28 Facts About The Muppets

The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential style of variety-sketch comedy.

The Muppets originated in the short-form television series Sam and Friends, which aired from 1955 to 1961.

The Muppets were created by puppeteer Jim Henson in the 1950s; Henson claimed, but later recanted, that he coined the term Muppet as a blend of the words marionette and puppet.

Originally conceived for an adult audience, the Muppets were introduced in 1955 in Sam and Friends, a short-form television series produced for WRC-TV in Washington, D C Developed by Henson and his future wife, Jane Nebel, the series was the first form of puppet media not to incorporate a physical proscenium arch typical of such works, relying instead on the natural framing of the television set through which it was viewed.

Exceptions included the Sesame Street characters; the Fraggle Rock characters, which were retained by Henson; the distribution rights to four films: The Muppets Take Manhattan, Muppets from Space, and Kermit's Swamp Years, which were retained by Sony Pictures Entertainment; and It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, retained by NBCUniversal Television Distribution.

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The Muppets made appearances on Disney Channel and starred in the ABC television film, The Muppets' Wizard of Oz.

That same year, Disney used the Muppets to promote their volunteerism program at the company's theme parks.

In 2011, the Muppets were featured in an eponymous seventh film, intended to serve as a "creative reboot" for the characters.

In March 2012, the Muppets received a collective star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Muppets Most Wanted was released in 2014, and starred Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey, and Ty Burrell.

Disney Theatrical Productions announced in 2013 that a live show based on the Muppets was in active development and that a 15-minute show had been conducted by Thomas Schumacher to see how the technical components would work.

The Muppets was canceled after one season, which concluded on March 1, 2016.

In September 2017, the Muppets performed a live concert series at the Hollywood Bowl, hosted by Bobby Moynihan.

The project, known as Muppets Live Another Day, was intended as a limited-run series set in the 1980s after the events of The Muppets Take Manhattan and depicted Kermit recruiting the Muppets to locate Rowlf the Dog after his disappearance.

The Muppets Haunted Mansion, a Halloween special based on the attraction of the same name, was released on October 8, 2021.

Guest stars on Saturday Night Live occasionally include both the Muppets and Sesame Street characters, as well as Muppet likenesses of real people; these likenesses appear recurrently in early episodes of The Muppet Show and on Sesame Street, and appear occasionally on other series such as 30 Rock.

The Muppets are currently performed by a core cast of six principal puppeteers: Vogel, Jacobson, Goelz, Barretta, Rudman, and Linz, with the occasional ensemble of "additional" Muppet performers that includes Julianne Buescher, Tyler Bunch, Alice Dinnean, Bruce Lanoil, Mike Quinn and others.

Majority of the Muppets are designed as hand puppets, with several characters utilizing rods.

The Muppets are distinguished from ventriloquist dummies, which are usually animated only in the head and face, in that their arms or other features are animated.

One consequence of this design is that most of the Muppets are left-handed, with the performer using their right hand to operate the head while operating the arm with their left hand.

Creative use of different technologies has allowed for scenes in which the Muppets appear to exhibit complex movements wholly independently of the performer.

When interacting with them, children believed that The Muppets were living beings, even when the performers were present.

Legal music publishing rights to The Muppets songs are controlled by Fuzzy Muppet Songs and Mad Muppet Melodies, imprints of Disney Music Publishing.

Similar to other Disney characters, the Muppets appear at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, having first appeared at Walt Disney World in 1990.

In 2010, the Muppets were the face of the "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" charity campaign.

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The Muppets appeared in television and print ads for the campaign and were featured prominently on the campaign's Web site.

These include Limited Edition pins, Hidden Mickey pin collections, mystery pin sets, 2008 pin sets promoting The Muppets, cast lanyard pins, and assorted individual rack pins.

The Muppets have a collective star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with Kermit having been previously individually inducted in 2002.