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| Swedish chef Lars Kuprik Bäckman. Photo: Courtesy Lars "Kuprik" Bäckman |
"I was live on TV in America, and I was paralyzed. I couldn't speak! I couldn't remember any English or any Swedish. But I knew the show had to go on, so I started talking, but the only thing that came out were these guttural sounds," Bäckman tells ABC News. "It was unintelligible, and I was still holding that silly pastry bag, shaking with fear. The only thing I wanted right then was to go home to my mother in Sweden."
But not everyone buys the story.
Jerry Juhl, a head writer for "The Muppet Show," says he would have remembered if Backman had been the inspiration.
"I wrote, rehearsed, rewrote, brainstormed, and giggled uncontrollably a thousand times with Jim Henson as we dealt with the Swedish Chef, and I never ONCE heard him mention an actual Swedish chef, especially one that claims to be Charlton Heston's golf buddy! I mean, that's a story Jim would have told!" Juhl said in a 2001 story on Muppet Central News.
Tell us what you think.
[Via ABC News]
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