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Like a lot of you, I grew up on Sesame Street and the Muppets. But did you ever stop to wonder where they came from? Some of the characters we know and love were recycled from other TV shows and commercials Jim Henson worked on, while others were invented by using whatever materials were around. Be prepared for a little nostalgia, and I hope I didn’t leave out your favorite – not all of the characters have interesting background stories (sorry, Big Bird).
1. Cookie Monster. Jim Henson drew some monsters eating various snacks for a General Foods commercial in 1966. The commercial was never used, but Henson recycled one of the monsters (the “Wheel-Stealer”) for an IBM training video in 1967 and again for a Fritos commercial in 1969. By this time, he started working on Sesame Street and decided this monster would have a home there.
2. Elmo. The way it’s described by a Sesame Street writer, apparently this extra red puppet was just lying around. People would try to do something with him, but nothing really panned out. In 1984, puppeteer Kevin Clash picked up the red puppet and started doing the voice and the personality and it clicked – thus, Elmo was born.
3. Telly Monster was originally the Television Monster when he debuted in 1979. He was obsessed with TV and his eves would whirl around as if hypnotized whenever he was in front of a set. After a while, producers started worrying about his influence on youngsters, so they changed him to make him the chronic worrier he is now.
4. Count von Count made his first appearance in 1972 and was made out of an Anything Muppet pattern – a blank Muppet head that could have features added to it to make various characters. He used to be more sinister – he was able to hypnotize and stun people and he laughed in typical scary-villain-type fashion after completing a count of something and thunder and lightning would occur. He was quickly made more appealing to little kids, though. He is apparently quite the ladies’ man – he has been linked to Countess von Backward, who loves to count backward; Countess Dahling von Dahling and Lady Two.
5. Kermit was “born” in 1955 and first showed up on “Sam and Friends,” a five-minute puppet show by Jim Henson. The first Kermit was made out of Henson’s mom’s coat and some ping pong balls. At the time, he was more lizard-like than frog-like. By the time he showed up on Sesame Street in 1969, though, he had made the transition to frog. There are rumors that he got the name Kermit from a childhood friend of Henson’s or a puppeteer from the early days of the Muppets, but Henson always refuted both of those rumors.
6. Real Swedish Chef Lars “Kuprik” Bäckman claims he was the inspiration for the Swedish Chef. He was on Good Morning America, he says, and caught Jim Henson’s eye. Henson supposedly bought the rights to the Good Morning America recording and created the Swedish Chef (who DOES have a real name, but it’s not understandable). One of the Muppet writers, Jerry Juhl, says that in all of the years of working with Jim Henson on the Swedish Chef, he never heard that the character was based on a real person.
7. Animal. Everyone’s favorite member of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem may have been inspired by Keith Moon of The Who. This is speculation, but people who support this theory will point out that Jim Henson named one of the Fraggle Rock characters “Wembley,” which is the town Moon was born in.
8. Miss Piggy is apparently from Iowa. Makes sense. Anyway, she started as a minor character on The Muppet Show, but anyone who knows Miss Piggy can see that she wouldn’t settle for anything “minor.” Her first TV appearance was actually on an Herb Alpert special. It wasn’t until 1976, when The Muppet Show premiered, that she became the glamorous blonde with a penchant for frog that we know and love today. Frank Oz once said that Miss Piggy grew up in Iowa; her dad died when she was young and her mother was mean. She had to enter beauty contests to make money.
9. Rowlf the Dog, surprise, surprise, was first made in 1962 for a series of Purina Dog Chow commercials. He went on to claim fame as Jimmy Dean’s sidekick on The Jimmy Dean Show and was on every single episode from 1963 to 1966. Jimmy Dean said Rowlf got about 2,000 letters from fans every week. He was considered for Sesame Street but ended up becoming a regular on The Muppet Show in 1976.
