Why didn't more Sam & Friends characters return?

[minor muppetz]

Kermit was the only character on Sam & Friends to be used regularly after the show ended. Some characters were used in occassional television appearances, but besides that, Kermit was the only one consistently used. Kermit was the only character from that show to be in Tales of The Tinkerdee, he was the only character from that show on Sesame Street, he was the only one to appear in various specials from the early 1970s, and he was the only one used on The Muppet Show. Why didn't Jim Henson have a few more appear after the show ended? Sam could have had an expanded role and a voice, Harry would have fit in with the various Henson productions of the sixties and seventies, and Yorrick would have fit in with the monsters.

Also, I'm sure that if these characters were used on The Muppet Show and movies, then Disney would have gotten the rights to Sam & Friends, and we might have gotten a better chance of episodes being available on DVD.

This is especially odd because Kermit was more or less a supporting character before The Muppet Show, yet Jim Henson used him in almost every henson production (with the main exceptions being The great santa Clause Switch and various muppet appearances on The Jimmy Dean Show and Saturday Night Live). Rowlf was more famous back in the 1960s, yet he wasn't a regular Sesame Street character and with the exception of The Muppets On Puppets and some brief cameos, Rowlf wasn't in any special made before The Muppet Show. Jim Henson must have liked kermit a lot better than Rowlf.

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[BEAR]

I have heard that Rowlf was almost considered to be on Sesame Street but Henson decided to keep him separate. He did do the pitch reel though along with Kermit. I think that Kermit even back then had a special connection with Kermit the Frog and wanted to use him more.

 

[lowercasegods]

I think the main reason Jim kept the Sam & Friends characters separate from his later Muppet creations is due to their appearance. Jim built the Sam & Friends puppets himself, and though they were of a higher quality than I could ever hope to achieve, compared to the puppets Jim later built with the assistance of Don Sahlin, Sam & Friends look a little primitive in comparison, and wouldn't have fit the same creative asthetic that was later so abundant under the visions of Jim, Don and Michael Frith. This doesn't necessarily explain why Kermit became a breakthrough character and continued to evolve beyond the early primitive Jim style, though. It's my opinion, however, that Kermit proved to be the most versatile (both characteristically and physically) character out of the original Sam & Friends group (most of whom where pretty two dimensional, limited personalities), which lent him to so many other varied productions.

 

[BEAR]

Kermit didn't really even develop much of his personality until Sesame Street. In a way, I think that is where Jim got to experiment and figure the character out. Before that, Kermit was more of a jazzy comedian before becoming the amphibius straight man he is today.

 

[Saironi]

Sam and another puppet were at the celebration for the success of the Muppets. The other puppet looked like a sock with a beak and sunglasses flat on his head and asked Kermit why he looked so much better than from the start.

Yorick also did his "eat pink blanket over my face trick" sitting next to Kermit and then nibbled and pulled on the frog's fingers.

"Stop that Yorick".

Doesn't that count?

 

[minor muppetz]

Sam and another puppet were at the celebration for the success of the Muppets. The other puppet looked like a sock with a beak and sunglasses flat on his head and asked Kermit why he looked so much better than from the start.

That other muppet was named Harry The Hipster. I think he could have been used after Sam And Friends. He kind of looks like he was made in the style of the muppets from The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and so on.

 

[zns]

I think that if they would still use any of the characters from Sam and Friends with the Muppets today, the only one they would use probably use would be Yorick. But then again, that's just my wishful thinking.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Sam and another puppet were at the celebration for the success of the Muppets.

Just to clarify, the name of the special was "The Muppets- A Celebration of 30 Years".

Yorick, and Sam, and I think Harry all showed up on the 1986 "The Muppets- A Celebration of 30 Years" special

 

[Saironi]

Yeah, and they put on "I've Grown Acustomed To Your Face" and other film shots during Fozzie's speech. That was a treat. ^^

 

[minor muppetz]

I wonder why other Sam And Friends characters weren't included. Were the ones that were included the only ones in good condition? Did they decide to just use the main characters from that show but not try to fix any minor character?