Uncle Travelling Matt is a hand-rod puppet performed by Dave Goelz on the television show Fraggle Rock. In a hand-rod puppet, like Travelling Matt, the performer’s dominant hand goes into the puppet’s head and operates the mouth and sometimes other facial features. The less dominant hand controls the arm rods, which are thin rods connected to the puppet’s hands. In the first episode of Fraggle Rock, Travelling Matt finds a second entrance in to Fraggle Rock which is a hole that leads to the workshop of Doc, a human character. Matt goes through this hole into the human world and what he considers “Outer Space.” Reminiscent of a 19th century anthropologist, Travelling Matt observes common objects in “Outer Space” and makes mostly wrong observations about how the human world works. He shares these observations in postcards that he sends back to his nephew Gobo in Fraggle Rock.
Fraggle Rock is a children’s television program created by Jim Henson that aired for five seasons on HBO from 1983 to 1987. Henson created the Fraggle world as one where different types of creatures lived together in a world where they were interconnected and important to one another. From the beginning, the show was designed to be easily adaptable to different cultures, which generally led to each country having its own human character, such as Doc in the American version, with the same Fraggle scenes dubbed in local languages. Travelling Matt was different in each country where the show aired. For example, he is known as Matt le Voyageur in France, and he traveled in Francophone regions such as France, Belgium, and Switzerland viewing the Eiffel Tower and watching wine-making. In Germany he is known as Onkel Reisende Matt, and he skied in the Austrian Alps and investigated yodeling.
In television and film, a “traveling matte” is a technique used to put a foreground object into a background image that has been pre-recorded. The character’s name “Travelling Matt” is a play on this technique.”
"TV Guide," August 1 - 7, 1981 (Radnor, Pennsylvania: TV Guide, 1981). Cover features photograph of Miss Piggy on a pink floating chair in a pool. Miss Piggy is a diva pig who believes she is a superstar. She is madly in love with Kermit the Frog and is an expert in karate. Miss Piggy began as “Piggy Lee” on The Tonight Show in 1974 and eventually the “Lee” was dropped so as not to upset Peggy Lee. Miss Piggy then became a major character on The Muppet Show.
"People Weekly," Volume 12, No. 10. (Chicago, Illinois: Time, Inc., 1979). Cover features photograph of Miss Piggy. Miss Piggy is a diva pig who believes she is a superstar. She is madly in love with Kermit the Frog and is an expert in karate. Miss Piggy began as “Piggy Lee” on The Tonight Show in 1974 and eventually the “Lee” was dropped so as not to upset Peggy Lee. Miss Piggy then became a major character on The Muppet Show.
Side 1: Robin Gibb, The Count, Grover, Ernie and Cookie Monster. Side 1: Sesame Street Fever; Side 2: Robin Gibb, Oscar the Grouch and Grover. Trash (Sesame Street Records CTW99070)
Miss Piggy is a hand-rod puppet originally performed by Frank Oz and currently performed by Eric Jacobson. In a hand-rod puppet, like Miss Piggy, the performer’s dominant hand goes into the puppet’s head and operates the mouth and sometimes other facial features. The less dominant hand controls the arm rods, which are thin rods connected to the puppet’s hands. Miss Piggy is a diva pig who believes she is a superstar. She is madly in love with Kermit the Frog and is an expert in karate. Miss Piggy began as “Piggy Lee” on The Tonight Show in 1974 and eventually the “Lee” was dropped so as not to upset Peggy Lee. Miss Piggy then became a major character on The Muppet Show. This specific puppet was created for display at the National Museum of American History in 2016.
Oscar the Grouch puppet made by Muppets, Inc. for the Children's Television Workshop for use in the production of the television series Sesame Street, ca. 1970-1980. Oscar is a green furry monster who lives in a trash can on Sesame Street and frequently argues with the other Muppet and human characters. Despite his grouchiness, Oscar is a valued friend to the other characters on Sesame Street, demonstrating the importance of understanding, tolerance, and diversity.
