Sandbox:Misplaced or destroyed puppets

[SANDBOX NOTE: Needs better name as "misplaced" is vague, but mostly needs better sourcing and specifics]

Over the years, many puppets have been lost — either misplaced or stolen, involved in on-set accidents, damaged due to heavy usage, or simply deteriorated due to the passage of time. Instances of puppets being lost or stolen during transit or promotional tours highlight the logistical challenges inherent in transporting and storing these iconic characters, while stories of puppets meeting their demise due to accidents showcase the on-set hazards and vulnerabilities of working with inanimate hand-made stars.

Due to the nature of how puppets are constructed, the materials used, and the wear-and-tear of using them for movie and television productions, many Muppets are subject to the elements of time and environment. With the exception of puppets made mostly out of wood or cloth, those constructed with foam, fleece, and other soluble materials erode over time. This is sometimes informally referred to within the industry as the puppet being "toasted" because their insides disintegrate and crumble.

The following page is an account of notable instances in which puppets have been lost, misplaced, stolen, destroyed or damaged.

Lost or stolen puppets

Hoggle on display at the Unclaimed Baggage Center.

• Hoggle from Labyrinth was lost in transit during the promotional tour for Labyrinth. The puppet eventually arrived at the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama. The puppet was in a deteriorated condition, as the materials used to build him weren't meant to last long-term. He was restored by artist Gary Sowatzka and now resides on display in the center's entryway.

• During a Q&A on the second day of MuppetFest, Brian Henson mentioned some of the puppets that have been lost over the years. He remarked on how Dog from Living with Dinosaurs was stolen. Jerry Nelson shared that at one point Robin the Frog was also stolen, and Kevin Clash said that once he forgot Clifford in a dressing room and it was a tense moment until they found him again.

• During the 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard, the original No'man puppet from Iftah Ya Simsim was stolen. For the 2015 revival of the show, a new costume was built.

• In 1996, thieves pillaged an exhibit in Erfurt, Germany where several Muppets were on display. The original 1969 Ernie and Bert puppets were taken (they also smashed a glass case, trying to rip a Miss Piggy from her display, but were unsuccessful). The actor who dubbed Ernie’s German voice, Gerd Duwner, made a radio appeal a day after the theft for the puppets’ safe return. Six weeks later the puppets were recovered and returned to the exhibit.

• According to Clueless Morgan's puppeteer Bill Barretta, the main reason Clueless was not used in productions after Muppets Tonight is that the puppet went missing. In 2010, Barretta commented: "he was lost somehow after Muppets Tonight and has never been seen again. If anyone out there has seen him, please ask him to call home. His family misses him." As of 2015, the puppet had since been found and is currently on display at the Center for Puppetry Arts as part of their permanent Worlds of Puppetry exhibit. In 2020, Barretta commented on his reappearance stating: "He's in a museum now. We lost him for like 20 years in the mail. He got lost. He disappeared. Nobody could find him for about 20 years, and then he showed up at the museum in Atlanta somehow. I don't know. Weird."

• Thieves calling themselves the "Big Bird Bandits" stole a Big Bird walk-around costume from a children’s circus in Australia. A few days later, they returned the seven-foot-tall suit with an apology note stuffed in the beak, stating: "We are so sorry!!! We had no idea what we were doing, or what our actions would cause. We were just having a rough time and were trying to cheer ourselves up. We had a great time with Mr. Bird. He's a great guy and no harm came to our friend. Sorry to be such a big birden!."

Destroyed puppets

• Many of the Jim Henson's very early puppets wound up in a toy box belonging to his children, where they were played with and ultimately destroyed. According to Lisa Henson, "His attitude was, 'none of this stuff is really precious―you can make it and then you can take it apart and make something else with it.' He even had some of the old Sam and Friends Muppets lying around the house and they became rags because we played with them. Chicken Liver was a particular victim of our playing!" (In 2010, Chicken Liver was rescued and restored and now resides in The Smithsonian Institution).

