Despite featuring Dr. Teeth's name prominently in the band's name, the group officially has no frontman and instead has described itself as a "rocktocracy". The original pilot episode of
The Muppet Show also featured Jim, a Muppet caricature of Henson on
banjo.
Dr. Teeth • Performed by
Jim Henson (1975–1990),
John Kennedy (1991–2003),
Bill Barretta (2005–present)
Dr. Gerald Teeth Jr. is the gravelly-voiced
lead singer and
keyboardist. He is green-skinned and red-haired with a large grinning mouth of teeth including a gold tooth supposedly fashioned by melting down his gold records. He sports a scruffy red beard with no mustache, a fur vest, a striped shirt and a floppy purple top hat. He has arms so long that additional puppeteers are required to guide them; this design enabled Henson to work the Dr. Teeth puppet while another performer acted as Dr. Teeth's hands in order to play the keyboard. His self-introduction in
The Muppet Movie was typically grandiose: "Golden teeth and golden tones.
Welcome to my presence." He often misuses long words and mangles verb conjugation.
Jim Henson originally performed him, basing the character on
New Orleans musician
Dr. John. He was designed by Henson and
Michael K. Frith and built by
Don Sahlin. He debuted in
The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence. Dr. Teeth only sings lead vocals on the second Muppet pilot and during the first season and these songs were only written before
Rowlf the Dog had become firmly established as the regular Muppet pianist. Later performances mostly feature lead vocals by Floyd or Janice and only a few featured Dr. Teeth. His speaking roles got even smaller after his performer Jim Henson's death; an exception was the 1991 Muppets stage show
Muppets on Location: Days of Swine and Roses, the voice being performed by
John Kennedy. He performed Dr. Teeth from 1991 to 2003 but made only very brief appearances with very little dialogue, some examples being the 1999 film
Muppets from Space and once in the music video for the "
We Are Family" charity song in 2002.
Bill Barretta took over the role beginning with ''
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz''. Dr. Teeth's first major speaking role since Henson's death was in
Statler and Waldorf's very own show,
Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony where
Victor Yerrid performed him. Barretta, however, has been performing Dr. Teeth consistently since 2005. Although he is the band's leader, Dr. Teeth is never featured in the regular orchestra playing at
The Muppet Show like the rest of the group. Instead, Rowlf plays the piano in the orchestra pit.
Jim Henson once said that Dr. Teeth was one of the most difficult characters to play due to the harshness of the character's voice. Although he appeared in
Muppet Treasure Island, he did not appear in
Muppets Tonight. In the 2023 series
The Muppets Mayhem, Dr. Teeth is revealed to be an actual doctor, having worked in his family's dentistry business before leaving with Floyd to start the band. After an argument with the band, he rechristens the band's name simply as "The Electric Mayhem" out of parity for the other members.
Animal • Performed by
Frank Oz (1975–2000),
John Kennedy (2001–2003),
Eric Jacobson (2002–present)
Animal is the primitive wildman,
drummer and the most published member of the band, being the only member to have a speaking role in every feature film and the only member in the regular cast of the
Muppet Babies spin-off cartoon. He is named for his wild behavior and drumming. Original performer
Frank Oz has stated that Animal's character can be summed up in five words: sex, sleep, food, drums, and pain. Some speculate the character of Animal is based on either
Keith Moon,
John Bonham,
Ginger Baker,
Mike Baird, or
Levon Helm, while others have suggested
Mick Fleetwood. In the April 8, 2002, episode of
Inside the Actors Studio,
Billy Joel claimed that
Liberty DeVitto was the inspiration for Animal. However, Animal's initial appearance in the 1974 pilot for
The Muppet Show occurred two full years before DeVitto made his first recording (on Joel's 1976 album
Turnstiles). Others say there is no evidence that Animal was based on anyone specifically, and is simply an amalgam of common stereotypes about rock drummers. Oz performed Animal from his first appearance until 2000; he has been performed regularly by
Eric Jacobson since his 2002 appearance in ''
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. In Muppet Babies
, he was voiced by Howie Mandel (1984–1985) and by Dave Coulier (1986–1991). Animal was also played by Kevin Clash in Muppets Tonight and by Bill Barretta in MuppetFest'' (the first Muppet fan convention). Animal's drumming was performed by British jazz and big band drummer
Ronnie Verrell. A battle of the egos occurs whenever he and
