The Muppets are turning 70 this year (HBD), which has me longing for some reruns of The Muppet Show. Because Kermit the Frog is the greatest fictional character ever made, here are some super interesting vintage Muppet facts for you.
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In fact, Jim Henson was part of the inaugural cast of SNL.
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Jim Henson created the first Kermit the Frog out of one of his mother’s old coats. The eyes were a ping pong ball.
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Most Muppets are left-handed because the majority of Muppet performers are right-handed and prefer to control the head of the Muppets with their dominant hand.
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Cookie Monster typically eats rice cakes painted to look like cookies, as the oils from actual cookies are damaging to the Muppet.
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Frank Oz, the voice of Sam the American Eagle, is British.
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Polly Smith, the costume designer for The Muppet Show, helped invent the sports bra.
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To perform “Rainbow Connection” in The Muppet Movie, Jim Henson was submersed in a specially made diving bell to control Kermit the Frog in the swap during the opening number.
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And the “swamp” Kermit is sitting in is actually the lagoon from Gilligan’s Island.
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In The Muppet Movie, since space was so limited in Fozzie’s Studebaker, Frank Oz asked Jim Henson’s son, Brian, to operate Fozzie’s hand since he was a kid and took up less room. Brian says watching the film, he sees his blonde hair poking out of the frame.
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Instead of using a regular-sized Animal on a miniature set for the scene in The Muppet Movie where Animal swallows Dr. Honeydew’s Insta-Grow pills, the production team built a 60-foot-tall Animal head.
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The final shot of The Muppet Movie included roughly 250 Muppets, nearly every Muppet the Henson Company had made. To perform them, 137 puppeteers from all over the West Coast of the US came for “pit duty.”
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One of those puppeteers who came to help? Tim Burton.
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For The Dark Crystal, Jim Henson bought a derelict post office and converted it into a creature shop to make the creatures.
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Hoggle, a Muppet in Labyrinth, was in a suitcase that was lost while Jim Henson was traveling back from a movie studio overseas. Years later, it was found in a suitcase at the Unclaimed Baggage store in Scottsboro, Alabama. It was restored and is now on display there.
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Finally, Jim Henson is one of four people to be honored on the Walk of Fame, and ALSO have the character he played be honored on the Walk of Fame.
Who’s your favorite Muppet? Let us know in the comments below!
