Portal:Muppets

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The Muppets Portal

The Muppets are a group of puppets and costume characters, and the company created by Jim Henson. Individually, a Muppet is properly one of the puppets made by Jim Henson or his Creature Shop – though the term is often used erroneously to refer to any puppet that resembles the distinctive style of The Muppet Show and Sesame Street characters, the term is both an informal name and legal trademark linked to the characters created by The Jim Henson Company.

The word "Muppet" itself was said by Henson to have been created by combining the words "marionette" and "puppet"; however, Henson was also known to have stated that it was just something he liked the sound of, and he made up the "marionette/puppet" story while talking to a journalist because it sounded plausible.

Muppets are distinguished from ventriloquist "dummies", which are typically animated only in the head and face, in that their arms or other features are also mobile and expressive. Muppets are typically made of softer materials. They are also presented as being independent of the puppeteer, who is usually not visible, hidden behind a set or outside of the camera frame. Using the camera frame as the "stage" was an innovation of the Muppets. Previously on television, there would typically be a stage hiding the performers, as if in a live presentation.

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Selected article

Fraggle Rock is a children's television series with a total of 5 seasons and 96 episodes running from January 10, 1983 to March 30, 1987 on HBO in the United States and CBC Television in Canada. The series was created by Jim Henson, primarily featuring a cast of Muppet creatures called Fraggles, with music by Philip Balsam and Dennis Lee.

The vision of Fraggle Rock articulated by Jim Henson was to depict a colorful and fun world, but also a world with a relatively complex system of symbiotic relationships between different "races" of creatures, an allegory to the human world, where each group was somewhat unaware of how interconnected and important they were to one another. Creating this allegorical world allowed the program to entertain and amuse while seriously exploring complex issues of prejudice, spirituality, personal identity, environment, and social conflict. Fraggle Rock generally refused to over-simplify any individual issue, instead simply illustrating the consequences and inherent difficulties of different actions and relationships.

The show was a worldwide hit, just like Sesame Street and The Muppets franchise. The Theme song from Fraggle Rock was a top 40 pop hit in Britain during the phenomenon.

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Selected character

Sam the Eagle is a character from the syndicated television show The Muppet Show, performed by Frank Oz. The name "Sam" is probably derived from Uncle Sam, as the Bald Eagle is the official symbol of the United States. On the show, Sam acts as a censor and speaks as if unhip. He often gives self-important lectures in which he complains about some liberal idea only to find himself forced to stop in embarrassment. On one occasion he gives a lecture about conservationism in which he reads a list of endangered animal species that he feels are the focus of misguided efforts to save them, only to sheepishly withdraw his statement when he realizes that his own species is included. In another sketch, he lectures about the indecency that all people are naked underneath their clothes, then leaves in embarrassment upon realizing that all birds are similarly naked underneath their feathers.

As the voice of the older generation's sensibilities, he happily introduces his favorite singing duo, Wayne and Wanda, with gushing praise, calling them classy and artistic (though their routines invariably ended with typical slapstick violence). The couple sings old standards like "You Do Something to Me" and "It's only a Paper Moon". Sam's intolerance on one occasion had him throwing guest star Rudolf Nureyev out of the building in a fit of temper, mistaking him for a bum. To his credit, he becomes extremely upset when he learns of his mistake, and is forgiven.

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