The Muppets' Wizard of Oz Teeth due to Kennedy now performing Floyd. The production also marked the feature film debut of Eric Jacobson as the performer of Sam Eagle, a character originally performed by Frank Oz. "The Muppets' Wizard of Oz" premiered on April 27, 2005 at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film's television premiere was broadcast on ABC on May 20, 2005, as the final "ABC Movie of the Week". The film received generally mixed to negative reviews from critics, who felt that the film was too mature for young audiences and that the cameo scenes and popular culture references were unnecessary. Dorothy Gale
The Muppet Show Prowse. The high cost and effort of creating these unique Muppets, scheduling conflicts, and potential legal issues contributed to the decline of this practice, although Muppet caricatures and parodies would continue to appear. The first episode opens on a character called Wally and develops as he types the script on his typewriter. In the second pilot, a new character called Nigel acts as the backstage boss. Statler and Waldorf grumble from a living room while watching the show on television (This setting for Statler and Waldorf would be revisited in the first series of "Muppets Tonight"). In both pilot episodes,