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https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/kermit-the-frog-was-just-trying-to-put-on-a-variety-show-fifty-years-later-the-muppets-are-some-of-the-biggest-stars-in-television-history-180989451/>
"The curtain opens on a Muppet named Gonzo, framed by a ladder and a ghost
light. The scruffy blue creature has decided to leave “The Muppet Show” to
become a movie star, and this is his farewell act. As he performs a wistful
rendition of “My Way,” his voice begins to falter. He’s sad to leave his
friends behind—so sad that the host, Kermit the Frog, cuts the number short.
After the segment aired, viewers told Dave Goelz, the human who performs Gonzo,
that they’d been moved to tears. Their reaction surprised the puppeteer, who
had been nervous about making an emotional moment land. “I was really
uncomfortable doing it,” he says. “It was the kind of thing I joined puppetry
to avoid.” He knew he could make audiences laugh, but making them cry? That was
new.
Goelz has been bringing Gonzo to life for half a century, and fans frequently
tell him that the show’s “resident weird person” gave them permission to be
different. He had never tried to project that message. But in retrospect, he
can see that he’d been seeking a similar sort of permission. “I was trying to
prove that I was okay,” he says. “I was trying to become a proficient
performer—and in life in general, I was trying to feel better about myself.”
As he developed new characters, such as Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, he would start by
identifying a flaw within himself. “I would isolate it and amplify it, and then
try to make it lovable,” he says. “Because it was the Muppets. We had to be
lovable.”
And audiences did love them. The series debuted in September 1976, and less
than two years later, the New York Times was calling it “possibly the most
popular contemporary television program in the world.” These days, fans gather
each year to celebrate show creator Jim Henson’s birthday, performers regularly
appear at fan events, and Muppets memorabilia sells for impressive sums at
auction. Last year’s commencement speaker at the University of Maryland,
Henson’s alma mater, was none other than Kermit.
The Muppet universe is vast, and today’s audiences are familiar with its
characters and conventions through decades of film and television. But it all
came together on “The Muppet Show,” which turns 50 this year. Unlike in later
adventures, the characters weren’t trying to thwart jewel thieves or break out
of a Siberian gulag or reunite with their space-alien relatives. Their goal was
far more complicated: putting on a successful variety show."
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*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
