What You Didn't Know About the Muppets

We've all heard him say, "Kermit the frog here," but it was almost "Kermit the lizard here." Originally Kermit started out as a mere green scaly creature, and didn't make the official jump (pun!)  to frog until 1971's The Frog Prince.

Got that idea for a book you've been working on since college? Well, I'm sorry to say that it will probably never sell as well as something written by a pig; Miss Piggy to be exact. 1981's Miss Piggy's Guid to Life was on the New York Times bestsellers list for 29 weeks straight. Will the similarly porcine Snooki top that?

Making some of the Muppet's most memorable scenes is hard and often dangerous work. Take for instance the many driving scenes in The Muppet Movie. You might have guessed that they didn't let a puppet drive the car, but you probably didn't know that there was a midget in the trunk driving with a remote control and using a television monitor to see. On at least one occasion the monitor went out, and he had to be guided by ear. The Muppet's first movie could've been their last.

I bet you've heard of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, the womb of the Muppets used on TV and in the movies. Did you know that the very same workshop has been making things for some of your favorite movies?

The aliens in A Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy? Yup! The monsters from 2009's Where The Wild Things Are? You bet! They even created the suits for everyone's favorite heroes in a half-shell, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And here you thought you stopped watching the Muppets a long time ago.