The Internet Movie Database is a handy service and I consult it many times a week. But every so often, I look at my own listing there and wonder about their over-all accuracy. There are quite a few things I've written that aren't on my page but, okay, that's no big thing. I can't even remember all of them. What amazes me is that there's almost always a credit for me on something I didn't work on. While looking up something about Richard Pryor the other day, I chanced on my entry and discovered — much to my amazement — that I was in The Muppet Movie!
The listing, reproduced above, says that I did the role of Ernie. This would have been for the big group shot near the end where hundreds of Muppets sing the closing lines of the song, "The Rainbow Connection." In addition to the regular Muppeteers, it became necessary to recruit other puppet manipulators and since Jim Henson was probably working Kermit in that shot, someone else had to operate Ernie. That someone was my close friend, Earl Kress. Earl has a history with the Muppets, he did the part, and I got no closer to that film than seeing it in a theater.
So I'm wondering how my name got connected with the part in the I.M.D.B. Someone must have believed this and submitted it, and I'm guessing it's someone who reads this weblog. If it's you, would you drop me a line and explain? I promise I won't be mad or shame you in public. I'm just curious.
In the meantime, I've notified the I.M.D.B. that it should be Earl's name there. Let's see how long it takes them to make the correction.