Frank Oz

[Drtooth]

I can't seem to remember if Frank Performed in Muppets Tonight and MFS. I do know he had to loop dialogue...could someone help-a me out!

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Reply

O.K., I'm getting a little confused again. I thought that Frank didn't stop performing until just recently. I also want to make a comment on the Swedish Chef, I know that David Rudman performed him at some point I think it was in "Christmas Carol." One thing I'm curious about is that originally Jim did the pupateering and the voice while Frank did the hands (using his own hands). How is this done now, with Jim deceased and Frank retired?

 

[BlueFrackle]

Tooth,

Frank Performed in Muppets Tonight.

In Muppets From Space, Ive heard the only scenes her performed were the scenes with Piggy in the news Studio.

John Kennedy performed Fozzie and Peter Linz performed Piggy.

See ya

 

[Chilly Down]

About the Chef: Yes, Rudman did perform him in Muppet Christmas Carol. For some reason, he changed hands to Bill Barretta starting with Treasure Island and all subsequent appearances. As far as I know, Dave Geolz was never intended to be a new performer for the Chef; Bill just never got a chance to dub the lines. As it is, Dave does a pretty good job anyway.

As for who does the hands these days, I've never heard an official word, but they usually like to "team" performers together (Jim/Frank, Jerry/Richard, Dave/Steve), and Bill is most usually teamed with Brian Henson.

About Frank: It's only recently that someone else has done the voices. Frank has been dubbing for several years, and did occasionally dub on MT. A couple of times he didn't get a chance to dub, such as the Sandra Bullock episode (Kevin Clash performs Animal's "Sorr-ry") and the Andie MacDowell ep (John Kennedy, I think, performs Piggy's one line). The Billy Crystal episode is one of the rare times when he was on set all week -- note not only a lot of appearances by Frank's regular characters, but also his filling in for MINOR characters (there's a lion in a musical number and an intern with a clipboard backstage with clearly "Frank" voices).

Whew! Anything else?

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Reply

A little. I did see Frank's name credited in "Treasure Island," so would that mean he received credit if he didn't voice the character, because they knew his voice would be dubbed in later.

I'm also still not quite sure about the Chef. You say Bill Barretta performs him now. So does that mean he does the voice, pupeteering AND the hands, unlike Jim Henson. Or did Bill just perform the pupeteering and voice and have someone else do the hands.

Lol. Thinking about this is sort of hurting my head. How can so many different performers speak mock Swedish. That's something I can't do very well. I wonder if my University will offer a course on that next semester.

Anyway, I'm sorry if I'm annoying you with all these questions. I guess the reason I'm curious is because I grew up hearing Frank's voice on "Sesame Street" and everything and I'm sort of surprised that he's not around too often anymore.

 

[Chilly Down]

All of Frank's characters in Treasure Island were either performed directly by him or dubbed later, so the credit attributed to him is accurate. The credits don't bother to mention when someone else actually had the puppet on their arm, because dubbing is done so frequently in TV/film puppetry anyway (for example, in a scene with both Kermit and Rowlf, the puppeteers would have to lip synch to Jim's pre-recorded lines since he couldn't perform both characters at the same time).

Bill just performs the Chef's head and voice, just like Jim, and someone else (I'm guessing Brian, but I'm not sure) performs the hands, just like Frank used to. It would be too hard to coordinate otherwise, if Bill was performing the head and ONE hand while another puppeteer provided the other hand!

The dialogue in Swedish is actually written out in the script, so the performers don't have to learn it. They just have to be good at imitating Jim's vocal performance of the character.

In a way, it does seem kind of sad that Frank isn't as involved as he used to be. But two good things about the replacements: 1) Frank's characters are around with greater frequency now. 2) The chemistry is better. Frank never quite got into playing his characters opposite performers other than Jim. From what little I've seen of Ernie/Bert and Kermit/Piggy now, Steve Whitmire and Eric Jacobson have much better chemistry than Steve and Frank. The Christmas movie, I think, will be the ultimate test.

If your college does offer a class in Swedish, let me know!

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Reply

Well, actually I'm a Spanish major myself so I don't really have an interest in learning actual Swedish, just mock Swedish maybe. Lol.

All of Frank's characters in Treasure Island were either performed directly by him or dubbed later, so the credit attributed to him is accurate. The credits don't bother to mention when someone else actually had the puppet on their arm, because dubbing is done so frequently in TV/film puppetry anyway (for example, in a scene with both Kermit and Rowlf, the puppeteers would have to lip synch to Jim's pre-recorded lines since he couldn't perform both characters at the same time).

Thanks for clearing that up too. I was wondering how Kermit and Rowlf's duet of "I Hope Something Better Comes Along" was done.

Anyway, you're pretty good at this. Maybe I should come up with some more questions and try to stump you. Lol.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Hiya,

Here's a point about dubbing and why I always hate doing things taped as opposed to live:

It makes things seem more static and less lively, and there's no room for improvisation. Unless they do all the fun stuff with the performers and let someone else go back and dub in later.

IE, Kermit/Piggy scenes in MTI, if Frank was there, then Steve and Frank could play off each other, but if it's taped, then they have to go pretty well scripted.

I do like live filming much better, tho.

 

[DrGoshposh]

Foz

I think that was the reason that Fozzie's character didn't work in Muppets From Space. Fozzie's puppeteer stuck to the script, when I know Frank would have played around more, and given Fozzie more personality had he had a hand in things.

However, in Muppet Treasure Island, I really would have never guessed that Frank wasn't there for parts. There really isn't any of the staleness in the performances Maybe it all depends on the puppeteer.

Scott

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Hiya,

I think more than sticking to the script, I just think the problem was that we had a character who JHC wasn't ready to totally replace the voice on yet, and he was featured a lot, just not vocally because the chance to ad-lib wasn't there since they had Oz's voice dubbed in.

Besides, I think one of our MCers was the puppeteer on part of that stuff with Fozzie.

FOZ