September 5, 1976: "The Muppet Show" Premieres

Top row, left to right: Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Skrid, Waldorf, Statler,

Link Hogthrob, Dr. Teeth, Beaker.

Second row: Lew Zealand, Animal, Floyd Pepper, Rowlf.

Third row: Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Camilla.

Bottom row: Gonzo the Great, Kermit the Frog, Scooter.

September 5, 1976: The Muppet Show premieres on British network ITV. Joel Grey is the guest host. In America, it aired in syndication, debuting on September 13, with the episode featuring Rita Moreno.

It surprised me, as a kid who watched Sesame Street, that the only Muppet to cross over to this show (with rare exceptions) was Kermit the Frog, who hosted. I was being introduced to a bunch of Muppets I'd never seen before, and didn't know. But I came to know them: Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo the Great, Rowlf the piano-playing dog, Kermit's nephew Robin, and the two old guys heckling from the corner box, Statler and Waldorf, named for old New York hotels.

The band was Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. Dr. Teeth played piano, a hippie chick named Janice played guitar, Floyd Pepper (wearing a military jacket and obviously meant to evoke the Beatles' character Sgt. Pepper) played bass, Zoot played saxophone, and, of course, the drummer was Animal.

Sketches included Muppet News Flash; The Dance, with dance marathoners making dumb jokes; The Swedish Chef, whose indecipherable recipes always went wrong; Veterinarians' Hospital, with Rowlf as a doctor assisted by Miss Piggy and Janice; Pigs In Space, with Miss Piggy serving alongside Link Hogthrob as captain ("hamming it up" while sounding like Ted Knight's Mary Tyler Moore Show character Ted Baxter) and Dr. Julius Strangepork (a German-accented homage to Dr. Strangelove and Albert Einstein); Muppet Labs, with Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his beleaguered assistant Beaker; and Bear On Patrol, with Fozzie playing a cop reporting to desk sergeant Link.

Jim Henson voiced Kermit, Waldorf, Rowlf, Dr. Teeth, Link, and the Newsman. Frank Oz voiced Miss Piggy, Fozzie (name derived from "F. Oz"), Animal and Sam the Eagle. Dave Goelz voiced Gonzo, Zoot and Bunsen Honeydew. Richard Hunt voiced Scooter, Statler, Janice, Beaker and Sweetums. Jerry Nelson, better known as The Count on Sesame Street, voiced Robin, Floyd, Dr. Strangepork, Gonzo's girlfriend Camilla the Chicken, mad bomber Crazy Harry, and the dragonlike Uncle Deadly (formerly known as Skrid).

The show ran 5 seasons. Not counting guest Muppets from Sesame Street, there were 128 total guest stars in the show’s 5-year history. Three married couples appeared together as guests: Roy Rogers & Dale Evans (stayed married 'til death did they part), Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge (divorced) and Robert Shields & Lorene Yarnell (divorced). One pair of siblings appeared, but not together: Loretta Lynn and her much younger sister Crystal Gayle. One parent-child pair appeared, but not together: Indeed, Candice Bergen appeared before her father Edgar and her "brother," Charlie McCarthy, did.

Since the show was taped in London, it was more internationally-oriented than most American TV variety shows. There were 97 Americans, 21 British, 2 Canadians (Doug Henning and Anne Murray), 2 Frenchmen (Charles Aznavour and Jean-Pierre Rampal), 2 Swiss (both of them members of Mummenschanz, which also included an American), a Dane (Victor Borge), a German (Elke Sommer), a Spaniard (Señor Wences) and a Russian (Rudolf Nureyev). The only one born in Asia was Juliet Prowse, born in India while it was a British colony. She was raised in South Africa, also in the British Commonwealth at the time, making her, despite being white, the only African host.

The oldest performer was 86-year-old Señor Wences, younger than George Burns by a few months, but older than Burns was when each appeared on the show -- and Wences beat Burns in final age, 103 to 100. The youngest was 15-year-old Brooke Shields, the next-youngest being a 28-year-old Christopher Reeve. Zero Mostel was not only the first of the show's guest stars to die, but he died before his episode could air.

There were 69 men and 59 women. There were 9 black guest hosts. In order of appearance: Lena Horne, Pearl Bailey, Harry Belafonte, Lou Rawls, Shirley Bassey, Lola Falana, Leslie Uggams, Gladys Knight and Ben Vereen. There were 4 Hispanics, not counting the Spain-born Señor Wences: Rita Moreno, Raquel (Tejeda) Welch, Joan Baez and Lynda (Cordova) Carter. There were no ethnically Asian guests. There were 5 guests now known to be gay: Elton John was already out, Rudolf Nureyev didn't exactly hide it, Jim Nabors and Joel Grey came out late in life, and Liberace denied it to the end.

Although the guests came from across the spectrum of show business, no guest came from outside show business. And 9 of the guests would also appear in The Muppet Movie in 1978: Edgar Bergen, Milton Berle, James Coburn, Dom DeLuise, Bob Hope, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Steve Martin and Paul Williams. (Charles Durning, who played the film's villain Doc Hopper, was never a Muppet Show guest.)

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September 5, 1976 was a Sunday. Dutch actress Carice van Houten, known for her role as Melisandre on Game of Thrones, was born. And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 5-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Ross Grimsley Jr. outpitched Jim "Catfish" Hunter. Al Bumbry, one of several Orioles in that period that drove the Yankees nuts, hit a home run. Reggie Jackson, in his only season with the Orioles, went 1-for-4. Thurman Munson went 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs.

* The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-1 at Shea Stadium. Larry Christenson outpitched Mickey Lolich, for whom the Mets traded Rusty Staub in his prime to Detroit, not knowing Lolich was washed up. Christenson also hit 2 home runs. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-4.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 1-0 at Jarry Park in Montreal. Woodie Fryman pitched a 4-hit shutout, outpitching Jerry Reuss. José Morales, pinch-hitter extraordinaire, batted for Larry Parrish in the bottom of the 8th inning, and reached on an error by Pirate 2nd baseman Rennie Stenett, bringing Bombo Rivera home with the winning run.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-4 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Pete Rose went 0-for-4 with a walk. Johnny Bench went 0-for-5.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Rick Waits outpitched, ironically, Reggie Cleveland. Indians manager Frank Robinson, in his last month as an active player, did not put himself into the game. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-4.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-6 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Hank Aaron, in his last month as an active player, did not appear in the game. Robin Yount went 0-for-4.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 1-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ron Fairly singled Lou Brock home with the game's only run in the top of the 11th inning. It made Al Hrabosky the winning pitcher, in relief of John Denny, who went 9 shutout innings. It made Joe Coleman Jr. the losing pitcher, in relief of Rick Reuschel, who went 8 shutout innings. Over 11 innings, the Cards allowed just 5 hits.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 18-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. The Twins scored 10 runs in the 5th inning. They got home runs from Roy Smalley and Dan Ford. Rod Carew went 4-for-5.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-1 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 1-for-4.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 4-0 at the Astrodome in Houston. Doug Rau pitched a 3-hit shutout.

* The California Angels beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-2 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Nolan Ryan went the distance, allowing 3 hits and striking out 8.

* And a doubleheader was split at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The San Francisco Giants won the opener, 5-0. John Montefusco pitched a 4-hit shutout. The San Diego Padres won the nightcap, 6-1.