September 5, 2023 • 11 mins
"Hippie" was first used in print with its current meaning on this day in 1965.
On this day in 1976, The Muppet Show, created by American puppeteer and filmmaker Jim Henson, made its world premiere on ITV stations throughout the United Kingdom.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there, history fans. We're off this week while I
complete a cross country move, but don't worry. We've got
plenty of classic shows to tide you over and be
sure to meet me back here next Monday for a
brand new episode.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to This Day in History Class from HowStuffWorks dot
com and from the desk of Stuff you Missed in
History Class. It's the show where we explore the past
one day at a time with a quick look at
what happened today in history. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Tracy B. Wilson, and it's September fifth. The word hippies,
(00:36):
as we usually use it today, was used in writing
for the first time on this day in nineteen sixty five.
So hippies, I'm using that to mean part of the
subculture that started in the nineteen sixties peaked in the
nineteen seventies, associated with things like long hair, beads, psychedelic colors,
black lights, expanding one's consciousness through drug use, and events
(00:59):
like the Summer of Love and woodstock. The word hippies
to mean people who were part of this movement first
appeared in a series by Michael Fallon that ran in
the San Francisco Examiner. This first installment was about the
Blue Unicorn Coffee House in San Francisco. It ran under
the headline a new Paradise for beat Nicks, and the
(01:20):
first sentence began five untroubled young hippies sprawled on floor,
mattresses and slouched in an armchair, retrieved from a debris box.
The word hippies in that sentence was in quotes. Of course,
people were saying hippies to mean this before it was
ever written down in this way. The word comes from
(01:40):
the words hip or hep, which people started using around
nineteen oh three and nineteen oh four. Hip hip and
hep hip have morphed meanings over the years, meaning fashionable
and in the know, and then morphing into the word
a hepcat, which combined those earlier meanings to mean somebody
(02:00):
who was knowledgeable and fashionable and into jazz music. And
then hipster took on a similar meaning to hip and
hip and hepcat, and of course now means something totally
different today. At first, the word hippie sort of meant
fake hipster, and then when that Michael Fallon article came along,
(02:21):
he was using hippie as a synonym for beatnick. Beatnick
was the name used for people who were part of
the Beat Generation and followers of the Beat Generation. It
also got its first use in writing in a newspaper
that was a column in the San Francisco Chronicle on
April second, nineteen fifty eight. The Beat Generation was a
Bohemian social and literary movement. It combined poetry and other
(02:44):
writing with zen, Buddhism, and jazz, and the idea of
breaking out of traditional literary structures and social expectations. The
Beat Generation is considered to be sort of one step
before the Hippies, basically the hippies. Precur Sir and Norman
Mahler had used the word hipster to describe the Beat
Generation as well, so hip, hippie and hipster are just
(03:09):
such great examples of how one word's meaning can really
morph so much over just a few decades. Today, the
word hippie is often associated with anti war activism and
looking back on the movement against the Vietnam War, But
at the time, people who were described as hippies often
(03:29):
weren't thought of as being politically active. Some aspects of
that counterculture movement that spawned the word hippie in the
nineteen sixties, though, are still associated with the term today.
So even if you don't think of hippies as being
connected to woodstock and psychedelic colors and drug use, so
you might think of people you would describe as hippies
as pacifists or into vegetarianism, or into organic food and
(03:55):
holistic medicine. Those were also part of the same counterculture movement.
So sometimes if you're describing your friend who likes to
go to the health food store and pick out a
bunch of organic vegetables to make a vegan entree for
everyone as a hippie, it's connected to that earlier movement,
but a slightly different flavor from how the word was
(04:15):
used back in the nineteen sixties and seventies. Thanks so
much to Christopher Hasiotis for his research work on today's episode,
and thanks to Tari Harrison for her audio work on
this show. You can subscribe to This Day in History
Class on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and where else to
get your podcasts, and you can tune in tomorrow for
(04:35):
a massacre.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Hello and welcome to This Day in History class a
show for those interested in the big and small moment
of history. My name is Gabe Lucier and just to
put this on front street, I am a big old nerd.