10. Oscar the Grouch is performed by the same guy who does Big Bird, Carroll Spinney. Spinney said he based Oscar’s cranky voice on a particular NYC cab driver he once had the pleasure of riding with. He was originally an alarming shade of orange. In Pakistan, his name is Akhtar and he lives in an oil barrel. In Turkey, he is Kirpik and lives in a basket. And in Israel, it’s not Oscar at all – it’s his cousin, Moishe Oofnik, who lives in an old car.
11. Gonzo. What exactly is Gonzo? Nobody knows. Even Jim Henson had no particular species in mind. Over the course of The Muppet Show, Muppet Babies and various Muppet movies, Gonzo has been referred to as a “Whatever”, a “Weirdo” and an alien. Whatever he is, he first appeared on the scene in 1970’s The Great Santa Claus Switch. His name was Snarl the Cigar Box Frackle. In 1974, he showed up on a T.V. special for Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. He became Gonzo the Great by the first season of The Muppet Show and developed his thing for Camilla the Chicken almost accidentally: during one episode where chickens were auditioning for the show, puppeteer Dave Goelz ad-libbed, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you… nice legs, though!” It was decided then and there that Gonzo would have a bizarre romantic interest in chickens.
12. You have to love Statler and Waldorf. I couldn’t find much on their particular inspiration, but I can tell you that they’ve been around since the 1975 Muppet Show pilot. They are named after popular New York City hotels (the Statler Hotel was renamed the Hotel Pennsylvania in 1992.) Guess what Waldorf’s wife name is? Yep… Astoria (she looks startlingly like Statler.) FYI, Waldorf is the one with the mustache and white hair. Statler has the grey hair. Apparently Waldorf has had a pacemaker for more than 30 years.
13. Beaker. I always thought of Beaker and his buddy Bunsen Honeydew as characters that came along later in the Muppet timeline, but they have been around since the The Muppet Show. Although Beaker usually says things along the lines of, “Mee-mee-mee-mee!”, he has had a few actual lines: “Sadly temporary,” “Bye-Bye” and “Make-up ready!” Despite being word-challenged, he manages to do a pretty convincing Little Richard impression and, surprisingly, had mad beatbox skills. Beaker is one of the only Muppets that was never recycled from some other purpose – he was created solely for The Muppet Show.
14. Fozzie Bear. Poor Fozzie. He’s the perpetual target of Statler and Waldorf because of his horrible jokes and puns. It actually created a bit of a problem during the first season of The Muppet Show, because when Fozzie got heckled, he got very upset and sometimes cried. Viewers didn’t feel sympathy; they felt embarrassed. The problem was solved by making Fozzie an optimist so that even when he got heckled he was good-natured about it. It’s often thought that he was named after Frank Oz, who was his puppeteer, but Frank said it’s just a variant of “fuzzy bear.” Yet another story says he was named for his builder, Faz Fazakas. Wocka wocka!!
15. Bert and Ernie are the Muppet version of Felix and Oscar (the Odd Couple, for you young’uns). Lots of people think Bert and Ernie were named for some minor characters in It’s A Wonderful Life, but according to the Henson company, that’s just a rumor. Jim Henson always maintained that it was just a coincidence – the names just went well together and seemed to fit the characters. Jerry Juhl, one of the head writers, corroborated this and said that Jim Henson had no memory for details like that and would have never remembered the name of the cop and the taxi cab driver in the old Jimmy Stewart movie.
Other rumors to clear up: Bert and Ernie aren’t gay and neither one of them are dead. Now that we’ve got that straightened out, here are a few more tidbits: the original Ernie used to have a gravelly voice similar to Rowlf the Dog’s. Frank Oz was Bert’s puppeteer and hated him at the beginning. He thought Bert was ridiculously boring, but then realized that he could have a lot of fun with being boring. Jim Henson once said, “I remember trying Bert and Frank tried Ernie for a while. I can’t imagine doing Bert now, because Bert has become so much of a part of Frank.”
