The Muppets' Old Car's Weird Real-Life Journey

Cars featured in famous movies are obviously pretty major collectibles, be it Doc Brown’s Delorean time machine, the Ghostbusters’ Ecto-1, or the vintage Ferrari Ferris Bueller stole and promptly destroyed (which turned out to be a giant piece of crap in real life). One cinematic motor vehicle we don’t talk about all that much is Fozzie Bear’s Studebaker from The Muppet Movie, which he uses to pick up Kermit the Frog – thus teaching a generation of kids that getting in cars with strangers can sometimes lead to song-filled awesomeness.

Most memorably, at one point, the car gets a psychedelic paint job from the Muppets’ resident rockers Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem – which, if you’ve seen any photos of the Muppet performers in the 1970s, requires no further explanation.

After lying around in the Warner Bros. lot for a number of years, the car ended up at the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana. Unfortunately, the car looks like crap; the acid-flashback paint job has almost completely faded, the car itself doesn’t run, and is seemingly falling apart. It’s still pretty amazing to check out, especially the trunk, which contains a functioning steering wheel since, at the risk of crushing any of your lingering childhood wonder, Muppets can’t actually drive.

Now the museum has launched a crowdfunding campaign in an effort to restore the car to its former glory. They’re looking to raise $175,000 to fix up and repaint the car, presumably by a team of experts, not just a bunch of strung-out hippie musicians in a parking lot.

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Top Image: ITC Entertainment