| Revision as of 12:48, 28 April 2006 editSaberwyn (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers36,616 edits →Animal← Previous edit | Revision as of 15:19, 28 April 2006 edit undoToughpigs (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users72,901 edits Animal is not based on Keith Moon -- see Muppet Wiki (http://muppet.wikia.com/Talk:Animal) for more discussionNext edit → | ||
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'''Animal''' is the ]. He has also appeared on the '']'' show, as well as the '']'' cartoon and all the Muppet movies. During performances, Animal is usually chained to the drum set, as his musical outbursts are extremely violent. | ||
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Revision as of 15:19, 28 April 2006
The Electric Mayhem is the name of a Muppet rock band that appeared on The Muppet Show. Following The Muppet Show, they have appeared in various Muppet movies and TV specials, and have also recorded album tracks. Dr. Teeth was designed by Jim Henson, while the rest of the original band members were designed by Michael K. Frith.
The band consisted of Dr. Teeth (band leader and piano), Janice (guitar), Sgt. Floyd Pepper (bass guitar), Zoot (saxophone) and Animal (drums). In season five, Lips joined the band (trumpet). Animal, Floyd, Zoot and Janice also played in the Muppet Show pit band, performing the opening and closing themes and underscoring most of the Muppet Show performances. Rowlf the Dog was the pit pianist, however.
Members
Dr. Teeth
Dr. Teeth is the keyboard player and gravelly-voiced leader of the band. He has a gold tooth that he claims he fashioned by melting down his gold records, a scruffy beard, a fur vest, a striped shirt, and a floppy purple top hat. Although it wasn't always made clear, Dr. Teeth was meant to be a spider (his other arms were only occasionally visible). A running gag on the show — due to the mechanics of working a puppet's arms from below, often a two-man job — was Teeth's arms stretching to ridiculous lengths while playing his instrument. Jim Henson based the character, which he designed and voiced, on the musician Dr. John.
His speaking roles got much smaller due to Jim Henson's death, but Dr. Teeth's first major speaking role since Henson's death was in Statler & Waldorf's very own show, Statler and Waldorf From the Balcony.
Janice
Janice is a lead guitar player. She usually wears a brown hat with a turquoise gem and a feather. This flower girl was involved with Zoot in season 1 of "The Muppet Show", but paired up with Floyd Pepper starting in season 2. She also acts in sketches periodically, most notably as wisecracking Nurse Janice in "Veterinarian's Hospital", a recurring parody of medical dramas. She speaks in a "Valley girl" sing-song voice. Janice was performed by Eren Ozker during the first season of "The Muppet Show", then she was voiced by Richard Hunt until his death in 1992; Her name is an homage to Janis Joplin. After Hunt's death, her character was faded back to brief non-speaking background appearances until the 2002 TV movie It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, in which she was performed by Brian Henson.
Janice is the only member of the band apart from Animal to have appeared on Muppet Babies. In her single appearance she was portrayed as slightly older than the main characters, and able to read. Her hippy philosophy was already intact.
A web site dedicated to the groovy Janice can be found here: Janice: "Fer sure!"
Sgt. Floyd Pepper
Sgt. Floyd Pepper plays bass guitar. A laid back hippie-type with a pink body and long reddish-orange hair, he usually wore a green army cap, or sometimes, while in the pit, a slightly fancier cap of stiffer, glittery material, and a red uniform with epaulets and ornate gold braid on the buttons. His name refers both to Pink Floyd and to the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. His jacket is a clear visual reference to the album. He is performed and voiced by Jerry Nelson. Floyd's pink colour is a little insider joke, and a reference - he is a Pink Floyd.
Zoot
Zoot is a green, balding, blue-haired saxophone player with dark glasses and a high-crowned blue felt hat, and was generally a laid back fellow of few words. (Oddly enough, Zoot spoke much more in the first season, where he was often seen dancing with Janice in the "At The Dance" sketches.)
Perhaps his best line came in The Great Muppet Caper, when the gang is planning to stop a group of crooks from robbing a museum, and trying to get their supplies together unsuccessfully.
Fozzie mentions a particular item ("wax lips")
Zoot says, "Man, I just had 'em!"
"Did you leave 'em in your other pants?" someone else asks.
Zoot comes back: "I don't have no other pants!"
Zoot's claim to fame was playing the final off key note to the end theme of the show, then looking into his saxophone with a bewildered expression, checks his music and gives a satisfied nod and looks around at the other musicians and gives the same nod. Curiously, the note played is the lowest note on the baritone saxophone, and most of Zoot's other playing has the sound of a tenor saxophone, while his instrument appears to be an alto.
His name comes from "zoot suit", a large-shouldered, taper-waisted, gaudy garment popular in the 1940s. It is alternately possible that his name comes from Zoot Sims, a great jazz tenor saxophone player. Others believe that he is based on the great blues saxophonist Lou Marini. Zoot's appearance seems to be an amalgam of Latin tenor saxophonist Gato Barbieri and Frank Tiberi, longtime member and current leader of the Woody Herman big band. Yet another version is that Zoot is based on tenor-sax player Yaroslav Yakubovich, Israeli jazzman, who immigrated to the USA and continued his stage career there during the 1970s. Zoot is performed and voiced by Dave Goelz.
Animal
Animal is the drummer. He has also appeared on the Muppets Tonight show, as well as the Muppet Babies cartoon and all the Muppet movies. During performances, Animal is usually chained to the drum set, as his musical outbursts are extremely violent.
Animal:
Floyd Pepper: Oh, yeah, that's Animal. Show 'em what you do, Animal.
Animal: I want to eat drums!
Dr. Teeth: No, no, beat drums, beat drums!
Animal: Beat drums! Beat drums!
He opts to wear football shoulder pads instead of a shirt (when he is not in his maroon band uniform). Despite the antics, Animal was a very good drummer, and was able to hold his own with legends such as Buddy Rich.
He usually speaks in grunts and monosyllables, and has a violent temper. Animal bowls overhand. He has been depicted as a literal skirt-chaser (in The Muppets Take Manhattan, he chases a female co-ed out of the auditorium, chanting "Woo-maaaan!" after her). He also chases cars. Animal is performed and voiced by Frank Oz while his drumming is performed by Ronnie Verrell.
A regular schtick is that when someone says a figure of speech to him, then Animal turns to the audience, his eyes go wide and then he goes berserk taking it literally. For instance, Jim Nabors once gave the traditional theatrical good luck wish to Animal, "Break a leg," and Animal decided to indulge him by trying to break Nabors' leg.
In the movie The Great Muppet Caper, it is revealed that Animal has a passion for impressionist paintings, especially those of Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
In the movie Muppets from Space, Animal meets his match in the form of a security guard played by Kathy Griffin - after chasing her down a hallway with his "Woo-man" call, she later returns with him, with Animal acting submissive and sheepish, and lets him go (after reminding him to call her and blowing him a kiss).
Ty Pennington commented that Animal had ADHD, when the character was appearing on an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. This fact is disputable, as the appearance can easily be considered not part of the Muppets canon.
Lips
Lips, a hippie, joined Electric Mayhem for several numbers in the latter episodes of the series, playing the trumpet. Marked by his yellow afro and goatee, and a permanent squint, Lips was never considered by fans to 'really' be a part of the band. His appearances on the Muppet Show were few and far between, and when he did appear in the episodes or the later movies, never did anything that drew audience attention to him.
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