"My Favorite Item" Celebrating The Muppet Show's 40th Anniversary - Part 4!

To celebrate The Muppet Show's 40th Anniversary we conclude our look at the Muppet communities favorite Muppet Show related items.

Rachel Herrick (Adorkable Rachel)

My favorite Muppet item is my copy of Imagination Illustrated: The Jim Henson Journal. 

I was really lucky to visit the set of Muppets Most Wanted when they were filming in 2013. 

While there, I got all of the Muppeteers on set to sign my book, including Steve Whitmire, Dave Goelz, Matt Vogel, Eric Jacobson, David Rudman, Bill Barretta, Peter Linz, and my friend Kevin Carlson. That was one of the best days of my life, and now I have proof that it happened.

Austin M. Costello
I’ll start with two honorable mentions and then a real favorite…

The Statler and Waldorf Igel figures (with their sofa): I originally purchased them from FAO
Schwarz in New York City as a kid for $35 each and the couch later on eBay. They’ve sat atop a bookshelf in my room ever since.

The “It’s The Muppets” VHS series: I have SO many fond memories of watching these tapes with my family, plus it was my first exposure to The Muppet Show.

And now they are on Youtube!

It's the Muppets! - Meet the Muppets!

It's the Muppets! - More Muppets Please!

And finally,

The Playhouse Video series!

This set of 10 VHS tapes was a “best of” compilation of The  Muppet Show by theme. Rock Music, Country Music, a Fozzie collection, and 7 others were  among this ‘80s roundup of clips from our favorite show hosted by an amphibian. “Children’s Songs and Stories” was the first of these that I watched, having had rented it so many times from a local Blockbuster. 

“Muppet Weird Stuff,” hosted by The Great Gonzo from his trailer park mansion, was the next one I caught from eBay, and then the rest came over time. They’re super sweet and fairly hard to find compilations of the show with new footage of the Muppets to wrap around the clips. Each VHS has a gatefold cover with goofy Muppet facts on the inside (“Did you Know? Kermit The Frog’s middle name is actually THE, and Miss Piggy’s first name is actually MISS!”). 

Part of the fun of collecting these videos was the trailer at the end of the tape which announced each of the other videos in the series… for a teenage Muppet fan in the 2000s, this was a real hunt to find them all!

Here’s one of the videos from the collection! (Editor's Note: My favorite from the series) 

Rock Music with The Muppets
Stay tuned at the end for the trailer of other video features! 

Noel MacNeal (Bear in The Big Blue House)

The Muppet Show Game by Parker Bros:

I got it at the Lampson's (the other store that was not Woolworth) in our neighborhood. I loved playing with it and rediscovered it when I was cleaning out my mom's apt and my old room. It was in a box filled with my "Muppet collection" including my membership to the fan club!

Chris Stulz (Muppet Stuff)

Whenever people ask me what my favorite Muppet Show item is it's really hard to narrow it down to just one. But I'd have to say it's The Muppet Show album. 

You see kids, before the internet, DVD, and even before home video became popular, this album was one of the only ways of experiencing some of The Muppet Show's best segments over and over again. And boy was this record played over and over again at my house!

You can listen to the whole thing below:

Well that's gonna wrap up our look at the Muppet communities favorite Muppet Show related items, but before we go we'd like to thank everyone who shared their stories with us! 

Here's to the next 40 years of The Muppet Show! Yaaaaaaaaaaay!

"My Favorite Item" Celebrating The Muppet Show's 40th Anniversary - Part 3!

To celebrate The Muppet Show's 40th Anniversary we continue our look at the Muppet communities favorite Muppet Show related items.

Chris Harris (The Muppet Cast)

Editor's Note: You may recall seeing Chris Harris in part one, but we wanted to included his second submission as well...

My second favorite item has a lot of sentimental value. It is my “The Muppet Show” lunchbox I carried in elementary school. I must have been around 5 or 6 when I got it.

James V Carroll

My first phone was this Kermit phone in the early 80's and I still have it today. It's a gorgeous sculpture that I've actually referenced for some of my legit work in Muppet products.

David Stephens

When I was asked to write about my favorite piece of “Muppet stuff,” it was a real challenge to choose just one. I have been a collector of Muppet memorabilia for over 30 years and the collection is quite extensive. Ultimately, it came down to one question: if the house was on fire, which item would you grab as you ran out the door? Answer?

Well, there's a story:
In 1990, I was a seventh grader at Foley Middle School and even more of a die-hard Muppet fan than now. I knew Muppet trivia like other kids knew baseball stats. And I was always thirsty to know more.

These were the days with no internet, no Muppet Wiki, no YouTube, no ToughPigs or Muppet Central, and the mom-and-pop video rental place in town had only three volumes of the Playhouse Video “Best of the Muppet Show” series (which I would check out incessantly).

Christmas break had come and gone and school was well into full second semester swing in February when I was tapped for the National Honor Society. For a sixth grader in rural Alabama, this was kind of a big deal because it meant your name would appear in the Mobile Press Register (as if I needed to date myself even further). And so it did appear and my parents gave me a gift one day as a kind of additional award.

