Bicycles



Bicycles have been featured prominently as a mode of transportation in Muppet productions, and appear to be a particular favorite of Kermit the Frog. In The Muppet Show episode 409, Kermit's bike is stolen.

The first instance of Muppet biking occurred in Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas. In the special's opening moments, Kermit cycles down a bumpy country lane before being blindsided by the Riverbottom Nightmare Band. A scale model bicycle was constructed, and a special marionette Kermit created, and operated by Frank Oz.

In The Muppet Movie, Kermit begins his journey on a Schwinn bicycle. The bike this time has seemingly not been adjusted to puppet scale. However, the same effects applied. In an interview with Dynamite magazine, promoting The Great Muppet Caper, Frank Oz recalled, "It's amazing, though, you work and work on the most difficult things and people say, 'That's nice.' then something easy will occur and it will be all anyone talks about! In the first movie it was Kermit riding a bike. It was very easy to do that. It was just a simple marionette with strings. In the same film there was that whole complicated sequence with Gonzo in the balloon, crashing into the sign and landing in the car. It took forever to film that -- and all the talk was about the bike! That's why we have a whole bicycle parade in this film."

The Great Muppet Caper featured bicycle riding at the center of the musical set-piece "Couldn't We Ride". Kermit and Miss Piggy renew their courtship in a London park on rented bicycles. They are soon joined by a crowd of Muppet characters, riding close together. For this sequence, in addition to radio controlled mechanisms and marionette devices, the multiple bikes were wired together. The bikes were then pulled by a fleet of over-sized tricycles and bikes behind them, riddeny by Brian Henson and other performers.