Miss Piggy are on screen together as he loves to poke fun at her airs and graces. He is also somewhat arrogant, referring to himself in a
Muppet Magazine article as one real cool dude and during
The Muppet Show (season 1 episode 23) he says to
Kermit the Frog: "Kermit, you are talking to Floyd Pepper! The hippest of the hip! I mean I have a room for life at the home of the chronically groovy!". His name and pink color are homages to the band
Pink Floyd, and ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'', the album by
the Beatles. He appears backstage more often than the other band members. Although Dr. Teeth is the leader, Floyd is the one who sings lead most often. Some of the songs he sang on
The Muppet Show include: "
New York State of Mind", "
Ain't Misbehavin'", "
While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover". He has a close relationship with Janice and is Animal's close friend and handler. In books like
The Case of The Missing Mother, by
James Howe, Animal is practically Floyd's pet. In
The Muppets Mayhem, it is revealed that Floyd raised Animal from a young age, and inspired a young Dr. Teeth to become a musician. Floyd has declared himself to be an excellent songwriter—when the band briefly went on strike, one of his conditions was that he be allowed to write new theme music for the show—but with no apparent contradiction, admits that everyone hates his music. "If I didn't know I was a genius," he once declared, "
I wouldn't listen to the trash I write." He nonetheless seems to have made a small fortune on advertising jingles during one of the band's sabbaticals. Some sources state that Floyd is based on the guitarist
Jeff Baxter, who is a studio musician and a former member of both Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers.
Janice • Performed by
Richard Hunt (1977–1992),
David Rudman (2008–present)
Janice is the group's
guitarist and
backing vocalist with a
valley girl personality. She has blonde hair, big eyelashes and lips, and usually wears a brown hat with a turquoise gem and a feather. Though she regularly performed vocals, she actually only sang lead a couple of times on the show. She also acted in sketches periodically, most notably as wisecracking Nurse Janice in 'Veterinarian's Hospital', a recurring
parody of medical dramas; in the latter role, she dispenses with much of her flower child lingo. Her name is an
homage to
Janis Joplin, and she bears a resemblance to
Mary Travers of
Peter, Paul and Mary. Janice plays her guitar left-handed. Her favourite guitar is a
Gibson Les Paul with cherry sunburst colour scheme. Janice was involved with Zoot in the first season of
The Muppet Show but paired up with Floyd Pepper at the start of season two. Janice was performed by
Eren Ozker during the first season of
The Muppet Show (without the
valley-girl voice), then she was performed by
Richard Hunt until his death in 1992. Briefly, in
The Muppet Show pilot, in the Muppet Meeting Films and in one Season 1 sketch she was performed by Fran Brill. Due to the lack of female Muppet performers, Janice has, since Ozker's departure, consistently been played by a man. Muppet characters are frequently paired together based on how well puppeteers perform as a team. Richard Hunt and
Jerry Nelson had established themselves as a team prior to
The Muppet Show. Therefore, the change in Janice's performer may have been the reason for her relationship shifting from Zoot to Floyd. After Hunt's death, her character was faded back to brief non-speaking background appearances until 2000's
Muppet Race Mania in which she was performed by
Matt Vogel.
Brian Henson also provided her voice for ''
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie and the video game Muppets Party Cruise. In The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, she was performed by Tyler Bunch. Her most recent performer is David Rudman, who first performed her in Studio DC: Almost Live''. John Lovelady performed her for one appearance in 1975. A
running gag in some Muppet movies was that during a scene in which several characters were excitedly talking at once and someone called for silence, Janice would be the last one still talking on a topic with no apparent connection to the situation. In
The Muppets Take Manhattan: "So I told him 'Look, buddy, I don't take my clothes off for anybody, even if it is artistic,' and... Oh". Another example from
The Great Muppet Caper, she says: "Look, Mother. It's my life. OK. So if I want to live on a beach and walk around naked... Oh". Janice is the only member of the band apart from Animal to have appeared on the
animated series Muppet Babies. In her single appearance, she was portrayed as slightly older than the main characters and able to read. She was voiced by
Dave Coulier who regularly voiced baby versions of Animal,
Bunsen Honeydew and
Bean Bunny. In the 2023 series
The Muppets Mayhem, Janice is revealed to have an estranged twin sister.