16. Grover. Everyone’s favorite “cute, furry little monster” made his TV debut on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1967. At the time, he was known as “Gleep” and was a monster in Santa’s Workshop. He then appeared on the first season of Sesame Street, but sported green fur and a reddish-orange nose. He didn’t have a name then, but by the second season he transformed into the Grover we know today, more or less – electric blue fur and a pink nose. The original green Grover was reincarnated as Grover’s Mommy for a few episodes. In Latin America and Puerto Rico Grover is known as Archibaldo, in Spain he is Coco, in Portugal he is Gualter and in Norway he is Gunnar.
17. Sweetums is one of a handful of full-body Muppets. He showed up in 1971 on the TV special The Frog Prince. This is where he got his name – when Sir Robin the Brave is about to defeat the ogre, a witch shows up and changes him into a frog (who later becomes Robin, Kermit’s nephew). Apparently smitten with the ogre, the witch tells her darling “Sweetums” that he can have the frog for breakfast.
Bigger fame awaited Sweetums, though – in 1975, he appeared on Cher’s variety show to do a duet with her to “That Old Black Magic”. He officially joined The Muppet Show cast in 1976.
18. Rizzo the Rat might sound familiar to you, especially if you’ve seen Midnight Cowboy – he is named for Dustin Hoffman’s character, Ratso Rizzo. He was created after puppeteer Steve Whitmire was inspired by rat puppets made from bottles. He first showed up on The Muppet Show as one of a group of rats following Christopher Reeve around – he’s easy to spot because he hams it up more than any of the other rats. He occasionally performs with Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.
19. Pepe the King Prawn’s full name is Pepino Rodrigo Serrano Gonzales. I heart Pepe. He was a chef in Madrid before going Hollywood on Muppets Tonight in 1996. He was paired with Seymour the Elephant (Pepe was originally going to be a mouse) on the show, but Seymour never developed quite the same following and was only in two episodes. He rarely gets names right – some of his mispronunciations include “muffins” instead of Muppets, “Kermin” instead of Kermit and “Scooper” instead of Scooter. He’s quite full of himself – in addition to thinking that he’s quite the ladies’ man, he also fully expects to win several Oscars.
20. Herry Monster from Sesame Street was the Big Bad Wolf in his original incarnation, which you can kind of tell by looking at his fur. It’s pretty wolf-like (if wolves were blue, I mean). He became a Sesame monster in 1970 to replace the Beautiful Day Monster, who looked kind of like Sam the Eagle and existed to cause destruction wherever he went, thus ruining the beautiful day people had been having before he showed up. Herry used to have a furry nose but got upgraded to his non-furry, purple nose in 1971.
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Comments (51)
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I was vaguely traumatized when I saw Sesame Street a few weeks ago, and Bert and Ernie were CGI.
posted by M on 1-1-2009 at 12:35 pm
I don’t know if this is true or not, but I heard that the face of either Statler or Waldorf is a caricature of one of Jim Henson’s art teachers. According to the story, this teacher was something of a purist; he scoffed when he saw Henson’s puppets and told him they wouldn’t amount to anything.
posted by ESJ on 1-1-2009 at 1:13 pm
Bert may not be gay or dead but he is evil!
posted by Tom on 1-1-2009 at 2:03 pm
Stadler and Waldorf were based on two professors at the University of Maryland, College Park, who used to walk around campus arguing with each other. They may have had different names in real life, however they were a fixture of the campus for many years, and are mentioned on the campus tour given to prospective students.
posted by AdinaB on 1-1-2009 at 3:39 pm
Keith Moon as Animal?! Hmmm… I always thought Mick Fleetwood was the inspiration. Mick’s facial expressions while drumming are a dead ringer for Animal.
posted by Liz on 1-1-2009 at 3:52 pm
Reading this while listening to the Muppet show theme song… Awesome
Man i miss the Bert is Evil website..
posted by dbus on 1-1-2009 at 8:38 pm
Wasn’t Fozzie originally “Sam” of Sam and Friends?
