Recommended music: Nirvana – The Man Who Sold The World
It’s #SomethingElseSunday, and we’re still celebrating 70 years of the Muppets. Today, we’re spreading the news with the Palisades Toys Muppets Muppet Newsman!
The Newsman made his debut in the second episode of The Muppet Show. He aimed to report the news accurately, but often got sidetracked by odd interviews or wild stories. In the first season, Harvey Korman (and the script) referred to him as Muppet Reporter, and he usually interviewed the guest star during the News Flash skits. By the second season, he was known as The Newsman and began delivering news stories that usually ended with someone or something falling on his head.
The Newsman appeared in 57 of the 120 episodes of The Muppet Show and was also featured during “The Muppet Show Theme” from seasons 2 to 5. He then made appearances in about a dozen more Muppet productions during the 1980s and 1990s. Jim Henson performed the character until 1989, after which Brian Henson took over for Muppets Tonight. Steve Whitmire played him from 2008 through The Muppets film in 2016. Eric Jacobson began playing The Newsman in The Muppets Take the Bowl stage show in 2017 and has continued in the role ever since.
Palisades Toys released the first-ever action figure of The Newsman in the fifth wave of their Muppets toy line in the fall of 2003. The figure is modeled after his season one appearance and comes with a base, removable glasses, his newsdesk, a red telephone, and a backdrop with four blank screens. As the set included eight different stickers for news stories behind him, I picked up an additional copy of this release so I can display all eight screens at once in a widescreen format, unheard of for TV news during the original series or toy line. Overall, it’s a fun release and a great tribute to a memorable character.
The 70th anniversary of The Muppets has passed, but I still have one more character to feature on the blog. If you missed The Muppet Show’s 50th-anniversary special, you can catch it now on Disney+. It’s a fun watch, and The Newsman even makes an appearance.
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