Muppetzine thread

[minor muppetz]

I put this in general discussion because I wasn't sure which of the Muppet folders it belongs in. But a couple of weeks ago, Tough Pigs posted scans from every issue of Muppetzine. It's a fun read.

http://www.toughpigs.com/muppetzine/

I didn't know about it until I got the internet in 1996. I didn't ask my parents to order it for me, and I think I assumed I could find it in a regular store. For years I also thought it was an official Henson-produced/approved magazine. I was also surprised to see recently that it ended in 1997, I first remember hearing about it ending in 1998. I was also surprised to see in Danny Horn's recent Tough Pigs article on his experiences with the magazine that he ended it because of Muppet Central. I thought Muppet Central got started in 1998 (or maybe that's just when I first found the site) and the magazine ended in 1997.

Although I never had any issues of the magazine, it was a rather nostalgic read. For years I've felt like 1992-1996 was one of the best period to be a Muppet fan, and this zine seems to reinforce that. It's so great seeing news articles announcing things when they were new (or coming out) that, when I was a kid without the internet, rarely saw advance announcements for (especially the home videos and albums). I like seeing the old news articles on Muppet Treasure Island and Muppets Tonight. For this past year I'd been wondering if the second season was produced for ABC or The Disney Channel, and I found an article that confirms that the second season was indeed produced for ABC.

It is a little fascinating seeing the mistakes that used to be on the internet, like a performers listing that said Thog was performed by John Lovelady and Droop by Eren Ozkar. I wonder how these mistakes were made (after all, Jerry Nelson did perform Thog in both of his season one speaking appearances, not sure if it was Nelson, Lovelady, or somebody else in his only other season one appearance... Though I'm pretty sure Ozkar did perform Droop in the Florence Henderson episode, by process of elimination). Long ago on Muppet Wiki, Danny Horn said that the "titles" of the MuppeTelevision episodes that used to be on the wiki and elsewhere were made up by him for the episode guide in the zine, but when looking at that guide, I don't see the titles at all. I see episode numbers and dates for the whole hour, and the MuppeTelevision shows are listed as, for example, "MuppeTelevision: Louie Anderson" and so on.

 

[minor muppetz]

I remember when Muppet Central had some of the articles reprinted, one that stuck out was "Weird Muppet Moments in History". And I only thought that the first few were really weird (though now I take back the one with Rowlf campaigning for president, it's funny but I don't know if it's weird enough). That article says that the weirdest Muppet moments are not things like explosions or characters being eaten, but when the Muppets do commercials, talk show appearances, and go out into the real world. But for the most part I disagree. I don't know if that article was just trying to be funny, or if the writer really did think those were weird moments. I especially thought it was odd that one of the so-called weird moments listed was a Dinosaurs parody on The Simpsons, that's not an official appearance. And in reading it again after all these years, I don't see what's so weird about one person's quote about James Earl Jones' appearance on Sesame Street.

It was interesting to see an article on the Monster Laughs with Vincent Price VHS release, where an early version of the cover was shown, and it actually didn't picture a guest star. I wonder if Danny Horn has a color version of that image.

For a long time I thought that the last issue mentioned that it was the last, but in looking at it here I can't quite find that. I remember Muppet Central had a couple articles about the end of Muppetzine (including a Veterinarian's Hospital fan fic) which I assumed were in the last issue, but I can't find those in the issue. The issue seems to suggest that there would be more, but then I reread Danny Horn's TP article providing commentary for each issue, where he said that with the last issue he kept up with the pretense that he would be continuing the magazine even though he was ready to end it, I wonder if he planned to end then or if he was unsure if he'd end then or a little later (and it's kinda cool that he ended with the big 20th issue). When I clicked on the scanned images, I looked at the last page first, which listed "One Last Muppet History Lesson", which seems like a fitting way to say goodbye. I then read more of it and saw that there were several "Muppet History Lessons" in that issue, but I wonder if that "one last" one was meant to be a hint that it's the end.

 

[Oscarfan]

I remember when Muppet Central had some of the articles reprinted, one that stuck out was "Weird Muppet Moments in History". And I only thought that the first few were really weird (though now I take back the one with Rowlf campaigning for president, it's funny but I don't know if it's weird enough). That article says that the weirdest Muppet moments are not things like explosions or characters being eaten, but when the Muppets do commercials, talk show appearances, and go out into the real world. But for the most part I disagree. I don't know if that article was just trying to be funny, or if the writer really did think those were weird moments. I especially thought it was odd that one of the so-called weird moments listed was a Dinosaurs parody on The Simpsons, that's not an official appearance. And in reading it again after all these years, I don't see what's so weird about one person's quote about James Earl Jones' appearance on Sesame Street.

According to Danny:

“Weird Moments in Muppet History” is basically a grab bag of random Muppet quotes that I found funny, but the theme makes it feel like a coherent piece.

 

[minor muppetz]

I remember a long time ago on Muppet Wiki, the topic of which version of the Sesame Street 25th anniversary special came first - the home video version or the PBS version - we were talking about the fact that the video had a 1993 date though some pointed out that some videos are known to have been released after the copyright date, Danny said that when he was researching for Muppetzine that he didn't focus much on the Sesame Street videos because there were so many Henson videos released during that time. But in looking at the 'zine, it seems like every Sesame Street video that came out from 1992-1997 was announced (including the anniversary video).