Breed: Mixed
Original Appearances: Purina
Dog Chow commercials in 1962.
Other Appearances: The Jimmy
Dean Show, The Muppet Show, all
the Muppet Movies, Muppets Tonight.
Biography: In 1962, Jim Henson
designed and Don Sahlin built Rowlf for Purina Dog Chow commercials,
which he co-starred opposite Baskerville the Hound. From 1963 to
1966, Rowlf was the sidekick to Jimmy Dean on the singer's
self-titled show. Dean has said that Rowlf received two thousand fan
letters a week! In 1968, Rowlf and Kermit the Frog were in the pitch
reel for Sesame Street, but
only appeared in one filmed segment of the final series. In 1976,
Rowlf became part of the cast of The Muppet Show
as the band's pianist, as well as portraying Dr. Bob on
“Veterinarians' Hospital” (the continuing stooooooory about a
quack that's gone to the dogs). Rowlf's character biography was
provided in The Muppet Movie,
where Kermit discovered Rowlf playing piano at a bar, after which he
joined the frog on his trek to Hollywood. 1984's The
Muppets Take Manhattan featured
a Baby Rowlf during a musical number, one of the many Muppets
portrayed as babies – this led to the Muppet Babies
cartoon spinoff. Since then, Rowlf has appeared on The
Arsenio Hall Show in 1990 (the
last time Henson would perform Rowlf), and was then retired for
several years until 1996, when Bill Barretta took over performing
Rowlf with the second episode of Muppets Tonight.
He's continued to appear infrequently in other Muppet projects until
the 2011's The Muppets,
when he resumed his former larger role in Muppet doings. One of the
Rowlf's, possibly the original one, is on display at the Center for
Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia.
Powers: None, unless you
consider a dog playing piano, talking, singing and dancing a power!
Group Affiliation: The Muppets
Miscellaneous: Rowlf
actually has his own CD, Ol'
Brown Ears is Back,
recorded by Jim Henson in 1984 but not released until 1993. Rowlf was
always one of my favorite of the Muppets.
