Earlier this week, we got the exciting news that Disney+ will be releasing a brand new special featuring the Muppets at The Haunted Mansion. It’s hitting all those sweet spots necessary to get our juices flowing: Muppets, Halloween, Disney theme parks, and did we mention Muppets??
Naturally, this isn’t the Muppets’ first foray into the worlds of Disney properties or spooky scariness. But the upcoming Muppets Haunted Mansion is the latest in a long line of the Muppets’ history with haunted houses.
The Muppets have been in plenty of houses, and they’ve had quite a few interactions with ghosts, witches, and monsters. But houses? That are haunted??? There are dozens of examples from the past 50 years. Below, you’ll find as many as we could think of – and I’m sure there are more than just these. Eerie!
Prairie Dawn in a Haunted House (1971)
In Sesame Street‘s second season, Prairie Dawn and a little Muppet boy find themselves in a spooky house. While Prairie does explain away all of the scariness, we discover that the house is indeed haunted – by a terrifying mouse.
Count von Count’s castle (1972)
It may be easy to write off Count von Count’s castle as being less-than-haunted, but aside from the spiders, cobwebs, and bats infesting the place, it’s also home to at least one super scary vampire.
Phantom of Muppet Theater (1976)
Fan favorite Muppet Uncle Deadly made his canonical debut as an actor-turned-phantom, haunting the Muppet Theater and demanding that they leave or be doomed. Since the Muppets didn’t actually leave, we’re left to assume that they’ve been doomed for over four decades. That… explains a lot, actually.
Talking Houses (1976)
In the Florence Henderson episode of The Muppet Show, comedy legends the Talking Houses had the following exchange:
House: My brother has ghosts in his attic.
Other House: Sounds scary.
House: Yeah, he’s on the top 10 most haunted list.
Therefore, it’s officially canon that there’s a Talking Haunted House in the Muppet universe.
House of Horrors (1977)
Naturally, the already-spooky Vincent Price episode of The Muppet Show features a spooky haunted house sketch. Gonzo and Fozzie basically rent an AirBnB straight out of a nightmare, and then encounter a terrifying Vincent Price, his beautiful assistant Uncle Deadly, and the unseen monster Hulko. Thankfully, they don’t stick around this haunted house long, as Price transforms into Jack Parnell (or Guy Lombardo, if you happened to read the story in “The Muppet Show Book”).
Holiday Haunt (1979)
The Muppets made their way to a haunted house full of ghosts, sea monsters, werecats, and vampires in an issue of The Muppet Show Annual. In a truly Shyamalan-esque twist, the Muppets out-monster the monsters, sending them all running for the hills.
What’s Hiding in the Haunted House? (1983)
The rarely-paired duo of Scooter and Janice found themselves in a haunted house in an issue of Muppet Magazine, daring you to find seventeen hidden monsters. There are actually nineteen monsters, because Scooter cheats on his taxes and Janice is a gun runner for the yakuza.
“A Dark and Stormy Night” (1985)
Gobo and Wembley Fraggle get their baloobiuses nearly scared off as they sneak into the Gorgs’ castle, while Mokey, Red, and Boober make ghastly ghost noises. It’s an interesting twist for the Fraggles to be haunted by the Fraggles. Who knew they could be so scary??
“Is There a Muppet In the House?” (1988)
The Muppet Babies take a turn with the haunted house motif as the babies begin disappearing from the nursery one-by-one. Of course, the nursery isn’t haunted, but they do start playing with an old and dangerous dumbwaiter, which is actually way more terrifying.
Jim Henson Hour Ghost Story (1989)
Fozzie Bear rented a room from an old lady that turned out to be super haunted. Mainly, he watched some headless teenagers playing basketball with a disembodied head. Honestly, it sounds more entertaining than scary.
The Ghost of Faffner Hall (1989)
The Jim Henson Company made a whole TV series about a haunted house! And the ghosts just… make music? Is it scary music? No? Well, the puppets are scary-looking enough.
