Mark Sainsbury Muppet

A caricature Muppet of New Zealand television host Mark Sainsbury was created to help promote the 2011 film The Muppets for the New Zealand market.
Mark Sainsbury had been the presenter of the current affairs program Close Up, hosting from 2007 until the show's cancellation in 2012. After traveling to the United States for a story on The Muppets, Close Up producer Chris Lynch (a puppeteer) had ecstatic news for Sainsbury. In Sainsbury's words, "[Chris] came in all excited, saying, 'They want to make a Muppet of you'... I thought he was joking."
Performed by Lynch, Sainsbury's Muppet likeness, a specially-made green Whatnot from FAO Schwarz's Muppet Whatnot Workshop, made his television debut on Close Up. The puppet subsequently appeared on What Now (New Zealand's longest running children's show), and made a live appearance at the New Zealand premiere of The Muppets, which also served as a fundraising event for the Auckland Starship Children's Hospital.
==External Links==
* New Zealand Herald - Meet Mark Sainsbury's Muppet
* TVNZ - Mark Sainsbury wowed by Muppet treatment (archived)
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Category:Caricature Muppets