Where Did The Muppets Come From?

This article caught my interest after a coworker let me borrow his DVD of Jim Henson's early work on the Ed Sullivan Show. In it, Cookie Monster is green, has teeth, and doesn't talk. Big Bird is very similar in body but has a tiny head. And Kermit is really the exact same.

I was under the impression that Rolf the Dog was the first official "Muppet", but according to the list, Kermit was around for nearly a decade before Rolf.

All the Shakespeare stuff goes on the other blog, so when it involves my kids I have to remember to come back and link here.

Here's one

And another

Last one

Those all took place on the same morning, and are shown in chronological order.

George Carlin died, which I suppose had to happen eventually. But it's always sad when such an iconic personality - even one when you sit back and say, "Wait, have I heard from him in the last 15 years?" -- dies. It says something about the impact they had on popular culture when their loss hits people that hard, that many years later.

(The line above is actually from a Carlin routine that I happened to pull out of memory.) Just last week or so, Jim Norton told a George Carlin joke on Opie and Anthony show last week:

"For those of you keeping score, I'm ahead of Richard Pryor in heart attacks 2-1, but Richard's ahead of me in setting yourself on fire. It went a little something like this, Richard had a heart attack, then I had a heart attack. Then Richard set himself on fire, and I said F%^* that, I'm having another heart attack!"

"Climb into bed, Daddy," said my 3yr old last night. "We're gonna make up a story."

Love it. Although I've heard her wandering around the house making up stories, I've never actually been a part of one. We've finished watching Barbie Fairytopia movie, and have just read Cinderella pop-up book. I climb into bed.

The props for this story are to be 3 things:

• a small rubber orange doll I know to be Sunburst, who is from the Fairytopia series of movies but was not in the actual movie we saw last night, whose name shall be Fairytopia. (In the movie, Fairytopia is actually the name of the place they live, not a character name.)
• A rubber Jasmine doll (from Aladdin), dressed in what appears to be Cinderell's wedding gown. Her name shall be Azura (who is like the boss of the Fairytopia world).
• A length of white ribbon, which currently is wrapped in Sunburst/Fairytopia's hair.

In this case, Sunburst/Fairytopia and Jasmine/Azura are to be sisters. "How do we play?" I ask.

I wish I could do justice to the response I got, because it seemed so crystal clear in her head, but without a tape recorder there's no way I could get it all down accurately. Basically it went a little something like this, "We take turns trying on the ribbon to see if it fits, and then the prince marries us, and we have the happiness ending."

Since the ribbon is already in S/F's hair, I wrap it around like a turban and say, "How's this? Does it fit?"

"No, it doesn't fit Fairytopia," says my daughter, who begins pulling it off. "Now her sister Azura tries." Deftly she begins wrapping the doll, head to foot, in ribbon. "Nope, doesn't fit Azura either."

"My turn again," I say, and this time I tie the ribbon in a bow on top of my doll's head. "How's that?"

"Too big!" the director says.

I make a smaller bow. "Hurray," I tell her, hurrying up the game because it's getting late. "The ribbon fits, does that mean the game is over?"

"Not yet, Daddy!" she tells me as I climb out of bed and begin tucking her in. "They didn't have the happiness ending!"

Something clicks.

"Do you mean, and they all lived happily ever after?"

She beams. "Yes! And they all lived happily ever after! Good night, Daddy."