"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.
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.
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.
Poster advertising the 10th season of Sesame Street. The poster features several Muppet characters from the main cast including Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Count von Count, Bert, Ernie, and Oscar the Grouch all wearing party hats. Sesame Street is an educational children’s television program that mixes puppets, animation, and live actors. It premiered on November 10, 1969 and continues to air today. The show is aimed at preschoolers and teaches the audience reading, arithmetic, and other academic lessons in addition to basic life skills.
Poster advertising the 20th season of Sesame Street. The poster features a photo of the cast of Sesame Street on a blue background with a yellow border. Sesame Street is an educational children’s television program that mixes puppets, animation, and live actors. It premiered on November 10, 1969 and continues to air today. The show is aimed at preschoolers and teaches the audience reading, arithmetic, and other academic lessons in addition to basic life skills.
National Museum of American History. Division of Cultural History
user
Jim Henson Productions
Children's Television Workshop
Henson, Jim
maker
Henson, Jim
Jim Henson Productions
ID Number
1994.0037.01
accession number
1994.0037
catalog number
1994.0037.01
Description (Brief)
Kermit is a bright green frog who was the star and host of The Muppet Show and appears on Sesame Street. The character of Kermit is one of Jim Henson’s earliest creations, dating back to 1955 with his appearances on Sam and Friends on the Washington, D.C., NBC affiliate station. He was previously performed by Jim Henson and Steve Whitmire and is currently performed by Matt Vogel. Kermit is a calm, level-headed character who is constantly trying to keep everything together as he is surrounded by craziness. Kermit is known for singing “Bein’ Green” (also known as “It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green”) which talks about the difficulties he has had because of his color but ends with him accepting and embracing his greenness.
Storyboard for a Wilkins Coffee commercial featuring the characters Wilkins and Wontkins, created by Jim Henson. The storyboard is made of series of four consecutive pencil drawings on custom-printed and perforated paper, with four dialogue boxes beneath. In the commercial, the puppet character Wilkins is hanging wallpaper. When the Wontkins puppet enters the picture and says that he doesn't drink Wilkins Coffee, the Wilkins puppet then pastes Wontkins on to the wall, behind the wallpaper, stating "The place here looks a lot better with all the bad spots covered up!"
Rosita puppet used in the production of the children's television series Sesame Street. Rosita, la Monstrua de las Cuevas is a Mexican-American Muppet character introduced to the show in 1991, performed by Carmen Osbahr. Sesame Street (airing 1969-present) is the longest-running children’s television series in American history and has earned acclaim for its blend of education and entertainment as well as its intentionally inclusive, multicultural cast and setting. However, activists have called for greater Latino representation on the show since its premiere; Rosita was the first bilingual (Spanish-speaking) and first Latina Muppet character introduced as a regular member of the cast.
Osbahr, who originally worked as a puppet performer on Mexico's Plaza Sésamo, portrays Rosita as a five-year old girl who enjoys history and geography as well as playing the guitar. She frequently introduces a Spanish word of the day on the program and teaches viewers about her Mexican heritage. Introduced at a time when Latino/a characters were almost nonexistent in mainstream American children’s television, Rosita has proven to be one of the most popular Muppet characters on Sesame Street today.
Jim Henson Company puppet builder Ed Christie designed Rosita with wings in reference to Mexican fruit bats, although a different puppet without the wings was used in the show's production from season 35 (2004) through season 52 (2021). The live-hand style puppet is made with shaggy turquoise puppet fur with a round orange fleece nose, tan eyebrows over closely set white eyes with black pupils, and wispy, feather-like yellow and turquoise hair strands atop its head. Obsahr operated this puppet with her arms through one of the arm sleeves and the character's head, with another puppeteer operating the other arm. This puppet was used in production of Sesame Street beginning in the late 1990s.
Prairie Dawn is a hand-rod puppet originally performed by Fran Brill and currently performed by Stephanie D’Abruzzo. In a hand-rod puppet, like Prairie Dawn, 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. Prairie Dawn debuted on Sesame Street in 1971. Jim Henson used his little girl character from the 1960s as his inspiration for the character of Prairie Dawn. Henson’s little girl character appeared on several different shows throughout the 1960s where she often faced monsters and used her wits to outsmart them. Prairie Dawn is designed to be seven years old, which is older than many of the other characters on Sesame Street. She is an aspiring journalist and is considered to be level-headed and detail-oriented.
This specific Prairie Dawn puppet was originally built for The Art of the Muppets traveling exhibit in 1979. It was displayed as an Anything Muppet with red hair for the exhibit. An Anything Muppet is a blank Muppet head to which can be added any sort of facial features, clothes, or body type to create any kind of character. This specific puppet was never performed on Sesame Street, but it was built using the same puppet patterns and building process as the puppets performed on Sesame Street.