Muppet

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Muppets were popular puppet characters on 20th and 21st century Earth. The Ninth Doctor once joked that the Muppet Cookie Monster was an alien. (NSA: Winner Takes All) Later, when excited about visiting 1979, the Tenth Doctor enthused to Rose that, among other great events of that year, The Muppet Movie had debuted. Donna Noble was also likely a Muppet fan; she had a doll of the Muppet character Tutter on her desk at H.C. Clements. (DW: The Runaway Bride)

Behind the scenes

Despite a few references in Doctor Who stories back to the Muppets, the directional arrow of references tends to point in the other direction. There have been a number of references in official Muppets releases to Doctor Who. There have also been a number of people who have worked in both franchises.

Doctor Who references

  • In the Veterinarian's Hospital sketch from the episode of The Muppet Show Andy Williams guest starred in:
Nurse Janice: Who, doctor?
Dr. Bob: It's not who doctor, it's Doctor Who. That's another show.
  • The Pigs in Space comic in The Muppet Show Annual 1978 features a food fight with several sci-fi references. Amongst them, a robot can be seen exclaiming "Egg-sterminate!", a pun on "Ex-term-inate!", the battle cry of the Doctor's cyborg enemies, the Daleks.
  • The booklet for the 2009 HeroesCon in Charlotte, North Carolina featured a Doctor Who-themed cover with Dr. Bunsen Honeydew dressed as the Fourth Doctor and Beaker as his companion, dressed as Romana, standing in front of the TARDIS. The artwork was provided by Roger Langridge, writer and artist for The Muppet Show Comic Book; Langridge is also a former illustrator for Doctor Who Magazine.[1]
  • In #1 of the Boom! Studios comic book of Muppet Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes, played by Gonzo, displays a detective certificate that says that it is not valid in, among other places, Torchwood.
  • In #2 of the Boom! Studios comic book of Muppet Sherlock Holmes, Inspector LaStrade, played by Kermit, hides inside a police box during a stakeout, but ends up getting lost because "It's a lot bigger on the inside than you'd think!" referencing the TARDIS.
  • A T-shirt released in 2011 depicted Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street sitting in a blue police box, with the captions reading "IT'S BIGGER ON THE INSIDE", a reference to the TARDIS. To add to this, Oscar is wearing a fez.

Trivia

On November 23 1986, Ludo from Labyrinth appeared on a talk show to help promote Labyrinth. On that same show Colin Baker appeared. At the end of the show Colin Baker (representing Doctor Who) cut a birthday cake for the series' 23rd birthday, surrounded by the cast and guests of the show, including Ludo, who all sung "23 today".

  • The book Doctor Who: Regenerations (which goes into great detail about the production of the 1996 Doctor WHo TV novie) stated that Tim Curry (who played Long John Silver in the Muppet movie, Muppet Treasure Island) turned down the role of the Eighth Doctor. It also states that most the actors turned down the role as they either weren't interested, or were unavailable. Since both the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie and Muppet Treasure Island entered production around the same time, it could be possible that scheduling conflicts with Muppet Treasure Island forced Tim Curry to turn down the role of the Eighth Doctor.

Shared Doctor Who personnel

External Links

Muppet

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Roger Langridge blog post, May 05, 2009
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