Veterinarian's Hospital



Veterinarian's Hospital is a recurring Muppet Show sketch, loosely spoofing the atmosphere of medical soap operas.

Dr. Bob (played by Rowlf the Dog), Nurse Piggy (Miss Piggy), and Nurse Janice confer over a series of patients, telling an endless series of bad jokes and failing to effect any cure.

In the first season, the unseen Announcer was played by John Lovelady, who opened each sketch with, "And now, the continuing story of a former orthopedic surgeon who's gone to the dogs." Jerry Nelson, who occasionally substituted for Lovelady, would take over the role full time in subsequent seasons. Nelson's announcer opens the sketch with, "And now, the continuing stoooory of a quack who's gone to the dogs," and ends each sketch with "Tune in next week when you'll hear [Character Name] say..."

After the completion of The Muppet Show in 1981, the further antics of Dr. Bob's operating room were told in the panels of The Muppets comic strip by Guy and Brad Gilchrist. Examples from the earliest strips made their debut on October 21st and 28th, and December 8th; the last two of which feature Fozzie returning to the hospital bed once again. Later strips took the trio outside of their familiar setting and even split the characters up to inspire a variety of circumstances. Some of these can be found in the pages of six book collections of the series released by Tom Doherty Associates. More "Veterinarian's Hospital" sketches were included in the books It's The Muppet Show! and The Comic Muppet Book. A Veterinarian's Hospital comic strip was written and illustrated for Disney Adventures, but never published.

The Palisades Toys line of Muppet action figures were announced to have gone into production for a set of Veterinarian's Hospital Action Figures, but the toys never made it past the prototype phase. In 2003, Sababa Toys released a set of bean dolls featuring the Vet's Hospital cast and a patient, Camilla.

When the Muppet gang returned to television in 1989 with The Jim Henson Hour, Vet's Hospital was revived in a sense as "Merlin the Magician, MD," two medieval sketches (seen in episode 102 and 107) in which Rowlf appeared as the wizard Merlin (accompanied by a female assistant). Like Dr. Bob, Merlin would purportedly cure people's medical problems (this time using magic), making jokes and slinging puns all the while. In the Muppets' 1996 series Muppets Tonight, the Muppets, this time led by Dr. Fozzie, would again revisit the pun-filled medical sketch with the recurring segment "E-I-E-I-OR".

Honorable mentions

 * In episode 222, Nurse Janice can be seen pulling Animal away from his drumkit during the song "Wild Thing". Also, Miss Piggy dons her nurse outfit while scaling herself.
 * The Pigs in Space sketch from episode 423 features a cameo appearance by Dr. Bob and Nurse Janice who appear to help alleviate First Mate Piggy's sore feet, thus merging two of the more well-known recurring Muppet Show sketches. (When the Announcer closes the sketch, Dr. Bob comments, "We have him at the hospital, too.")
 * In episode 424, Dr. Bob and Nurse Janice carry Gonzo offstage after being harassed by a hostile audience.