Brian Muehl

Deena and Pearl with Karen Prell and Brian Muehl.

Brian Muehl (pronounced "meal") is a puppeteer and writer who began his Muppet career in the later seasons of The Muppet Show. Trained as a mime, Muehl assisted the principal puppeteers and performed small roles. He soon transitioned to Sesame Street, where he took over the role of Barkley and originated such characters as Telly Monster, Dr. Nobel Price, and in some of his earliest appearances, Elmo. Muehl also performed multiple roles on The Dark Crystal (and along with Steve Whitmire, was one of only two puppeteers to both perform and voice a character).

In 1984, Muehl left the Muppets for reasons he later articulated in a Random House bio:

“The downside of long hours in film and TV studios is all the downtime. Besides growing restless, I had a wife and two young daughters I was seeing too little of. So I traded life in front of the camera for life behind it. I became a children’s television writer.”

Kevin Clash recalls Muehl also wanted to focus more on his acting and writing pursuits.

Changing his name to Meehl, to reflect the pronunciation, the puppeteer began churning out scripts for Eureeka's Castle and other series. He did return to the Muppets sporadically in the 1990s, notably as a regular on Dog City, but mostly remained busy as a writer, with work on the PBS series Eyewitness, The Magic School Bus, Between the Lions, Cyberchase, and Codename: Kids Next Door. In 2006, he published his first young adult novel, Out of Patience, which examines such issues as baseball and toilets in small-town Kansas.

Muppet/Creature Shop Credits

• The Muppet Show: various
• John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together
• Sesame Street: Barkley, Bushman Bill, Captain Breakfast, Clementine (1980-1984), Elmo (1979-1984), Grungetta (1981-1984), Dr. Nobel Price (1979-1984), The Shark ("Pearl White Teeth"), Telly Monster (1979-1984), various others
• The Great Muppet Caper
• The Muppets Go to the Movies
• The Dark Crystal: Dying Mystic Master, Skeksis Ornamentalist, Urzah (latter puppeteer only)
• The Muppets Take Manhattan: Tatooey Rat
• Big Bird in China: Barkley
• The Jim Henson Hour: "Song of the Cloud Forest"
• Dog City: Bruno
• Muppet CD-ROM: The Muppets Inside
• The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss: Binkham Tamino McDoyal the Third

External Links

• Random House Author's Spotlight