Gary and Walter watch The Muppet Show in The Muppets.
Instances of actual Muppet or other Jim Henson Company related clips shown on a TV screen within a fictional TV show or film.
Watching Sesame Street[]
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Where's Poppa? (1970)
Mrs. Hocheiser watches Sesame Street on television. No visuals are shown, but the song "Everybody Wash" and the surrounding dialogue between Ernie and Bert are heard in their entirety. |
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Nashville (1975)
The television set in Tom's room plays segments from The Electric Company and the Sesame Street sketch "Beat the Time" with Cookie Monster. |
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Being There (1979)
In one scene, the TV is tuned to Sesame Street -- a scene from Episode 1037, featuring Big Bird and Buffy. |
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E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
During a scene with E.T. and Gertie (played by Drew Barrymore), Sesame Street plays on the TV long enough for two sketches to appear. The first is an animated film about the letter B that aids E.T. in learning how to speak. The second scene from Episode 0547 features Big Bird introducing Grover in the yard as he demonstrates two chin-ups. The audio that ends the scene, however, was taken from Episode 1364 to provide a more appropriate dialogue for the film: Big Bird observes a rocket ship and remarks, "I think it came from outer space," just as E.T. begins to communicate his desire to phone home. |
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Testament (1983)
Early in the film, Scotty, the youngest child in the central family, watches Sesame Street, before the signal is interrupted by news of the nuclear attack. The two clips are from animated inserts: the fishing boy who catches the alphabet, and two Cliff Roberts men recite the alphabet. |
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A Summer to Remember (1985) |
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Plafond over de vloer (1986) |
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Kids Like These (1987) |
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Pee-wee's Playhouse (1990)
In the episode "Camping Out" (season 5, episode 8), the food in Pee-Wee's refrigerator is shown watching Sesame Street (a clip from Episode 2616 is seen being projected behind the food when Pee-Wee opens the door). |
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Jack the Bear (1993)
John and his two sons are shown watching Sesame Street on TV featuring a segment with The Amazing Mumford and Cookie Monster. Trying to get his son to engage with the programming, John asks him, "Who's that? Is that Big Bird? No. Who's that? Is that Cookie Monster? Me want cookie! Is that Cookie, huh, Dylan?" |
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Forrest Gump (1994)
Forrest Jr. is shown watching an Ernie and Bert sketch from Sesame Street. When Forrest goes to join his son in front of the TV he asks what he is watching, and Forrest Jr. simply replies "Bert and Ernie" - the father and son sit and watch the show together. The scene takes place in late 1981, around the time the show would have been entering its 13th season. |
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Friends (1996)
In the episode "The One Where Old Yeller Dies," Ross' son Ben is watching Sesame Street with Phoebe. The clip on the television is of Ernie burying Bert in the sand. |
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The Tick (2001)
In an episode of the live action TV series, The Tick is watching Grover on TV, and wistfully says, "Daddy." |
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Farscape (2003)
The fourth season episode "Kansas" sees the crew visiting Earth in 1986. At one point, Aeryn is seen watching Sesame Street on TV -- specifically, the Muppet & Kid Moment in which Kermit and Joey say the alphabet and she keeps adding "Cookie Monster!" |
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Six Feet Under (2003)
In the episode "Twilight," Nate Fisher and his daughter watch the Sesame Street song "Red and Blue." |
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Meet the Fockers (2004)
In one scene, to calm infant Little Jack Byrnes, Greg decides to turn on the television, revealing the "Babies" installment of Elmo's World. Greg asks Jack if he likes Elmo, but the baby merely cries. The TV set remains on for the rest of the scene, with Elmo talking in the background and a further clip appearing (as Elmo counts ducklings). Sesame Workshop receives credit for the use of the footage. |
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The Incredible Hulk (2008)
The 2008 feature film begins with Bruce Banner living in Brazil while hiding from the military. To learn the local language, he reads a translation dictionary and watches Sesame Street. |
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Scrubs (2009)
J.D. watches Sesame Street which leads to the characters appearing in his fantasy in the episode "My ABCs." |
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Mad Men (2015)
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The Great Gilly Hopkins (2015)
Gilly and her foster brother watch Sesame Street together. |
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Gaslit (2022)
The sixth episode of the series featured a character watching Kermit the Frog and Cookie Monster discuss "Cookiegate" with Robert MacNeil (a sketch which originally aired as part of Sesame Street, Special). |
Watching The Muppet Show[]
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An American Werewolf in London (1981)
A scene from episode 508 of The Muppet Show is used during a nightmare sequence of the David character, who is going through the changes. In the dream sequence, his family is shown watching the UK Spot in which Miss Piggy complains to Kermit that her act has been replaced by a puppet show. The family's Muppet enjoyment is curtailed by a sudden, bloody slaughter at the hands of anthropomorphic werewolf Nazis. |
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Rocky III (1982)
During a montage meant to show Rocky's rise to fame in the beginning of Rocky III (1982), The Muppet Show can be seen and heard on a television. Jim Henson recorded a special Muppet Show intro as Kermit announcing that the episode featured Rocky Balboa, the title character of the film. Footage from Sylvester Stallone's 1978 episode of The Muppet Show was used and passed off as that of Rocky Balboa. |
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Twice Upon a Time (1983)
One of the characters, Ibor the Video Gorilla, has a television for a face, which he continually adjusts, transmitting clips from films and TV shows to express his points. The very first clip, during the film's opening credits and Ibor's introduction, is of Miss Piggy from The Muppet Show (episode 409), clearing her throat and singing "Mi mi mi mi!" In the film's context, this is Ibor's means of introducing himself. |
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The Manhattan Project (1986)
In one scene, Paul's brother is watching The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence, specifically the "Aggression" sketch. |
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Billy Galvin (1986)
Two scenes feature Jack Galvin watching The Muppet Show. Just before his son Billy whistles outside the window of his apartment, Jack is watching Kermit the Frog fire Miss Piggy in episode 502. When his wife comes to answer the call, Jack pretends to be asleep and she turns the TV off. Later, while recuperating with a broken arm, Jack falls asleep with the television on, showing the phrenology act from episode 216. His wife switches the set off right after Fozzie declares Kermit is a very flexible person. He protests, "Hey, I was watching that!" |
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Lost (2009)
In the fifth season episode "Namaste," the audience is briefly treated to two separate clips of the season two opening credits of The Muppet Show that are playing inside the DHARMA station "The Flame" in 1977. |
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Good Luck Charlie (2013)
Charlie is seen watching a fictional episode of The Muppet Show on TV in the season four premiere "Duncan Dream House." Later in the episode Teddy has a dream where she's visited by the Muppets. |
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The Goldbergs (2017/2019)
A scene from The Muppet Show episode 514 (with Mac Davis) played on the TV in the episode "Jackie Likes Star Trek." Another clip from the same episode is shown when channel surfing at the beginning of "The Beverly Goldberg Cookbook." |
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Siren (2018)
In the episode "Interview with a Mermaid," main mermaid Ryn watches raptly as a TV shows episode 524 of The Muppet Show. |
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Dispatches from Elsewhere (2020)
In the first season episode "The Boy," the titular character watches the beginning of the Steve Martin episode of The Muppet Show. |
Other[]
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The Wild and the Free (1980)
The Muppets Go Hollywood is shown on TV, being watched by chimpanzees. |
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Eye for an Eye (1996)
At one point in the film, the daughter is seen eating ice cream while watching Muppet Babies on TV. No recognizable characters are seen on-screen but Baby Gonzo's voice can clearly be heard announcing the arrival of his sworn enemy "Moby Duck." |