Anything Muppets

Illustration by Caroll Spinney for a 1973 issue of The Puppetry Journal.

A large family of Anything Muppets.

Semi-blank versions of Green, Fat Blue and Lavender, from the song "Fat Cat".

Anything Muppets (or "AMs", as they're referred to in the studio) are "empty" Muppet heads. Facial features, bodies and clothes can be added to make any kind of character. The corresponding family of monster puppets are known as the AM Monsters.

A similar group of puppets known as Whatnots appeared on The Muppet Show. Some Anything Muppets have also appeared in Muppet movies and specials.

The Anything Muppets were introduced in the first episode of Sesame Street, in a sketch involving Gordon. An Anything Muppet appeared without any facial features, and Gordon introduced her as an Anything Person and proceeded to give her and four other Anything Muppets who appeared in sequence eyes, noses, and hair to form a family.

During the first seasons of Sesame Street, they were known as "The Anything People" who could be anything they wanted. Usually the live actors, like Bob, would turn them into different characters. This concept was abandoned after a few seasons, although every once in a while an Anything Muppet character would take off his nose or lose his mustache.

Although these puppets were usually used to create human characters, animals were also sometimes concocted from Anything Muppets, until the late 1980s, including the Tortoise and the Hare, The Three Little Pigs, and Captain Vegetable. This practice could be seen in The Miss Muffet Play. Aliens, such as The Gonk and The Geefle, and monsters such as Bennett Snerf, Arlene Frantic, Fenwick, Rosemary and Pamela could also be made from Anything Muppets.

Main Sesame Street characters that are made from Anything Muppets include Count von Count, Prairie Dawn, Mr. Johnson, Roosevelt Franklin, Guy Smiley, Lefty the Salesman, Biff and Sully, the Twiddlebugs, Sherlock Hemlock, and Little Jerry.

“Our general philosophy on "Sesame" is that we've always dealt with not being specific to races. That is why Jim Henson developed artificial colors or strange colors for all the humanoids.”

Fat Blue Anything Muppet from "The Muppet Character Guide" (1973)

Lavender Anything Muppet from "The Muppet Character Guide" (1973)

Types

The following types of Anything Muppets appear on Sesame Street; terms for these are derived from CTW style guides and other official sources:

Fat Blue
(and live hand variant)

Green

Pumpkin
(and live hand variant)

Purple

Lavender

Large Lavender Live Hand

Orange Gold
(and live hand variant)

Little Anything Muppets
Hot Pink, Reddish Magenta, Orange Pumpkin, Light Green, Brown, and Small Lavender

Unknown titles

In addition, a few other types have been used less frequently; official titles are currently unknown.

	Large orange live hand Laundromat Manager, King Fred, Murray the Mediocre, Sir John Feelgood, Mo, The Grand Royal Square Lover, Geppetto, Diva D'Abruzzo, Super Nanny, Hansel, Noel Cowherd, "The Most Important Meal of the Day" chef, "Once is Not Enough" father, the dentist from "Dentist of Seville", Dr. Edwynn, Dr. Flippin, Guntag Gelman-Jones, Charmin', Suspension Act Magician, "The Sneeze Song" backup singer, Long Jane Silver, Dani, Imogene, F. N. Jones, I.C. DeForrest, King Oliver, Dr. Ruster, Jon, Buzz Word, Cap-ten Kirk (hand rods)
	Large lavender hand rod The Count (in The First Day of School), Rusty, Mr. Essex, Sonny Friendly (originally, 1986-1993), Frankie, The Grand High Triangle Lover (originally), The Princess and the C, Donald Trump Muppet, Ambulance Driver
	Magenta Flo, Smelly, Breakfast Club Singer, Dinner Theatre cousin, Tyrone, Prince, Groucho Marx Muppet, Mr. Pogosticker, Tony, Finicky, Pilar
	Large green live hand Super K Cereal boy, Ice cream vendor, Heaviest Catch crew member, The Great Halfini, The Green Four-net (hand rods)
	Large hot pink live hand Prairie Dawn's Mom, Virginia Virginia, Gretel, The Closer
	Large light pink live hand Sadie Schwartzbaum, Salesperson, The Ringmaster
	Orange hand rod Only One Cannoli, Joffrey caricature ("Game of Chairs"), Rapunzel (Episode 4804)
	Brown Kingston Livingston III, Sergeant Gabriel

Notes

Four examples of Anything Muppet characters from the song, "Family."

• The term "AM" is also used to refer to various background characters, such as monsters, animals, Honkers, Dingers, and other creatures. In these cases, scripts call AMs "animated Muppets".

See also

• Anything Muppet Sketches
• Whatnot Muppets