I love cartoons and toys and variety shows where puppets
tell corny jokes. So be warned. I'm gonna lean into
(05:15):
that from time to time, and today is one of
those occasions. Yes, it's time to play the music, it's
time to light the lights, it's time to listen to
me geek out about the Muppet Show. Tonight and the
(05:36):
day was Sunday, September fifth, nineteen seventy six. The Muppet Show,
created by American puppeteer and filmmaker Jim Henson, made its
world premiere on ITV stations throughout the United Kingdom. Taking
the form of a Vaudeville inspired variety show complete with
comedic sketches and musical performances, the show introduced audiences to
(06:00):
future pop culture icons like Kermit the Frog, Gonzo, Miss Piggy,
Fozzy Bear, and the Swedish Chef. Prior to the show's debut,
Henson had made two TV specials featuring the Muppets characters
for the American Broadcasting Company, or ABC. The first special,
titled The Muppets Valentine Show, aired in nineteen seventy four
(06:25):
and featured sketches riffing on romance and the idea of
true love. The second special was an edgier affair and
was given the tongue in cheek title The Muppet Show
Sex and Violence. It aired in nineteen seventy five and
used sketches based on the Seven Deadly Sins as a
way to parody the vulgarity of contemporary TV. However, neither
(06:49):
special was well received, prompting ABC and the other American
networks to pass on producing The Muppet Show as a
regular series. Undeterred, Henson took the project abroad to British television.
The show's success during its initial two weeks on the
air led US networks to rethink their decision, and on
(07:09):
September twentieth, the show began airing in syndication on CBS stations.
The first episode to air in the UK featured guest
host Joel Gray, an actor and singer best known for
his role as the master of ceremonies in both the
Broadway and film productions of the musical Cabaret For the
(07:30):
US premiere episode, the guest host was fellow musical star
Rita Moreno, who would go on to win an Emmy
for her appearance on the show. Each of the one
hundred and twenty episodes of The Muppet Show's five season
run featured a different celebrity host. To make the most
of their one and only appearance on the show, guests
(07:51):
would frequently request to appear in scenes with their favorite Muppet.
Miss Piggy was said to be the most requested, but Animal,
the drummer for the Muppets house Band, was a close
runner up. Some of the most memorable hosts to grace
the Muppet Theater include Julie Andrews, Johnny Cash, Vincent Price,
Bernadette Peters, Monty Python Star John Cleese, and Sir Elton john.
(08:16):
Although the show's live act premise made it seem like
it was filmed before a full studio audience, the lengthy
production time for each sequence made that impossible to preserve
the illusion, though a laugh track was added. Henson was
not a fan of the convention, but conceded that it
did help the flow of the show. His compromise was
(08:38):
to occasionally poke fun at the laugh track, like in
season one when Kermit says that it's up to the
laugh track whether the show is funny or not. The
Muppet Show provided breakout roles for its zany cast of characters,
but for some of them, it wasn't their first appearance.
Two decades earlier, in nineteen fifty five, Jim Henson created
(08:59):
the Muppets for a five minute TV show called Sam
and Friends. It was aired twice a day for six
years on an NBC's station in Washington, d C. The
show's star, Sam was a humanoid puppet who never achieved
lasting fame. But Kermit, a friend of Sam, was a
different story. Made from ping pong balls and an old
(09:21):
coat donated by Henson's mother, Kermit was not yet a frog,
but an abstract lizard like creature who lacked his trademark
flippers and pointy collar. When Sam and Friends ceased production,
Henson's Muppets began making regular appearances on The Today Show
and on late night talk shows like The Ed Sullivan Show.
(09:42):
In nineteen sixty nine, Kermit and a group of new
Muppets characters joined the first season cast of a children's
show called Sesame Street. As a career move working on
the project seemed like a no brainer, yet Henson was
reluctant to take the job. Speaking to a report that year,
he explained his hesitation, saying, what I'm against is people
(10:05):
thinking that puppets are exclusively for children. We've directed our
work mostly towards adults, and historically puppets have often been
for adults. It's only fairly recently that puppets have been
pushed into strictly children's areas. As a theater forum, puppetry
can do virtually anything. Thankfully, for fans of Big Bird
(10:27):
and Friends, the show's co creator Joan Ganz Cooney was
able to win over Jim Henson. She pointed out that
if Sesame Street did well, he'd be able to leverage
that success and secure funding for his own projects. She
told him, trust me, Jim, it's just around the corner.
You're not going to be stuck in Little Kitty Entertainment.
