The Birth of Rowlf
Jim, Rowlf, and Jimmy
Fast forward a bit to 1963, when Jim and his family finally moved themselves and Muppets, Inc. to New York City. This was also around the time that the 19-year-old Frank Oz finally joined the company. Not long afterwards, the Muppets were approached by The Jimmy Dean Show, a new, national TV variety show hosted by Jimmy Dean, a popular country singer at the time, with the offer to appear on the series’ first 7 episodes. Rowlf debuted the first week, singing “Moon River,” and the next week did a sketch with Dean himself. Their chemistry was apparently so instantly electric and became so popular that Rowlf ended up appearing on every episode of the show’s run from September 19, 1963 until April 1, 1966, when the show finally ended. Each episode featured a scene between Dean and Rowlf, which often ended with a musical duet.
Dean himself spoke in later years about how Jim brought Rowlf to life so vividly that he and his staff would often forget Jim was even under there. Their back-and-forth was so natural that, even though the scenes were all scripted, they felt off-the-cuff and improvised, Dean’s cracking up at Rowlf’s jokes only adding to the illusion that they were real, albeit comedic conversations happening between these two friends. In Dean’s own words, “I treated Rowlf like he was real, but he was real to me.” And this is how Rowlf became the first Muppet celebrity. Sadly, although Rowlf was always near and dear to Jim’s heart, he was never able to be as prominent on The Muppet Show, because by that point, the performers tended to only perform one character per scene, meaning Jim only rarely had Kermit and Rowlf in a scene together, and since Kermit was the star by that point, even though Rowlf was given material, he rarely got nearly as much screen time.
Rowlf and Jimmy Dean
But Rowlf is an extremely important Muppet. Since he appeared weekly on The Jimmy Dean Show and was always vocally performed live by Jim, never lip-synced to either his own voice or old records, he was Jim’s first real opportunity to fully develop a fleshed-out character week after week. He brought the Muppets national exposure for the first time, his popularity leading to many more TV appearances and commercial deals–over the next 10 years, Muppets, Inc. would create commercials for over 50 companies!–and thus the money to finance other projects, both Muppet and otherwise.
He was also the first Muppet to interact on screen with a human, proving how well they play off of celebrities who are willing to completely surrender to the illusion, as well as helping Jim get very good at bouncing off humans while playing a Muppet, and thereby establishing a Muppet/human dynamic that would serve the Muppets well throughout their illustrious career. In many ways having a human for a Muppet to interact with almost paradoxically makes them more real to us as viewers. Jimmy Dean locking eyes with Rowlf and treating him like a real, living being helped the viewer accept him, as well.
Jimmy introduces Rowlf to a cool cat.
Speaking of which, I wasn’t able to find a great deal of Jimmy Dean footage, but I did come across a few highlights that were part of a Jim Henson documentary, as well as 3 full-length sketches, although unfortunately the third, a Christmas episode that culminates with the two singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” had such bad audio, I couldn’t made out 95% of what was being said (it was still very cool, however, to reach my first “mini Muppet Christmas special,” unless you count Taminella dressing up as Santa in Tales of the Tinkerdee!).
But from the other clips, I was able to get a good sense of the magical Rowlf/Dean chemistry I had heard about for a long time, and it does not disappoint. Rowlf often causes Dean to break out in spontaneous, genuine laughter that increases the illusion that this is all improvised and really solidifies their on-screen friendship. One funny quirk is that Jimmy always pronounces Rowlf’s name as “Ralph,” and it seems that there wasn’t a firm consensus on the correct pronunciation until later, when the other characters would draw out the opening sound to something closer to “Raw-lf”.