Dr. Bunsen Honeydew's moniker is derived from the traditional piece of lab equipment, the
Bunsen burner, plus the fact that his head was shaped and colored like a
honeydew melon. He was rumored to be modeled after
Lew Grade, whose company
ITC Entertainment produced
The Muppet Show. Henson responded in a Judy Harris interview: Bunsen's performer
Dave Goelz took inspiration for Bunsen's myopic work style from colleagues he knew throughout
Silicon Valley while Goelz worked at
Hewlett-Packard. One of his most endearing features is his lack of visible eyes, despite the fact that he wears glasses. Occasionally, Honeydew removes his glasses to clean them, or lifts them as if to get a better look at things, which is something of a
running gag. Bunsen's eyes have only been seen once, during a sequence in
The Great Muppet Caper. His appearance in
Muppet Babies uses the shadow of his glasses' frames as a stand-in for eyes, which move to indicate his emotions, however the character model itself has no eyes. Films where he appeared in major roles include
The Muppet Movie (1979),
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992),
Muppet Treasure Island (1996),
Muppets from Space (1999), ''
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002), and The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) with Beaker. He also appeared in a small supporting role with Beaker in The Great Muppet Caper (1981) and A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008), though in The Muppets Take Manhattan'' (1984) Bunsen and Beaker only appeared as background characters in the wedding scene. A scene with them was deleted. In the Halloween 2011 episode of
WWE Raw, Bunsen developed a specially formulated
energy drink that provides strength, agility and fresher smelling breath to those who take it. He had Beaker go deliver it to
Santino Marella for his match against
Jack Swagger. The duo appear in the 2011 feature film
The Muppets, where they have been apparently working at
CERN with the
Large Hadron Collider after
The Muppet Show ended. Their big CERN scene was deleted, as well as a scene with a bowling ball. Both Bunsen and Beaker appear in the follow-up feature film
Muppets Most Wanted (2014) with a substantially larger role than the previous film including a featured invention of theirs, a big bomb-attracter vest. Bunsen and Beaker also appear in the 2015 TV series
The Muppets, as the heads of the props and special effects department, and in
Muppets Now as the hosts of "Muppet Labs Field Test". ==Fictional biography==