Janice

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Performer:

Richard Hunt

Design Team:

Michael Frith • (designer)

Bonnie Erickson • (builder)

Original sketch for Janice by Michael Frith.

Janice is the lead guitar player in the Electric Mayhem on The Muppet Show.She also portrays Nurse Janice in Veterinarian's Hospital, and appears in various other sketches, frequently as a chorus member. She is occasionally seen in the orchestra during the fifth season of the show. She has a very close relationship with the Electric Mayhem's bass player, Floyd Pepper (In the first season of The Muppet Show, she's involved with Zoot).

Janice was originally performed by Fran Brill in The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence pilot in 1975, and in the first set of Muppet Meeting Films. Eren Ozker performed Janice in the first season of The Muppet Show. Richard Hunt took over the character in season 2, and gave Janice her familiar Valley Girl voice and attitude.

Michael Frith's original sketch of the character indicates that she was intended to be a male character, a takeoff on Mick Jagger's emaciated frame. Her name is probably a reference to Janis Joplin. However, in her final form as performed by Hunt and built by Bonnie Erickson, she bears very little resemblance to either Jagger or Joplin.