Michael Frith does n’t call back who first sketched out Skeeter , the myopic Muppet first premise in the CBS invigorate seriesMuppet Babies(1984 - 1991 ) . She could ’ve been named , he says , by the Muppets ’s creator , the later Jim Henson . Along with Bob Richardson and Frith , all three producer on the show , Henson recognized a pauperism for a firm female fibre to help balance the lawlessness provide by an infantilized Miss Piggy . As the twinned sister of establish Muppet Scooter , Skeeter was athletic , sassy , and open — all quality that the little missy watching the show would require to emulate .
“ She was a bully reference , ” Frith tellsmental_floss . “ She was more extroverted than Piggy and impart all kinds of positive energy to the show . I always have it off Skeeter . ”
So did viewers . But onceMuppet Babieswrapped after seven seasons , she come along to be one of the few Henson - inspire creations to wind up on the Muppet unemployment line . Over time , her fans began to call into question why Skeeter never appear in subsequent picture show or television series and specials , or earn even a passing mention by her former cribmates . Was Skeeterpersona non gratain the Muppetverse ? WasMuppet Babiescanonical ? Never procreate in felt form , was she even technically a Muppet ? Where had this model of female authorization gone ?
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If Frank Oz had gotten his way , none of the Muppet Babies would have been birthed . In the former 1980s , Frith had been smashing on the approximation of regressing the grownup Muppets — Kermit , Miss Piggy , Rowlf , and Fozzie Bear among them — into child for aliveness . The idea , Frith say , was to apply the characters to lend moral and educational messages in ways that would be hard after they had reached Muppet adolescence .
“ Piggy as an grownup is not particularly sympathetic to a small fry , ” he says . “ But as a child , she is . Jim loved the idea . ”
Oz did not . A longtime puppeteer who performed as Miss Piggy before move into moving-picture show directing , Oz was intransigent the Muppets not be simplified for a juvenile audience . “ He felt it was out or keeping to take character from one medium with adult characteristics and move them into another , " Frith says . " The Muppet Showwas intended for mob , not just kids . ”Sesame Streetwas Henson ’s nod to minor ; the Muppets were hypothesize to be more or less edgier .
For a metre , Oz got his wish . But during production on 1984 ’s feature , The Muppets Take Manhattan , Henson incur a workaround . According to Frith , Henson casually floated the theme of supervising a segment of the film . He recite Oz , the director , of his plans .
“ Sure , Jim , ” Oz said . “ What ’s it going to be about ? ”
“ Well , ” Henson enjoin , “ I think it would be overnice to do a thing where the Muppets are babies . ”
Frith and the rest of Henson ’s team got to sour on plan and assembling live - action Muppets that appear as small fry in a dream episode . The answer to the conniption was so solid that CBS begin petitioning Henson to do an animated series with the same assumption .
Muppet Babiespremiered in 1984 to big evaluation , becoming a staple of Saturday first light television . But during its development , Frith and the other writers and producer were confronted with a sex asymmetry in the stamp , something Frith enounce could be attributed to the heavily male - skewing puppeteer who had worked in the Henson studios since the sixties .
“ We had Piggy and Nanny , potent female character , but we needed at least one more , ” says Frith . “ The Muppets evolve around the puppeteers . you may say dispraisingly it was a boy ’ club , but no more so than The Beatles were . ”
The answer was Skeeter , who was sheer , brash , and adventuresome — the total opposite word of her nerdy twinned brother . In the show ’s many fantasy sequences — which often used clips from cinema and television shows — she was a trouble - solver . ( Frith , incidentally , is divert that the clips were perceived as a stroke of sensation : They were used because the show did n’t have the budget to be amply animated . )
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During the cartoon ’s run , Skeeter made a little - roll in the hay but very public show as part of aMuppet Babieslive degree show . rather of being designed to fit on a paw , she and the balance of the Babies were formulated into towering , seven - foot costumes worn by performers . It would move around out be the only sentence she seem in “ someone . ” Despite several movies and series get followingBabies , Frith says that no one considered using Skeeter as a public utility musician . During a “ abode movies ” segment for a 1987 tv special , the Babies are seen as alive - activity Muppets : Skeeter is prominently absent .
“ We never sound out , ‘ Oh , have ’s take an old ice yacht creature and put on some foresightful hair and a dress , ’ ” explains Frith . “ One of the problem one has with a vast repertory company is accounting for all of the characters and giving them the face time they want . It becomes a smattering to try and corral . ”
Skeeter did appear in variousMuppet Babies - themed storybooks and toy logical argument throughout the eighties and 1990s , but always as an illustrate mold penis and never as an adult . By the time Disneypurchasedthe Muppets from The Jim Henson Company in 2004 , her chances of resurfacing were reduced even further . It would take a die - hard Skeeter fan to help do the question of what happened when she finally turn up .
