Muppets Tonight is an American live-action/puppet family-oriented television series created by Jim Henson Productions and featuring The Muppets. Much like the "MuppeTelevision" segment of The Jim Henson Hour (1989), the show was a continuation of The Muppet Show, set in a television studio rather than a theater. Unlike the original Muppet Show, most episodes of Muppets Tonight featured multiple guest stars. There would usually be one principal guest, but other celebrities would make small walk-on appearances. For example, the Garth Brooks episode features a cameo from Leonard Nimoy. It first ran on ABC from March 8 to July 14, 1996, with reruns on Disney Channel from 1997 to 1999. Format The premise of Muppets Tonight was that Clifford was the host of a variety/talk show on KMUP. The show stuck closely to The Muppet Show format of various skits (mostly featuring the show's human guest star) interspersed with some sort of crisis occurring backstage. Characters Returning Muppets The Muppet characters performed by Frank Oz would appear intermittently on Muppets Tonight due to scheduling conflicts with his directing career. Clifford (performed by Kevin Clash) – Host of the show. Although he had visible eyes in this series instead of his previous sunglasses, he went back to wearing sunglasses for all of his appearances after Muppets Tonight ended. At the MuppetFest convention in 2001, Clash revealed that he disliked the visible eyes and he preferred Clifford wearing his sunglasses, refusing to perform the character again unless he was wearing them. Kermit the Frog (performed by Steve Whitmire) – Producer of the show Animal (performed by Frank Oz) Zoot (performed by Dave Goelz) Beauregard (performed by Dave Goelz) – Janitor of KMUP Bean Bunny (performed by Steve Whitmire) Behemoth (performed by Bill Barretta) – Ernst Stavros Grouper's assistant Dr. Bunsen Honeydew (performed by Dave Goelz) – The scientist and inventor from Muppet Labs who shows off his inventions on the show Beaker (performed by Steve Whitmire) – Dr. Bunsen Honeydew's assistant Dr. Julius Strangepork (performed by Jerry Nelson) – Appears in a "Bay of Pigswatch" sketch as the lifeguard inspector as seen in the Pierce Brosnan episode Clueless Morgan (performed by Bill Barretta) – A goat who previously appeared in Muppet Treasure Island (1996); appears in the "At the Bar" sketch co-owning a bar with Polly Lobster The Elvises (performed by Brian Henson, Jerry Nelson, and Bill Barretta) – A group of Muppets