The Middleman



The Middleman is a television series, airing on ABC Family, based on the comic books by Javier Grillo-Marxauch (a former writer/producer for Lost and Law & Order, among others). The comic itself was originally intended as a TV pilot. The premiere episode, "The Pilot Episode Sanction" (aired on June 16, 2008) established the basic premise, as struggling artist Wendy Watson (Natalie Morales) is recruited by mysterious crimefighter "The Middleman" (Matt Keeslar) to be part of his ultra-secret agency dealing with unusual, comic-book style monsters and mad scientists.

Also in that episode, the heroes discover a lab which aims to create super-intelligent apes. The apes, specifically gorillas, are in fact a single silverback gorilla puppet, supplied by Jim Henson's Creature Shop and originally built for George of the Jungle. The principal gorilla is named Spanky.

All of the gorillas were puppeteered facially by Michael Oosterom, with Tom Fisher as the suit performer (demonstrating his tai-chi skills during the end credits).

Muppet Mentions
The tenth episode, "The Vampiric Puppet Lamentation" (airing on ) was promoted on the show blog by Grillo Marxauch, referencing Count von Count: "10! 10 'middleman' episodes! ha ha ha ha!" The actual episode contained neither references nor Creature Shop puppets, but did feature Michael Oosterom again (puppeteering Little Vladdy and briefly appearing on-camera as one of the vampire puppet's hypnotized victims).