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The Land of Gorch
Recurring Saturday Night Live skit featuring Jim Henson's Muppets. / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Land of Gorch is a series of stories in episodes from the first season of the comedy television show Saturday Night Live. It was special because it included Jim Henson's Muppets. Before he worked on Sesame Street, Henson had made his puppet characters for a more adult audience, including his show Sam and Friends.[3] His characters were regular appearances on the late-night-comedy television shows including The Ed Sullivan Show.[4] After Sesame Street, Henson was afraid that he would only be able to get work in the future on children's television series. His friend and advisor Bernie Brillstein, who also represented Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, and John Belushi, helped him move over from his prior work to Saturday Night Live.[2][5]
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The idea behind The Land of Gorch was that it had Muppet characters in a far-away place, who were members of a royal family.[6] They behaved rudely, with many references to drug abuse, sex, and drinking alcohol.[7] Characters included King Ploobis and Queen Peutra and children, and servants Scred and Vazh.[6] These characters often spoke to their wise prophet Mighty Favog for advice.[8]
The staff of Saturday Night Live disagreed with Henson's ideas.[9] Writers Michael O'Donoghue, Alan Zweibel, and Al Franken often tried to avoid writing the weekly sketches involving The Land of Gorch.[9][10][1] Henson felt they were trying to write for situational comedy and were not keeping true to his own ideas.[11] Frank Oz agreed in the end that the match was not perfect between Saturday Night Live and The Land of Gorch, and was thankful that by the end of the year he and Henson were able to move on to The Muppet Show.[12]