Oscar the Grouch was originally performed by Caroll Spinney, who said that he based the character's voice on a cranky New York taxi driver. Jim Henson’s inspiration for the character was a rude waiter at a restaurant named Oscar's Salt of the Sea. In his original concept drawings for Oscar the Grouch, Henson imagined a spiky, grumpy-looking magenta monster. Due to the limitations of early color television, however, Oscar was redesigned with orange fur for his premiere on the first season of Sesame Street in 1969, and only changed to green for the second season. Oscar explained that this change was due to his vacation at Swamp Mushy Muddy where it was so damp that he became covered in slime and mold.
Oscar the Grouch is a live-hand puppet, which means that one of the performer’s hands is in the puppet’s head while the other is in one of the puppet’s arms, which has gloves for hands. Another puppeteer is usually needed to operate the other arm, which is known as right-handing. This particular Oscar the Grouch puppet was built in the 1970s. It was also used to perform the character Grandpa Grouch at some point in the show's run.
Cookie Monster is a live-hand puppet originally performed by Frank Oz and currently performed by David Rudman. In a live-hand puppet, like Cookie Monster, one of the performer’s hands is in the puppet’s head while the other is in one of the puppet’s arms, which has gloves for hands. Another puppeteer is usually needed to operate the other arm, which is known as right-handing. Cookie Monster is one of the main characters on Sesame Street. He is covered in blue fur with large googly eyes. He constantly eats anything and everything, but cookies are his favorite.
In a 2005 episode of Sesame Street, Hoots the Owl sings Cookie Monster a song about healthy eating, teaching him that “A Cookie is a Sometime Food,” part of a Sesame Workshop educational program launched in response to the obesity epidemic. Though Cookie Monster didn’t stop eating cookies, the episode generated controversy and conversation, with some commentators bemoaning that “woke” Sesame Street producers were robbing the series of its innocent joy.
Cookie Monster evolved from a monster created by Jim Henson for a General Foods Canada commercial in 1966. This character advertised the snack foods Wheels, Crowns, and Flutes along with two other monsters and was known as the Wheel Stealer. The Wheel Stealer continued to evolve as he appeared in an IBM commercial and on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1967. He eventually made his way to Sesame Street after losing his teeth. Once there, he gained his love of cookies and the name Cookie Monster by the second season.
This puppet is the original Cookie Monster puppet created in 1969 for Sesame Street. He is able to feed himself because his hands are simply gloves for the performer’s hands, and he has a hole in his mouth that runs down the performer’s sleeve. The cookies that are eaten by Cookie Monster are rice crackers that are made to look like cookies because the oils from actual cookies would damage the puppet.
This is the head of the urSu puppet from the 1982 film The Dark Crystal. urSu the Master is part of the urRu, or Mystic, race which are slow-moving, peaceful creatures. The mystics are the counterparts to the Skeksis. They are philosophers who hold the mystical wisdom of their world. urSu the Master dies in the beginning of the film after choosing death so that the balance of the Mystics and the Skeksis could be broken. He was incredibly wise.
The elongated wrinkled head is made of foam and latex. It is painted in soft brown tones with sleepy shrouded eyes with soft wisps of brown and gray hair on either side of the head. There are wires coming from the head which are connected to controls that were used to move the head and facial features. The Mystic puppets were built as several different components that could be connected with Velcro. This meant that the puppet could be disassembled into various parts, allowing the puppeteer to only use the head section of the puppet when filming a close-up scene without being burdened by the weight of the entire body section of the puppet.
The Dark Crystal was a fantasy film directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz and released in 1982. The film was made entirely with the use of puppets and features no human actors. In the film, two members of the Gelfling race, Jen and Kira, go on a journey to return a lost shard of the dark crystal in order to defeat the evil Skeksis and restore balance to the planet Thra before it is too late.
This magnifying glass was used with the puppet Travelling Matt from the HBO series Fraggle Rock. In the first episode of Fraggle Rock, Travelling Matt goes through a hole into the human world and what he considers “Outer Space.” Reminiscent of a 19th century anthropologist, Travelling Matt observes common objects in “Outer Space” and makes mostly wrong observations about how the human world works. He shares these observations in postcards that he sends back to his nephew Gobo in Fraggle Rock.
