Statler and Waldorf share the stage left balcony box in the Muppet Theater, and the two delight in heckling every aspect of The Muppet Show. Statler and Waldorf are especially unforgiving to Fozzie Bear. However, it is revealed in A Muppet Family Christmas that the two critics were friends with Fozzie's mother, Emily Bear. They always have the last word, with a final comment at the end of each episode.

Statler and Waldorf first appeared as a pair in the 1975 pilot The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence.

On the first season of Muppets Tonight, Statler and Waldorf are seen watching the show from the living room of what appears to be a retirement home. In the second season, they watch the show on a portable television from various locations, including a golf course and a ski lift.

In The Muppet Christmas Carol, they play the ghosts of Scrooge's business partners, Jacob and Robert Marley. In Muppet Treasure Island, Statler and Waldorf are the Figurehead of the Hispaniola. In The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, they appear as the Kalidah Critics, strange beasts who shout insults at anyone attempting to cross a treacherous bridge.

Statler & Waldorf were most recently seen starring as themselves in a bi-weekly feature, Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony, on the website Movies.com. The feature has the duo wisecracking about upcoming and just-released movies.


Waldorf is the one with the pug-like face, mustache, and whiter hair. In almost all productions, Statler appears on the audience's right and Waldorf on the left.


* Statler and Waldorf were named after two New York City hotels -- the Statler Hotel (which was renamed the Hotel Pennsylvania in 1992), and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Waldorf's wife, Astoria, completes the set.
* Early in The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years, Statler claims Waldorf has had a pacemaker for over 30 years.