Dr. Teeth

From Muppet Wiki

Dr. Teeth is the leader of The Electric Mayhem, the house band on The Muppet Show. Originally performed by Jim Henson, Dr. Teeth plays the keyboard and is also lead singer of the band. He first appeared in The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence in 1975, and had a prominent role in Muppet productions until Henson's death in 1990.

Dr. Teeth is green-skinned and red-haired with, as his name suggests, a large grinning mouth of teeth. He wears a scruffy beard, a fur vest, a striped shirt, and a floppy purple top hat, though during the 1980s he switched to wearing a black leather vest. He has very long arms so additional puppeteers are required to guide them; this design enabled Henson to work the Teeth puppet while another performer acted as Teeth's "hands" in order to play the keyboard.

Dr. Teeth has been less involved in recent Muppet productions due to Jim Henson's death. After being performed by John Kennedy, the role of Dr Teeth has been taken over by Bill Barretta.

He has also appeared in all of the Muppet movies, from his prominent roles in The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, and The Muppets Take Manhattan, to his much smaller, often non-speaking roles in The Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppet Treasure Island, Muppets from Space, It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, and The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. In A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa, he spoke several small lines

Contents 1 Trivia 2 Casting History 3 Filmography 4 Book appearances

Trivia

• Dr. Teeth's look was inspired by jazz keyboardist Dr. John. Henson's original sketch for the character appears in the book Jim Henson's Designs and Doodles. Michael Frith then made a more refined, color sketch of the character, with the heading "Leon 'Doctor' Eltonjohn Dontshoot (the Piano Player)" -- adding the influence of Elton John (and possibly Leon Russell) to the character. Dr. Teeth's creative vocabulary is a direct nod to Dr. John. Dr. Teeth was built by Don Sahlin.
• While Dr. Teeth usually has live hands, his hands were originally rod hands in The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence. The rod arms would occasionally be used on The Muppet Show. Also, the live hands version has five fingers on each hand, while the rod arm version has four on each hand.

Casting History

• Jim Henson - from The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence (1975) to The Muppets at Walt Disney World (1990)

• John Kennedy - Muppets On Location (1991), Muppet Treasure Island video game (1996), Muppets from Space (1999), Muppet Race Mania video game (2000), Muppet Party Cruise video game (2003)

• Bill Barretta - Muppet Treasure Island (1996), The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005), A Green and Red Christmas (2006), Studio DC: Almost Live (2008), A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008)

• Victor Yerrid - Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony Episode 9 (2005)

Filmography

Book appearances

• The Muppet Show Book
• It's The Muppet Show!
• The Comic Muppet Book
• Muppets at Sea
• Jim Henson's Muppet Show Bill
• The Muppets Take Manhattan (Comic Book)
• Cleopigtra