Fozzie: The Muppets Like Bears Too
Welcome to Muppet-land, and their contribution to the world of bears, Fozzie. Fozzie was born in 1976 under the hand of Jim Henson. He was an orange-brown bear with a red and white polka-dot necktie and a brown porkpie hat on his head. The stand-up comic for The Muppet Show (1976-81), he thought he was funnier than he really was. And that set up many a hilarious episode.
Fozzie was performed by Frank Oz from 1976 to 2000 and by Eric Jacobson from 2002 to present. Fozzie’s name came from Al Fuzzie, the mascot of the Alpha Xi Delta sorority in the mid-1970s; Jim Henson’s wife was a member of the sorority at that time.
Fozzie was born into a family that consisted of his father, Mr. Bear, and his mother Emily; Fozzie also had a younger brother Freddie. Fozzie’s best friend was Kermit the Frog, who lived next door and with whom Fozzie had many adventures.
Fozzie knew from a very young age that he wanted to be a comedian. The Muppet Movie (1979) gives us a glimpse into his first attempt at comedy. Fozzie and Kermit went to the El Sleezo Café, where Fozzie attempted a stand-up comic routine. Unfortunately, it fell flat. So Fozzie succumbed to Kermit’s suggestion that they go to Hollywood and become famous.
Kermit was also part of The Muppet Show, and he and Fozzie were often shown together both on stage and off. But while Kermit had a serious role, Fozzie continued his dream of being a stand-up comic. Fozzie would perform a comedic monologue, tell a joke, and then close with what would become his signature statement, “Wonka, wonka, wonka!” What he did do in Season One was to be so unfunny that even his mother’s friends Statler and Waldorf heckled him.
But Fozzie’s career wasn’t over. After Season One, Oz and writer Jerry Juhl worked hard at building out Fozzie’s character and transforming him by emphasizing the positive aspects of his personality. Before too long, Fozzie’s optimism started offsetting his failures, and he became one of the most popular Muppets.
Fozzie was also teamed up with Rowlf the piano-playing Dog in the show. Their first appearance together was in Episode 101 of The Muppet Show where Fozzie was the bandit to Rowlf’s piano playing hero in the sketch “Cowboy Time.”
Then in Episode 218 one of Fozzie’s hidden talents came to light when Rowlf discovered that Fozzie could play the piano too, something even Fozzie hadn’t realized. So the two collaborated in playing a duet of “English Country Garden” together. It was a big hit.
Although comedy was Fozzie’s forte, he occasionally took on a dramatic role. Most of them involved Kermit in some way, usually backstage. Then in Episode 201 Fozzie helped Kermit plan the show and then five episodes later (Episode 206) actually stood in for Kermit when Kermit was sick. That turned out to be quite an ordeal for Fozzie, so he decided he preferred comedy. But he got serious once again in Episode 314 when he tried to write the script for the show. Unfortunately, that didn’t go over well since he couldn’t spell, with the result that Kermit couldn’t read his part.
After The Muppet Show, Fozzie went on to have limited performances in The Jim Henson Hour and played in numerous Muppet movies with varying degrees of exposure; he appeared less frequently in the 1990s in part because Oz was often busy with other projects. One of his biggest roles was in A Muppet Family Christmas (December 1987) in which he took all of his friends to his mother’s house for Christmas.
Today the original Fozzie Muppet lives in the teddy bear museum in Stratford-Upon-Avon in England, while another Fozzie resides in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., a testimony to Fozzie’s popularity, which has remained in spite of Fozzie not always having a starring role.
Fozzie was silly but loveable. Brian Henson, Jim Henson’s middle son, expressed it best when he said, “Fozzie is always telling terrible jokes, but he’s just trying so hard you’ve got to love him.”