page_title: The Land of Gorch
section_title: Writing conflicts
hierarchical_section_title: The Land of Gorch / Production / Writing conflicts
caption_attribution_description: English: Alan Zweibel publicity photo
context_page_description: The Land of Gorch was a recurring skit that appeared in season one of the American comedy television program Saturday Night Live, featuring Jim Henson's Muppets. Prior to his work for children on Sesame Street, Henson had created Kermit and the other Muppets, which debuted on his Washington, D.C., show, Sam and Friends, that aired at midnight.
  His characters appeared regularly on the late-night comedy television programs, and The Ed Sullivan Show. 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.
context_section_description: Because of regulations imposed by the Writers Guild of America, only those employed as writers for Saturday Night Live were allowed to write sketches for the program. Henson and his puppeteers merely performed the scripts for the segments—they were not involved in the writing process. Saturday Night Live cast members did not enjoy working with The Land of Gorch segments. Writing assignments for The Land of Gorch sketches were given to Saturday Night Live staff as a penalty for being the least-liked among the production team. Writers generally regarded the routines as childish.
  The writing staff of Saturday Night Live and Henson's team did share some qualities; each group formed a separate social clique and were independently opinionated and creative. They differed in age, experience, and lifestyle—producer Lorne Michaels was 31 years old in 1975, and Henson was nearly 40. Much of the writers were in their 20s. Most of the writers were single and Henson was married with five children at the time.
  Writer Michael O'Donoghue said, "I don't write for felt". In a 1977 interview for Playboy, O'Donoghue called The Land of Gorch characters "mucking Fuppets" and "little hairy facecloths". Saturday Night Live writer Alan Zweibel said the writers drew straws to decide who would draft that week's Muppet routine. Zweibel said that in addition to himself, other writers who disliked working on scripts for The Land of Gorch included Michael O'Donoghue, Al Franken, and Tom Davis. Zweibel had personal disagreements with Henson, who disapproved a few storylines. Henson's associate Jerry Juhl said John Belushi hated having the Muppets on the show. Juhl said they went through virtually every writer on the program trying to find one who would write sketches both parties could agree with.
  Michaels said The Land of Gorch characters had been created without a set of rules or boundaries to govern the storylines. He said he felt his writing staff would have been able to work more effectively if there had been more guidelines on the characters' behavior and function. Henson said he felt the type of humor being written for the show was tedious and unimaginative.
caption: Writer Alan Zweibel said the writers passed off The Land of Gorch each week, not wanting to write the segments.[32]
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.6.8", "Image DateTime": "2010:06:16 11:13:12", "Image ExifOffset": "146", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "282", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3790", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "137", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "137"}