I just read a bit about Rowlf’s history on Wikipedia, but have an unanswered question. I recall a puppet who looked and sounded a lot like Rowlf, but I think was called simply “Ralph”, making a few appearances on the Wee Willie Webber cartoon show on WPHL in Philadelphia back in the late ’60s/early ’70s. I wonder whether “Ralph” was actually performed by Henson or Oz, or was a commercially produced or “pirated” copy, probably voiced by Webber himself off camera. There’s no mention on Wikipedia — the timeframe is compatible, but Henson’s company would seem to have been doing well enough for there to be little reason for him to be doing an uncredited occasional job on local TV. Anyone else remember, or have more insight?
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Jim Henson, the Walt Disney of puppets.
I just read a bit about Rowlf’s history on Wikipedia, but have an unanswered question. I recall a puppet who looked and sounded a lot like Rowlf, but I think was called simply “Ralph”, making a few appearances on the Wee Willie Webber cartoon show on WPHL in Philadelphia back in the late ’60s/early ’70s. I wonder whether “Ralph” was actually performed by Henson or Oz, or was a commercially produced or “pirated” copy, probably voiced by Webber himself off camera. There’s no mention on Wikipedia — the timeframe is compatible, but Henson’s company would seem to have been doing well enough for there to be little reason for him to be doing an uncredited occasional job on local TV. Anyone else remember, or have more insight?
I had a Ralph puppet in the late 70s as a kid.