Janice

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Original sketch for Janice by Michael K. Frith.

Janice with Floyd on The Muppets Go to the Movies.

Janice as re-built for Muppets TV.

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 (although, in the first season of The Muppet Show, she's involved with Zoot).

In addition to the guitar, Janice has also played the tambourine with the Mayhem, and the trumpet or trombone with the orchestra. In personality, Janice is generally laid-back, noted for her Valley girl "Fer sure" and "Rully" dialogue and behavior (such as tanning herself in The Great Muppet Caper). Twice in the Muppet movies, when caught short during a loud and confusing group discussion, Janice has inadvertently revealed her attitudes towards nudity. In The Great Muppet Caper, she's interrupted while justifying a willingness to walk along the beach naked to her mother, while in The Muppets Take Manhattan, she claims that she doesn't pose naked, "even if it is artistic." Janice also has an affinity for baking, at least during the holidays: in A Muppet Family Christmas, she makes Christmas cookies that are eaten by Cookie Monster, while she brings cupcakes to the party in A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa.

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 two, 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 built by Bonnie Erickson, she bears very little resemblance to either Jagger or Joplin.

Casting history

Main Performers:

• Richard Hunt - from The Muppet Show Season 2 (1977) to The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson (1990)
• Eren Ozker - The Muppet Show Season 1 (1976-1977)
• David Rudman - Studio DC: Almost Live (2008) to Present

Alternate Performers:

• Fran Brill - The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence (1975), Muppet Meeting Films (1975)
• John Lovelady - Julie Andrews: My Favorite Things (1975)
• Matt Vogel - Muppet Race Mania video game (2001)
• Brian Henson - It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002), Muppets Party Cruise video game (2003)
• Tyler Bunch - The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005)

Filmography

• The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence
• Muppet Meeting Films
• The Muppet Show
  • see Muppet Show Episodes That Didn't Feature Main Characters
• The Muppets Go Hollywood
• The Muppet Movie
• The Tonight Show
• A Christmas Together
• The Muppets Go to the Movies
• The Great Muppet Caper
• Rocky Mountain Holiday with John Denver and the Muppets
• The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show
• The Muppets Take Manhattan
• Little Muppet Monsters
  • Opening
  • Episode 102: Space Cowboys
• The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years
• A Muppet Family Christmas
• The Muppets at Walt Disney World
• The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson
• Muppet*Vision 3D
• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• Muppet Treasure Island
• Muppets Tonight
  • Episode 101: Michelle Pfeiffer
• Muppets from Space
• Muppet Race Mania
• It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie
• Muppet Party Cruise
• The Muppets Wizard of Oz
• Canteen Commercial
• Studio DC: Almost Live
• A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa
• Virmup
  • "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Live appearances

• The Muppet Show On Tour
• The Muppet Show on Tour: 2nd Edition
• Here Come the Muppets
• Muppets on Location: Days of Swine and Roses
• The Muppet Show Live

Book appearances

• The Muppet Show Book
• It's The Muppet Show!
• The Comic Muppet Book
• Fozzie's Big Book of Sidesplitting Jokes
• Muppets at Sea
• Jim Henson's Muppet Show Bill
• The Muppets Take Manhattan
• The Muppet Guide to Magnificent Manners
• Kermit & Cleopigtra
• Kermit and the Best Present of All
• The Phantom of the Muppet Theater
• If You Were Kermit
• The Muppet Show Comic Book
• Muppet Robin Hood
• The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson
• Muppet Peter Pan

Janice in 2009

Janice in period costume for The Muppet Christmas Carol

Janicehead.jpg

See also

• Janice walk-arounds
• Janice (Muppet Babies)
• Janice (Muppet Kids)
• Janice Through the Years

External links

• Janice: "Fer sure!" - fan site