What You Didn't Know About the Muppets
With their new movie coming out in November, we thought we'd share some secrets from the darkest reaches of the Muppet Theater!
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By UGO Team November 22, 2011 |
| 7 | Oscar the Orange? |
We all remember the trash loving Oscar the Grouch, but what most people don't know is that he used to be orange. It wasn't until 1970 that his puppet was redesigned to be green. The show's explanation? Oscar was vacationing in a swamp and never cleaned up.
| 6 | Puppetman |
No, it wasn't the weekly stories of an intrepid hero with puppet powers. Believe it or not, Henson created a pilot for a sitcom about someone who worked as a puppeteer on a show much like Sesame Street. Its plot would have dealt with real adult issues, while sometimes showing the puppet segments from the show within a show. Check out the opening below:
| 5 | Jim Henson Was a Badass |
We all think of Jim Henson as a warm, loving man, but beneath it all there was a badass. For the filming of the swamp scene in The Muppet Movie, Henson would spend 5 work days inside a bathysphere with only an air hose so he could control Kermit. What's more, he and his pal Kermit were singed when they were shooting the Great Muppet Caper's Hot Air Balloon scene. Finally, in a move rivalling anything in the Lord Of The Rings, Henson assembled almost every single puppeteer west of the Rockies to perform in the giant group shot in the finale of The Muppet Movie.
| 4 | There's an HIV Positive Muppet |
You might have heard about this character being introduced a little while back, but you may have missed some of the important facts about her. While there was some arguing about whether it was appropriate for children to be exposed to an HIV Positive character, Kami, the Muppet in question, only appears in Sesame Street incarnations outside of the U.S., like in South Africa, where just under 12% of the population has HIV. Despite this important fact, many groups threatened to have PBS's funding pulled. Check out her public service announcement:
| 3 | Jim Henson Had the Greatest Funeral...EVER |
Jim Henson was one of the coolest people who ever lived, so it only makes sense that he would go out with one of the greatest funerals of all time. Instead of sad and somber tunes, Henson had a Jazz band at his service, that finished the day out with a rendition of "When the Saints Go Marching In." What's more is people in the audience, who were not allowed to wear black, waved multicolored foam butterflies on sticks. After that, many of the Muppet performers even took to the stage and sang in the voices of their characters. Not enough for you? Big Bird even came up on stage and sang "Bein' Green." While a giant bird may seem comical, nothing has ever been so touching. Check it out below:
