Rare Clip: Jim Henson Promoting The Muppet Show on Jonny Carson!

The Johnny Carson YouTube channel uploaded a rare clip of Jim Henson and The Muppets promoting The Muppet Show.

Typically, we'd save something like this for our Rare Muppet Clip series but it's just too good not to share by itself. 

The appearance is from September 14, 1976, which was only a week after the The Muppet Show premiered in the US. 

When The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence, The Muppet Show's second pilot, premiered March 19, 1975, it wasn't a huge hit. However, Johnny Carson's Tonight Show was appointment television, so this was likely many people's first introduction to characters such as the Swedish Chef and Fozzie Bear. 

There's even a even more behind the scenes look at the musical number "Rag Mop" which was reused in 1981's of Muppets and Men: The Making of The Muppet Show, but again this was most peoples first look at how Muppet magic comes to life. 

Enjoy!

RIP Loretta Lynn (1932-2022)

Loretta Lynn one of the most important and celebrated country singers has died.

Lynn guest starred during The Muppet Show's third season in the only episode to take place  at a train station instead of the Muppet theater.

Lynn rose to fame in the 1960's and in 1970 adapted her autobiographical hit “Coal Miner’s Daughter” into a best-selling biography, which was later made into an Oscar-winning film. Coal Miner's Daughter." 

Lynn wrote most of her hits, and was one the first female singer to make her name as a songwriter in Nashville. 

She sang "Count on Me" with the Count on Sesame Street in the early 80's which was released on the 1981 album Sesame Country and appeared again on the show in 1985 performing "Songs Are For Singin."

Lynn was was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988 and was a guest The Tonight Show in 1989 when Jim Henson and Kermit appeared to promote The Jim Henson Hour.

She wasn't wasn't the only member of her family to guest star on work with the Muppets, her younger sister, Crystal Gayle, was also a guest on The Muppet Show and Sesame Street as well. 

You can read more about Loretta Lynn life at Rolling Stone.

Loretta Lynn was 90 years old.

The Weirdos Go On Tour With Coldplay!

We all know Dr. Teeth and Electric Mayhem, The River Bottom Nightmare Band, and Fraggle's Rock's The Minstrels, but now a new Henson puppet band is making a name for themselves - The Weirdos!

Fronted by Angle Moon, The Weirdos are a new a creation by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop that are not only on tour with Coldplay, they've been signed to their label, Atlantic Records as well.

Coldplay's Chris Martin talked with Billboard about the The Weirdos, their involvement in the tour, and getting them a record deal. 

“The Weirdos are a band who we’re trying to help out,....it’s really “Bruno [Mars] and Ed [Sheeran]’s label,” maybe Dua Lipa or Cardi B’s, but also Coldplay’s label. And now the Weirdos, too.

“They have one song at the moment [‘Biutyful’] and we’re on it with them,” Martin continued before taking a brief time out to question if the way he was describing this intergalactically weird off-shoot of the Music of the Spheres universe was making any sense. What is most definitely true is that Angel Moon has been singing a duet of “Biutyful” with Martin on the tour, performing to more than a million people so far across the band’s Latin American and U.S. dates over the past 3 months according to Coldplay’s label.

Even as he tried to toe the story’s carefully crafted line, Martin couldn’t help but crack himself up as he navigated the ornate narrative turns. “The way I discovered them was we were working with Angel Moon, this lady… creature,” the singer said as guitarist Jonny Buckland stifled a laugh while sitting on a green room couch in the bowels of the Bears’ stadium as he watched his old friend try to explain the weirdness.

“How do I explain this? I think we just felt like…” Martin continued, careful to not blow the surprise or tip his hand, while also earnestly wanting to explain why he’s been singing with a gnome-like puppet on stage during the band’s carefully choreographed, low-emission global tour that has seen recent cameos from Lupe Fiasco, Kylie Minogue and Bruce Springsteen. 

Regardless, Moon and her bandmates — Donk, Sparkman and The Wizard — will rock The Tonight Show after the band signed a “historic” contract with Atlantic and Parlophone Records on Tuesday. According to a release announcing the unusual deal, their manager, Bruce Cakemix, described the deal as “the biggest step forward in human-alien relations since Close Encounters.”

“I think we thought that we’ve sort of come to the end of doing singles as Coldplay. I think we’ve probably basically finished doing that, in general. We can’t go more poppier or single-y [than the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 BTS collaboration “My Universe”] than that and that felt good and we’re a bit older now. So we do have songs we want to bring some attention to, but with this we asked the Weirdoes if they would do the song and front it and we would feature.”

According to Martin, some people say the Weirdos are from another planet, and some say, “there’s a room in Los Angeles where all of the rejected puppets live and they maybe come from there.”

Martin and Coldplay will help The Weirdos make their network TV debut Friday night on The Tonight Show, where the group will jam on “Biutyful” from Coldplay’s new "Music of the Spheres" album.

Rare Muppet Clips Volume 2!

We're back with another batch of rare Muppet performances. 

Again, we do not own these clips, nor do we make any guarantees to how long they'll be available, so watch them while you can!

"Julie, Do Ya Love Me?" (The Julie Andrews Hour, 1973)
Rowlf and Julie perform "Julie, Do Ya Love Me?" on The Julie Andrews Hour. This clip originally aired February 17th, 1973.

Visual Thinking (The Tonight Show, 1974)
Kermit and Grump perform "Visual Thinking" on this 1974 episode of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. 

Big Bird's Dance (The Ed Sullivan Show)

Big Bird dances on The Ed Sullivan Show from December 14, 1969. Big Bird is performed by Daniel Seagren in this appearance and not Caroll Spinney.

What's My Line? - Big Bird & Caroll Spinney (1972)

Guest try to figure who who Big Bird is - this time performed by Caroll Spinney - who also appears, in this 1972 episode of What's My Line? 

If you like these be sure to check out Part 1.

If you find a rare Muppet clip and would like us to share it, please send us a link!

Elmo takes over The Tonight Show!

Took over may be a strong term, but last night Elmo replaced Steve Higgins as The Tonight Show announcer/ sidekick as well as appearing in a cooking segment to plug his new book "Let's Cook!"  

You can watch just his cooking segment or the full episode below:

Full Episode:

That's awful lot of work a 3 year year old monster up way past his bedtime!

Sesame makes surprise Tonight Show Appearance!

Last night the cast of Sesame Street made a surprise appearance on The Tonight Show sharing tweets viewers sent with the #WhenIWasAKid.

Check out all the found memories in the clip below!