Minor Documentary Mentions

Minor mentions of the Muppets, Jim Henson, and the like in documentaries (for film, television, home video, or other media). Does not include reality shows, talk shows, or general news programming. See also Category:Documentaries for documentaries focused primarily on the Muppets, Henson, and related topics.

Adventures Thru the Disney Archives

A 2020 documentary starring producer Don Hahn showcasing various iconic items and places relating to the Walt Disney Company's archival collection.

During one of the opening shots, Fozzie Bear's podium from Up Late with Miss Piggy can be glimpsed among other items in storage.

Connections

• Mark Hamill appears as himself
• Floyd Norman appears as himself
• Richard M. Sherman appears as himself

Bathtubs Over Broadway

A 2018 documentary centered around late night television writer Steve Young and his passion for industrial musicals.

A Fozzie Bear Starbucks finger puppet can be seen in Young's office.

Connections

• Dom DeLuise appears in archive footage
• Sheldon Harnick appears as himself
• Florence Henderson appears as herself
• David Letterman appears as himself
• Tony Randall appears in archive footage
• Martin Short appears as himself

Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope

2011 documentary directed by Morgan Spurlock about the San Diego Comic-Con. Holly Conrad, a designer of custom creatures and costumes, is one of the film's subjects.

Holly: Why can't we bring puppets and animatronics back?

Colleague: Because Jim Henson died.

Holly: Well, you know what? We need to be the next Jim Henson, and make people realize these things are what brings magic out into the real world.

Later, during the masquerade portion of the con for which Holly was preparing, each contestant is announced by their number while the audience responds saying "ah, ah, ah" à la Count von Count.

Connections

• Seth Green appears as himself
• Stan Lee appears as himself
• Seth Rogen appears as himself

Cosmos: Possible Worlds

In the first episode of the 2020 follow-up to Carl Sagan's documentary series, host Neil deGrasse Tyson says "it's not easy being green" when telling the story of cross-pollination.

A Disturbance in the Force

A 2023 documentary about The Star Wars Holiday Special

During an opening montage, a clip of the Star Wars cast in the cold open to episode 417 of The Muppet Show is used. Later, footage of Shields and Yarnell's Klunkers routine from episode 403 is used when talking about the abundance of celebrity variety shows in the 1970s.

Connections

• Adam Goldberg was an executive producer
• Gilbert Gottfried appears as himself
• Seth Green appears as himself
• Taran Killam appears as himself
• Donny Osmond appears as himself
• Patton Oswalt appears as himself
• Paul Scheer appears as himself
• Kevin Smith appears as himself
• Bruce Vilanch appears as himself
• "Weird Al" Yankovic appears as himself

Helvetica

A 2007 independent feature-length documentary film about typography and graphic design, centered around the typeface of the same name. During the montage of the usage of the Helvetica font for video media, a clip of Telly Monster talking about D words with the letter D is shown.

Also, when graphic designer Michael C. Place is introduced, and the camera goes to his company office, a Big Bird Kubrick is seen behind figurines of his own creation.

The History of Comedy

A CNN documentary series analyzing all aspects of comedy, with archival footage and new interviews.

The second season episode, "In It Together," highlights the different types of comedy teams throughout history. Jim Henson and Frank Oz are given particular mention in their own section. The segment features footage from The Muppet Show (episode 102 and episode 208), The Muppet Movie, The Muppets Go to the Movies, Of Muppets and Men, Jim Frawley's Camera Tests and the Muppets' appearances on The Dick Cavett Show, Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall and The Mike Douglas Show.

The Imagineering Story

A 2019 docuseries produced for Disney+ about the history of the various Disney theme parks.

The third episode, "The Midas Touch," talks about the introduction of Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World. Muppet*Vision 3D is briefly showcased, with a shot of the theater exterior and a pair of full-quality clips from the attraction. The queue version of "The Muppet Show Theme" accompanies the scenes and other clips surrounding it within a montage.

Connections

• Michael Eisner is interviewed in "The Midas Touch" and "Hit or Miss"

Koko: The Gorilla Who Talks

Koko: The Gorilla Who Talks is a documentary produced by BBC that aired on PBS in August 2016. It tells the story of Penny Patterson, an animal psychologist who, beginning in 1971, trained a gorilla named Koko to communicate using sign language. One photo in which Koko reads her popular children's book Koko's Kitten features a Kermit the Frog doll amongst her toys.

Lennon Or McCartney

Lennon Or McCartney is a short documentary by Matt Schichter compiling various celebrities' answer to the question: "John Lennon or Paul McCartney?" Miss Piggy's interview from MSN Exclusives is included, in which she answers, "McCartney." (YouTube)

Look at What the Light Did Now

The 2010 documentary features stock footage of a moment at the 2008 Grammy Awards when Leslie Feist spotted Kermit the Frog on the red carpet and exclaimed, "Oh my God, I love you!"

The Mekong River with Sue Perkins

A four part BBC Two documentary series from 2014 hosted by Sue Perkins in Laos. In voice-over, she remarks on the local agriculture: "It's hard to believe, but this Kermit colored slime will get turned into a local specialty called kaipen."

Miss Representation

2011 documentary by Jennifer Siebel Newsom about the disparaging portrayals of women in media. During a comment in which Jackson Katz says "People learn more from media than any other single source of information", a clip is briefly shown of children watching Sesame Street. Later in the film, Katie Couric's comments are illustrated with a screenshot of an article on Jezebel.com featuring a photo of Couric with Elmo.

