Lamb Chop is a sock puppet

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

sheep created by the late puppeteer and ventriloquist Shari Lewis. The character, a female lamb, first appeared during Lewis' guest appearance on '' Captain Kangaroo'' in March 1956 and later appeared on ''Hi Mom'' (1957–1959), a local morning show that aired on WRCA-TV in New York, New York.

Concept and creation

Lamb Chop has been described as a "6-year-old girl, very intuitive and very feisty, a combination of obstinacy and vulnerability...you know how they say fools rush in where wise men fear to go? Well, Lamb Chop would rush in, then scream for help." Lamb Chop, in all her shows, had referred to her close friend, a girl named Lolly Pincus. Shari lewis 1960

From 1960 to 1963, Lewis had her own

musical Musical is the adjective of music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact def ...

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term ori ...

network television

show Show or The Show may refer to: Competition, event, or artistic production * Agricultural show, associated with agriculture and animal husbandry * Animal show, a judged event in the hobby of animal fancy ** Cat show ** Dog show ** Horse show ** Sp ...

called '' The Shari Lewis Show''. As children's programming turned more towards animation in the mid-1960s, she continued to perform in a wide range of venues. In 1992, Lamb Chop and Lewis began their own PBS children's show, ''

Lamb Chop's Play-Along ''Lamb Chop's Play-Along!'' is a half-hour preschool children's television series that was shown on PBS in the United States from January 13, 1992 until September 22, 1995, with reruns airing on PBS until January 4, 1998, and on KTV FAVE - KID ...

'', an Emmy Award winner for five consecutive years. The show lasted approximately 25 minutes per episode. On PBS, it premiered September 10, 1992 and was last shown on January 1, 1997. From 2007 to 2009, it was shown on

Qubo Qubo ( ; stylized as qubo) was an American television network for children between the ages of 5 and 14. Owned by Ion Media, it consisted of a 24-hour free-to-air television network often mentioned as the "Qubo channel" (available as a digital ...

. Lamb Chop then went on to co-star with Lewis on the short-lived spin-off '' The Charlie Horse Music Pizza''. The show was canceled after Lewis' death. The last episode of ''The Charlie Horse Music Pizza'' aired on January 17, 1999. In 1993, when Lewis appeared before the U.S. Congress in an oversight hearing on the

Children's Television Act The broadcast of educational children's programming by terrestrial television stations in the United States is mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), under regulations colloquially referred to as the Children's Television Act ...

, Lamb Chop provided her own testimony. Two years later after Lewis died in 1998, her daughter,

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

and writer Mallory Lewis, began to perform with Lamb Chop. Mallory Lewis had worked closely with her mother when producing ''Lamb Chop's Play-Along'' and ''The Charlie Horse Music Pizza''. About her mother and Lamb Chop she said: Shari Lewis' other puppet, Hush Puppy, made his comeback at the Iowa State Fair in 2010. Mallory Lewis doesn't perform Charlie Horse, as doing his voice is hard on her vocal cords. Prior to her death, Shari Lewis sold the rights of Lamb Chop to Classic Media (now DreamWorks Classics, part of NBCUniversal), though her daughter still owns the live performing rights. Mallory Lewis and Lamb Chop currently perform mainly for the US military. Lamb Chop is an honorary three-star general in the Marines. In the first year's collection of '' 9 Chickweed Lane'' dailies, ''Out Whom Shall We Gross?'', the August 31, 1993 strip quotes Lambchop as saying, "A virtuous man's honesty exists only in proportion to the pyre upon which he atones for it." Mallory Lewis described Lamb Chop's values as a "liberal

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Democrat".

References

External links

{{commons category, Lamb Chop (puppet)
Mallory Lewis and Lamb Chop
Puppets Fictional sheep Fictional Democrats (United States) Fictional American Jews Ventriloquists' dummies Television characters introduced in 1957