Zoot • Performed by
Dave Goelz (1975–present)
Zoot is a teal-colored, balding
saxophone player with dark glasses and a high-crowned blue felt hat that is generally a laid-back fellow of few words. His name refers to the 20th-century saxophonist
Zoot Sims and per designer Bonnie Erickson is modeled after Latin jazz artist
Gato Barbieri. He is performed by
Dave Goelz. He was conceived as a burned-out, depressed 50-year-old musician but according to Goelz when the role was assigned to him, he did not know how to perform that type of character. He, therefore, made the character mainly communicate through his playing rather than by speaking. Zoot spoke much more in the first season where he was often seen dancing with Janice in the "At the Dance" sketches. Goelz stated that he tried to give most of Zoot's lines away to other characters, particularly Floyd. Floyd's performer
Jerry Nelson was not performing full-time in the first season which may explain Zoot originally having more dialogue. Since his eyes are hidden by his shades, he often appears oblivious to events around him—during the band's first meeting with
Kermit the Frog and
Fozzie Bear as depicted in
The Muppet Movie, he briefly forgot his own name which Floyd described as Zoot "skip[ping] the groove again"—but he can be sharper than he seems. When Floyd declared the band to be "
anklin'" during its brief strike, only Zoot seemed dubious, noting "The frog's been good to us." Zoot's claim to fame was playing the final off-key note to the end theme of the show; he then looks into his saxophone with a bewildered expression, checks his music, gives a satisfied nod, looks around at the other musicians and gives the same nod. The note played is the lowest note on the
baritone saxophone, while most of Zoot's other playing has the sound of a
tenor saxophone and his instrument appears to be an
alto saxophone. In
A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa, it's revealed that he celebrates
Hanukkah.
Lips • Performed by
Steve Whitmire (1980–2016),
Peter Linz (2017–present)
Lips is the band's mumbling, yellow-haired
trumpet player who joined the Electric Mayhem during the final season of
The Muppet Show. His name is inspired by the imagery of lips seen on posters for
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, one of Whitmire's favorite films. He has yellow frizzy hair that has been compared to a
chrysanthemum (much to his chagrin), a
goatee, and a permanent squint. His appearances on the
Muppet Show were few and far between and when he did appear in the later episodes or movies, he rarely did anything besides play the trumpet. One of his few speaking appearances was in the Shirley Bassey episode where he sang a line of "Barnyard Boogie." He was mainly created so that Whitmire could have a character to perform in the band. His lack of character development was apparently due to Whitmire's uncertainty about performing Lips. He was less experienced as a puppeteer at the time and wanted to use a voice like
Louis Armstrong but was afraid of offending
African Americans. After
The Muppet Christmas Carol, he was not seen at all until the 2009 NBC special
Christmas in Rockefeller Center. He also appeared in
The Muppets (2011). He also appeared and spoke (albeit very briefly) in the 2014 movie
Muppets Most Wanted. He appears (and speaks on several occasions) in the 2015 series
The Muppets having been completely rebuilt, as the original puppet from his
Muppet Show days disintegrated on set during the filming of the 2015 music video "
Kodachrome". Lips speaks frequently in
The Muppets Mayhem (2023), with his dialogue mainly consisting of unintelligible mumbling and occasionally a determinable sentence. A recurring gag in
The Muppets Mayhem and media released around the same time is that Lips has inexplicable connections to a myriad of celebrities and other people the Mayhem come across. This colorful history includes, but is not limited to, being a nursery school teacher, inspiring
The Bangles song "
Walk Like an Egyptian", and introducing
Paula Abdul to
MC Skat Kat.
Past members Clifford Clifford, performed by
Kevin Clash, was briefly made a member of the Electric Mayhem (as a
percussionist) in 1990. His only appearances with the group were in the television special
The Muppets at Walt Disney World and minor publicity material.
Jim Jim was featured in the original pilot episode as a Muppet caricature of
Jim Henson on
banjo. ==Discography==