{"id":2441,"date":"2014-11-18T10:30:47","date_gmt":"2014-11-18T18:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/?p=2441"},"modified":"2023-05-14T19:11:32","modified_gmt":"2023-05-15T02:11:32","slug":"11181965","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/2014\/11\/11181965\/","title":{"rendered":"11\/18\/1965 – ‘Dean Show in Carnegie Hall’"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a television and country music personality from Washington, DC, Jimmy Dean was well aware of Jim and his Muppets when he premiered his ABC prime time variety show in September, 1963. He invited Jim to be part of his second episode which was taped that August 29th. Jim (with Jerry Juhl and his new recruit Frank Oz) started with his piece \u201cCool Jazz,\u201d an abstract bit featuring gloved hands dancing to music. Afterwards, Dean shook each of the four hands and then introduced his \u201cOld Buddy\u201d Rowlf for the first time. Bantering and making bad dog puns, the two introduced the Willis Sisters who sang \u201cMoon River\u201d with Rowlf to thunderous applause. Rowlf was not meant to be a regular, but appearing again, Dean told his audience, \u201cLast week, we had an old hound dog buddy of mine with us\u2026and he turned out to be the hit of the show. We\u2019ve had all kinds of people asking us to have him back again\u2026so what else can I say except\u2026here\u2019s Rowlf!\u201d <\/p>\n

Through the spring of 1966, Rowlf made weekly appearances on The Jimmy Dean Show<\/em> and that summer, he toured with Dean to live appearances at various locations around the country. Over those three years, Jim had the opportunity to fully develop a character and create a believable relationship between a puppet and a real person. He also established his most important performing partnership with Frank Oz who performed Rowlf\u2019s right paw while Jim performed the head, left paw and voice. They learned each others rhythms and performing styles, laying the groundwork for such seamless collaborations as Ernie and Bert, Kermit and Miss Piggy and the Swedish Chef. It was educational for all — Jerry Juhl sat in with the seasoned comedy writers on the show, and by the end of the run, was contributing much of Rowlf\u2019s material and had a good understanding of writing for network television. <\/p>\n

The show that Jim taped on November 18th, 1965 was one of several recorded outside the studio. Together, Dean and Rowlf played the Grand Ole Opry and the Louisiana State Fair and did a show in Miami. Playing Carnegie Hall with a full orchestra, however, was a big deal and required some sophistication. Wearing white tie, Rowlf joined Dean on stage, carrying his violin and offering up his rendition of Liszt\u2019s \u201cHungarian Rhapsody\u201d (actually played by the orchestra\u2019s violin soloist). Rowlf\u2019s enthusiastic fiddling to Dean\u2019s frantic conducting reached a furious pace and ended in a dramatic upsweep, with Rowlf launching the bow into the air. It was a triumphant moment among many \u2013 Rowlf\u2019s popularity with Dean opened doors to the first Muppet toys (plush Rowlf and Kermit puppets in 1966), a spokes-dog job at IBM, and a hosting job on a 1967 summer variety show, Our Place<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Jimmy Dean and his old hound dog buddy Rowlf.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Pages from Jim\u2019s Carnegie Hall Jimmy Dean Show script.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Pages from Jim\u2019s Carnegie Hall Jimmy Dean Show script.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Pages from Jim\u2019s Carnegie Hall Jimmy Dean Show script.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Rowlf with Frank Oz and Jim.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Jim and Rowlf get top billing in this Jimmy Dean Show press clipping.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Additional historical information provided by The Jim Henson Company Archivist. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1245,379,1244,415,380,310,593,25,1246,163,1247,266,204,1243],"class_list":["post-2441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appearances","tag-carnegie-hall","tag-frank-oz","tag-grand-ole-opry","tag-ibm","tag-jerry-juhl","tag-jimmy-dean","tag-jimmy-dean-show","tag-kermit","tag-louisiana-state-fair","tag-miss-piggy","tag-our-place","tag-rowlf","tag-swedish-chef","tag-willis-sisters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2441"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7101,"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441\/revisions\/7101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.henson.com\/jimsredbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}