Yellow Pages

"The Green Pages"

The Yellow Pages is a telephone directory of businesses, printed on yellow paper to distinguish it from the non-commercial listings printed on white paper. The concept began in 1883 in Wyoming when yellow paper was substituted for white when a printer ran out. The first official directory was published in 1886, and it is now used globally.

While often used as a generic term, the Bell Telephone Company (later to become AT&T) was a primary user and copyrighted the phrase in the United States in the 1970s.

References

• In episode 524 of The Muppet Show, Kermit the Frog calls the Secret Service to hire real spires for Roger Moore's closing number. He finds the number in the Yellow Pages.

• A Muppet postcard features a parody of the famed book, with Kermit on the cover of the "Green Pages."

• A telephone is the patient in Dr. Bob's operating room during the "Veterinarian's Hospital" sketch of episode 210 of The Muppet Show. In typical Vaudevillian fashion, jokes fly, including an exchange between Nurse Piggy, Nurse Janice and Dr. Bob.

“Nurse Piggy, "Do you know anything about repairing telephones?"
Dr. Bob, "No but I can look it up in the book."
Nurse Piggy, "The medical book?"
Dr. Bob, "No, the telephone book."
Nurse Janice, "What do you think Dr. Bob?"
Dr. Bob, "It must be jaundice."
Nurse Piggy, "How do you know?"
Dr. Bob, "Well look at all these Yellow Pages."”

• Sprocket uses a copy of the Yellow Pages to exercise with in the Fraggle Rock episode, "New Trash Heap in Town."