Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem


Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, or simply The Electric Mayhem, are an American Muppet rock group that debuted in 1975 on the pilot for the sketch comedy television series The Muppet Show. They are the house band for The Muppet Show, with personalities and appearances inspired by prominent real-life rock music and jazz performers. They subsequently appeared in various Muppet films and television specials and have also recorded album tracks and covered numerous songs. The Electric Mayhem are a sextet: Dr. Teeth on vocals and keyboards, Animal on drums, Floyd Pepper on vocals and bass, Janice on vocals and lead guitar, Zoot on saxophone, and Lips on trumpet. The band's members were originally performed by Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz, and Steve Whitmire, respectively; they are presently performed by Bill Barretta, Eric Jacobson, Matt Vogel, David Rudman, Goelz, and Peter Linz, respectively.
The group made their debut in 1975's The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence, the pilot for The Muppet Show. Dr. Teeth and Animal were designed by Henson, Zoot was designed by Bonnie Erickson, while the rest of the original band members were designed by Michael K. Frith. Animal, Floyd and Zoot also played in the Muppet Show pit band, performing the opening and closing themes and underscoring most of the Muppet Show performances. Lips and occasionally Janice appeared in the orchestra in later episodes. Lips joined the band as the sixth member in the fifth season of the series, and made some appearances with the group after The Muppet Show ended production; the group later reverted to its original five member line-up, until Lips returned in 2011's The Muppets.
The band's first film role was performing the song "Can You Picture That?" in The Muppet Movie. They also performed "Night Life" and participated in "The Happiness Hotel" in The Great Muppet Caper and performed "Jingle Bell Rock" in A Muppet Family Christmas. They appeared in The Muppets Take Manhattan where Dr. Teeth sang "You Can't Take No For An Answer". Following the deaths of two of the group's puppeteers, Henson and Hunt, they were limited to brief instrumental background music throughout the 1990s. However, the Electric Mayhem backed Miss Piggy for a song in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz and performed alongside Miley Cyrus in the 2008 Studio DC: Almost Live television special. They have been a mainstay in the Muppets' viral video efforts of the 2010s and have a featured role in 2015's The Muppets as the house band on the show-within-a-show Up Late with Miss Piggy. The same year, they released two music videos for "Jungle Boogie" and "Kodachrome".
An Electric Mayhem "live" tour with audio-animatronic versions of the puppets and rock band My Morning Jacket performing the characters was proposed in he 2000s by The Walt Disney Company but ultimately abandoned. The band performed a live five-song set at the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival on August 6, 2016.
The Muppets Mayhem, a series about the Electric Mayhem recording their first eponymous studio album, premiered on Disney+ on May 10, 2023.

Members

Despite featuring Dr. Teeth's name prominently in the band's name, the group officially has no frontman and instead has described itself as a "rocktocracy". The original pilot episode of The Muppet Show also featured Jim, a Muppet caricature of Henson on banjo.

Dr. Teeth

Dr. Gerald Teeth Jr. is the gravelly-voiced lead singer and keyboardist. He is green-skinned and red-haired with a large grinning mouth of teeth including a gold tooth supposedly fashioned by melting down his gold records. He sports a scruffy red beard with no mustache, a fur vest, a striped shirt and a floppy purple top hat. He has arms so long that additional puppeteers are required to guide them; this design enabled Henson to work the Dr. Teeth puppet while another performer acted as Dr. Teeth's hands in order to play the keyboard. His self-introduction in The Muppet Movie was typically grandiose: "Golden teeth and golden tones. Welcome to my presence." He often misuses long words and mangles verb conjugation. Jim Henson originally performed him, basing the character on New Orleans musician Dr. John. He was designed by Henson and Michael K. Frith and built by Don Sahlin. He debuted in The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence.
Dr. Teeth only sings lead vocals on the second Muppet pilot and during the first season and these songs were only written before Rowlf the Dog had become firmly established as the regular Muppet pianist. Later performances mostly feature lead vocals by Floyd or Janice and only a few featured Dr. Teeth. His speaking roles got even smaller after his performer Jim Henson's death; an exception was the 1991 Muppets stage show Muppets on Location: Days of Swine and Roses, the voice being performed by John Kennedy. He performed Dr. Teeth from 1991 to 2003 but made only very brief appearances with very little dialogue, some examples being the 1999 film Muppets from Space and once in the music video for the "We Are Family" charity song in 2002. Bill Barretta took over the role beginning with The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. Dr. Teeth's first major speaking role since Henson's death was in Statler and Waldorf's very own show, Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony where Victor Yerrid performed him. Barretta, however, has been performing Dr. Teeth consistently since 2005.
Although he is the band's leader, Dr. Teeth is never featured in the regular orchestra playing at The Muppet Show like the rest of the group. Instead, Rowlf plays the piano in the orchestra pit.
Jim Henson once said that Dr. Teeth was one of the most difficult characters to play due to the harshness of the character's voice. Although he appeared in Muppet Treasure Island, he did not appear in Muppets Tonight.
In the 2023 series The Muppets Mayhem, Dr. Teeth is revealed to be an actual doctor, having worked in his family's dentistry business before leaving with Floyd to start the band. After an argument with the band, he rechristens the band's name simply as "The Electric Mayhem" out of parity for the other members.

