Minor TV Mentions

The following is a list of Muppet Mentions made in other media outside of the Henson/Sesame fold, all of which are too brief or minor to constitute having their own page in the Muppet Mentions category.

The Amazing Race
Joe and Bill, from the program's first season, were nicknamed Team Guido, but were often referred to by other teams as Bert and Ernie. They were a homosexual couple.

Apartment 3A
The play's main character, Annie, works for PBS. According to The New York Times, "she starts behaving rashly, telling the viewers of "Sesame Street" that Big Bird will die if they don't donate money."

Baby Looney Tunes
Warner Bros. animated series featuring infantilized versions of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and other classic Looney Tunes characters. The setting of the show, with the characters in a nursery under the watchful eye of Granny, is very similar to Muppet Babies.

Episode Unknown: When the TV breaks down, the babies use a cardboard box to make their own TV and shows. One show is called "Caraway Street". Bugs dresses as a chracter named "Shmo" (a parody of Elmo), Tweety is a character named "Bird" (a parody of Big Bird) and Taz is a character named "The Grump" (a parody of Oscar the Grouch) who lives in a crate. The show is sponsored by the letter "scribble" and the number "1,000,000,000,000,000,000." ("The other show took all the others.")

Connections:
 * Rick Lyon puppeteered Baby Bugs in a Baby Looney Tunes puppet video pilot.

Boston Legal
In a season two episode, Paul Lewiston's daughter Rachel can be seen cleaning up her daughter's toys. Clearly visible in one shot is The Sesame Street Treasury Volume 8.

Connections:
 * Candice Bergen plays Shirley Schmidt
 * Corbin Bernsen played Eli Granger in "...There's Fire!"
 * Michael J. Fox played the recurring role of Daniel Post (2005-2006)
 * Heather Locklear played Kelly Nolan in "The Black Widow" and "Schadenfreude"
 * Michael McKean played Dwight Biddle in "Truly, Madly, Deeply"
 * Jenny O'Hara played Judge Kimberly Ohlund in "Squid Pro Quo"
 * Richard Portnow played Judge Peter Harding in four episodes
 * Tom Selleck plays the recurring role of Ivan Tiggs
 * William Shatner plays Denny Crane
 * Nicole Sullivan played Joan Rubin in "...There's Fire!"

Death to Smoochy
A dark comedy following Sheldon Mopes' (Edward Norton) rise to stardom with his Barney-like character Smoochy the Rhino, and all the amoral inner workings of the children's entertainment that he encounters. Early in the film, Sheldon states "I was born on November 11th, 1970. You know what else happened on that day? [The] first broadcast of Sesame Street!" (The statement is factually incorrect by one year.) Later, while Robin Williams' character Randolph Smiley (aka Rainbow Randolph) smashes Angelo's television set, he calls Smoochy a "Muppet from hell," during a barrage of expletives. The film also features the Leonard Bernstein song "I Feel Pretty," which the Muppets have performed in numerous times.

Connections:
 * Danny DeVito directed and co-starred as Burke Bennett
 * Harvey Fierstein played Merv Green
 * Jon Stewart played Marion Frank Stokes
 * Robin Williams played "Rainbow" Randolph Smiley
 * Danny Woodburn played Angelo Pike

Drawn Together
In the episode "Little Orphan Hero," Foxxy Love, Princess Clara, Spanky Ham and Ling Ling gather around the telephone, going "Yip yip yip yip yip...", like the Yip Yips from Sesame Street. In the scene, all the characters have strange triangular mouths.

Everwood
A television drama that ran on the WB network from 2002 to 2006.

In the episode "The Great Doctor Brown," Amy Abbott reveals to Ephram Brown the origin of her unusual nickname.


 * Amy: Grover.
 * Ephram: Grover?
 * Amy: It's my nickname. I always loved Grover as a kid. I know for most kids it's all Winnie the Pooh and Hello Kitty, occasionally Strawberry Shortcake, but for me, life was about a little blue Muppet named Grover.
 * Ephram: Well, Grover was a very underrated Muppet.

Flushed Away
A 2006 computer animated feature by Aardman Animation, about a mouse trapped in the sewer. At one point, heroine Rita addresses the villainous toad with "Hoy! Kermit!"

Connections
 * Sean Barrett supplied additional voices
 * Miriam Margolyes voiced Rita's Grandma

King of the Hill
In the episode "Plastic White Female," Hank and Peggy are arguing over whose fault it is for how their son Bobby turned out. Hank accuses Peggy of letting Bobby watch "all them Muppets! ... They got frogs kissin' pigs - what the hell did they think was gonna happen?"

My Name Is Earl

 * In the episode "Very Bad Things" (originally aired September 21, 2006), Joy comments that Earl's British accent "sounds like a gay Kermit the Frog".


