Harland Sanders (1890-1980) was an honorary Colonel of Kentucky and famed restaurant entrepreneur. He started his career in food service in 1930, and began franchising Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in 1955. He eventually sold all interest in the restaurants (today KFC is owned by the same corporate parent as Long John Silver's), though he continued promoting the products, and he is still recognized today as KFC's spokesperson. His image is still widely recognizable, with Halloween costumes and even appearances on The Simpsons.
His restaurants in the United Kingdom featured a promotion for The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland with Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland mini plush dolls.
American restaurants featured a promotion for Jim Henson's Scary Scary Monsters with Scary Scary Monsters toys.
References[]
- A dartboard featuring Sanders' image hangs in Camilla's dressing room in The Muppet Show episode 318.
- Buckets of KFC can be seen in "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" from The Muppet Show episode 502.
- Oscar the Grouch portrays "Colonel Oscar" for his fast-food franchise, "Colonel Oscar's Eat It and Beat It" in Episode 1534 of Sesame Street, parodying both Sanders' image and his KFC branding.
- The Colonel is the punchline of the January 28, 1982 The Muppets comic strip.
- Jerry Nelson based the voice of Balthazar from The Christmas Toy on that of Sanders.[1]
- In the "Charlie's Russian Restaurant" sketch, Grover informs Mr. Johnson that one of the restaurant's menu items is Chicken Kiev (a tender piece of chicken with butter inside). One of his backup musicians describes it as "finger-licking khoroshiy" ("Khoroshiy" means "good" in Russian), referencing KFC's "finger-licking good" slogan.
Sources[]
- ↑ Graphic Policy. "Muppets Gone Missing: Jan Nelson Discusses Jerry Nelson." September 16, 2015.