The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence
The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence was one of two pilot films for the later television series The Muppet Show . Jim Henson produced the film in December 1974 for the American television station ABC . The film was broadcast on March 19, 1975 on ABC, but the station itself did not want to produce a series about the Muppets. The second pilot film The Muppet Valentine Special was released in 1974, but its content is far less reminiscent of the later Muppet Show than Sex and Violence.
content
The content of the film is reminiscent of later episodes of the Muppet Show: it is a quick sequence of different scenes in which puppets appear. Characters who later played a role in the Muppet show were Sam, the American eagle , Sgt. Floyd Pepper , The Danish Chef , Statler and Waldorf (at that time still in club chairs and not in a theater box), a pre-form of Miss Piggy has her first speaking role in a Planet of the Apes parody Beneath the Planet of the Pigs , and Kermit the Frog is seen briefly. The host is not Kermit, but " Nigel ", who is visually reminiscent of the later Muppet character Scooter , but whose behavior is more like a quieter Kermit. Art critic Christopher Finch briefly described Nigel as a washcloth lacking any courage or charisma . Jim Henson believed Nigel's invention to be a mistake shortly after the show was taped. In the later Muppet show, Nigel is the conductor of the orchestra.
Unique to the show is a wrestler by the name of "The San Francisco Earthquake." The occasional framework story is a show about The Seven Deadly Sins that the Muppets are supposed to prepare but never actually do. Many of the dolls that would later become central to the Muppet show (Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo , Fozzie Bär ) are already available in Sex and Violence, but either have very short speaking roles or are only in the background. The characters that are central to Sex and Violence, on the other hand, only play a minor role in the Muppet show. While many of the dolls were already part of Henson's repertoire, Statler and Waldorf and the band were created by Sgt. Floyd Pepper especially for Sex and Violence .
The show contains allusions to the history of the dolls. The dog Rolf , who had been a doll in commercials for several years at the time, laments his loss of popularity, while Bert and Ernie dance tightly together. At the beginning of the show will sound a gong and it appears the word "Sex and Violence" ( sex and violence ) before a spokesman announced "the end of sex and violence on TV." Then a crazy giggling doll appears ( Crazy Harry ), which blows up the lettering.
The show already takes place in a vaudeville theater, in which the later Muppet show will also find its plot. However, in contrast to the later Muppet show, there was no guest star, and Kermit is far from assuming a central role.
production
Henson had appeared on television with various dolls and muppets for several decades in the 1970s. By far the greatest success he had achieved was Sesame Street , which has been running since 1969 and is intended for children . Henson, who actually started his career with bitterly ironic pieces in the late-night program and had his greatest successes before the Muppet Show with pieces on the Ed Sullivan Show , wanted to avoid the Muppets being seen purely as children's entertainment and conceived a Muppet show that explicitly addressed adults.
As early as 1960, Henson had been designing concepts for a kind of variety show with puppets that portrayed life in front of and behind the scenes, and since 1968 tried to sell the concept to television broadcasters in a more targeted manner. These refused, and Henson attempted a concept change as a holiday special with The Muppets Valentine Show with Dolls and with actress Mia Farrow . The show was successful enough that Henson was able to produce a second pilot film that was much closer to his original ideas. The pilot did not result in the major American television networks taking over the show. It seemed too uncertain to them whether the presumed children's format puppet show was suitable as an evening program. However, Henson was able to sell the idea to Lew Grade and his British Elstree Studios , which also gave Henson complete artistic freedom.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ a b c Jim Henson's Red Book 3/19/1975 - 'AIR The Muppet Show ABC. Watch it with Dad and Bob in Albuquerque. ' ( Memento of the original from March 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Jim Henson Foundation
- ↑ a b c d Mike Springer: Jim Henson Pilots The Muppet Show with Adult Episode, “Sex and Violence” (1975) , Open Culture February 24, 2012
- ↑ a b Christopher Finch: Jim Henson. The Works - the Art, the Magic, the Imagination. New York 1993, ISBN 0-679-41203-4 , p. 42
- ↑ a b Harald Keller: The Muppets and the End of Sex and Violence ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , evangelisch.de January 18, 2012
- ↑ Kathleen E. Kennedy: It's Time to Get Together for Some Sex and Violence on The Muppet Show? in: Jennifer C. Garlen (ed.): Kermit Culture: Critical Perspectives on Jim Henson's Muppets , McFarland (May 15, 2009), ISBN 0-7864-4259-X