Fraggle Rock is a children’s television program created by Jim Henson that aired for five seasons on HBO from 1983 to 1987. Henson created the Fraggle world as one where different types of creatures lived together in a world where they were interconnected and important to one another. From the beginning, the show was designed to be easily adaptable to different cultures, which generally led to each country having its own human character, such as Doc in the American version, with the same Fraggle scenes dubbed in local languages.
These small binoculars were used with the puppet Travelling Matt from the HBO series Fraggle Rock. In the first episode of Fraggle Rock, Travelling Matt goes through a hole into the human world and what he considers “Outer Space.” Reminiscent of a 19th century anthropologist, Travelling Matt observes common objects in “Outer Space” and makes mostly wrong observations about how the human world works. He shares these observations in postcards that he sends back to his nephew Gobo in Fraggle Rock.
Fraggle Rock is a children’s television program created by Jim Henson that aired for five seasons on HBO from 1983 to 1987. Henson created the Fraggle world as one where different types of creatures lived together in a world where they were interconnected and important to one another. From the beginning, the show was designed to be easily adaptable to different cultures, which generally led to each country having its own human character, such as Doc in the American version, with the same Fraggle scenes dubbed in local languages.
This box of crayons was used with the puppet Travelling Matt from the HBO series Fraggle Rock. In the first episode of Fraggle Rock, Travelling Matt goes through a hole into the human world and what he considers “Outer Space.” Reminiscent of a 19th century anthropologist, Travelling Matt observes common objects in “Outer Space” and makes mostly wrong observations about how the human world works. He shares these observations in postcards that he sends back to his nephew Gobo in Fraggle Rock.
Fraggle Rock is a children’s television program created by Jim Henson that aired for five seasons on HBO from 1983 to 1987. Henson created the Fraggle world as one where different types of creatures lived together in a world where they were interconnected and important to one another. From the beginning, the show was designed to be easily adaptable to different cultures, which generally led to each country having its own human character, such as Doc in the American version, with the same Fraggle scenes dubbed in local languages.
Amphibia eau de toilette was launched in 1995. It was sold exclusively at Bloomindale’s and was advertised as being “Pour homme, femme, et frog.” The glass fragrance bottle is in its original packaging, which includes a cardboard box also containing a t-shirt with an image of Kermit the Frog lounging on his back and showing off his 6-pack abs.
Bert is a hand-rod puppet originally performed by Frank Oz and currently performed by Eric Jacobson. In a hand-rod puppet, like Bert, the performer’s dominant hand goes into the puppet’s head and operates the mouth and sometimes other facial features. The less dominant hand controls the arm rods, which are thin rods connected to the puppet’s hands. Bert lives on Sesame Street with his best friend and roommate Ernie. He has a serious personality and a pet pigeon named Bernice. Bert, with Ernie, has been a part of Sesame Street since the first test pilot episodes and the premier in 1969, and this puppet is the original Bert used for those pilot episodes.
This original Grover hand-rod puppet was built in 1967 as one of several monsters used by Jim Henson and other performers on television variety shows and was first seen in his current design on a 1970 Christmas Eve episode of The Ed Sullivan Show. This darker, green-furred puppet appeared throughout the first season of Sesame Street as a generic monster and was named Grover by the end of the season. The character of Grover was rebuilt for season 2 and was then covered in his now signature bright blue fur. This puppet was later used as Grover’s mother in a skit about Grover having trouble sleeping because he is afraid of the dark, though in later appearances Grover’s mother has bright blue fur similar to Grover.
The character of Grover is a loveable, furry, and thoughtful monster who has many different roles and professions. He loves to help people but is sometimes frustrated by miscommunication, worries, and clumsiness. Grover has a unique voice and manner of speaking, generally avoiding contractions. Grover was originally performed by Frank Oz and is currently performed by Eric Jacobson. Grover is a hand-rod puppet which means that the performer’s dominant hand goes into the puppet’s head and operates the mouth and sometimes other facial features. The less dominant hand controls the arm rods, which are thin rods connected to the puppet’s hands.