(10:50):
In time, Cooney was proven right. Less than a decade
after Sesame Street premiered, Henson was able to launch his
own more subversive project, something we know today as The
Muppet Show. I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully you now know
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
(11:12):
If you'd like, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at TDIHC podcast and if you have any
comments or suggestions, or you want to tell me your
favorite Muppet, let me know at this Day at iHeartMedia
dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show,
and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here
(11:33):
again tomorrow for another Day in History class.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey there, history fans. We're off this week while I
complete a cross country move, but don't worry. We've got
plenty of classic shows to tide you over and be
sure to meet me back here next Monday for a
brand new episode.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to This Day in History Class from HowStuffWorks dot
com and from the desk of Stuff you Missed in
History Class. It's the show where we explore the past
one day at a time with a quick look at
what happened today in history. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Tracy B. Wilson, and it's September fifth. The word hippies,
(00:36):
as we usually use it today, was used in writing
for the first time on this day in nineteen sixty five.
So hippies, I'm using that to mean part of the
subculture that started in the nineteen sixties peaked in the
nineteen seventies, associated with things like long hair, beads, psychedelic colors,
black lights, expanding one's consciousness through drug use, and events
(00:59):
like the Summer of Love and woodstock. The word hippies
to mean people who were part of this movement first
appeared in a series by Michael Fallon that ran in
the San Francisco Examiner. This first installment was about the
Blue Unicorn Coffee House in San Francisco. It ran under
the headline a new Paradise for beat Nicks, and the
(01:20):
first sentence began five untroubled young hippies sprawled on floor,
mattresses and slouched in an armchair, retrieved from a debris box.
The word hippies in that sentence was in quotes. Of course,
people were saying hippies to mean this before it was
ever written down in this way. The word comes from
(01:40):
the words hip or hep, which people started using around
nineteen oh three and nineteen oh four. Hip hip and
hep hip have morphed meanings over the years, meaning fashionable
and in the know, and then morphing into the word
a hepcat, which combined those earlier meanings to mean somebody
(02:00):
who was knowledgeable and fashionable and into jazz music. And
then hipster took on a similar meaning to hip and
hip and hepcat, and of course now means something totally
different today. At first, the word hippie sort of meant
fake hipster, and then when that Michael Fallon article came along,
(02:21):
he was using hippie as a synonym for beatnick. Beatnick
was the name used for people who were part of
the Beat Generation and followers of the Beat Generation. It
also got its first use in writing in a newspaper
that was a column in the San Francisco Chronicle on
April second, nineteen fifty eight. The Beat Generation was a
Bohemian social and literary movement. It combined poetry and other
(02:44):
writing with zen, Buddhism, and jazz, and the idea of
breaking out of traditional literary structures and social expectations. The
Beat Generation is considered to be sort of one step
before the Hippies, basically the hippies. Precur Sir and Norman
Mahler had used the word hipster to describe the Beat
Generation as well, so hip, hippie and hipster are just
(03:09):
such great examples of how one word's meaning can really
morph so much over just a few decades. Today, the
word hippie is often associated with anti war activism and
looking back on the movement against the Vietnam War, But
at the time, people who were described as hippies often
(03:29):
weren't thought of as being politically active. Some aspects of
that counterculture movement that spawned the word hippie in the
nineteen sixties, though, are still associated with the term today.
So even if you don't think of hippies as being
connected to woodstock and psychedelic colors and drug use, so
you might think of people you would describe as hippies
as pacifists or into vegetarianism, or into organic food and
(03:55):
holistic medicine. Those were also part of the same counterculture movement.
So sometimes if you're describing your friend who likes to
go to the health food store and pick out a
bunch of organic vegetables to make a vegan entree for
everyone as a hippie, it's connected to that earlier movement,
but a slightly different flavor from how the word was
(04:15):
used back in the nineteen sixties and seventies. Thanks so
much to Christopher Hasiotis for his research work on today's episode,
and thanks to Tari Harrison for her audio work on
this show. You can subscribe to This Day in History
Class on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and where else to
get your podcasts, and you can tune in tomorrow for
(04:35):
a massacre.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Hello and welcome to This Day in History class a
show for those interested in the big and small moment
of history. My name is Gabe Lucier and just to
put this on front street, I am a big old nerd.
