Sam the Eagle Through the Years
From Muppet Wiki
The Evolution of Sam the Eagle (1975-present)
| Image | As seen in | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence | 1975 | Sam makes his debut in The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence. | |
| Muppet Meeting Films | 1975 | Around the same time as Sex and Violence, Sam appears in two Muppet Meeting Films. This Sam has bushier eyebrows, longer hair, and a slight blue-green hue. |
| The Muppet Show Season 1 | 1976 | Although similar to the first puppet, Sam's hues are such that the foam material's natural coloring and texture is more evident. His jaw tends to modulate from side to side, and his beak in general is at its longest. | |
| The Muppet Show Season 1 | 1976 through 1977 | A new Sam puppet premiered in episode 117, and another in episode 119. Sam's eyebrows have been trimmed and the fringe of hair/feathers combed down somewhat. The beak has been reshaped slightly, and wing feather coloration made brighter, though the face and body hues still clash. | |
| The Great Muppet Caper | 1979 through 1981 | As seen in later seasons of The Muppet Show and in The Great Muppet Caper, Sam's head has finally become a deeper blue, and the curve of the beak emphasized. The body feathers have also been re-dyed. | |
| Muppets from Space | 1999 | With coloration only slightly lightened from the last version (and fluctuating between the two in subsequent years), the top of Sam's skull has been rounded, and the eyebrows further trimmed, almost forming a Bert-like unibrow. | |
| It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie | 2002 | Sam undergoes a plot-oriented change, with a fuller head of hair, or feathers, the result of his use of Propecia. | |
| Planning | |||
| Design sketch | 1975 | Original sketch by Jim Henson, suggesting a jowlier, George C. Scott-esque Sam. |

