''Hey, Cinderella!'' is a 1969

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of en ...

adaptation of the fairy tale ''

Cinderella "Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...

'', produced by Muppets, Inc. in the United States and Robert Lawrence Productions in Canada, and featuring

The Muppets The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an surreal humor, absurdist, slapstick, burlesque, and self-referential humor, self-referential style of Musical theatre, musical Variety show, variety-sketch comedy. Cre ...

created by

Jim Henson James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, animator, actor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notability as the creator of the Muppets. Henson was also well known for creating ''Fraggle Rock'' ( ...

, who also directed the special. It was written by Jon Stone and Tom Whedon, and scored by the music composer of ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...

'', Joe Raposo. It featured Kermit in his first appearance as a frog, as well as Goshposh and Rufus (from the ''Tales of the Tinkerdee'' and ''The Land of Tinkerdee'' pilots) and Splurge (the first full-bodied Muppet). The one-hour special was first shown on the

CBC CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...

on March 16, 1969, and on ABC on April 10, 1970. It was later re-aired in syndication, alongside ''

The Muppet Show ''The Muppet Show'' is a variety sketch comedy television series created by Jim Henson and starring the Muppets. It is presented as a variety show, featuring recurring sketches and musical numbers interspersed with ongoing plot-lines with ru ...

''.

Plot

The story follows Cinderella ( Belinda Montgomery): a beautiful girl who is forced to do all the chores by her wicked stepmother and two stepsisters with only her dog Rufus to help her. At the palace, King Goshposh (performed by

) is bored and wishes to throw a party so that he may be given presents. As an excuse, he decides that his son Prince Arthur Charming ( Robin Ward), ought to wed and use the ball as a means to find a suitable princess bride. Arthur does not like this arrangement and while gardening explains to his friend Kermit the Frog (also performed by

) that every girl who knows him is a snob. His only hope to find an unsnobbish girl is to find a girl who does not recognize him as the prince. Shortly after, Cinderella meets Arthur in the gardens as she is fulfilling a task given to her by her stepmother (to muddy her shoes, dirty the kitchen floor, and then scrub the floor). Seeing that Cinderella does not recognize him as the prince, he introduces himself as Arthur the

gardener A gardener is someone who practices gardening, either professionally or as a hobby. Description A gardener is any person involved in gardening, arguably the oldest occupation, from the hobbyist in a residential garden, the home-owner suppleme ...

and secures an invitation for her by convincing his father to invite every person in the land to the ball rather than just the princesses (the king agrees, as it will get him more presents). Because the ball is a masquerade, Arthur and Cinderella decide to each wear a

geranium ''Geranium'' is a genus of 422 species of annual, biennial, and perennial plants that are commonly known as geraniums or cranesbills. They are found throughout the temperate regions of the world and the mountains of the tropics, with the gre ...

as a means of recognizing each other. The night of the ball, the stepfamily leave with a gift of old socks for the king. Cinderella is only allowed to attend if she finishes her chores, and finds a suitable dress, carriage, and

coachman A coachman is a person who drives a Coach (carriage), coach or carriage, or similar horse-drawn vehicle. A coachman has also been called a coachee, coachy, whip, or hackman. The coachman's first concern is to remain in full control of the hors ...

for the ball before the last minute (an impossible task, as she is told this at the last minute). When Cinderella dreams of attending the dance as well, her fairy godmother appears (who had been seen prior, attempting to turn a pumpkin into a coach as a magic trick, but gets pelted every time she fails). In a rare instance of her magic working, the fairy godmother provides Cinderella with a beautiful dress and glass slippers. She convinces Kermit to drive the carriage (though he refuses to turn human for it). It is pulled by his monster friend Splurge after he accidentally scares away all the

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...

s. The fairy godmother warns Cinderella to be home by twelve and attends the ball as well, to make sure the deadline is met. Unfortunately, the King decided to give all guests a geranium to wear so Arthur and Cinderella are unable to recognize each other. When they dance, Cinderella knows Arthur only as "Prince Charming" and he knows her only as a mysterious maiden. At the stroke of midnight, the fairy godmother and Cinderella run from the palace leaving behind only one glass slipper which Arthur accidentally steps on and smashes. Determined to force Arthur to marry the "mysterious maiden", the king first hires all his horses and men (a reference to

Humpty Dumpty Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle, and is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg, though he is not explicitly described as such. The first recorded versions of the rhyme date from ...

