Little Muppet Monsters Revelation...

[Drtooth]

This is interesting.

According to the Toughpigs interview with Kathy Mullen it seems the whole bit about Jim Henson not liking the mix of puppetry and outsourced animation wasn't entirely the reason that they pulled LMM prematurely.

KM: You know what happened? We were working with Marvel, who had done Muppet Babies. They were delivering a lot of the show’s animation. It had puppet wrap-arounds with a lot of animated bits and found footage. Three of them went on the air, and then Marvel didn’t deliver the animation on time. They blew it. The network said, “****, what are we going to do?” So they put another Muppet Babies on, two episodes back-to-back, the viewership shot up, and they said, “Forget Little Muppet Monsters,” and they just started playing Muppet Babies back to back.

TP: Have you ever seen the missing episodes of Little Muppet Monsters?

KM: We never finished them. The puppet wrap-arounds were done, but they never put the animation in. There were only three episodes ever. We shot thirteen puppet segments, but most of the money went into the animation. That was also the summer of Labyrinth.

So something was wrong with Marvel's (and presumably Toei's) end. And that stalled production enough to just get rid of it. It would be amazing if these animations were found. They seem lost forever.

 

[minor muppetz]

I wonder if maybe Marvel was unable to send in the animation on time, causing CBS to put on another half-hour of Muppet Babies until they were ready, and then Jim decided the show wasn't that good and figured they shouldn't bother trying to complete the show.

An article at Jim Henson's Red Book website mentioned that 13 episodes were done and segments for an additional few were made. Various sources say that there were 13 episodes and others say it was 18. Earlier this year when scans from legal documents regarding the 2004 sale were posted online, I thought it was strange that it mentioned Little Muppet Monsters having 3 episodes instead of 13-18. I guess if none of the unaired episodes were never completed then it makes sense. And I wonder if it really was 13 unaired segments as opposed to unaired episodes.

 

[Oscarfan]

I wonder if maybe Marvel was unable to send in the animation on time, causing CBS to put on another half-hour of Muppet Babies until they were ready, and then Jim decided the show wasn't that good and figured they shouldn't bother trying to complete the show.

Did you read the quote? Jim had nothing to do with the decision. It was all on CBS.

 

[minor muppetz]

Did you read the quote? Jim had nothing to do with the decision. It was all on CBS.

Yes, I read the quote. There's two different quotes from people involved with the show about its cancellation, the one about it being Jim's idea was sourced from writer Jeffrey Scott. I assume that the two were truthful to the best of their memory/ knowledge, and was just trying to figure out a way it could have been a little of both.

It's possible that Jeffrey Scott didn't know about the deadlines (would it be weird if one of the performers did and the writer didn't?), and it's possible that Jim did suggest ending it and Kathy didn't know it (she might have known about the delays but not every detail involved).

On a similar note, she mentioned writing the show but using a different name. The fact that she was a writer was noted on Muppet Wiki, but if she was credited with a different name then I wonder what the source was that she was a writer (there must have been a source somewhere, given how little she's written it'd be weird if somebody just made up the info and ended up being correct). In fact this got me to watch the ending credits for Muppets, Babies and Monsters, and I actually didn't see any writers credits (I also checked the title card and didn't see a writers credit... I know that the Muppet Babies episode title cards have either writer or director credits). In fact I also didn't see a list of voice actors and performers. The copy on YouTube does have some glithciness affecting the screen at times but I don't think it's long enough to block an entire screen of credits.

 

[Drtooth]

Yes, I read the quote. There's two different quotes from people involved with the show about its cancellation, the one about it being Jim's idea was sourced from writer Jeffrey Scott. I assume that the two were truthful to the best of their memory/ knowledge, and was just trying to figure out a way it could have been a little of both.

It's possible that Jeffrey Scott didn't know about the deadlines (would it be weird if one of the performers did and the writer didn't?), and it's possible that Jim did suggest ending it and Kathy didn't know it (she might have known about the delays but not every detail involved).

I'm sure that's the case. I have a feeling that Jim also had problems with that concept, but he was probably willing to ride it out until the end of the season. But Jeff either got second hand information or something...

It really sucks that there was problems with the animation. Clearly it was meant to go on hiatus, but the network just gave up. Now we have all these lost puppetry and animation segments. If only someone got a hand on both and could cobble them together.

 

[Slackbot]

Some of the LMM animated segments appeared in a late-season Muppet Babies episode. However, IIRC they were ones that had been broadcast with LMM, so if you've seen those three eps on youtube then they're nothing new.

 

[minor muppetz]

It really sucks that there was problems with the animation. Clearly it was meant to go on hiatus, but the network just gave up. Now we have all these lost puppetry and animation segments. If only someone got a hand on both and could cobble them together.

Yeah, if only Disney would put the show out on DVD and include as many completed unaired segments as possible...

Some of the LMM animated segments appeared in a late-season Muppet Babies episode. However, IIRC they were ones that had been broadcast with LMM, so if you've seen those three eps on youtube then they're nothing new.

I always thought it was weird they chose clips from broadcast episodes as opposed to unaired ones (maybe finally get some use out of them), but now that we know those remaining episodes weren't completed, I guess that's why (I wonder if any unaired animated segments were completed).

I wonder if Marvel had the same problems delivering animation for other shows. It seems they didn't have that problem with Muppet Babies.

 

[minor muppetz]

I was just looking at the Little Muppet Monsters page on Muppet Wiki, and I was wrong about who the quote about Jim Henson deciding to end the show was by. It was Scott Shaw!, not Jeffrey Scott.

 

[minor muppetz]

Suddenly, I wonder if any additional animated segments might have been completed but never edited into the live-action episodes. Like if they completed some animation but CBS wasn't going to bring it back until they had enough completed shows, and then canceled it.

When thinking about the possibility of a DVD set, I wonder if they could include the incomplete episodes but for the animated bits show the storyboards and audio tracks (hopefully all that still exists).

 

[minor muppetz]

Today's Red Book article is about Little Muppet Monsters, and it also mentions Marvel's problems getting the animation on time and Muppet Babies having great ratings without Little Muppet Monsters. It also mentions Jim's reason for doing the show.

http://www.henson.com/jimsredbook/2013/09/14/9141985-2/