• The original orange Oscar the Grouch was taken apart to build new iterations of the puppet. Caroll Spinney described the event in his memoir, writing: "Jim [Henson] was never sentimental about the puppets, and neither was Don [Sahlin]. Jim just started ripping Oscar apart to reuse the material, which actually came from a bath mat dyed orange. I was horrified—Sesame Street was already a hit, and I felt like the first Oscar puppet could wind up in a museum someday. Jim and Don didn't care. They had the puppet stripped down in a few minutes and were thinking about how to build another one."

• The original legs built for the first Big Bird puppet went up in flames after an accident involving a klieg light.

• In the early 1970s, before a Sesame Street appearance at Georgia Tech, R.O.T.C. students tasked with guarding the puppets broke into a storage room while the crew took lunch and ravaged the Big Bird costume, ripping a big chunk of his feathers off. They failed to snatch one his eyes off, which was left dangling.

• When filming the underwater scenes for "Piggy's Fantasy" in The Great Muppet Caper, Henson discovered that the foam head of Miss Piggy would absorb water like a sponge and the water would slowly wash off the flock, discoloring the puppet and leaving a layer of flock shavings floating on the surface. As a result, a special "waterproof" puppet was developed of compressed urethane foam which wouldn't soak up as much water, however the material didn't stretch well. According to Caroly Wilcox, "as soon as Frank [Oz] would open up the mouth and do a nice exaggerated move, the corner of the mouth would tear." The solution was to build as many heads as possible and simply replace the entire head between each take. In the end, nearly forty different heads and seven bodies were used. According to Henson biographer Brian Jay Jones: "After each take, the Muppet designers took great delight in smashing each discarded head to bits—mostly, said Wilcox coyly, 'to get even.'"

• The original Lips puppet fell apart during the filming of the "Kodachrome" video. Steve Whitmire described the event saying "it was still the original puppet from nearly 40 years ago and he was made out of this foam that was starting to disintegrate. So on the last shot, on the last day of shooting 'Kodachrome,' his trumpet went through the side of his face and that was it. He was gone." A new puppet was then built and used for the 2015 sitcom and other Muppet productions.

• During production of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, a fire broke out on the Stone-In-The-Wood village set on the night of July 24, 2018. There were no injuries but several of the puppets and part of the set were damaged.

Damaged puppets

In an outtake for Episode 4804, Cookie Monster accidently ends up eating his left eye pupil when eating a book.

Gonzo's damaged eyes in episode 315 of The Muppet Show.

• In his autobiography, Jimmy Dean recalls a mishap during rehearsals for the The Jimmy Dean Show: "[...] Sometimes Rowlf and I would act like we were fighting, and on one occasion when we were joking and having one of our scuffles, I smacked his head and one of his eyeballs flew off."

• At the end of the "What Kind of Fool Am I?" number on The Ed Sullivan Show, Beautiful Day Monster's mouth has a small tear, exposing the puppeteer's hand.

• In the song "Frazzle", the first Frazzletone has a large tear in his neck seen throughout the segment.

• In episode 101 of The Muppet Show, during the "Temptation" closing number, a large tear is visible inside Miss Piggy's mouth, exposing the puppeteer's hand.

• When Animal attacks Kermit during the talk spot for episode 123 of The Muppet Show, a large tear is visible between the neck and body of the former.

• One of the Whatnots in the "Any Old Iron" number of episode 214 of The Muppet Show lost a pupil partway throughout the number. Louise Gold performed the Whatnot and described the incident as one of her worst experiences as a puppeteer in a 1999 interview. She noted that this was the last sketch filmed for the episode, and there was only time for one take. The scene remains in the episode with the damaged eye.

• Throughout the later episodes of season 3 of The Muppet Show (excluding episodes 318 and 324), The Muppets Go Hollywood, and when Kermit guest hosted The Tonight Show, Gonzo's eyes appear to be damaged, partially exposing his eye mechanism and producing a bulging effect whenever he talks.

• In the goodnights of episode 318 of The Muppet Show, a couple of chickens lose an eye while pecking at Gonzo and then each other.

• In episode 509 of The Muppet Show, during "One Way or Another," the Devil's mouth is torn open, exposing the puppeteer's hand.