I opened the wrapping paper to reveal a copy of “Of Muppets and Men: The Making of the Muppet Show,” written by Christopher Finch. This book instantly became my Bible and it was nearly impossible to pry it from my hands. I took it to school with me every day through the rest of my middle school years. Eventually, I had to fashion a butcher paper cover to (sort of) protect the dust jacket. I poured over the books amazing behind-the-scenes photographs as well as the text, which was a revelation as to how “The Muppet Show” was created. It also gave me glimpses of the performers whom I held in such very high regard.

This book was probably so important to me at that age because I was crossing over into a different mode of fandom. While still enchanted with the show at face value, my curiosity for how things were done was growing. How were the Muppets made? Who were the people who made them? How were certain effects accomplished? How many voices could Jerry Nelson perform? What did it actually look like below the camera lens? So many of these questions were answered in the pages of “Of Muppets and Men.”

Years later, my parents admitted to me that they had just used my acceptance into the National Honor Society as an excuse to give the book to me. They had apparently been wandering through a used book store after the holidays and found it. But Christmas had already passed and my birthday wasn't until July. They said they could not have waited that long to give it to me. I think they were as excited to give it as I was to receive it. So, this also illustrates the support I have always had from my parents to pursue my interests.

It's also a bit bittersweet to look at the inscription date my dad wrote inside the title page: “February 1990,” and know that in just a few short months, Jim Henson would die suddenly. Though I never met him, my interest in Jim's work and his person would never fade. “Of Muppets and Men” started my journey into becoming an even more serious Muppet fan as well as becoming a puppeteer in my own right.

Steve Swanson (The Muppet Cast)

I have two favorite items. First is the figure from 2004. It captures Jim in an appropriately fun and silly way, with his banjo, director’s chair, and even a little copy of Muppet magazine. The likeness for the figure is taken from his “Jim” puppet from the Muppet Show Country Trio. I especially love mine because it was given to me by a very dear friend who worked alongside Jim. 

The other is a plush Scooter, which used to be sold at the Studio One store outside MuppetVision 3D. This one looks quite a bit like Scooter, which isn’t always true for the plushes they sell there. And again, this one is special to me because of who gave it to me: Jane Hunt, Richard Hunt’s mother. It was sitting in a box in his bedroom for years and years, and she gave it to me as a memento when I visited her several years ago.


Kevin L. Williams

My favorite Muppet Show item(s) has to be the Fisher Price action figures from 1978. As a kid, I built my own cardboard Muppet Theater for them to perform in. I also let them cross-over to my Fisher Price Sesame Street Playset, but that's a story for another series of "favorite items."

Look for the conclusion of our series next week!

"My Favorite Item" Celebrating The Muppet Show's 40th Anniversary - Part 2!

To celebrate The Muppet Show's 40th Anniversary we continue our look at the Muppet communities favorite Muppet Show related items.

Jarrod Fairclough (The Muppet Mindset)

My favorite bit of Muppet Show merch is these figures from. They're such strange little designs, but every single one works in its own strange little way. I have a Statler, but my life's mission is to get my hands on them all.

Nate Downs

I have to drop a quick note to say that the Muppet Show Colorforms set was my go to play thing for many years. I'd pop in a cassette of Muppet music, or throw on a Muppet record and make my own little Muppet show. When I'd get frustrated by the lack of characters, I'd drag out the Crayola Color and Play and use Scooter and the rat and chicken to add to the mayhem. 

I would have voted for the Muppet Show Comic Printer, but even as a kid my collector instinct kicked in and I barely used it because I didn't want to ruin it. :)

D.W. McKim

Probably the coolest Muppet toy ever released were The Muppets Shrinky Dinks Play Set.

For years, I loved playing along to Muppet books and records and audio recordings of The Muppet Show I'd religiously tape from the TV with my collection of hand puppets (something I'd done for as long as I can remember having first started with the Sesame Street hand puppets) - but there were only a few available characters.

But then this toy came along and it was FILLED with Muppets - even supporting and obscure ones! My very favorite, Crazy Harry, was actually included!

This was the first place I learned what Doglion and Fletcher Bird's names were!

Plus an actual Muppet Theater you could use as the setting!

The illustrations of the various Muppets were simply GORGEOUS, you got to see what they all looked like in full-body form ... and all the characters were "in scale" with each other! This became a "supplement" to my Muppet Puppet tradition - playing with the puppets were always my first choice (heck, my best friend and i would play at being "Jim Henson and Frank Oz" the same way other kids would play "Cowboys & Indians") - but when it came time to enact a scene with other characters not available in puppet form, I'd then turn to the Shrinky Dinks.

Kenny Durkin

My favorite Muppet Show related item was the Muppets Shrinky Dinks Playset. It features a cardboard diorama of the Muppet Show Theater (with backstage areas and theater boxes) and 35 Shrinky Dinks of all the classic Muppets ranging from the mighty Thog to the tiny Robin. 

