Johnny Fiama - where is he now?

[Drtooth]

They did eventually, but they did. It's strange, though. All the new characters (sans Pepe and Bobo) have been phased out by the old characters. How weird is that?

I think that johnny could work as his own character without Sal if that was the case. it wouldn't be as funny, though. Maybe the next venue will feature him, I dunno. They really should try to fit him in third movie. or a viral or something.

 

[Muppet Master]

Well It's sad but Brian has said that he has kind of walked away from working with the Muppets. Which means preforming Sal as well, and the only real good person I could see working with Johnny would be Pepe, Rizzo or even maybe Fozzie.

I doubt Johnny and Sal will ever return unless in some background apperances (maybe), but what Disney's trying to do nowadays like what they did in TM'11 is that they're trying to re-introduce the classic muppets from the muppet show. They veer away from using JHH and MT characters, because those shows didn't last long and faced problems, there are only a few exceptions which would be Pepe the King Prawn, Bobo the Bear, and Big Mean Carl all from MT. The reason for keeping Pepe around is, because he's so popular fans would rage if Disney kicked him out though they tried to keep him out of the spotlight in TM '11 giving him only a brief speaking cameo scene. Bobo is also basically just too popular, though he was in a supporting role in TM'11 he served as an antagonist, so he's not taking the spotlight. Big Mean Carl is just a background character, they used him in LGatMHS, and well he's just filler like some other MT characters who appear in the background nowadays. Johnny and Sal were kept out, because they aren't that popular outside the muppet fandom, and think about it, the projects they were in weren't very appreciated unfortunately like MT, MFS, IAVMMCM, and MWoO, so they overlook the comic duo in favor of giving the films and shows negative reviews, and if you were to ask moderate muppet fans about them they would'nt know. The downside of this all is we see little of , , and the rest, but the upside is awesome. Characters who were neglected in the 90's come back to life like , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and so many of our other favorites. In the 90's when Jim and Richard left so did Dr. Teeth and Janice, and without them the writers said, "Why would we keep Floyd, Zoot, and Animal prominent when two of their beloved band members are inactive, so we'll give them lines now and then, but mostly keep them in the background". Rowlf and Scooter just were gone for the sake of Jim and Richard. Fozzie and Piggy were O.O.C throughout the 90's, because of Oz's directing career and were less prominent. The writers also phased out all of Jerry Nelson's characters like , ,, , and others and only giving him one recurring role from 1992-2003 which was , but by the time they realized their mistake of phasing out the characters of a healthy muppet performer it was IAVMMCM, and poor Jerry began to become ill, and IAVMMCM was basically the first time since when Henson was alive that Jerry Nelson got to perform his classic muppet show characters in prominent roles, unfortunately it would be one of Jerry's last muppet performances. The few handful of TMS characters who stayed normal in the 90's were , , , , , , and . So with this the writers had to write in all these new characters to fill in the gaps of the prominent ones. By IAVMMCM the origanal TMS cast was slowly returning to prominence and by LTS Disney decided to turn the table and end the reign of muppets like Johnny, Sal, Clifford, ect. and retire them. And that's the story of why Johnny and Sal have little chance of returning to prominence, unfortunately.

 

[Mo Frackle]