• A Fozzie puppet was burned by a hot air balloon during the filming of the opening credits in The Great Muppet Caper. Amy Van Gilder fixed the puppet on-site so filming could continue, earning her the screen credit of "Muppet Doctor" on the film.

• During an interview with The Archive of American Television in 2016, Geri Jewell shared a story of when she accidentally "decapitated" Big Bird during a roller skating mishap while filming Episode 2065 of Sesame Street.

• Bert's left eye comes off towards the end of "Gospel Alphabet", forcing Noel MacNeal (puppeteering Bert in the number) to make the character dance in profile throughout the wide shots.

• In The Muppet Show Live, during "Mah Na Mah Na", Mahna Mahna's left eye appears to be loose, flopping around his head.

• During an appearance on The Today Show, Gonzo's eyes mechanism malfunctioned, allowing him to lift only one eyelid. Gonzo's puppeteer Dave Goelz liked this effect and asked for it to be made into a regular feature for the puppet.

• During a live TV appearance, one of Elmo's eyeballs unscrewed from his head and fell. Puppeteer Ryan Dillon told the story of the incident on the "Puppet Tears" podcast in 2019, including sharing Chris Knowings' horrified on-air reaction to the event and Rollie Krewson's guiding reaction when dealing with the aftermath.

• At a public appearance with Penny Marshall and Big Bird, as Marshall entered the stage, she lost her footing and grabbed onto Big Bird's (empty) right arm, which caused the arm to rip off the puppet in front of everyone. Puppeteer Matt Vogel reassured Marshall by joking "Don’t worry. It'll grow back."

"Toasted" Puppets

[SANDBOX NOTE: Quotes and sources on what happens to old puppets is helpful here. Don't need to list every puppet that has ever deteriorated. Could potentially be a separate article.]

A crumbling Digit puppet prior to its restoration for display at the Center for Puppetry Arts.

The final remaining cast member of Dinosaurs, a deteriorating Baby Sinclair

The foam, rubbers, and other materials used in the construction of puppets is often made of substances such as polyurethane foam or reticulated foam. Over time, exposure to light and air can cause the materials to deteriorate, leading to a gradual breakdown of its structure. This is informally referred to within the puppet-industry as the puppet becoming "toast" or being "toasted" as their core structure disintegrates, cracks and crumbles. As a result, many puppets only have a shelf-life of a decade or two before having to be rebuilt, restored or retired.

While some characters, such as Miss Piggy and Gonzo, are rebuilt and replaced as their foam structures age, other characters, such as Bruno the Trashman, deteriorate in storage and are simply retired.

Bonnie Erickson spoke of pulling old puppets from Henson Archives and preparing them for museum exhibitions, stating:

“The soft foam lasted a lot longer than the Scott foam. Scott foam turns to dust within about maybe 10 or 15 years, but the soft foam, because it was covered with flocking, was protected. Almost anything that had a surface covering—if was latex or whatever—lasted a long time so they didn't need that much restoration. If it was something inside the puppet, it was also protected. It's light and air that really does the damaging part to these things, so if they're protected—the original Statler and Waldorf heads are still viable—so the ones that really suffered were ones like Sam Eagle who was all Scott foam, the original Zoot that I designed was originally all Scott foam so that had to be redone just rebuilt or they eventually i think found that covering it with fleece was the better idea. ”

In addition to the Scott foam used in the Muppets, similar deterioration also affects the foam latex Creatures, such as the puppets from The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and the show Dinosaurs. While the mechanical innards of the animatronic heads have survived, the outer skins of the puppets have deteriorated in the decades following those productions. Julie Zobel explained in a 2014 interview that "Dinosaurs ended production in 1994, so it's amazing that there's anything left. The thing that breaks down foam latex is light." Peter Brooke added, "You're dealing with a rubber. It's based off of natural latex, which deteriorates over time, but you've whisked it into such a fine cell structure. The cell structure eventually over time, with light, dehydrates and gets to the point where it literally just turns to dust. And you can't save it. You can't reconstitute it." In a hidden "Dino-Egg" on the Dinosaurs: The Complete Third and Fourth Seasons DVD set, Brian Henson talks about the poetic truth of latex and how the puppets don't last forever.

See also

• Characters who have died
• Body part removal