Recurring Saturday Night Live skit featuring Jim Henson's Muppets.
The Land of Gorch
Scred sings "I Got You Babe" with Lily Tomlin on the episode that aired on November 22, 1975.
Genre
Comedy
Created by
Jim Henson
Starring
Jim Henson Frank Oz Fran Brill Richard Hunt Jerry Nelson Alice Tweedie
Narrated by
Don Pardo (opening narration)
Country of origin
United States
Original language
English
No. of seasons
1
No. of episodes
16
Production
Executive producer
Lorne Michaels
Original release
Release
October 11, 1975 (1975-10-11) – September 18, 1976 (1976-09-18)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)
The Land of Gorch was a recurring adult puppetry skit that appeared in the first season of the American comedy television program Saturday Night Live, featuring Jim Henson's Muppets.
His characters appeared regularly on the late-night comedy television program. After Sesame Street, Henson feared he would become typecast into working on children's television series. His talent agent Bernie Brillstein, who represented Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, and Lorne Michaels helped him transition to Saturday Night Live.
The premise of The Land of Gorch featured Muppet characters, who were members of a royal family, in a faraway locale. They behaved boorishly and made frequent references to drug abuse, sexual activity, and consumption of alcohol. Characters included King Ploobis, Queen Peuta, their son Wiss, and servants Scred and Vazh. These characters often consulted their oracle Mighty Favog for advice.
The writers of Saturday Night Live clashed with Henson's vision for the program. Michael O'Donoghue, Alan Zweibel, Al Franken, and Tom Davis often tried to avoid writing the weekly sketches. Henson felt they were trying to write for situational comedy rather than staying within his intended story. Frank Oz eventually agreed the partnership between Henson's team and the show's writers was imperfect, and was thankful they moved on to The Muppet Show.
Commentators agreed the reception for The Land of Gorch was universally negative; The A.V. Club said it was an in-joke that nobody wanted to keep the sketches on Saturday Night Live. San Francisco Chronicle called the characters the opposite of Kermit the Frog and compared them to trolls. DVD Talk called the feature the worst mistake in the first season of Saturday Night Live. Academic Michael J. Bernsten wrote in his essay "The Muppetry of Nightmares" that the idea failed because the characters were irredeemable and unfunny. Nonetheless, The Land of Gorch had a significant impact on later Henson works, including both the 1982 feature film The Dark Crystal and the 1991 television show Dinosaurs.
over the season, while The Muppets' Land of Gorch bits were essentially cancelled after episode 10, although the associated Muppet characters still made sporadic...
This season was the last to feature The Muppets in TheLandofGorch, who had appeared in segments that were unpopular with fans and the SNL writers. Jim...
Christmas and TheLandofGorch, the Muppets all sing the final verse in a reprise of "Rainbow Connection" together. Sweetums then tears through the movie screen...
presence in television, primarily appearing in The LandofGorch segments during the first season of Saturday Night Live. As his involvement with Sesame...
Film portal 1980s portal TheLandofGorch John Bauer (illustrator)— an inspiration for Brian Froud's work on The Dark Crystal The film's distribution rights...
and began performing the character of Yoda in the Star Wars series, beginning with The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and reprising the role in six subsequent...
co-productions outside the United States. The Tonight Show (1955-1961) Sesame Street (1969–present) Saturday Night Live (Season 1) "TheLandofGorch" segments (1975-1976)...
Ebersol after a season of bad reviews. Ebersol ran the show until 1985, when Michaels returned. Since then, Michaels has held the job of showrunner. Many SNL...
announced the opening ofthe television soap opera, The Doctors. His introduction was "The Doctors: The Emmy Award winning program, dedicated to the brotherhood...
game for the ever-changing cast. Sketches with TV show themes are listed here chronologically by order of first appearance. TheLandofGorch (Jim Henson)...
Janice. Co-built The Swedish Chef. (1974) Saturday Night Live TheLandofGorch sketches, built Vazh. (1975) The Muppet Show, Builder of Fozzie Bear (1976)...
The following is a list of actors, comedians and celebrities who auditioned for a part in the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live but did not...
The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live sketches, organized by the season and date in which the sketch first appeared. For an alphabetical...
Meanwhile, Henson's Muppets were featured in TheLandofGorch skits during the first (1975–76) season ofthe American comedy television programme Saturday...
and manager Wiss, brand of scissors and snips from Apex Tool Group Wiss, character from the recurring skit TheLandofGorch Wiss Brothers Store, heritage-listed...
late-night live television variety show Saturday Night Live. Eleven LandofGorch sketches were aired between October 1975 and January 1976 on NBC, with...
Jennings (16 May 2023). "Update: Romania retires MiG-21". Jane's. Romanian Land Forces Romanian Air Force Romanian Naval Forces Ministry of National Defense...
"The Last Voyage ofthe Starship Enterprise" is a comedy sketch that first aired on May 29, 1976, during episode 22 ofthe first season ofthe NBC variety...
his wife, Metta Holst. His brothers, the writer Gorch Fock, alias Johann Kinau and Rudolf Kinau. Kinau attended the elementary school and then a naval school...
credited as the series creator for the first five episodes, while Dan Schneider and Dana Olsen are the credited creators for the rest ofthe series. "Danger...
Global Information