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 1-1-2009 at 10:13 pm
Fozzie’s mom’s name is Emily. She’s in the old Muppet Christmas special.
posted by Emmie on 1-2-2009 at 9:20 am
Exactly when did Kermit stop appearing on SS? Even teens and 20-somethings don’t know he was ever on SS….
posted by jeff on 1-2-2009 at 11:17 am
I read that Oscar was actually named after a resturantuer in New York.
posted by Sara on 1-2-2009 at 12:00 pm
“He first showed up on The Muppet Show as one of a group of rates following Christopher Reeve around – he’s easily to sport because he hams it up more than any of the other rats.”
This sentence makes me cringe…please hire someone to do proof-reading. You can pay me…I’ll check everything.
rates should be rats
easily should be easy
sport should be spot
posted by Heather Dawn on 1-2-2009 at 12:08 pm
What about Scooter, Zoot, Big Bird, and Dr. Teeth (and his strange blonde wife)? And what about the muppet babies (like Skeeter and some of the smaller ones). How about a Fraggle or two?
posted by Ian on 1-2-2009 at 3:05 pm
Wow! I actually remember my brother and I getting “Croonchy Stars” as kids!
And I remember Kermit on SS. (29)
posted by Nerak on 1-2-2009 at 3:43 pm
I had always secretly hoped that Rowlf the Dog was inspired by a young Tom Waits. Disappointed to find out I was off the mark.
posted by Jenny on 1-2-2009 at 4:49 pm
You guys missed the obvious one. Zoot is based on Zoot Sims, an actual jazz tenor saxophonist. They even have similar shades.
posted by TMTN on 1-2-2009 at 5:33 pm
I have vague recollections of a huge muppet on the Ed Sullivan Show called something like The Great Vah-Vahg (almost Jaba the Hut looking I think) and weasily muppets would go to him for advice and the Great vah-Vahg would say in a loud deep voice something like, “It’ll cost ya…two chickens and your friend.” Anf one muppet would throw the other one over the fence then two muppet chickens would fly over and the answer would come.
Any youtube or place to get the story straight?
posted by Kenny on 1-2-2009 at 6:40 pm
Caroll Spinney is one of the nicest men you’d ever meet (or at least correspond with!). And in his book, he does say that Oscar was inspired by a cab driver.
Sweetums actually appears live every day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in the Muppets 3D show. While most of the muppets are on screen (or in balconies like Statler & Waldorf or Bean Bunny or in the projection booth like the Swedish Chef or in “the orchestra pit” like the penguins) Sweetums actually comes out into the audience to search for Bean Bunny. Muppet fans should NOT miss this attractions (even if it is a bit dated)
posted by Beth on 1-2-2009 at 6:41 pm
I LOVE Rizzo and Pepe. I think that I may actually be Miss Piggy. Count Von Count, Cookie Monster, Gover and Oscar & his worm slimey are my favorite SS muppets. I also love Gonzo. In the 1999 move Muppets from Space we find out that Gonzo is really an alien and his race was called the whatevers if I remember correctly. Sam Eagle is sexy. I am twisted… may be why I love the muppets so much. I remember Kermit on SS (26). That was back before half the show was that annoying Elmo’s world segment. I lothe Elmo.
posted by The Queen on 1-2-2009 at 8:51 pm
Kenny, The Great Vah-Vahd (?) was featured on the first season of Saturday Night Live. They had 10 to 12 Muppet sketches that year with three other alien muppets. Two of the muppets would go ask for advice and give the chickens. Frank Oz provided the voice for The Great Vah-Vahd.
They only did a few more Muppet sketches on the 2nd season of SNL before Henson started The Muppet Show.
posted by AJ on 1-2-2009 at 9:08 pm
My favorite muppets of all time? The aliens. Go to youtube and type “sesame street aliens” into the search bar. The videos are hilarious!
posted by 70s Kid on 1-2-2009 at 10:18 pm
I’m so happy to read this…brings back many fond memories of my childhood. Thanks for the memories…
posted by Christy on 1-2-2009 at 11:34 pm
Heather Dawn…GET A LIFE…YOU REALLY NEED TO GET OUT MORE…Great post – regardless of what she thinks….keep it up!
posted by john doe on 1-2-2009 at 11:37 pm
For what it’s worth, rumour circulates in Canada that Waldorf and Statler arose from Jim Henson’s fondness for hockey. Supposedly Harold Ballard, the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and one of his cronies would sit in his box at Maple Gardens and heckle the players.
posted by Scroll Troll on 1-3-2009 at 12:32 am
It’s so hard to pick a favourite muppet but Kermit and Miss Piggy are close to the top of the list! They’re who I think of when I hear the muppet show tune. The rows, the onscreen attraction and love between them is fabulous! They should have their own sitcom!
posted by Diane on 1-3-2009 at 5:51 am
They left out quite a few…Big Bird..for a good one remember when he wouls take a nap? He would cuddle his teddy bear,settle in his nest ans snore with his head tucked under his wing…ahh memories…that was the good ol days when it was simple and I only wish my kids could have grown up when I did.
posted by crystal on 1-3-2009 at 9:16 am
I always figured Gonzo was a mosquito. I don’t know, whatever. And Oscar was my favs.
posted by Amanda H. on 1-3-2009 at 2:19 pm
Gonzo is the man
posted by Marlene on 1-3-2009 at 3:07 pm
I wonder what would have become of Elmo if Jim Henson had lived longer. I like the little red bathmat in small doses (my 2 year old loves him in any dosage), but giving him a full third of each Sesame Street show is a bit much.
I love Cookie Monster, and especially Monsterpiece Theatre.
posted by Mike on 1-3-2009 at 9:11 pm
Big Bird – yes, he had Radar the teddy bear (much like Radar on M*A*S*H had). And according to an A&E show, Big Bird was only created after the initial pilots of Sesame Street failed. Other interesting note about Big Bird – he’s always been only roughly 4yo. He has a young voice, he reacts to difficult things (Mr. Hooper’s death, the big rainstorm) the way pre-schoolers do. And he still can’t read, 35+ years later! I think there’s plenty of interesting stories about him!
posted by debzanne on 1-4-2009 at 3:02 am
They didnt mention Dr. Teeth was taken from henson’s love of the musician Dr. John (mac rebbenack).
posted by dr teeth on 1-4-2009 at 6:33 pm
My friend was a member of Alpha Xi Delta sorority and always claimed that Fozzie was named after them. According to her, Jim Henson’s wife was a member, Fozzie is derived from the phonetic pronounciation of the letters, and the sorority’s mascot is a bear. Not sure if it’s true, but she seems to think so.
posted by Steve on 1-5-2009 at 12:49 pm
Kermit was named after a camera man that used to film Jim Henson’s puppet show on WJZ13 in Baltimore in the 50’s.
posted by Bill on 1-5-2009 at 2:23 pm
Ok, this is the real scoop on the origin of Miss Piggy.
My sixth grade teacher, whose name was Carmen Edgerly (and who passed away recently :( ). Her husband, who I think was friends with Jim Henson or something, used to make pig-like drawings of her when she was pregnate with her son. His nickname for her during this time was “Miss Piggy”, which Henson or someone close to him apparently thought was hillarious and adopted.
posted by Ed Weiss on 1-5-2009 at 5:27 pm
I definitely remember when Kermit did his news updates on Sesame Street (I’m 26). I now have a 2 year old who began watching SS and was dismayed that Kermit was gone and Elmo was half the show.
The Muppet Christmas Carol, while coming well after the Muppets’ defining years, is my favorite Christmas movie of all time.
Thanks for this piece, very interesting!
posted by Daniel on 1-5-2009 at 8:37 pm
I definitely remember when Kermit did his news updates on Sesame Street (I’m 26). I now have a 2 year old who began watching SS and was dismayed that Kermit was gone and Elmo was half the show.
The Muppet Christmas Carol, while coming well after the Muppets’ defining years, is my favorite Christmas movie of all time.
