Drink Wilkins Coffee . . . or Die!

While pondering how to follow last week's post about cereal commercials, found Jim Henson's Commercials for Defunct Products. Chris Higgins' post on Mental Floss.com ends with the Sir Linit ad seen above and answered this blogger's question about who produced the funniest television commercials (besides Stan Freberg and Bob & Ray). Answer: Jim Henson.

Here are early Jim Henson ads in mass quantities; proceed at your own risk. Many are nothing short of hilarious. We at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog are particularly fond of the "Drink Wilkins Coffee. . . or Die" campaign.



These ads feature a cruder and randier version of the Muppets than the subsequent versions from The Muppet Show and The Muppet Christmas Carol.



Surfing through the Jim Henson Company YouTube channel, the sheer number of films and commercials produced by the Muppet-master and his merry band decades prior to massive success with TV's The Muppet Show and movies proved mindboggling.



Recall seeing said randier version of the Muppets for the first time on the earliest episodes of Saturday Night Live, then known as "NBC's Saturday Night" in 1975. SNL + Muppets is a bit of a Buster Keaton + Jimmy Durante proposition. Do we love Buster Keaton? YES! Do we love Jimmy Durante? YES! Do we love them together? NO! NO! NO!



The decision to incorporate the Muppets into the then fledgling late-night show produces a singular response. . .WHAT were they thinking?????. The Muppets proved a fish out of water, but unlike the Monty Python fish-slapping dance, could not have clashed more with the show's cast, anarchic sensibility and nose-thumbing dynamic.



That said, The Land of Gorch sketches do show an early glimmer of concepts the Jim Henson Company would expand upon and develop later in such feature films as The Dark Crystal. Henson would get the last laugh on the naysayers with the subsequent success of The Muppet Show, on which Gilda Radner and Steve Martin appeared as guest stars.