Death and Taxes

Much like a bad pun or a rampaging Cookie Monster when a box of Thin Mints is nearby, death is unavoidable. Even more unavoidable is my own inability to keep up with current events. We at ToughPigs never claimed to be a news source, but I like to pay homage where homage is due when it comes to the untimely demise of people who were near and dear to the Muppets.

Looking back, it’s been a whopping ten months since I wrote about Merv Griffin's passing. Many a celebrity has passed away since then, and I’d like to share a few of their stories with you. If things get too sorrowful, let me know and I’ll come over to give you a hug.

The celebrity death that I’m most upset about neglecting to write here on ToughPigs is Muppet Show guest star Teresa Brewer, who passed away on October 17, 2007. I’ll be the first to admit that I had no idea who she was before seeing her on my Muppet Show DVDs, and the second to admit that I still kinda don’t know much about her non-Muppet career. Teresa sang “Cotton Fields” on a train, “Music Music Music” on some kind of prehistoric MP3 player, and “Spinning Wheel” in a particularly hilarious skit involving a swing, Sweetums, and no laws of physics. She also got the chance to binge in front of Miss Piggy while showing all of America that she eats an entire cake for lunch.

Bob Cunniff passed away at the age of 81 on January 20. He worked on The Today Show and The Dick Cavett Show in the 1960s, and then he joined the Sesame Street team as a writer and producer in 1972. In his three years with Sesame Street, he was directly involved with skits like “Morty Moot Mope” and “The Ballad of Casey McPhee.” In 1973, he shared an Emmy Award with Jon Stone for “Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming.”

Anthony Minghella passed away at the age of 54 on March 18. He is best known to Henson fans for his work on The StoryTeller, for which he wrote the final scripts. He also wrote Living With Dinosaurs and he created The StoryTeller: Greek Myths. In 1996, he directed the film The English Patient, for which he called up some of his old buddies at the Jim Henson Company and hired them to create the special effects makeup used on the titular character.

NRA spokesperson Charlton Heston passed away on April 5. Aside from being referenced in passing by Statler and Waldorf in an episode of The Muppet Show, he provided the voice of The Mastiff in the Creature Shop film Cats and Dogs.and was (very loosely) parodied on The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence. He’s also famous for being Moses and kissing apes.

Del Ankers passed away on May 15 at the incredible age of 92. He was already well-known for photographing Presidents of the United States when he took the job as cinematographer for Jim Henson’s Wilson’s Meats commercials. He even appeared on camera in one of the Wilson’s Meats Meeting Films, which are wonderful slices of early Muppet life.

My all-time favorite Mel Brooks movie is Blazing Saddles, which would not be so great without Harvey Korman, who passed away on May 29 at 81 years old. His work on The Carol Burnett Show is priceless, but he arguably did his best work while hosting an episode in the first season of The Muppet Show. You have to admit, it takes some real acting chops to tame a wild Thog and turn into a giant chicken, all within a half-hour variety show. He re-teamed with the Jim Henson Company to voice the Dictabird in The Flintstones live-action film, as well as its sequel as Col. Slaghoople.

Most recently, early rock musician Bo Diddley passed away at the age of 79 on June 2. He appeared on Sesame Street twice: once in the celebrity version of “Monster in the Mirror,” and again to spoof his role in Bo Jackson’s “Bo Knows” commercials in the early 1990s. Rock and Roll would not be what it is today without Bo Diddley, and neither would my childhood.

So, hopefully there will be no more mourning for Muppet fans from here on, and everyone that has ever worked with the frog will live on with a prosperous life and lots of babies. But on the off chance that there will be more goodbyes on their way, I’ll do my best to make sure they’re immortalized here on ToughPigs.com. Harvey Korman would have wanted it that way.

Click here to remember Teresa, Bob, Anthony, Chuck, Del, Harvey, and Bo on the ToughPigs forum.