 * In the episode "Robbed a Stoner Blind" (originally aired November 16, 2006), Randy and Earl discuss who would win in a fight, the Muppets continually came out victorious :
 * Randy: Hey Earl.
 * Earl: Yeah, Randy.
 * Randy: Who do you think would win in a fight Muppets or Sesame Street?
 * Earl: I don't really think they'd fight; they're both pretty peaceful.
 * Randy: What if they had too, like in that head-chopping-off movie where there could be only one?
 * Earl: Muppets.
 * [pause]
 * Randy: Okay. Muppets or Fraggles?
 * Earl: Muppets.
 * Randy: Okay. What about Muppets or He-Man?
 * Earl: Just He-Man, or He-Man and his friends?
 * Randy: Just He-Man.
 * Earl: Muppets.
 * Randy: That's who I had.

Newhart
In the episode "Dick the Kid," Dick Loudon (Bob Newhart) spends a week at a Western ranch. On movie night, while the other residents want to watch High Noon, a tough resident wants to watch The Muppets Take Manhattan, and he almost gets his way untill Dick takes a stand for the others.

Connections:
 * Star Bob Newhart hosted Holiday Greetings from The Ed Sullivan Show, which featured an appearance by the Muppets. Newhart also interacted with Kermit and Miss Piggy.

Noises Off
Noises Off is a farcical play about the behind-the-scenes troubles of a new play. In a scene shot for the film version in New York City, an advertisement poster for Kodak can be seen displaying an image of Elmo and Big Bird.

Connections:
 * Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve and John Ritter appeared in the film.
 * T. R. Knight appeared in the Broadway revival.
 * Louise Gold appeared in the last month of a West End revival (October 2003).

Notting Hill
William Thacker, played by Hugh Grant, opens the 1999 movie Notting Hill, talking about the location of the same name. His voice-over describes a montage of scenes:


 * "Notting Hill -- my favorite bit of London... There's the market on weekdays, selling every fruit and vegetable known to man... the tattoo parlour -- with a guy outside who got drunk and now can't remember why he chose 'I Love Ken'..."


 * (A woman with hair dyed bright blue exits a hair salon) "The radical hairdressers where everyone comes out looking like the Cookie Monster, whether they want to or not."

Pressure
Billy Joel's song, "Pressure," from the 1982 album Nylon Curtain, has the line "All my life is channel thirteen/Sesame Street/What does it mean?"

The Proud Family
Animated series that aired on the Disney Channel from September 2001 - August 2005. The show centered around an African-American teenager, Penny, her family, and her friends. Basically an animated sitcom in format, it was geared towards a pre-teen and teen audience.

Episode 214: Pulp Boot Camp: Penny's family sends her to boot camp because they fear she is becoming a bully, and she steals cookies from a little girl there. The sergeant catches her and says "Well, well. We have ourselves a little Cookie Monster."

Connections: Some actors who have appeared in Henson/Muppet productions performed voices on The Proud Family.
 * Kyla Pratt as Penny Proud
 * Tara Strong as Bebe Proud
 * Soleil Moon Frye as Zoey

Rugrats
Animated television show that first aired on Nickelodeon in 1991. This series focuses on the point of view of a group of babies, including Tommy Pickles, Chuckie Finster, Phil and Lil, and Angelica Pickles.

In the episode "Toys in the Attic," Tommy and Angelica's grandparents, Boris and Minka, argue over which one of them will turn on the "Sesame Seed," an obvious reference to Sesame Street.

One of the show's directors, Craig Bartlett, whom would later create Hey Arnold animated a handful of Sesame Street segments.

Shortcuts
Comic that gives information about a cetain topic and is sponsored by a famous star with a parodied name based on the topic.

In one comic about hermit crabs, the sponsor was "Hermit the Frog," which was Kermit's head with a red shell and green claws.

The Smoking Room
A British comedy first aired on BBC Three in 2004, focusing on the conversations of characters while on their smoke breaks, all shot inside of a their office's smoking room.

In episode 3, "Pantball," the manager's assistant Janet is trying to get other employees to sign up for a company paintballing event:


 * Janet: No, what I was getting at is - I hope [the sign-up sheet] doesn’t end up covered in jokey names. According to the one downstairs, the only people planning to go paintballing are Marge Simpson, Osama Bin Laden, Barbara Windsor and The Bear in the Big Blue House.

Teen Titans
In the season three episode, "Bunny Raven... or... How to Make A Titananimal Disappear," this animated DC Comics spin-off series features two elderly characters who sit in a theatre box and make wisecracks about the mock variety show being performed on stage. The manner in which they laugh at their particular flavor of jokes is reminiscent of, and likely a direct reference to, Statler and Waldorf.

WKRP in Cincinnati
Sitcom centered around a rock-and-roll radio station, which ran from 1978 unil 1982. In the first season episode "A Commercial Break," from 1979, Venus Flytrap and Herb Tarlek are auditioning jingle singers for an in-house commercial, and trying to coax shy Bailey Quarters into singing.


 * Venus: '' Come on, sing. Sing a song!
 * Herb: Sing out loud! Sing out strong! Sing of good things...

Connections:
 * Loni Anderson played Jennifer Marlowe
 * George Gaynes played Henri in the episode "Jennifer's Home for Christmas."
 * Edie McClurg played Lucille Tarlek in three episodes.
 * Julie Payne played Buffy Denver in the two-part episode "For Love or Money."