Amy Mebberson
Amy Mebberson was one of the legions of girls who sat in front of their televisions look up to Skeeter . A aboriginal of Australia , Mebberson go to the States in 2006 to pursue a vocation in illustration . In 2009 , she was recruited as a penciler for Boom ! Studios , which was set up aMuppet Showcomic book . It did not take long for Mebberson to make her pitch .
“ I deliberate theMuppet Babiescartoon an integral part of Muppet story , ” Mebberson tellsmental_floss . “ Although Skeeter was made for the cartoon , she left enough of an impingement on fans that we were all leave marvel whatever happened to her when they [ all ] grew up . The comics give us an opportunity to research that . ”
In 2009 , Mebberson pitched the comedian ’s author , Roger Langridge , on a Skeeter appearance , chalk out out how she think the graphic symbol might depend as an adult . Langridge and Boom ! , in turn , had to get Disney ’s approval . The party ’s response help explain — at least in part — why Skeeter has test to be such an problematical presence in Muppet lore over the retiring 25 years .
According to Jesse Post , a former Disney employee who play as a go - between for licensee like Boom ! and the caretakers at The Muppets Studio , Disney shared Frank Oz ’s preference to keep the characters aimed toward adulthood . It ’s an assertion stand by a 2008 piece inThe New York Times , which indicated that some nipper could not readily distinguish Kermit or his colleagues .
“ Muppet Babieswas verboten at the time , ” Post tellsmental_floss . Conferencing with Susan Butterworth , then - head of all things Muppet - related , in San Diego one class , Post says she be intimate the idea of including Skeeter in the mirthful series , but did n’t want to make any open association with the animated serial . ( formally , a source inside Disney tellsmental_flossthat Skeeter has n’t appeared in any projects because she was never technically a Muppet . )
“ The affair withMuppet Babieswas , during the time between the [ 2004 ] acquisition and the [ 2011 ] Jason Segel moving picture , Disney had target the place to grownup almost exclusively , ” he says , “ with some secondary targets among the different children ’s age radical . The concern was that an [ adult ] movie might not work out if there ’s an onslaught of Muppets diapers and baby bottle out in the market , which makes pure gumption . ”
The authorization , while not write in stone , was that the Muppets were preparing for a big - screen relaunch that needed grownup just the ticket buyers and did n’t ask to be reference a clip when they cower around on all IV , which made invokingMuppet Babiesa job . Initially , Mebberson and Langridge did n’t get a green lighter to refer to Skeeter by name — that came later . In the four issues in which she appeared , a frame equipment have balcony marauder Statler and Waldorf helped reinforce the mind that the news report might be ingest station out of continuity . Disney , it appears , is not attached to acknowledgingMuppet Babiesas canonical . Neither is anyone else .
“ It had its own world the same elbow room the Muppets did , ” Frith says . “ If you render to parse the movies , the show , you ’ll find all kinds of incompatibility . I do n’t know if they ’re alternate macrocosm . perchance line of latitude . It ’s a clump of quantum physics . ”
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Mebberson’sThe Muppet Showarc wrapped up in 2010.She ’s since snuck in a few momentary Skeeter sightings when illustrating Muppet storybook . In the bad continuity of both Mebberson and Frith , Skeeter is a world traveler , prostrate to finding herself in far corner of the Earth . “ People wish to depict fraternal Gemini as polar antonym , ” Mebberson says , “ so it kind of naturally bring that if Scooter is the homebody who sleep with his mother , Skeeter would be the dotty child who rise up and ran away to join the genus Circus or something . ”
For his part , Frith — who is retired from Muppet - related projects but late collaborated on an app , Leonardo ’s Cat — believes Skeeter is doing some philanthropic work similar to his own : He ’s part ofNo Strings International , a program give to using puppetry to play some comfort to impoverishment - stricken kid in third - world areas . “ I imagine she ’s in the Arctic , ” he say . “ Or in the Middle East . ”
fan who are truly curious may desire to pose the question to the author . upgrade ABC’sThe Muppetsvia Twitter in 2015 , Skeeter ’s brother , Scooter , wasaskedwhat became of his baby .
“ Skeeter is currently studying overseas , ” he said . “ And if she ever pass dry kingdom , she ’ll get visit . ”
