The Muppet Movie
The Muppet Movie is a 1979 musical road comedy film directed by James Frawley, produced by Jim Henson, and the first theatrical film to feature the Muppets. A co-production between the United Kingdom and the United States, the film was written by The Muppet Show writers Jerry Juhl and Jack Burns. Produced between the first and second half of The Muppet Shows third season, the film tells the origin story of the Muppets, as Kermit the Frog embarks on a cross-country trip to Los Angeles, encountering several of the Muppets—who all share the same ambition of finding success in professional show business—along the way while being pursued by Doc Hopper, a greedy restaurateur with intentions of employing Kermit as a spokesperson for his frog legs business.
Plot
The story opens with the Muppets sitting down at a private screening to watch a movie, for not only a screen testing, but as a pastiche of how they all met.
Cast
- Austin Pendleton
- Bob Hope
- Bruce Kirby
- Carol Kane
- Caroll Spinney
- Charles Durning
- Cloris Leachman
- Dom DeLuise
- Edgar Bergen
- Elliott Gould
- Frank Oz
- James Coburn
- James Frawley
- Jerry Nelson
- Jim Henson
- John Landis
- Madeline Kahn
- Mel Brooks
- Melinda Dillon
- Milton Berle
- Orson Welles
- Paul Williams
- Richard Hunt
- Richard Pryor
- Steve Martin
- Steve Whitmire
- Telly Savalas
- Tim Burton