Thanks for this piece, very interesting! (Sorry if this gets double posted, I had some internet trouble)
posted by Daniel on 1-5-2009 at 8:38 pm
I too heart Pepe!
posted by Anna on 1-6-2009 at 10:12 pm
Statler and Waldorf = Bob and Ray.
posted by danny on 1-7-2009 at 10:39 am
wtf…what about Big Bird? I mean, ffs! You can’t leave out the big, huge 8 foot yellow bird. Or what about Snuffleupagus the huge mammoth Muppet?
You could have made it about 22 muppet favorites. Still would have had a nice ring to it. Sure beats leaving out two of the most popular muppets to date just so you can have an even number (20) to blog about.
-J
posted by Justin on 1-7-2009 at 2:19 pm
I heart The Muppets! I enjoyed this fun trip down memory lane. The Muppet Show was during a time when TV made more sense. I miss those days. Sigh…
posted by Kay on 1-8-2009 at 10:30 am
A couple of quick facts:
Kermit stopped appearing on Sesame Street when CTW and Henson Productions were split into two separate companies, the latter being eventually sold to the Walt Disney Co.
Waldorf is always on Statlers right as that’s how the hotels stand in NYC.
Swedish Chef was inspired by a gag tape that Jim Henson had called “How to Speak Swedish” consisting of made up words and phrases.
Rowlf was retired after Jim Henson’s death, though he does appear on the latest Muppet’s Christmas special.
I need to get out more.
posted by the other jeff on 1-12-2009 at 9:44 am
Sam the Eagle was my hero.
posted by BuriedCaesar on 1-12-2009 at 11:33 pm
Bert may not be Dead nor Evil, but by definition… Gay. Neurotically!
To Tom #3 :P
P.s. – O.k., ‘Gayllie’ Evil!
posted by I C Kook on 1-13-2009 at 12:30 am
Heather Dawn…
Ham it up, don’t we see that we have a budding Shakespeare, ‘blogging’, might we add, on the Super-internet, highway; of what English, virtuously, intrinsic and of conjuration, makes us all poetic and sub-climbed, anterior learn thus: Lear forward!!
The Gall… The Gall… The Gall.
:p :p
posted by I C Kook! on 1-13-2009 at 12:41 am
this is the best thing ive read in weeks. :)
posted by sarah on 1-16-2009 at 10:43 am
Jesus, I’m reading the comments and all I hear is, “WAH WAH WAH!” Babies.
posted by blue on 1-19-2009 at 9:15 am
Thank you for clearing up the rumor about “Bert and Ernie” being named after the characters in “It’s a Wonderful Life”. I always thought it was true. I’ll stop spreading the rumor. One more thing, the character that Frank Oz played in the “Blues Brothers” as the property control jailer in the beginning of the movie kept certain characteristics of his puppets which is pretty cool.
posted by Michael J on 1-21-2009 at 2:41 pm
What about Rolf? I’m convinced the piano-playing 70s crooner incarnation of the one and only Tom Waits is real-life character upon which Rolf is based.
Who’s with me?
posted by Kevin on 2-10-2009 at 2:54 pm
What about “Rolf”? I’m convinced that the real-life character on whom Rolf is based upon the piano-playing 1970s incarnation of Tom Waits.
Who’s with me? “The Piano Has Been Drinking” not Jim Henson, eh???
KP
posted by Kevin P on 2-10-2009 at 3:15 pm
“I always thought of Beaker and his buddy Bunsen Honeydew as characters that came along later in the Muppet timeline, but they have been around since the The Muppet Show. ”
How old are you? Everyone who watched the Muppets as a child knows that!
posted by Sam on 2-10-2009 at 4:32 pm
I’d always heard that Animal was based on Artimus Pyle, who was Lynyrd Skynyrd’s drummer.
posted by Sean Morrison on 2-10-2009 at 6:18 pm
i love bart too hes my fav
posted by electronics on 3-2-2009 at 2:36 pm