Lamb Chop is a sock puppet

Sock puppet

A sock puppet is a puppet made from a sock or similar garment. When the manipulator fits a hand into the closed end of the sock, the puppet can be seemingly made to "talk". The puppet's mouth is formed by the region between the sock's heel and toe, with the puppeteer's thumb forming a jaw...

 sheep created by comedian

Comedian

A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

 and ventriloquist

Ventriloquism

Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is an act of stagecraft in which a person manipulates his or her voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered "dummy"...

 Shari Lewis

Shari Lewis

Shari Lewis was an American ventriloquist, puppeteer, and children's television show host, most popular during the 1960s and 1990s...

. In 1957, Lamb Chop, a ewe, first appeared with Lewis on Hi Mom, a local morning show that aired on WNBC

WNBC

WNBC, virtual channel 4 , is the flagship station of the NBC television network, located in New York City. WNBC's studios are co-located with NBC corporate headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown Manhattan...

 in New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

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.

During the 1960s, Shari Lewis had her own musical

Musical film

The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...

-comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 network television

Television network

A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...

 show

Television program

A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...

. After children's programming turned to animation, she continued to perform in a wide range of venues. In 1992, Lamb Chop and Shari began their own PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

 children's show, Lamb Chop's Play-Along

Lamb Chop's Play-Along

Lamb Chop's Play-Along is a children's television series that was shown on PBS in the United States from 1992 until 1997, as well as on YTV in Canada. It was created and hosted by puppeteer Shari Lewis, and featured her puppet character Lamb Chop. Appropriately, Lamb Chop was a sheep; other...

, an Emmy Award

Emmy Award

An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

 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. It has been shown on Qubo

Qubo

Qubo is a multi-platform children's television specialty channel endeavor operated as a joint venture between ION Media Networks, NBCUniversal, Nelvana, Scholastic Corporation, and Classic Media...

 since then.

Shari Lewis died in 1998 from pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

 while being treated for uterine cancer

Uterine cancer

The term uterine cancer may refer to any of several different types of cancer which occur in the uterus, namely:*Uterine sarcomas: sarcomas of the myometrium, or muscular layer of the uterus, are most commonly leiomyosarcomas.*Endometrial cancer:...

. Two years later, her daughter, producer

Television producer

The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...

 and writer Mallory Lewis

Mallory Lewis

Mallory Hurwitz Lewis is an American writer, television producer, and puppeteer. Lamb Chop is a "sock puppet" of the mother and daughter. Like Shari's daughter, Lamb Chop remains a "sister" legacy to Mallory.-Early life:Mallory Lewis was born Mallory Tarcher in New York City...

 (formerly Tarcher) decided to perform with Lamb Chop. Mallory had worked closely with her mother when producing the PBS program. Ms. Lewis has this to say about her mother and Lamb Chop:
Shari Lewis' other puppet, Hush Puppy, made its comeback at the Iowa State Fair

Iowa State Fair

The Iowa State Fair is an annual state fair held in Des Moines, Iowa.The 2011 Iowa State Fair was held August 11–21 and marked 100 years of the butter cow sculpture.-History:...

 in 2010.

Other performances

Lamb Chop and Lewis made a cameo appearance

Cameo appearance

A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

 in the second season of the sitcom The Nanny

The Nanny (TV series)

The Nanny is an American television sitcom co-produced by Sternin & Fraser Ink, Inc., and Fran Drescher in association with TriStar Television for the CBS network...

in the episode "Lamb Chop's On the Menu" (February 13, 1995).

Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop appeared on an episode of Sesame Street

Sesame Street

Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...

(May 17, 1996).

Lamb Chop had a cameo in the opening concert scene in the 1998 movie Wrongfully Accused

Wrongfully Accused

Wrongfully Accused is a 1998 comedy film starring Leslie Nielsen as a man who has been framed for murder and desperately attempts to expose the true culprits. The film was written, produced, and directed by Pat Proft and is a parody of the 1993 film The Fugitive.-Plot:World-famous violinist Ryan...

.
Lamb Chop also appeared in a Hannah Montana episode.