The Muppet Show goofs The creators of " The Muppet Show " were skilled at creating the illusion that the puppets were living characters . Still , occasional goofs slipped through , and made it onto the screen . General Goofs . Muppet Height Relations . One of the big errors people can nit - pick with the Muppet productions is continuity of the characters ' heights . For example , Rizzo and Pepe normally appear around ( or even above ) waist height compared to their human co - stars . However , a full - body look at proportions of the character would suggest they would barely reach a human ' s knee . Kermit , Fozzie , and the other Muppets also appear in a flexible height range in order to interact comfortably with humans and sets . Steve Whitmire said in a 1998 interview that " If a character like Rizzo only appeared at his true height next to a human actor , you ’ d only see the human actor ’ s feet when you saw Rizzo . That ’ s an extreme example , but the idea is true for most of the characters . Even so , we do know the relative heights of the characters to each other and make an effort to keep that in mind . " The suspended belief that the audience has when watching the Muppets allows this flexible reality to exist without major distractions . So even though Pepe ' s feet would be floating three feet off the ground , the audience still goes along , not questioning , and usually not even perceiving . Canonical Holes . Many people argue that the Muppet films and TV shows are non - canonical ; that each production is a world unto itself - that the Muppets are timeless personalities and characters that carry throughout productions , and these characters are presenting a show . People continue to argue and debate over what is Muppet truth and what is just acting and plain entertainment . " Muppet Babies " undermines the whole notion of " The Muppet Movie " . And Scooter ' s role as The Electric Mayhem ' s road manager in " The Muppet Movie " undermines his back - story set up in the early run of " The Muppet Show " as the theater owner ' s nephew hired by Kermit as a go - fer . There have been many contradictions in Muppet canon and back - stories throughout the 50 + years of the Muppets . However writers and performers will overlook or circumvent them in order to create new compelling stories , new characters or character traits , or just deliver a humorous joke . In , Gonzo explains that his mother died before he was born and left a note to his father regarding Gonzo ' s name . This is contradicted in of " Muppets Tonight " , where Gonzo claims his mother liked his unique college interpretation of " Death of a Salesman " . However the whole notion of Gonzo remembering his parents is somewhat dispelled in the film " Muppets from Space " . TV Overscan . A television image goes right to the very edges of the screen , however most TVs are not so precise as to fit the picture perfectly to its glass . As a result all televisions have what is called " " - where portions of the actual picture area fall outside of the physical viewable area of a TV set , due to the picture being projected larger than the actual screen . About 5 % of the picture area is missing from each edge , with some sets cutting off as much as 15 % on one edge or another . Television creators are aware of the situation and are careful not to put anything critical too close to the edge of the picture , and will frame a shot accordingly . TV directors have what is called a " safe title zone " , somewhat in from the edges , where it is considered safe to put text and titles . They also have a safe action zone within which it is considered safe to put the action you need to see . With the special effect illusions created by the Muppets , filming them sometimes results in a revealing mistake or puppeteer ' s head / arm . Since " The Muppet Show " was intended for television broadcast and viewing , sometimes " goofs " were allowed to stay in the edges of a shot assuming they were far enough at the bottom of a shot to be cut off by the viewer ' s TV ( or were unnoticed on the film prints as they were cut off on the studio monitors themselves ) . Since that time the show has been transferred and released in digital – in the form of DVD . Playing such videos on screens without overscan ( such as some computer monitors , digital screens , plasma monitors , etc . ) will allow viewers to see things originally thought to be out of sight . _ _ NOWYSIWYG _ _