The Land of Gorch
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.
The Land of Gorch
Jim Henson
Frank Oz
Fran Brill
Richard Hunt
Jerry Nelson
Alice Tweedie
Don Pardo (opening narration)
United States
English
1
16
October 11, 1975 –
September 18, 1976
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.
Premise[edit]
The Land of Gorch takes place in a world far away from contemporaneous society.[1][2][3] The characters live on a fictional, swamp-like planet in a fantasy genre.[4][5][6] The set includes volcanoes and prehistoric themes.[1] The environment is dismal and the puppets have grotesque physical appearances.[6]
The creatures each have unique cultural identities and a sense of loyalty towards their inherent, traditional practices.[1] The main characters comprise a royal family that includes King Ploobis, Queen Peuta, and a male child named Wiss. There are also a male servant named Scred, a female servant named Vazh, and a rock prophet named the Mighty Favog.[1][2][3] Scred acts like a fervent supporter of dim-witted King Ploobis,[2][3] while Vazh displays flirtatious qualities.[2][3]
The Land of Gorch segments deal with adult themes; characters use euphemisms to refer to their sex drives and often consume alcohol.[7] They often contradict each other and act obnoxiously and lasciviously.[8] They grapple with adult issues including death, sexual intercourse, and alcoholism.[9]
Home media[edit]
The Land of Gorch was released on the Saturday Night Live season one DVD release in December 2006.[37]
Themes[edit]
In his essay "The Muppetry of Nightmares", Michael J. Bernsten wrote that The Land of Gorch routines exemplified how disgustingly puppets could act, and illustrated the connection between the uncanny and odd behavior.[8] He commented on the value of Henson's contributions to Saturday Night Live within the artist's larger corpus of work, and said none of Henson's other creations were as profane or grotesque.[8] Bernsten said these qualities made the characters a crucial part of the Muppet timeline.[8]
Bernsten said audiences contemporaneous with the first season of Saturday Night Live were not ready for such characters.[8] He said The Land of Gorch characters behaved so uncannily that audiences did not relate to them because they did not foresee hideous puppets behaving in such a mature manner.[8] Bernsten said this was the reason the characters' pithy one-liner jokes succeeded.[8]
According to Ben Underwood, the characters that appeared in The Land of Gorch were called "Muppets" by Henson and his crew, but diverged significantly from his other creations within the Muppet universe.[38] Underwood said they exhibit a dichotomy of sweet and affectionate behavior while at the same time being disgusting.[38]
Jason Segel, writer and star of the 2011 film The Muppets, likened Henson's efforts with The Land of Gorch to the early struggles by Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs with his burgeoning new company in its early years.[39] Segel said the format did not work with Saturday Night Live because of its edgier tone; "they had created a new world of sort of adult, darker Muppets to fit in with SNL and it didn't quite work".[39]