{"id":2534,"date":"2012-12-06T10:30:41","date_gmt":"2012-12-06T18:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/?p=2534"},"modified":"2023-05-14T19:11:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-15T02:11:49","slug":"1261977","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/2012\/12\/1261977\/","title":{"rendered":"12\/6\/1977 &#8211; &#8216;Peter Sellers (Muppet Show)&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When comic actor Peter Sellers joined the Muppets for their show in its second season, he fit right in.  In a promotional interview, Sellers commented that, \u201cOne of the most endearing qualities of the Muppets is their sense of \u2018family\u2019 \u2013 I don\u2019t mean that only in that \u2018this is a family show,\u2019 but in the way all the people behind the Muppets work together. Working with them, they give off an atmosphere of unity and relaxation and of knowing and respecting each other\u2019s ideas and goals. For an outsider appearing in their midst, that is very reassuring.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Seller was, apparently, a big fan and had tapes of all the episodes at home. In a note to Jim, head writer Jerry Juhl related Seller\u2019s assessment of various aspects of the show. He preferred when the Muppets were the stars and the guest was sort of worked into the action rather than being the center of the action. He thought Dom DeLuise was \u201chilarious\u201d and his favorite show was the Emmy award winning Rita Moreno episode. He recommended that Jim invite comedian Spike Milligan onto the show as he would blend well with the Muppets (Milligan appeared in the third season). \u201cUltimately,\u201d Sellers reminded Jim, \u201cthe Muppets themselves are the genius and stars of the show.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sellers did his part (or many parts) utilizing his versatility to play a gypsy violin player, a masseur man-handling Link Hogthrob, and Queen Victoria. Seller\u2019s final number featured him as a missionary preacher singing, \u201cCigarettes, Whusky, and Wild, Wild Women.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4455\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/CM_16403_MV3D_LogosSigns_22.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4455\" src=\"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/CM_16403_MV3D_LogosSigns_22-300x172.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"CM_16403_MV3D_LogosSigns_22\" width=\"300\" height=\"172\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4455\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/CM_16403_MV3D_LogosSigns_22-300x172.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/CM_16403_MV3D_LogosSigns_22.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4455\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Great Gonzo was a favorite of Peter Sellers and was featured in his Muppet Show episode. This is a concept by Michael Frith for Muppet*Vision 3D, 1989.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_4454\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/MS_14920_PeterSellersPublicity.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4454\" src=\"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/MS_14920_PeterSellersPublicity-300x197.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"MS_14920_PeterSellersPublicity\" width=\"300\" height=\"197\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4454\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/MS_14920_PeterSellersPublicity-300x197.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/MS_14920_PeterSellersPublicity.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4454\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Peter Sellers revealed that Gonzo was his favorite character on The Muppet Show, 1977.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Additional historical information provided by The Jim Henson Company Archivist.  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/2012\/12\/1261977\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[319,46,72],"tags":[1073,380,63,1072,2142,2054],"class_list":["post-2534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-december-77","category-46","category-muppetshow","tag-dom-deluise","tag-jerry-juhl","tag-muppets","tag-peter-sellers","tag-rita-moreno","tag-spike-milligan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2534"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6786,"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534\/revisions\/6786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}