Why didnt Jerry Nelson have a regular character on the Muppet Show?

[Xerus]

I've also noticed that Jerry didn't really have a Muppet Baby character to perform. Except for Robin in the animated series.

 

[BEAR]

I've also noticed that Jerry didn't really have a Muppet Baby character to perform. Except for Robin in the animated series.

The Muppeteers (for the most part) did not provide the voices for the Muppet Babies series as far as I know.

 

[Xerus]

The Muppeteers (for the most part) did not provide the voices for the Muppet Babies series as far as I know.

That's true. But in the Muppets Take Manhattan and the Muppet Family Christmas. The live action Muppet Babies were perfromed by the Muppeteers. Except for Jerry.

 

[Barry Lee]

I do consider Floyd and Robin main characters.

 

[golden teeth]

See, I also dont feel Floyd was in much of the movies.

Muppet Movie, Floyd was in a 6-8 minute scene with the band when they met them and didnt appear again until towards the end.

Great Muppet Caper, Floyd and Lew Zealand were in a lot of this one.

Muppet Take Manhatten, Floyd only spoke at the beginning. He didnt even look for Kermit. Lew Zealan d was in a little bit of it.

Muppet Christmas Carol, Jerry performed all over with the Ghost of christmas present and robin.

 

[Gorgon Heap]

Wait a sec, you mean NO ONE HAS ANSWERED YET?

The answer is because Jerry's daughter had cystic fibrosis, and he would take time off to go back to America to visit with her. This is also stated in Jerry's interview in the Articles section of the main site.

Jerry had Statler originally (in the Sex and Violence pilot) but when the show came around, Jerry gave up the character so that there wouldn't be a necessity for him to be there for every single show. With no characters appearing in every episode, he could come and go as needed.

Hope this answers your question.

David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole

 

[BEAR]

Wait a sec, you mean NO ONE HAS ANSWERED YET?

The answer is because Jerry's daughter had cystic fibrosis, and he would take time off to go back to America to visit with her. This is also stated in Jerry's interview in the Articles section of the main site.

Jerry had Statler originally (in the Sex and Violence pilot) but when the show came around, Jerry gave up the character so that there wouldn't be a necessity for him to be there for every single show. With no characters appearing in every episode, he could come and go as needed.

Hope this answers your question.

David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole

That makes perfect sense and it also works because at the time, Nelson was performing many many characters on Sesame Street which was back home in the States. So while he was taking time away from The Muppet Show and being with his daughter, he was probably also spending that time on the Street.

 

[Drtooth]

The one thing about a main performer doing main characters, is that sometimes when a back ground, one time character is needed it;s often better to use someone without many characters. I think this is one of the things I liked best about Jerry. When you have several characters, you can play them as much as you want, when you have a bunch of background characters, you're free to have vocal experimentation.

Like Paul Frees on the Bullwinlke Show. He had only one Main character, Boris, a semi-regular, Captain Peachfuzz, and hundreds of incidentals. That really got to show his range of characters and dialects.

 

[minor muppetz]

Like Paul Frees on the Bullwinlke Show. He had only one Main character, Boris, a semi-regular, Captain Peachfuzz, and hundreds of incidentals. That really got to show his range of characters and dialects.

I don't really think it's fair to compare puppeteering to voice-acting. With puppeteering, the performer is on stage, and if that performer has multiple characters interracting with each other, the performer could only perform one character and then dub voices or edit later on. With voice acting, a voice actor could easily have a conversation with himself. On The Simpsons, for example, there are amny characters who normally interract with each other despite being voiced by the same person (examples: Homer and Barney, Homer and Grampa, Mr. Burns and Smithers, marge, patty and selma, etc.).

 

[minor muppetz]

WHy didnt Jerry have a regular?

What is your defination of "regular"?

In my opinion, a regular on a television series is someone who appeared many times a season, with many regular roles. I think Jerry Nelson had many regular characters, including Floyd, Robin, Camillia, Lew Zeland, dr. Strangepork, Crazy Harry, and Pops.

I also kind of consider Uncle Deadley, Louis kazagger, Jerry, Thog, Screaming lady, the houses, Fleet Scribbler, J.P. Gross, and Vendaface to be regulars even though they weren't used much. maybe they could be counted as semi-regulars or irregulars.

I do think it's weird that most of these characters weren't used very much on The Jim Henson Hour or Muppets Tonight. Robin should have at least been used as a main character on those shows, Louis Kazagger could have been used to cover sports (since both shows took place at television stations), Floyd could have been on Muppets Tonight in place of Zippety Zap (though I like Zippety better than Floyd, I think Floyd could have easily had his lines), and Lew Zeland, Crazy Harry, and camillia could have all had semi-frequent roles.

it seems like Jerry nelson had more A-list characters in other henson productions: The Count on Sesame Street, Emmit Otter in Emmit Otters Jug-Band Christmas, and Gobo Fraggle on Fraggle Rock.

One other thing I've noticed is that although Floyd was pretty much used outside of the electric mayhem more than the other members, he hardly did anything memorable without them in the movies. With the exception of Lips, the other members all had really memorable lines or scenes in the movies, but it seems like Floyd didn't.