RIP Muppet Show Guests

[MartyMuppets]

Looking at the list on the Wiki now, I just realized the number of celebrities who have died, is pretty much half of the series by now! (Although 2 members of Mummenschanz are still living...in hopes I didn't jinx anything...)

If my calculations are correct, the three Mummenschanz, Roy Rogers/Dale Evans, Kris Kristofferson/Rita Coolidge, Shields and Yarnell and the Stars of Star Wars make 127 guest stars. Carroll Spinney as Big Bird in Leslie Uggam's episode also counts as a guest on Muppet Wiki since he played no regular TMS characters. Also puppeteers Richard Bradshaw and Bruce Schwartz performed their own work on three episodes. Bradshaw once and Schwartz on the other two.

So altogether that makes 130 guests in 120 episodes and 60 of them are now deceased.

 

[DMHFan]

If my calculations are correct, the three Mummenschanz, Roy Rogers/Dale Evans, Kris Kristofferson/Rita Coolidge, Shields and Yarnell and the Stars of Star Wars make 127 guest stars. Carroll Spinney as Big Bird in Leslie Uggam's episode also counts as a guest on Muppet Wiki since he played no regular TMS characters. Also puppeteers Richard Bradshaw and Bruce Schwartz performed their own work on three episodes. Bradshaw once and Schwartz on the other two.

So altogether that makes 130 guests in 120 episodes and 60 of them are now deceased.

That's very explanatory.

 

[jobi71]

Such a shame. I loved seeing her performances on Sesame Street and the Muppet Show.

On the other hand, the fact that she was able to make it to the age of 97 is a blessing. Not everyone gets that privilege in life, unfortunately.

I've been humble-bragging about my live theater experiences as of late. I apologize. It's meant more as a credit to the performer than me who sat well behaved in a chair. I saw Channing in 1995? at the beginning of her last tour as Dolly. So,yes 23-24 years ago but she still was in her 70's. She hit it out of the park. Granted Dolly is not a big dance roll and her unique vocal quality remained unchanged as she aged,but when I heard she passed at 97 I thought I would not be surprised if it was mid-performance of something.

 

[Cookie Chris]

Rest in peace, Kaye Ballard. Coincidentally, I did watch some reruns of Match Game 74 last week on GSN in which she was a celebrity panelist.

I had no idea she died. Heh. Can somebody explain how many guests are alive by season number and which ones have died by season number?

Here are my statistics of The Muppet Show guest stars are still alive:

Season One: 13 (2 from Mummenschanz and Richard Bradshaw are included)
Season Two: 12 (also included is Bruce Schwartz)
Season Three: 15 (also included is Caroll Spinney as Big Bird)
Season Four: 16 (also included are C-3PO played by Anthony Daniels and Chewbacca played by Peter Mayhew. Kenny Baker doesn't count since R2-D2 was remote controlled.)
Season Five: 15 (Schwartz is again included)

If my estimates are correct, there are 70 guest stars that are still alive since Schwartz made two guest appearances but counts as one person. As noted before, 60 guest stars have passed away.

 

[DMHFan]

Here are my statistics of The Muppet Show guest stars are still alive:

Season One: 13 (2 from Mummenschanz and Richard Bradshaw are included)
Season Two: 12 (also included is Bruce Schwartz)
Season Three: 15 (also included is Caroll Spinney as Big Bird)
Season Four: 16 (also included are C-3PO played by Anthony Daniels and Chewbacca played by Peter Mayhew. Kenny Baker doesn't count since R2-D2 was remote controlled.)
Season Five: 15 (Schwartz is again included)

If my estimates are correct, there are 70 guest stars that are still alive since Schwartz made two guest appearances but counts as one person. As noted before, 60 guest stars have passed away.

Thanks a lot.

 

[Flaky Pudding]

I was extremely offended by the Carol Channing death joke they made on Jimmy Kimmell a couple nights ago. They basically said that she's in h*ll.

What's ironic is that South Park did the same joke about Steve Irwin being in h*ll after he died and that caused a huge controversy. But how come nobody else seem to be bothered by Kimmell's extremely crude Carol Channing joke that was basically the same exact thing? It really bothers me because it makes me feel in a sense like no one really cared about her or at least not enough to complain after hearing such a tasteless remark by made at her expense.

I honestly don't care when comedians make fun of tragedies and sad circumstances but at least have the courtesy to wait a while after the event happened before you do that. For example, I always defended the Family Guy joke about Peter blowing Anne Frank's cover by eating potato chips too loud because it aired decades after The Holocaust took place. But yeah, two days later is a very inappropriate time to joke around about another person's misery.

 

[KCJ506]

With Kaye Ballard passing away, I think this may be the first time two Muppet Show guest stars passing away around the same time since Dudley Moore and Milton Berle.

 

[MuppetsRule]

Although not a guest star, director James Frawley passed away on Tuesday. He directed The Monkees and was selected by Jim Henson to direct The Muppet Movie

 

[CBEB]

There is also Lynn Redgrave and Lena Horne who passed away at the same time in 2010.

 

[MartyMuppets]

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/peter-mayhew-dead-dies-chewbecca-star-wars-1203203816/

The Muppet Wiki will have to add his name to the tombstones. Peter played Chewie most memorably in the "Star Wars" TMS episode. His loss is a huge loss indeed to Star Wars and Muppet devotees. :'(