Recommended music: Stray Cats – Stray Cat Strut
“A wizard is never late, nor is he early; he arrives precisely when he means to.” It’s still #SomethingElseSunday, and we’re still celebrating 70 years of the Muppets. Tonight, let’s play the music with the Palisades Toys Gaffer!
Gaffer first appeared in Episode 419 of The Muppet Show, the one with Lynda Carter, and played a special part as the show’s “living scenery.” While the main cast is full of energy, Gaffer is a quiet figure who helps make the Muppet Theater feel real and lived-in. This scruffy, one-eyed calico cat is the theater’s mascot, often spotted lounging on backstage crates or weaving between the legs of busy crew members. She got her name from a “gaffer,” the head of the electrical department on a film set, which made her feel like part of the technical team.
Michael Frith designed Gaffer, and Kathryn Mullen usually performed her. Gaffer’s scruffy look fits right in with the Muppets’ “found family” vibe. She didn’t often appear in the story, but she became a regular, appearing in 17 episodes over the last two seasons of The Muppet Show.
After The Muppet Show ended, Gaffer made a handful of appearances, but then didn’t appear in any Muppet productions for over 40 years. Luckily, a new Gaffer puppet finally showed up backstage in the 2026 The Muppet Show special.
Despite this absence, she was still part of the ninth and final wave of the Palisades Toys Muppet figures, packed with Pops. The Pops figure is based on the Happiness Hotel from The Great Muppet Caper, so Gaffer was a natural choice. The figure is unarticulated, but the detail is great, and it sits just fine on either Pops’ desk or in the Backstage playset.
The 70th anniversary of The Muppets has already come and gone, but I still have a couple more characters to highlight here on the blog. If you missed The Muppet Show’s 50th-anniversary special, you can now watch it on Disney+. It’s a lot of fun, even though Gaffer only pops in for a few moments. Keep an eye out for her after the Muppet Labs sketch.
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