Connections

• Margaret Cho is interviewed
• Katie Couric is interviewed
• Geena Davis is interviewed
• Rosario Dawson is interviewed
• Jane Fonda is interviewed
• Rosie O'Donnell provides an introduction to the television broadcast
• Oprah Winfrey provides an introduction to the DVD release

NOVA scienceNOW

• The November 21, 2006 episode of the PBS documentary series NOVA scienceNOW featured a segment on the development of sociable robots. One robot in particular, "Leonardo" developed by Cynthia Breazeal, is used in an on-camera study of recognition behavior. The tools used are an Elmo doll and a Cookie Monster puppet, which are presented to Leonardo and vocally asked to find the character by name. After a simple demonstration, the technician holds up Cookie Monster and asks Leonardo to find Elmo, but the robot cannot be tricked. (video)

• The June 25, 2008 episode featured a segment about dark matter. As experts study what dark matter is, host Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses the ambiguity surrounding what the scientific community uses to describe the material that makes up 85% of the universe. The term has been applied ambiguously because the material is unobservable with current methods. Because of this, the label could just as easily have been called Ernie and Bert. (video) (The episode also features Wikia founder Jimmy Wales in a segment about statistics).

Pencils Down! The 100 Days of the Writers Guild Strike

A 2014 documentary chronicling and reflecting on the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike. In a quick montage of Hollywood landmarks, the El Capitan Theatre marquee advertises Muppets Most Wanted.

Connections

• Jason Alexander appears in archive footage
• Justine Bateman is interviewed
• Jack Black appears in archive footage
• Albert Brooks appears in archive footage
• Francis Ford Coppola appears in archive footage
• Clark Gregg appears in archive footage
• Jesse Jackson appears in archive footage
• Alicia Keys appears in archive footage
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus appears in archive footage
• Garry Marshall appears in archive footage
• Sandra Oh appears in archive footage
• Hayden Panettiere appears in archive footage
• Andy Richter appears in archive footage
• Steven Spielberg appears in archive footage
• Lily Tomlin appears in archive footage
• Patric Verrone is interviewed

Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project

2019 documentary about the life of Marion Stokes, an activist who created a private archive of television broadcasts from 1977 to 2012 by recording live TV on consumer-level VCRs using 70,000 VHS tapes that were subsequently donated to the Internet Archive. A collage of footage shown toward the end of the film includes a shot of Kermit the Frog reporting for Sesame Street News in Episode 3976.

Richard E. Grant's Hotel Secrets

Travel series hosted by actor Richard E. Grant, running for two seasons (2012 and 2014) looking at the history of specific hotels. In the episode "Ireland", Ashford Castle displays photos of its visitors, including Robin Williams and Mel Gibson. The host then notes it considers its most famous guest to be Caroll Spinney, playing the Sesame Street theme and showing stock photos.

Connections

• Sandra Bernhard appeared in "VIP" (2012)
• Hulk Hogan appeared in "Miami" (2014)

Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It

A 2021 documentary about the life and career of Rita Moreno

Clips and promotional photos from her episode of The Muppet Show are used in the film, most prominently "Fever."

Connections

• Gloria Estefan is an interviewee
• Morgan Freeman is an interviewee
• Whoopi Goldberg is an interviewee
• Eva Longoria is an interviewee
• Lin-Manuel Miranda is an interviewee and producer for the film

Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind

A 2018 documentary produced by HBO about the life and career of comedian Robin Williams.

Among of the many archival clips used is outtakes from one of his several Sesame Street appearances during the show's 22nd season, in which he demonstrates the uses of a stick to Elmo.

Connections

• Whoopi Goldberg is interviewed
• Billy Crystal is interviewed

The Secret Lives of Vampires

A 2005 documentary produced for television by NBC studios looks at vampire culture and the history of such characters as Dracula. Examples include Count Chocula cereal, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sesame Street’s Count von Count. Video footage of the sketch with the Count counting his mail is featured, as well as a photo of a stage version of the character.

The Toys That Made Us

The 2018 Netflix episode about Legos features a sequence in which it is explained that it took Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen six years to convince his father to include green Legos in their line of toys. The narrator quips, "It's Not Easy Having Green" over footage of a Lego Kermit the Frog.

TV's Most Censored Moments

The 2002 program, produced for the now-defunct Trio Channel, briefly touches on the state-wide banning of Sesame Street from broadcast in the state of Mississippi for one month during 1970, due to its integrated neighborhood.

Waiting for Superman

2010 documentary about the American school system. In one scene, a Bear in the Big Blue House book is seen in a little girl's room.

Connections

• John Legend performs the theme song from the movie

What Would Jesus Buy?

2007 documentary produced by Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) about American consumerism. Several Sesame Street toys are featured including various incarnations of Tickle Me Elmo.

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

A 2018 documentary about Fred Rogers and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

When comparing Rogers' slower paced style to other contemporary programs, clips from Sesame Street, particularly film and animated segments from the first episode (Numerosity, Jazz Numbers and Alice Braithwaite Goodyshoes), are shown in a montage among other shows such as The Banana Splits.

Connections

• Yo-Yo Ma is interviewed

Words

13-minute short film produced by the Writers Guild of America in 1987, compiling famous lines in film and television. A brief clip of Grover and John-John in a Muppet & Kid Moment on Sesame Street is used around the 7-minute mark. (YouTube)