Miss Piggy is a hand-rod puppet originally performed by Frank Oz and currently performed by Eric Jacobson. In a hand-rod puppet, like Miss Piggy, the performer’s dominant hand goes into the puppet’s head and operates the mouth and sometimes other facial features. The less dominant hand controls the arm rods, which are thin rods connected to the puppet’s hands. Miss Piggy is a diva pig who believes she is a superstar. She is madly in love with Kermit the Frog and is an expert in karate. Miss Piggy began as “Piggy Lee” on The Tonight Show in 1974 and eventually the “Lee” was dropped so as not to upset Peggy Lee. Miss Piggy then became a major character on The Muppet Show.
Count von Count is a hand-rod puppet originally performed by Jerry Nelson and currently performed by Matt Vogel. The Count began as a parody of Bela Lugosi’s film portrayal of the vampire Count Dracula. He first appeared in 1972 on Season 4 of Sesame Street and continues today counting anything and everything in his friendly, vampire-like manner. In a hand-rod puppet, like Count von Count, the performer’s dominant hand goes into the puppet’s head and operates the mouth and sometimes other facial features. The less dominant hand controls the arm rods, which are thin rods connected to the puppet’s hands.
This specific Count von Count puppet was built for the 25th Anniversary Sesame Street exhibit in Japan in 1994. The puppet was built using the same patterns and building process for performance puppets that are used on Sesame Street, but it was built for the exhibit and never actually used on Sesame Street.
Wilkins was part of a duo known as Wilkins and Wontkins, which were some of the earliest creations by Jim Henson and his wife and partner Jane Nebel Henson. He is made of soft brown wool flannel with dangling limbs, button eyes, and a painted upturned mouth. This is the original Wilkins puppet created in 1956.
In 1956 a local Washington, D.C., company, Wilkins Coffee, contacted Jim Henson to produce a short television commercial, and Wilkins and Wontkins were born. Wilkins, the serious, cheerful one who loved coffee, regularly tortured the loveable Wontkins, who did not like coffee, and much to the dismay of Wilkins, refused to even try a cup.
Wilkins, with his somewhat serious and endearing demeanor, bears a striking resemblance to one of Henson’s most enduring creations, the beloved Kermit the Frog. Wontkins, on the other hand, fashioned in a simple triangular or pyramid shape with button eyes and a large protruding nose, wore a distinct frown that suggested his grumpy personality. Henson created over 200 8-second shorts that ran on local television stations promoting the benefits of Wilkins Coffee and expanded into advertising for other products across the country.
This notebook with control wand attached was used with the puppet Travelling Matt from the HBO series Fraggle Rock. In the first episode of Fraggle Rock, Travelling Matt goes through a hole into the human world and what he considers “Outer Space.” Reminiscent of a 19th century anthropologist, Travelling Matt observes common objects in “Outer Space” and makes mostly wrong observations about how the human world works. He shares these observations in postcards that he sends back to his nephew Gobo in Fraggle Rock.
Fraggle Rock is a children’s television program created by Jim Henson that aired for five seasons on HBO from 1983 to 1987. Henson created the Fraggle world as one where different types of creatures lived together in a world where they were interconnected and important to one another. From the beginning, the show was designed to be easily adaptable to different cultures, which generally led to each country having its own human character, such as Doc in the American version, with the same Fraggle scenes dubbed in local languages.
This yellow comb was used with the puppet Travelling Matt from the HBO series Fraggle Rock. In the first episode of Fraggle Rock, Travelling Matt goes through a hole into the human world and what he considers “Outer Space.” Reminiscent of a 19th century anthropologist, Travelling Matt observes common objects in “Outer Space” and makes mostly wrong observations about how the human world works. He shares these observations in postcards that he sends back to his nephew Gobo in Fraggle Rock.
Fraggle Rock is a children’s television program created by Jim Henson that aired for five seasons on HBO from 1983 to 1987. Henson created the Fraggle world as one where different types of creatures lived together in a world where they were interconnected and important to one another. From the beginning, the show was designed to be easily adaptable to different cultures, which generally led to each country having its own human character, such as Doc in the American version, with the same Fraggle scenes dubbed in local languages.