I doubt Johnny and Sal will ever return unless in some background apperances (maybe), but what Disney's trying to do nowadays like what they did in TM'11 is that they're trying to re-introduce the classic muppets from the muppet show. They veer away from using JHH and MT characters, because those shows didn't last long and faced problems, there are only a few exceptions which would be Pepe the King Prawn, Bobo the Bear, and Big Mean Carl all from MT. The reason for keeping Pepe around is, because he's so popular fans would rage if Disney kicked him out though they tried to keep him out of the spotlight in TM '11 giving him only a brief speaking cameo scene. Bobo is also basically just too popular, though he was in a supporting role in TM'11 he served as an antagonist, so he's not taking the spotlight. Big Mean Carl is just a background character, they used him in LGatMHS, and well he's just filler like some other MT characters who appear in the background nowadays. Johnny and Sal were kept out, because they aren't that popular outside the muppet fandom, and think about it, the projects they were in weren't very appreciated unfortunately like MT, MFS, IAVMMCM, and MWoO, so they overlook the comic duo in favor of giving the films and shows negative reviews, and if you were to ask moderate muppet fans about them they would'nt know. The downside of this all is we see little of , , and the rest, but the upside is awesome. Characters who were neglected in the 90's come back to life like , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and so many of our other favorites. In the 90's when Jim and Richard left so did Dr. Teeth and Janice, and without them the writers said, "Why would we keep Floyd, Zoot, and Animal prominent when two of their beloved band members are inactive, so we'll give them lines now and then, but mostly keep them in the background". Rowlf and Scooter just were gone for the sake of Jim and Richard. Fozzie and Piggy were O.O.C throughout the 90's, because of Oz's directing career and were less prominent. The writers also phased out all of Jerry Nelson's characters like , ,, , and others and only giving him one recurring role from 1992-2003 which was , but by the time they realized their mistake of phasing out the characters of a healthy muppet performer it was IAVMMCM, and poor Jerry began to become ill, and IAVMMCM was basically the first time since when Henson was alive that Jerry Nelson got to perform his classic muppet show characters in prominent roles, unfortunately it would be one of Jerry's last muppet performances. The few handful of TMS characters who stayed normal in the 90's were , , , , , , and . So with this the writers had to write in all these new characters to fill in the gaps of the prominent ones. By IAVMMCM the origanal TMS cast was slowly returning to prominence and by LTS Disney decided to turn the table and end the reign of muppets like Johnny, Sal, Clifford, ect. and retire them. And that's the story of why Johnny and Sal have little chance of returning to prominence, unfortunately.

Ahhh! Giant wall of text!

But seriously, the reason why we don't see Johnny, Sal, etc. has nothing to do with lack of popularity with the public, nor was it a decision on Disney's part. It's more of the writers favoring the classic Muppet Show characters (plus Walter and Pepe). And the lack of Brian and Kevin. Granted, their characters could be recast, but that would require (a.) the writers' want to use those characters and (b.) possibly a consent from the characters' original performers.

Also, writing in new characters for MT would likely have been done, even if Rowlf, Scooter, the Mayhem, Frank's characters, etc. were featured prominently. A new showalways means a chance to try out new characters. Yes, MT was heavily carried by new characters to add some spice to the Muppets, but not necessarily to replace the classic characters. The characters that the writers felt worked well were kept (Pepe, Bobo, Johnny & Sal, Van Neuter), and the ones who didn't quite work (Seymour, Poodlepants, Bill the Bubble Guy, etc.) were dropped after the series was cancelled.

Heck, Digit from JHH made it into a Muppet video game some years ago, as well as into a script for a Muppet movie that was never made. Again, the writers wanted to include him.

 

[KrazyJoe]

In the end I'm sorry to say, but those characters from MT or JHH have little chance of getting back into the muppets.

I'd love to see Digit return. I always liked him. I was sad to see that he was omitted from the new Muppet character encyclopedia. My wife gave it to me as a gift for my birthday and the first thing I said was, "Lets look up Digit!", and he wasn't there

 

[KrazyJoe]

.....But more on Topic, I love Johnny and Sal. I wish they'd come back, even if it means recasting Sal.

 

[rexcrk]

I was just recently thinking about how much I missed Johnny and Sal. Along with Pepe and Bobo, they're definitely the best characters to come from Muppets Tonight. Funny how most of those characters are Bill's characters, he's an amazing performer!

It's a shame Brian doesn't perform with the Muppets anymore, but I'm sure Sal wouldn't be too difficult to recast. It would be nice if they at least showed up in the background here and there.

 

[Muppet Master]

I was just recently thinking about how much I missed Johnny and Sal. Along with Pepe and Bobo, they're definitely the best characters to come from Muppets Tonight. Funny how most of those characters are Bill's characters, he's an amazing performer!

It's a shame Brian doesn't perform with the Muppets anymore, but I'm sure Sal wouldn't be too difficult to recast. It would be nice if they at least showed up in the background here and there.

Well at least we have Big Mean Carl. I think Carl is a homage to Jim Henson, because he's like those old eat all muppets.

 

[BobbyBenson64]

didn't Brian Henson preform Scooter once? if so than I think David Rudman could pull of a Sal voice and im sure a soon as we get a voice for Sal, they will sneak the pair of him and Johnny as if it hadn't been like 10 years since we've seen Sal

 

[Muppet Master]

I think they should make a scene in a future muppet film where Johnny asks Sal how cool something is, but Sal won't talk. Then Sal looks below Sal and tells the puppeteer to make him talk, then they get in a fight, but obviously the performer isn't shown.

 

[Muppetboy09]

Brian Henson said in a recent AMA that he would love to perform Sal again someday