) to put the slipper back together and - when that is unsuccessful—look in all the unlikely places for the other one. Cinderella learns of this plan and though she realizes that she is the maiden they are searching for, she wishes to marry Arthur the gardener and not the prince. She convinces Rufus to bury the slipper, only for the prince to arrive and for Cinderella to realize that he and the gardener are the same person. She tries to explain that she's the mysterious princess, yet no one believes her. Finally, the fairy godmother appears, but in an attempt to turn Cinderella's rags back into the ball gown, Cinderella vanishes. In the meantime, Kermit and Splurge return the slipper. After a number of times, Cinderella appears in ball regalia, and she and the prince are finally married (with Kermit commenting that he could have solved the mystery much sooner, had he only been asked). Afterwards, Kermit receives a personal invitation to Arthur and Cinderella's royal wedding. Sitting by a well and reading it, it includes he must bring a present for King Goshposh. After reading it, he remarks "How's that for a Happily ever after?" before jumping backwards into the well.

Development

''Hey, Cinderella!'' was originally conceived as a

Snow White "Snow White" is a German fairy tale, first written down in the early 19th century. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', numbered as Tale 53. The original title was ''Sneewittch ...

series by new CBS children's programming executive

Fred Silverman Fred Silverman (September 13, 1937 – January 30, 2020) was an American television executive and producer. He worked as an executive at all of the Big Three television networks, and was responsible for bringing to television such programs as '' ...

, as a fallback option during contract negotiations with ''

Captain Kangaroo ''Captain Kangaroo'' is an American children's television series that aired weekday mornings on the American television network CBS for 29 years, from 1955 to 1984, making it the longest-running nationally broadcast children's television program ...

s Bob Keeshan. Silverman brought in Jon Stone and Tom Whedon, whom he had worked with on the '' CBS Children's Film Festival'', to write the pilot, and

, who recommended using his Muppets over the realistic-looking animal puppets Stone and Whedon had envisioned in their original draft, as producer/director. When CBS re-signed Keeshan, development on Snow White halted, and Silverman gave Stone and Whedon permission to sell their pilot around. After the writers got ABC's approval, the network insisted they change the story's heroine to Cinderella. The series idea got axed when ABC's

Roone Arledge Roone Pinckney Arledge Jr. (July 8, 1931 – December 5, 2002) was an American sports and news broadcasting executive who was president of ABC Sports from 1968 until 1986 and ABC News from 1977 until 1998, and a key part of the company's rise ...

landed a Saturday

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

college football game-of-the-week broadcast deal, requiring a revamp of their late morning/early afternoon Saturday schedule. The pilot was revised to a one-hour special, and Henson filmed it in Canada (At Robert Lawrence Studios in Toronto, Ontario) in the fall of 1968. This project was the first collaboration of future ''

''-ers Henson, Joe Raposo, and Stone.Michael Davis, ''

Street Gang A gang is a social group, group or secret society, society of associates, friends, or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over Wiktionary:territory#Noun, territory in a ...

'', Chapter 6.

Cast

* Belinda Montgomery as Cinderella * Robin Ward as Prince Arthur Charming * Pat Galloway as Wicked Stepmother * Joyce Gordon as Fairy Godmother

Muppet performers

as Kermit the Frog, King Goshposh * Jerry Nelson as Featherstone, Stepsister #2 *

Frank Oz Frank Richard Oznowicz (born May 25, 1944), known professionally as Frank Oz, is an American puppeteer, filmmaker and actor. He is best known for his involvement with Jim Henson and George Lucas through ''The Muppets'', ''Sesame Street'', and '' ...

as Rufus, Stepsister #1, Splurge

Songs

* "If I Could Go Dancing"

Home media

* Muppet Home Video 1983 VHS, Beta and CED (distributed by Walt Disney Telecommunications and Non-Theatrical Company and RCA SelectaVision) * Buena Vista Home Video 1994 VHS (Jim Henson Video)

References

External links

* * * {{Cinderella (Fairy tale) The Muppets television specials Films about weddings Films based on Charles Perrault's Cinderella Films based on Cinderella American parody films Fairy tale parody films English-language Canadian films Television shows directed by Jim Henson Films scored by Joe Raposo 1969 television films 1969 films 1969 children's films 1969 musical films CBC Television original films Canadian comedy television films 1960s American films 1960s Canadian films Canadian musical television films