Rizzo the Rat "Midnight Cowboy". Steve Whitmire created the character, based on rats he had previously made out of bottles. Rizzo first appeared in episode 418 of "The Muppet Show", as one of many rats following Christopher Reeve backstage. He can be seen mugging and reacting to practically every line of dialogue. He remained a scene-stealing background figure through the final season, occasionally performing with Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem. By the time of "The Muppets Christmas Carol", Whitmire had been performing Rizzo for around 12 years. After the series, he appeared in "The Great Muppet Caper" as a bellboy in a
Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem and Mary. Zoot is a teal-colored, balding saxophone player with dark glasses and a high-crowned blue felt hat and was 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.