Peter Sellers

mupcollector1

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I just got this question back in my mind again. I wanted to ask this for a long time here. In the movie "Life and Death of Peter Sellers" if anyone seen this or read or heard of his biographies, it seems like Peter Sellers by the 60s and 70s wasn't happy doing comedy anymore but he forced himself or his agent to do it anyway. There was a point in the movie where he took boxes of copies of his TV appearances and memorabilia in the backyard and lit it on fire. Though I'm just curious if there was any sort of behind the scenes stories of Peter Sellers on the set of The Muppet Show. It seemed like Peter was quite a jerk on the set of his movies according to the drama-documentry so I wonder did Peter like most guests on The Muppet Show have a really good time or did Peter dread it?
 

snichols1973

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According to Wikipedia, "In his personal life, Sellers struggled with depression and insecurities. An enigmatic figure, he claimed to have no identity outside the roles that he played. His behavior was often erratic and compulsive, and he frequently clashed with his directors and co-stars, especially in the mid-1970s when his physical and mental health, together with his alcohol and drug problems, were at their worst...."

"When he appeared on The Muppet Show in 1978, a guest appearance which earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in Variety or Music, he chose not to appear as himself, instead appearing in a variety of costumes or accents. When Kermit the Frog told Sellers he could relax and be himself, Sellers replied: 'But that, you see, my dear Kermit, would be altogether impossible. I could never be myself... You see, there is no me. I do not exist... There used to be a me, but I had it surgically removed.'

--Peter Sellers, The Muppet Show, February 1978"

"The stage play Being Sellers premiered in Australia in 1998, three years after release of the biography by Roger Lewis, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. The play premiered in New York in December 2010. In 2004, the book was turned into an HBO film with the same title (The Life and Death of Peter Sellers), starring Geoffrey Rush. The Belfast Telegraph notes how the film captured Sellers's 'life of drugs, drink, fast cars, and lots and lots of beautiful women.' Although the film was widely praised by critics, both Lord Snowdon and Britt Ekland were highly critical of the film and the enactment of Sellers; Ekland believed that the film left audiences with the wrong impression, saying 'the film leaves you with the impression that Peter Sellers was essentially a likeable man when in reality he was a monster. He may have been a brilliant actor, but as a human being, he had no saving graces at all...' "

In other words, because of Peter Sellers's enigmatic life, some say that the film doesn't exactly portray the real Peter Sellers, since the only person who really knew him best was Sellers himself, and it is seemingly impossible to fathom or comprehend his private life...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sellers

I am honestly unable to give any qualified professional opinion of whether or not Peter Sellers might have also had schizophrenia....
 

Ignatz

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Looking in the index of my copy of The Life and Death of Peter Sellers there isn't a section covering the recording of the Muppet Show episode.
 

mupcollector1

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Right, well what I was mainly asking was well technically any guest that was on The Muppet Show had a really good time behind the scenes and just wondering after seeing the Peter Sellers drama-documentry if he didn't enjoy himself according to what he was going through in his life. Anything about it in Muppets & Men (the book)?
 

snichols1973

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Based on the aforementioned excerpts, I'm guessing that if anyone got any such impressions that he might not have been enjoying himself, that his drug and alcohol addictions, along with his physical and mental health, might have contributed to it; I guess if anyone could know if he was enjoying himself or not, they probably would have been one of the crew on the set of TMS, where they would be able to witness the interaction between Mr. Sellers and the Muppets......

I guess it was difficult to determine if Mr. Sellers enjoyed "himself" on TMS, since he seemed to be rather melancholy when he says "I could never be myself"....



Taking his health and addictions into account, his moods would probably vary from time to time, especially when we see one of the great comic actors undergoing a variety of mixed emotions....
 

mupcollector1

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lol Looks like Crazy Harry snuck into Muppet Labs. lol Yeah, it's hard to tell because he's very straight faced when he's funny and that usually is the best way to be a comic, doing something over the top silly with a straight face. lol Definatly one of my all time favorite Muppet Show episodes. I love the sketch with him and Link, it's like he revived a character of his from Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb (wonderful dark satirical film, it's in my DVD library lol). So this could have been around the time when he still had a love for comedy because he was really funny in this and didn't seem to lack anything. It's like the guest star becomes one of The Muppets (suddenly the song "consider yourself one of us" pops in my head lol). There's so much that I love in this episode. I really loved the "Ciggerettes and Whisky" number at the end. And I think I loved it more because well the first Muppet Show video I had growing up was Rowlf's Raphadies and it was a video bought from a video retail store so the cover is cut up and put into a plastic case. I really want to get another copy of it as well as the other 80s videos. But anyway, the song is just hilarious with the tuba player jumping up and down, one of the trumpet player's trumpet detaches from his or her mouth and the mouth is glued so the character comes up and down and at the end sings only on their side of their mouth. lol George the Janitor sings with a smoking Dr. Julis Strangepork (one of his rare non-Pigs in Space apperances).

I think my favorite Muppet Show episodes is when the guest star is more out of control then The Muppets themselves. Especially the other member of The Goons, Spike Milligan. Which is probably my #1 favorite episode. Even the John Cleese one was really funny. And I think not only did he join the writing on the episode but introduced The Muppet team to Chris Langum. My favorites are the craziest episodes that go beyond a typical Muppet Show from the Loretta Lyn episode to Carol Burtnett. lol Classics :smile: ?I really want Disney to finish up the DVD sets as well as release then to iTunes, love to have some Muppet Show episodes on my iPod when I'm out and about or on the go somewhere :smile:
 
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