The Land of Gorch

The Land of Gorch is a series of stories in episodes from the first season of the comedy television show Saturday Night Live. It was special because it included Jim Henson's Muppets. Before he worked on Sesame Street, Henson had made his puppet characters for a more adult audience, including his show Sam and Friends. His characters were regular appearances on the late-night-comedy television shows including The Ed Sullivan Show. After Sesame Street, Henson was afraid that he would only be able to get work in the future on children's television series. His friend and advisor Bernie Brillstein, who also represented Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, and John Belushi, helped him move over from his prior work to Saturday Night Live. 

The idea behind The Land of Gorch was that it had Muppet characters in a far-away place, who were members of a royal family. They behaved rudely, with many references to drug abuse, sex, and drinking alcohol. Characters included King Ploobis and Queen Peutra and children, and servants Scred and Vazh. These characters often spoke to their wise prophet Mighty Favog for advice.

The staff of Saturday Night Live disagreed with Henson's ideas. Writers Michael O'Donoghue, Alan Zweibel, and Al Franken often tried to avoid writing the weekly sketches involving The Land of Gorch. Henson felt they were trying to write for situational comedy and were not keeping true to his own ideas. Frank Oz agreed in the end that the match was not perfect between Saturday Night Live and The Land of Gorch, and was thankful that by the end of the year he and Henson were able to move on to The Muppet Show.

Influence and reviews
The Land of Gorch influenced many later creations by Jim Henson. His feature film The Dark Crystal used both puppetry techniques and story ideas from the sketches. The Jim Henson Company television show Dinosaurs later contained similar story ideas previously seen in The Land of Gorch, including a plot-line about environmentalism. 

Commentators talking about The Land of Gorch agreed that the reception was bad — The A.V. Club wrote that it became an open joke between the staff that no one wanted to continue having 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 made in the first season of the Saturday Night Live. Vogue described the characters as early versions of Muppets and the world they inhabited as quite dark. Academic Michael J. Bernsten wrote in his essay "The Muppetry of Nightmares" that the idea failed because the characters were not funny and did not have strong values.

References

Other websites
 The Land of Gorch at Muppet Wiki

Category:Comedy
Category:Television