirk Thatcher films
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002)(TV)
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005)(TV)
Other Muppet TV specials (not directed by Jim)
The Muppets Go Hollywood (1979)
John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together (1979)
The Muppets at the Movies (1981)
The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years (1985)
The Christmas Toy (1986)
A Muppet Family Christmas (1987)
The Muppets at Walt Disney World (1990)
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson (1990)
Direct-to-video (all-new material)
Muppet Classic Theater (1994)
Kermit's Swamp Years (Direct-to-Video) (2002)
(A series of direct-to-video compilations of The Muppet Show were distributed by Playhouse Video in the '80s, and "Muppet Sing-Along" compilations were distributed by Disney in the 1990s. While mostly containing vintage footage, some new footage was shot for wrapraround segments.)

See also

References

  1. ^ United States Postal Service (September 28, 2005). Jim Henson, Muppets, get stamps of approval. Press Release.



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