The Complete History of Mahna Mahna and his alter ego Bip Bipadotta

[Fozzie Bear]

Hiya,

Recently, I emailed the Jim Henson Company regarding our Mondo Mahna Confusion:
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"Hi.

Just a note that I REALLY wish that Palisades could make an action figure of Mahna Mahna and the 2 Snowths!!

Otherwise, this email is about the missed continuity of the character Mahna Mahna, who also was known as Bip Bipadotta on Sesame Street sometimes.

Why all the changes?

To see what I mean, Scott, Scarecroe, at MuppetCentral.com has compiled the following photos in the MC forums. Can you check that out to see what I mean?

Is it just that Mahna Mahna is an anything Muppet who is thrown together when needed, or what?

Thanks,
Kevin L Williams
Fozzie Bear from Muppetcentral.com"
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Our confusion on the difference in Mahna Mahna and his variations have been responded to based on an email I sent to JHC. Karen Falk has delivered the following email response to me/us in detail, and it will also bring to light tons of other questions about why more Muppet Show characters didn't appear on Sesame Street:
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"Dear Kevin,

Thanks for asking about a real Muppet favorite, Mahna Mahna. Jim originally designed the character with the empty eyes and used him with the song "Mahna Mahna" on the Ed Sullivan Show in November of 1969. (See the book JIM HENSON'S DESIGNS & DOODLES, page 78.) He performed the song on Sesame
Street around the same time with the same voice - but as you saw on Scarecroe's post, with a different puppet.

There has always been a real effort to differentiate between the Sesame Street characters (educational, not-for-profit) and the rest of the Muppet characters (used for commercial projects) - except for Kermit. Jim used the empty-eyed Mahna Mahna on Sullivan, The Muppet Show, etc. and used other versions of the character for Sesame Street (that would be why the Sesame
version also had a different name. Jim felt that he did not want his Sesame puppets used for commercial purposes as that would be irresponsible to the kids who watched the show - also, it was important to keep the copyrights separate). The puppets get rebuilt from time to time, with improved mechanisms, etc., so the look changed a bit over the years.

Our art dept. has been looking at Mahna Mahna and Snowth materials recently with an eye toward action figures, so you may see them yet!

Hope that helps!

Sincerely,
Karen Falk
Archives
The Jim Henson Company"
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The differences were because The Muppets are a commercial property while Sesame Street is educational and not for profit.

That answers a LOT of the reason why Fozzie or Miss Piggy never showed up on SS, huh?

 

[Drtooth]

Originally posted by The Count
Drtooth and MuppetDude, thanks for your valued assistance. So Drtooth, and any other forum member who'd care to comment on this, in your professional opinions does MuppetDude's descriptions of both sets of characters hold true? If so, does this merit sufficient cause to keep the Oinker Sisters and the Ambrooze Sisters listed as two separate and distinct entires in my master Muppet Listings? And if so, then is the name correct spelled or writen on the record label as "Ambrooze" or "Androoze" Sisters? Please answer these questions ASAP because inquiring minds want to know! Thanks for your help with this matter and have a good dday.

Unfortunately, I do not have the album. But I guess Androoze Sisters, as in a parody of the Andrews sisters, whom the characters originally were to be...I guess...

 

[scarecroe]

Hey Kevin, thanks for posting Karen's email. That helps out!

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Scarecroe,

I forget how hands-on the folks at JHC are, and how personal they are, and was suprised to get a real email that was that descriptive.

Of course, your offering of all the different visuals and research that you have done helped tons, too, I'm sure.

The folks at Disney never offered personal responses in my whole life, nothing that wasn't a form letter with my name and address stuck to it.

God Bless them Henson folk.

FOZ

 

[Super Scooter]

I've written to the Henson company several times (I think I became the company pest for a litte while ) and they always replied back with a real answer. It may have been short, but they always answered back personally.

 

[Chilly Down]

That's awesome! Thanks for writing, Kevin. I wouldn't have had the guts myself -- I would figure the Henson folk would just roll their eyes at us. But that was a really impressive response! Henson people rock!

OK, so they used a different puppet because of the copyright issues. (Guess Rowlf was a one-time exception.) And Bip Boppita is just a similarly designed/voiced Muppet, not the same Muppet with mysterious appearing/disappearing eyes. Cool. I think I got it now.

Ironically, there was once a magazine cover for Parents' Magazine and Better Homemaking (p. 145 in The Works) that featured a child with Kermit, Ernie, Bert...and Mahna Mahna.

Oog, my head hurts.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

There's probably a few circumstances where the characters can slip through the loop-holes and get from one area of JHC into another by some other means.

My next question is, then, that if he wanted to keep Mahna seperate from SS, then why not just do a completely DIFFERENT character with the same voice?

Hello?! Wembly and Rizzo anyone? Bip didn't have to look like Mahna.

Weird, ain't it?

 

[Phillip]

You'll notice that the Sesame/Muppet crossovers happened much more frequently while Jim was alive (for obvious reasons). Since his death though, rarely have Sesame and Muppet characters mixed outside of Kermit.

Would either of you guys (Scott or Kevin) like to compile this info for a Rarely Seen Muppets article on Mahna Mahna? I think it would be a great addition on the site. Fill it with lots of details and we can add comparison photos and the like with quotes from Karen's e-mail response. Please let me know if one of you is interested.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I'm game to co-conspire if he is!! After all, the only thing I've got to offer up is very limited writing skills and an email from Karen, he's got the pictures and dated resources (I guess) for the shows from which the shots all came.

Scott?

 

[scarecroe]

Well, I was actually going to do such a feature for BSL. If we can somehow pool our forces and mirror it at MC and BSL, I'd be all for it!