Phantom of the Muppet Theater (1991)
John Stone (not to be confused with Jon Stone) – deceased actor and builder of the Muppet Theater – stole Uncle Deadly’s shtick by spooking the Muppet troupe while they’re trying to put on a (disastrous) show. Legend says he’s still haunting the Muppet Theater, but since there’s no current Muppet Show, he’s just hanging out in the dark.
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Ebeneezer Scrooge’s house is haunted by a whole string of ghosts. Ah, if only real ghosts were just concerned about your appreciation for winter holidays and not covering the walls in blood.
“Is There a Monster in the House?” (1995)
In this truly morbid lift-the-flap book, Grover finds himself trapped in a nightmare of a haunted house, only to find that it’s full of monsters. I hear this book will be adapted into the next Saw sequel.
Mopatop’s Shop‘s “Ghosts” (1999)
The titular shop from the mostly-forgotten Muppet series Mopatop’s Shop was haunted by a ghost who won’t leave until his insatiable hunger has been satisfied. By which I mean, he’s looking for a sound effect to replace his “boo”. That’s pretty spoopy, I guess.
Muppet Monster Adventure (2000)
One of the more famous Muppet haunted houses is the one Robin finds himself trapped in throughout the classic video game Muppet Monster Adventure. He fights monsterized versions of his Muppet friends with the help of his power glove. And man, the only conceivable reason why this game hasn’t been re-released has got to be because it’s too scary. So scary, you guys!
Beaker the Ghost Hunter (2009)
In a video for Muppets.com, Bunsen sends Beaker into a haunted house to find proof of the existence of ghosts. And then – no joke – Beaker actually dies and becomes a ghost. Holy crap, that’s dark.
“Grim Grinning Ghosts” (2015)
The Muppets’ first real connection to The Haunted Mansion came via the video above, featuring Rowlf and his dramatic reading of “Grim Grinning Ghosts”, the song performed during the Disney ride. While Rowlf does seem to be in limbo and not in a house (haunted or otherwise), he’s spiritually in a haunted house. It’s how he got into the proper mood to read this poem so eloquently.
The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell (2018)
The Henson Company series featured culinary artist Christine McConnell and her family of monsters as they haunted their own mansion while baking desserts too pretty to eat. I’d rather face a mummy cat than be denied my slice of cake.
Uncle Deadly’s dramatic reading of The Haunted Mansion (2019)
Following in Rowlf’s footsteps, Uncle Deadly provided his own dramatic reading of The Haunted Mansion’s extra-spooky dialog. This time, he was on stage at the D23 Expo, serving as the ghost host and narrator. Truly, that day the entire Expo hall was haunted by 999 ghost… and there’s room for one more! Mwa ha ha.
The Muppets Haunted House/Hotel/Movie (????)
In the press release above – put out in the 1990s – The Jim Henson Company announced several projects in development including The Muppets Present, Muppet Time Travel and Muppet Haunted Movie. This project went through several other titles, including The Muppets Haunted House and The Muppets Haunted Hotel, but never ended up making it to film. Portions of the script were adapted for the Muppet Monster Adventure video game (seen above), so at least we’re not completely in the dark about what it could’ve been. Still, this wouldn’t be the last we’d hear of this concept…
Uncle Deadly’s House of Badness (????)
Around 2000, Kirk Thatcher was developing a TV series called “Uncle Deadly’s House of Badness”, which would’ve been a family-friendly (yet unsettling) anthology in the vein of Goosebumps. Once again, we were denied seeing Uncle Deadly in this starring role, and his House of Badness (while certainly haunted) remains empty.
Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021)
What is it? Who knows! All we’ve got are the words Muppets, Haunted, and Mansion, and I’m pretty positive that means the Muppets will be back in their fourth-favorite subgenre: The haunted house. We’ll find out this fall on Disney+!
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by Joe Hennes – Joe@ToughPigs.com