It even included characters rarely featured on other merchandise like Annie Sue, Fletcher Bird, and even an alligator. A great, fun set that is worth tracking down if you can!

Editor's Note: I remember burning myself more than once while making these!

"My Favorite Item" Celebrating The Muppet Show's 40th Anniversary - Part 1!

To celebrate The Muppet Show's 40th Anniversary we reached out to the Muppet fan community and asked what their favorite Muppet Show related item was.

Jim Hemstead

My favorite piece that I own is the original Kermit The Frog stuffed animal. I can remember being in New York on vacation with my dad, and I believe being in Macy's seeing a mountain of Kermit's. To this day it not only reminds me of The Muppet Show but also my Dad.

Peter Valentin

Too hard to choose. How do you choose between Sideshow Weta Muppet Busts,
Palisades Muppet Action Figures and Master Replica Muppet Photo Puppet Replicas!!!
So, I wont choose, but go for something random, like the Muppet Harmony sculpture! 

I like this, because apart from being a multi character set up, it has the novelty of opening up and seeing Rizzo hide inside. 

I think that is what made me choose that over the Bradford Exchange Muppet Wall clock.

Jordan Sibayan

Long time Muppet fan and community member here. I'd have to say my favorite piece of my muppet collection would be my Kermit the Frog Candlestick Telephone from TeleDynamics. I found mine at the local flea market and have held onto it ever since. 

Chris Harris

I opted not to bombard you with photos of Muppet shirts, but I do have a couple of items I’ll share with Muppet Stuff. The first is a Muppets snow globe we picked up at Walt Disney World. I’m pretty sure my wife and I bought it when visiting the parks for our first wedding anniversary in 2005. The music box in the snow globe plays the theme from “The Muppet Show.”

Fan Favorites: “The Sesame Street Carry About”

Today we start a new segment entitled "Fan Favorites" where fellow fans have the 

opportunity to express their thoughts or experiences about a favorite Muppet, Henson, or Sesame item.  

Our friend Melissa (aka MelissaY1 on the Muppet fan sites) kicks thing off with a look at an early Sesame Street item. 

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“The Sesame Street Carry About”

By Melissa Scopelitis

When The Children's Television Workshop first presented their new concept in teaching inner city kids basic letters, numbers and fundamentals to in order to better prepare them for school, it was a new venture not only in using television to teach children, but also a new venture in how to promote a show that was on public television. Remember, this was in 1969 and they had limited funding, no commercials for revenue, or social media to help expand awareness to the masses the way most productions can today. Since they didn’t have any of that, they first relied on printed promotional materials to spread the show, and in 1970, released a 45 RPM set of some early songs from show in a neat little record collection called “The Sesame Street Carry About” released by Columbia Records.

I was lucky enough to score most of the records in this set at a garage sale in the mid-90s. I am a huge fan of early Sesame Street in general, so any related memorabilia is a must have for me. There were actually some the seller had that were so beyond the condition of playing, I was afraid it would destroy my turntable, and I left them behind. According to the pretty thorough info on Muppet Wiki, it looks like only I'm missing one or two records from the set. 

The ones I did buy, I treasure and the track listings for them are listed as follows:
(Editors note: The track list made us so nostalgic we included one track from each record, be sure to give them a listen)

The Sesame Street Book & Record:
"Sesame Street theme" on side 1, and "Hello" on the B
(Note: Who remembers what "On the B" means these days!)

Feeling:
"Nearly Missed" on Side 1 and "A Face" on Side 2



Letters: 
"ABC-DEF-GHI" on Side 1 and "J-Jump" on Side 2

Shapes & Up and Down: 
"One of These Thing's" on Side 1, and "Up and Down" on Side 2

People & Play: 
"People In Your Neighborhood" on Side 1, and "Somebody Come and Play" on Side 2

Numbers: 
"Five People in My Family" on Side 1, and "I've Got Two" on Side 2

The best part about these records, for me, anyway, is the wonderful artwork and photos of the early Sesame characters and human cast members. 

All the sleeves also contain the song lyrics and an interesting look at the original Children's Television Workshop logo, which was a little marching soldier with one leg and arm raised, marching with a very "Nutcracker" type feel to it.

These records are definitely a fun find if you happen to come across them at a garage sale, flea market, or used record store, especially if you are a serious early Sesame Street collector and love photos of Oscar when he was orange, and Bob and Susan when they were young spring chickens. 

The set also really gives you a feel into what the show was trying to accomplish at the time for its target audience, so there's definitely a spirit about them while flipping through the booklets, and listening to them that I miss about that era. 

Thank you for reading and if any other Muppet fan sites like what I wrote, please feel free to contact me, I would love to write a review for your site as well!

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Thanks, Melissa. If you have a favorite item you'd like to share, send us an email or a message on Facebook, along with some photos of the item, and we'll feature it in an upcoming "Fan Favorite" article!