Animal

  • Performed by Frank Oz, John Kennedy, Eric Jacobson
Animal is the primitive wildman, drummer and the most published member of the band, being the only member to have a speaking role in every feature film and the only member in the regular cast of the Muppet Babies spin-off cartoon. He is named for his wild behavior and drumming. Original performer Frank Oz has stated that Animal's character can be summed up in five words: sex, sleep, food, drums, and pain.
Some speculate the character of Animal is based on either Keith Moon, John Bonham, Ginger Baker, Mike Baird, or Levon Helm, while others have suggested Mick Fleetwood. In the April 8, 2002, episode of Inside the Actors Studio, Billy Joel claimed that Liberty DeVitto was the inspiration for Animal. However, Animal's initial appearance in the 1974 pilot for The Muppet Show occurred two full years before DeVitto made his first recording. Others say there is no evidence that Animal was based on anyone specifically, and is simply an amalgam of common stereotypes about rock drummers.
Oz performed Animal from his first appearance until 2000; he has been performed regularly by Eric Jacobson since his 2002 appearance in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. In Muppet Babies, he was voiced by Howie Mandel and by Dave Coulier. Animal was also played by Kevin Clash in Muppets Tonight and by Bill Barretta in MuppetFest. Animal's drumming was performed by British jazz and big band drummer Ronnie Verrell. He has had numerous appearances on television in advertising and on a U.S. postage stamp.
In the 2023 series The Muppets Mayhem, it is revealed that Animal was raised by Floyd after being abandoned on his doorstep as a baby.

Floyd Pepper

  • Performed by Jerry Nelson, John Kennedy, Matt Vogel
Sgt. Floyd Pepper is the group's bassist and backing vocalist. A laid-back hippie with a pink body and long orange hair, he usually wore a green army cap or sometimes while in the pit, a slightly fancier cap of stiffer, glittery material and a red uniform with epaulets and ornate gold braid on the buttons. He plays his bass left-handed; and although he's been seen playing a variety of bass guitars over time, he appears to have settled for playing Fender basses. The character was originated by Jerry Nelson until 2003. At this time, Nelson retired from performing most of his characters, citing health reasons and John Kennedy took over the role beginning with The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. Matt Vogel took over in A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa and is Floyd's current performer. Author Christopher Finch says that Floyd is most like Nelson and if there were a spin-off of The Muppet Show centering on his band, Floyd would probably emerge as the central figure. He was designed by Michael K. Frith and built by Dave Goelz. He debuted in The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence.
A battle of the egos occurs whenever he and Miss Piggy are on screen together as he loves to poke fun at her airs and graces. He is also somewhat arrogant, referring to himself in a Muppet Magazine article as one real cool dude and during The Muppet Show he says to Kermit the Frog: "Kermit, you are talking to Floyd Pepper! The hippest of the hip! I mean I have a room for life at the home of the chronically groovy!". His name and pink color are homages to the band Pink Floyd, and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the album by the Beatles. He appears backstage more often than the other band members.
Although Dr. Teeth is the leader, Floyd is the one who sings lead most often. Some of the songs he sang on The Muppet Show include: "New York State of Mind", "Ain't Misbehavin'", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover". He has a close relationship with Janice and is Animal's close friend and handler. In books like The Case of The Missing Mother, by James Howe, Animal is practically Floyd's pet. In The Muppets Mayhem, it is revealed that Floyd raised Animal from a young age, and inspired a young Dr. Teeth to become a musician.
Floyd has declared himself to be an excellent songwriter—when the band briefly went on strike, one of his conditions was that he be allowed to write new theme music for the show—but with no apparent contradiction, admits that everyone hates his music. "If I didn't know I was a genius," he once declared, "I wouldn't listen to the trash I write." He nonetheless seems to have made a small fortune on advertising jingles during one of the band's sabbatical.
Some sources state that Floyd is based on the guitarist Jeff Baxter, who is a studio musician and a former member of both Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers.