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The Muppets
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Muppets are a group of puppet characters created by Jim Henson. Individually, a Muppet is properly one of the puppets made by Jim Henson or his company's workshop. Although 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 Henson.
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. Using the camera frame as the "stage" was an innovation of the Muppets[citation needed]. Previously on television, there would typically be a stage hiding the performers, as if in a live presentation.
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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. 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, or monsters.
The Muppeteer 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 Muppets, 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 on-stage with no puppeteer in sight.
- See also: Category:Muppet characters
Famous Muppets include Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Rowlf the Dog, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker, Scooter, Statler & Waldorf, the Swedish Chef, Sam the Eagle and Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem. 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. The Star Wars character Yoda was voiced by Frank Oz, one of Henson's regular voice actors, and was initially presented in the Star Wars films as a Muppet-like puppet and is often referred to as such in media and reference works; he is not, however, a Muppet and Henson's organization was not involved in the character's design.
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[citation needed]. 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, guest hosted The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and an April Fool's Day edition of Larry King Live, and has served as Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade. Michael Parkinson once famously interviewed Miss Piggy on his UK chatshow. They also appeared on such sit-coms and dramas as The Cosby Show, The West Wing and The Torkelsons.
In 2005 the Muppets launched the award-winning webseries Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony. The biweekly webshow ran for 15-months on movies.com and starred Statler and Waldorf along with many other popular Muppet characters. Each episode featured the duo as they discuss upcoming films, watch movie trailers and share the week's "balconism".
The music video for the Weezer song "Keep Fishin'" is premised on the band performing on The Muppet Show and features appearances by several characters. 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). On September 28, 2005, the United States Postal Service released a Jim Henson and the Muppets postage stamp series.[2] The Simpsons, Family Guy and hundreds of other TV shows and movies have made many references to The Muppets - for a more comprehensive list, see the references category at Muppet Wiki.
- The Muppet Movie (1979)
- The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
- The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
- Jim Henson's MuppetVision 3D (1991)
- The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
- Muppet Treasure Island (1996)
- Muppets from Space (1999)
- Sam and Friends (1955-61)
- Sesame Street (1969 – present)
- Saturday Night Live (1975-1976)
- The Muppet Show (1976-1981)
- Fraggle Rock (1983-87)
- Muppet Babies (1984-1991)
- The Jim Henson Hour (1989)
- Dog City (1989 special on NBC, regular show on Fox from 1992-1995)
- Muppets Tonight (1996-1998)
- Hey Cinderella! (1970)
- The Frog Prince (1971)
- The Muppet Musicians of Bremen (1972)
- The Muppets Valentine Show (1974)
- Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1977)
- The Muppets Go Hollywood (1979)
- John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together (1979)
- The Muppets at the Movies (1981)
- Of Muppets and Men (1981)
- The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show (1982)
- Rocky Mountain Holiday with John Denver and the Muppets (1983)
- The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years (1985)
- The Christmas Toy (1986)
- The Tale of the Bunny Picnic (1986)
- A Muppet Family Christmas (1987)
- Song of the Cloud Forest (1989)
- The Muppets at Walt Disney World (1990)
- The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson (1990)
- Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree (1995)
- Muppet Classic Theater (1994)
- Kermit's Swamp Years (2002)
- Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony on Movies.com (2005-2006)
- ^ Marionette and Puppet. Muppet Wiki.
- ^ United States Postal Service (September 28, 2005). Jim Henson, Muppets, get stamps of approval. Press Release.
- Official
- Muppets.com - Official website
- The Jim Henson Company - Official site of the creators of The Muppets
- Other
- Muppet Central - Prominent fan site
- The Muppet Newsflash - A news blog
- Muppet Wiki - Participatory encyclopedia
- MuppetCast - A podcast dedicated to the work of Jim Henson & The Muppets.
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| General: | Sesame Workshop • History • The Muppets • Characters |
| Segments: | Elmo's World • Bert and Ernie • Global Grover • Healthy Habits for Life • Sesame Street News Flash • Monsterpiece Theater • others... |
| Spin-offs: | Follow That Bird • The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland • Play with Me Sesame • Sesame Beginnings • Sesame Street Unpaved |
| Production: | Puppeteers • Crew • Animators • Emmy Awards • Songs • Discography |