minor muppetz
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2005
- Messages
- 16,044
- Reaction score
- 2,642
For the last few months, a few people at Muppet Wiki got access to many scripts from the show, creating episode pages cited as being from trusted sources. And these sudden scripts have been a nice asset for the wiki.
Along with seeing new episode pages for old episodes, it's often fascinating to know about stuff in the scripts. I have seen some examples of scripts before (in the 40th anniversary book, on Mo William's site, and I've seen scans from an early draft of episode 1257), and yet it is cool to know more about scripts, like how sketch listings tend to have either a production code (which I've seen in most examples of script pages in the 40th anniversary book) or an episode number (which I did notice in the script for episode 1257).
I know many of the scripts say "final aired version", though I also know that at least some of the recently-acquired scripts are not the final aired versions. I recently saw that at least one of the scripts was for a pledge drive edit, I feel it's odd they'd do that for a pledge drive (I would think, if anything, they'd just denote segments to cut for time). I wonder if any of the re-edited summer reruns do this. I've also recently started wondering if episodes that re-use past street scenes actually scripted the reused scenes (I did ask one of the contributors but had trouble comprehending the answer). I've also started wondering if they got scripts for other things, like specials (particularly Sesame Street, Special and some that were also broadcast during the shows usual timeslot) or home videos.
It's also great to learn, in part via certain sandbox pages, early uses of Grover's name and the early evolution of Elmo. For years I've wondered if Herry Monster was named back when he had his furry nose (I haven't seen an answer for this yet). I've seen that many animated inserts list the animator/producer/production company. I'm hoping with this we can learn who animated the "Cracks" cartoon (though I saw one episode page from trusted sources that lists the segment but it looks like the animator wasn't listed there).
I was a little surprised to learn that many inserts are scripted into these pages as opposed to just listing titles. I did see part of the first episode script which includes a script for Ernie and Bert's first appearance. I thought most inserts would have just been scripted onto their own pages as opposed to main episode scripts (maybe they copied them onto those scripts). I've also been told some episode scripts transcribe repeated inserts, which I was surprised by, but I've also been told that some scripts were likely transcribed from watching episodes (I guess the lost the old scripts and it's good they cared enough to make new scripts of old episodes).
As surprised as I am that many Muppet inserts are written within the main episode scripts, I am thankful, because that means the wiki has info on a lot of rare, long-unseen segments. There are a lot of inserts I saw listed in the CTW Archives "first season show content" pages that I was really curious about, and am thankful to see detailed descriptions for them. I've also found info on first season skits that I think I overlooked when looking at those pages (or at least didn't care enough to remember from a brief description). But it does seem like not every insert, even in their first appearance, has detailed info in the script, judging from the fact that the Muppet Wiki page just lists the rare "G for Grover" and "Grover: Hey Frog" bits by title.
It's amazing what all has been accomplished since May (and they still haven't completed all of them). Currently there's a guide for at least the first 30 episodes, the last few episodes of the first season, the first two or so weeks of season two, all of season 20, and nearly every episode past season 22 (season 21 is being worked on at the moment). We've also got a lot more firsts on the wiki (I've been told that the scripts have some kind of indication that it's a first appearance). It's been fascinating to recently learn of more Jim Henson-performed segments that debuted in his last season, and to see that the first detective series segment aired in season 18 while more debuted in season 20.
Earlier this year when info from the CTW Archives guides for seasons 11 and 12 were finally sourced for the wiki, I thought it'd be cool to try to determine what segments appeared in the highest number of episodes, at least in terms of what the wiki has info on, and then we started getting info on so many episodes. Might be great to at least wait until they finish creating pages from all these sources. I also recently learned that clicking on an image can show via "what links here" can show all episodes the image is on, it's so cool to see what the last appearances of certain sketches are (if they aired in the 1990s or later) or if certain segments stopped airing by the 1990s. I've recently determined that the 1990s brought us the least amount of inserts that are so rare that the wiki doesn't have images for.
Along with seeing new episode pages for old episodes, it's often fascinating to know about stuff in the scripts. I have seen some examples of scripts before (in the 40th anniversary book, on Mo William's site, and I've seen scans from an early draft of episode 1257), and yet it is cool to know more about scripts, like how sketch listings tend to have either a production code (which I've seen in most examples of script pages in the 40th anniversary book) or an episode number (which I did notice in the script for episode 1257).
I know many of the scripts say "final aired version", though I also know that at least some of the recently-acquired scripts are not the final aired versions. I recently saw that at least one of the scripts was for a pledge drive edit, I feel it's odd they'd do that for a pledge drive (I would think, if anything, they'd just denote segments to cut for time). I wonder if any of the re-edited summer reruns do this. I've also recently started wondering if episodes that re-use past street scenes actually scripted the reused scenes (I did ask one of the contributors but had trouble comprehending the answer). I've also started wondering if they got scripts for other things, like specials (particularly Sesame Street, Special and some that were also broadcast during the shows usual timeslot) or home videos.
It's also great to learn, in part via certain sandbox pages, early uses of Grover's name and the early evolution of Elmo. For years I've wondered if Herry Monster was named back when he had his furry nose (I haven't seen an answer for this yet). I've seen that many animated inserts list the animator/producer/production company. I'm hoping with this we can learn who animated the "Cracks" cartoon (though I saw one episode page from trusted sources that lists the segment but it looks like the animator wasn't listed there).
I was a little surprised to learn that many inserts are scripted into these pages as opposed to just listing titles. I did see part of the first episode script which includes a script for Ernie and Bert's first appearance. I thought most inserts would have just been scripted onto their own pages as opposed to main episode scripts (maybe they copied them onto those scripts). I've also been told some episode scripts transcribe repeated inserts, which I was surprised by, but I've also been told that some scripts were likely transcribed from watching episodes (I guess the lost the old scripts and it's good they cared enough to make new scripts of old episodes).
As surprised as I am that many Muppet inserts are written within the main episode scripts, I am thankful, because that means the wiki has info on a lot of rare, long-unseen segments. There are a lot of inserts I saw listed in the CTW Archives "first season show content" pages that I was really curious about, and am thankful to see detailed descriptions for them. I've also found info on first season skits that I think I overlooked when looking at those pages (or at least didn't care enough to remember from a brief description). But it does seem like not every insert, even in their first appearance, has detailed info in the script, judging from the fact that the Muppet Wiki page just lists the rare "G for Grover" and "Grover: Hey Frog" bits by title.
It's amazing what all has been accomplished since May (and they still haven't completed all of them). Currently there's a guide for at least the first 30 episodes, the last few episodes of the first season, the first two or so weeks of season two, all of season 20, and nearly every episode past season 22 (season 21 is being worked on at the moment). We've also got a lot more firsts on the wiki (I've been told that the scripts have some kind of indication that it's a first appearance). It's been fascinating to recently learn of more Jim Henson-performed segments that debuted in his last season, and to see that the first detective series segment aired in season 18 while more debuted in season 20.
Earlier this year when info from the CTW Archives guides for seasons 11 and 12 were finally sourced for the wiki, I thought it'd be cool to try to determine what segments appeared in the highest number of episodes, at least in terms of what the wiki has info on, and then we started getting info on so many episodes. Might be great to at least wait until they finish creating pages from all these sources. I also recently learned that clicking on an image can show via "what links here" can show all episodes the image is on, it's so cool to see what the last appearances of certain sketches are (if they aired in the 1990s or later) or if certain segments stopped airing by the 1990s. I've recently determined that the 1990s brought us the least amount of inserts that are so rare that the wiki doesn't have images for.