They’re profane, they’re Middle Eastern, they’re… “Muppets”

Israeli television can be divided into two halves. One half are local comedies and dramas that rely on broad slapstick humor and telenovela-style storylines. The other half are local news shows. Then, thankfully, there is Red Band.

Red Orbach is an Avenue Q-like puppet, as are his bandmates. Red is a cocaine-, alcohol- and prostitute-obsessed 1960s folk musician on the comeback trail who speaks in perfect idiomatic English. Sometime after the 1967 war, Red left Israel to snort and sleep his way around the world with his guitar. Along the way, Red ran out of cash and decided to move back to Israel to revive his old band – the Red Band.

Like many an aging rock group, the Red Band plays for their cash in crappy dives in crappier provincial cities. But Red, his trusty bandmates Lefty and Poncho and his roadie/drug procurer Philip go on each week. It’s a healthy mix of Spinal Tap, South Park and of Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken. In other words: pure genius, especially for those who are okay with puppets constantly namechecking depraved sex and drug acts.

A different guest musician appears on the show weekly, usually from the ranks of Israel’s A-list. According to the Goy’s Guide to Israel:

There is a guest artiste on the show every week, surprisingly keen to allow themselves to be upstaged by a swearing puppet – Aviv Geffen is told that he’ll never make it as a singer with a voice like his, Efrat Gosh narrowly escape decapitation, he has a threesome with Nechama HaBanot, and Maor Cohen is mistaken for a prostitute called Chantelle who promises to do…never mind, you get the drift.

The show is the creation of a few Israelis of American descent who wanted something local with more of an Yank theme:

Ari Feffer, Micha Duman and Ami Wiesel are the Israeli Americans behind the puppets. They all grew up with a love of 60s music and hippie culture thanks to their American parents, and despite having gone through the army and attended film school at Tel Aviv University, they still feel more comfortable within the milieu of American culture and slang. And Redband shows that they learned exactly what to make fun of from the excesses of the rock & roll lifestyle which Red and his band mates Poncho and Lefty emerged from.

Red Band actually originated as an Avenue Q-like live puppet show called The Puppet Folk Revival, which is still performed around Israel — mostly in English. This reporter has seen it and it is awesome:

“They were dressed like aging rock stars and they played ’60s covers. In between songs, they talked to the crowd – all in English – and made a up a fake biography that they were hippies who had been at Woodstock, and their leader Red told some crazy stories,” added Buchris, a native of Safed who worked in senior positions at Army Radio for 11 years before launching My TV in 2006. A lifelong music fan, “because I come from Safed – there was nothing else to do,” Buchris was blown away by the performance, went to meet the puppeteers after the show and immediately suggested creating a TV series based on their act.

Last year, Red Orbach and his boys lived the ultimate dream of any puppet rock band: They opened for Deep Purple.