I forgot to do this, sorry for being late!
I guess you'd call me a born again Muppet fan. I'm 25 years old (soon to be 26) and I was a HUGE Muppet fan when I was little. It was always on and I remember seeing some of the last specials before Jim's death.
However when I was little we went to DisneyWorld every other year and I went to see 'Here come the Muppets!" I sat in the front row. I wasn't afraid of the other walk-around characters (Some of whom picked me up even though that was a no no. I was apparently adorable, I don't know what happened) but something (I'm guessing Animal after he nearly comes down off of the stage when Floyd said something about him eating kids) scared the life out of me and I ran off screaming like a banshee...Also not something that was characteristic of me.
There may have been other contributing factors, I had high anxiety as a child, I had some other scary Muppet moments, and I don't even know if the stage show triggered it (since I was at home when the nightmares started) but I started having extremely violent (to a kid) nightmares involving Animal which led to a phobia of him, which slowly grew to the entire Muppet show cast, to the point where I couldn't watch Muppets anymore and led me to give up puppetry(though I think I hung in there for 10 years after that, despite more things adding to my phobia, like the wipeout video and him popping up at the end of Wow! You're a Cartoonist!, I thought I was over it once but the Pizza Hut Super Bowl commercial triggered it again and also made me miss the Patriots first Super Bowl win ARGH)
It wasn't until Fraggle Rock came on The Hub that I decided enough was enough. That was making me anxious and triggering my phobia and giving me panic attacks. I didn't get over my phobia in the best way, it involved copious amounts of alcohol, youtube videos, sobbing, nights filled with nightmares and throwing up all over myself due to intoxication for the first time in my life. After a few sessions of that (minus vomit) I started to get over it enough that I didn't have to be under the influence to not have a major panic attack by watching Muppets.... and here I am again a huge Muppet fan.
This post is way too long, I'm so sorry, I talk too much! I should have just said I'm 25, from Mass. love Gonzo and am a wembler.