 | |
| PERFORMER | Jim Henson |
| DEBUT | 1964 |
Mack is a humanoid Muppet character who appeared in some of Jim Henson's early commercials produced in the mid-1960s. The puppet is similar to Onky, an earlier live-hand Muppet who first appeared in a series of ads for On-Cor Frozen Foods.
Mack appeared with Kermit in ads for Claussen's Bakery in 1964 and 1965, and for McGarry's Sausage from 1965 to 1968. Mack had a violent, adversarial relationship with Kermit, which was similar to the relationship between Wilkins and Wontkins.
Mack was paired with Suzy, a young girl character, in ads for C & P Telephone Co. of VA (1965-1968) and Southern Bell Telephone (1966-1968). In these ads, the roles were reversed, as Mack would get the short end of the deal, except in one commercial, where he did what Suzy told him to do.
The Mack puppet was also used as the titular hero of two Pak-Nit industrial films. In "Shrinkenstein," he is concocted by a mad scientist to defeat a monster that shrinks clothes. In "Rumple Wrinkle Shrinkel Stretchelstiltzkin," he appears (with an altered design) as "Pak-Nit RX," a "handsome fellow" who marries a damsel after she lifts his evil spell (in which he took on the form of Kermit).