Help me understand something re. the genesis of "The Muppet Show" please...

THIS IS TOM JONES was shot twice, once for each standard!

 

Thank You. Always happy to share German "Papa's Kino" tidbits.

 

I remember the Muppets from the Kraml milk commercials in the Chicago area in the early 1960's.
The voices were those of Kermit and Rowlf, but the puppets looked different, although you could see an early Kermit in that puppet they used.

 

With all this talk about the origins of the Muppets, I now recall my first exposure to them (though I might be realizing this for the first time now). Here's the clip that I distinctly remember watching when it first aired. I absolutely loved it. I wanted more.

 

It just might have been my first Muppet exposure too since we used to watch Ed Sullivan every Sunday night! And I don't think we in Canada would have been exposed to the older Muppet commercials.

Here is my absolute favorite one, from this era. I love the computer's self-tour and description...

 

It's always kinda bugged me a little bit when people refer to him as "Ralph", but I think it's a fairly common mistake. When I was a little kid, I thought it was "Ralph" too... I always noticed the other characters on the show seemed to be pronouncing "Ralph" in a strange way, but I never clued in that maybe it wasn't his name until I was a little older and found out it was actually "Rowlf". In fact, as a kid, I even had a plush dog that I named "Ralph" because he was brown and had big floppy ears, just like the dog on the Muppet Show!

 

Just quickly, on the Rowlf/Ralph thing, being Australian I always thought he was Rolf without the Harris.

 

Here is one of my favorite skits of all, from that show. An example of something my "Mupppet chums" and I would be inexhaustible over the next day we met at school...

Call: Merdlidop!
Response: (steam blow)

LOL!!

 

Just keep him away from the Kangaroo and the Two Little Boys

 

ATV was doing this for years. A large amount of their stuff was aimed at the American market.

They shot Gerry Anderson's Stingray in Colour around 62-63 for American sales even though mainstream colour broadcasting wouldn't arrive in the UK till October 1969!

 

The Jimmy Dean "Rowlf" was Jim Henson as voice, head, & left hand of Rowlf and Frank Oz as the original right hand man for the Jimmy Dean show. Whoever was Rowlf's right hand would switch to both hands when Rowlf had to play the piano.

First and foremost (Henson & Oz) those guys were really good puppeteers who could make their creations come alive and do it for a live audience.