Fozzie Bear

 Performer: Frank Oz • (1976 - 1999) Eric Jacobson • (2002 - present)

Fozzie Bear is The Muppet Show's resident comedian. He's an orange, fuzzy Muppet bear who tells bad jokes, usually ending with his catchphrase, "Wocka wocka wocka!"

During the first season of The Muppet Show, Fozzie's monologues usually consisted of Fozzie telling riddles, while being heckled by Statler and Waldorf. After the first season, most of his monologues had gimmicks, such as ventriloquism or telling jokes on roller skates.

From Jim Henson: The Works: "One of the biggest problems [with the first season] was with Fozzie Bear. Fozzie was crucial to The Muppet Show because he was conceived as Frank Oz's main character, and the success of the show would depend to a significant degree on Frank having the opportunity to display the full range of his virtuoso performance and comedic skills.

"It was logical to have a comedian as a primary character on The Muppet Show, particularly once the Muppet Theater had been established as its basic setting. And given the spirit of the Muppets, it was almost inevitable that he would be a bad comedian. The problem with Fozzie was that his bad jokes and failure to win over an audience provoked more embarrassment than sympathy.

"Jerry Juhl and Frank Oz gradually transformed Fozzie by building up the positive aspects of his personality. They allowed his perpetual optimism to offset his onstage failures until he became a more rounded character. Fozzie's virtues ultimately made his ineptness acceptable -- and even endearing. So successful was this metamorphosis that he became one of the most popular of all the Muppets."

Fozzie's Filmography

 * Muppet Show (TV) : Himself
 * The Muppet Movie : Himself
 * The Great Muppet Caper : Himself
 * The Muppets Take Manhattan : Himself
 * The Muppet Christmas Carol : Fozziwig (Scrooge's first employer)
 * Muppet Treasure Island : Young Squire Trelawney
 * Muppets From Space : Himself
 * It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie : Himself
 * The Muppets' Wizard of Oz : Cowardly Lion



Discussion of Fozzie's family
Fozzie's mother is Emily Bear. Fozzie has a cousin who appeared on the Muppet Show. Fozzie also mentioned an uncle in The Muppet Movie.

Performing Fozzie
Early design for Fozzie had contorls that allowed his ears to wiggle. Fozzie whas rebuilt in the second season of The Muppet Show; in addition to having a brighter orange hue and an overall tighter design and less "dopey" appearance, also contains a mechanism that allows his eyebrows to move. Unfortunately the effect was barely noticeable (especially when Fozzie was wearing his hat), and the feature was done away with when the puppet is replaced with yet another version about seven episodes into the second year.

For the first two episodes, the puppet was considerably thinner, had a mechanism that allowed his cheeks to move, and he had a gruffer voice. Most of these scenes were not included in the broadcast version of these episodes.

Trivia

 * Fozzie was named after puppet builder Faz Fazakas, who created the mechanism that allowed Fozzie to wiggle his ears.


 * Kermit and Fozzie play identical twins in The Great Muppet Caper.