I love cartoons and toys and variety shows where puppets
tell corny jokes. So be warned. I'm gonna lean into
(05:15):
that from time to time, and today is one of
those occasions. Yes, it's time to play the music, it's
time to light the lights, it's time to listen to
me geek out about the Muppet Show. Tonight and the
(05:36):
day was Sunday, September fifth, nineteen seventy six. The Muppet Show,
created by American puppeteer and filmmaker Jim Henson, made its
world premiere on ITV stations throughout the United Kingdom. Taking
the form of a Vaudeville inspired variety show complete with
comedic sketches and musical performances, the show introduced audiences to
(06:00):
future pop culture icons like Kermit the Frog, Gonzo, Miss Piggy,
Fozzy Bear, and the Swedish Chef. Prior to the show's debut,
Henson had made two TV specials featuring the Muppets characters
for the American Broadcasting Company, or ABC. The first special,
titled The Muppets Valentine Show, aired in nineteen seventy four
(06:25):
and featured sketches riffing on romance and the idea of
true love. The second special was an edgier affair and
was given the tongue in cheek title The Muppet Show
Sex and Violence. It aired in nineteen seventy five and
used sketches based on the Seven Deadly Sins as a
way to parody the vulgarity of contemporary TV. However, neither
(06:49):
special was well received, prompting ABC and the other American
networks to pass on producing The Muppet Show as a
regular series. Undeterred, Henson took the project abroad to British television.
The show's success during its initial two weeks on the
air led US networks to rethink their decision, and on
(07:09):
September twentieth, the show began airing in syndication on CBS stations.
The first episode to air in the UK featured guest
host Joel Gray, an actor and singer best known for
his role as the master of ceremonies in both the
Broadway and film productions of the musical Cabaret For the
(07:30):
US premiere episode, the guest host was fellow musical star
Rita Moreno, who would go on to win an Emmy
for her appearance on the show. Each of the one
hundred and twenty episodes of The Muppet Show's five season
run featured a different celebrity host. To make the most
of their one and only appearance on the show, guests
(07:51):
would frequently request to appear in scenes with their favorite Muppet.
Miss Piggy was said to be the most requested, but Animal,
the drummer for the Muppets house Band, was a close
runner up. Some of the most memorable hosts to grace
the Muppet Theater include Julie Andrews, Johnny Cash, Vincent Price,
Bernadette Peters, Monty Python Star John Cleese, and Sir Elton john.
(08:16):
Although the show's live act premise made it seem like
it was filmed before a full studio audience, the lengthy
production time for each sequence made that impossible to preserve
the illusion, though a laugh track was added. Henson was
not a fan of the convention, but conceded that it
did help the flow of the show. His compromise was
(08:38):
to occasionally poke fun at the laugh track, like in
season one when Kermit says that it's up to the
laugh track whether the show is funny or not. The
Muppet Show provided breakout roles for its zany cast of characters,
but for some of them, it wasn't their first appearance.
Two decades earlier, in nineteen fifty five, Jim Henson created
(08:59):
the Muppets for a five minute TV show called Sam
and Friends. It was aired twice a day for six
years on an NBC's station in Washington, d C. The
show's star, Sam was a humanoid puppet who never achieved
lasting fame. But Kermit, a friend of Sam, was a
different story. Made from ping pong balls and an old
(09:21):
coat donated by Henson's mother, Kermit was not yet a frog,
but an abstract lizard like creature who lacked his trademark
flippers and pointy collar. When Sam and Friends ceased production,
Henson's Muppets began making regular appearances on The Today Show
and on late night talk shows like The Ed Sullivan Show.
(09:42):
In nineteen sixty nine, Kermit and a group of new
Muppets characters joined the first season cast of a children's
show called Sesame Street. As a career move working on
the project seemed like a no brainer, yet Henson was
reluctant to take the job. Speaking to a report that year,
he explained his hesitation, saying, what I'm against is people
(10:05):
thinking that puppets are exclusively for children. We've directed our
work mostly towards adults, and historically puppets have often been
for adults. It's only fairly recently that puppets have been
pushed into strictly children's areas. As a theater forum, puppetry
can do virtually anything. Thankfully, for fans of Big Bird
(10:27):
and Friends, the show's co creator Joan Ganz Cooney was
able to win over Jim Henson. She pointed out that
if Sesame Street did well, he'd be able to leverage
that success and secure funding for his own projects. She
told him, trust me, Jim, it's just around the corner.
You're not going to be stuck in Little Kitty Entertainment.
(10:50):
In time, Cooney was proven right. Less than a decade
after Sesame Street premiered, Henson was able to launch his
own more subversive project, something we know today as The
Muppet Show. I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully you now know
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
(11:12):
If you'd like, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at TDIHC podcast and if you have any
comments or suggestions, or you want to tell me your
favorite Muppet, let me know at this Day at iHeartMedia
dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show,
and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here
(11:33):
again tomorrow for another Day in History class.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
This Day in History Class News
Host
Gabe Luzier
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