What Muppet Fans Are Thinking About

[minor muppetz]

Though he does make prominent appearances on some of the videos, it really is kind of a shame they hadn't done a Best Of The Count type video yet. I'm sure there could've been plenty to work with...

Today I found out that the next Sesame Street DVD will be Count on Elmo and, according to Muppet Wiki, the main feature is the episode where The Count gets his noble prize. It makes me wonder if it'll have additional Count segments interspersed (much like Elmo's Music Magic and Elmo's Super Numbers had inserts interspersed with a street story). Of course if it is a Count spotlight video then it is sad that Elmo's name is in the title (and the bonus features are more Elmo-features than Count-features). We'll know for sure by July 7.

 

[minor muppetz]

I've been thinking about Tough Pigs' Muppet Vaults. I haven't been to any, as I live a few states away and can't really justify the trip just to see a Muppet screening (even if it is a good cause), so it would be kind of pointless for me to make wishlists of what kinds of vaults there should be and what clips should be included. Of course that hasn't stopped me from thinking up a few wishlists on occasion.

But last week I suddenly thought of something that might make for a good vault (though I'm not sure how marketable it would be, but I also don't know how important marketability is for these): The Best of the Worst of the Muppets! It could have the best clips from the worst Muppet productions (or at least the ones that fans consider the worst, if they do this maybe they should look at the "Best of the Muppets at Their Worst" article series on The Muppet Mindset).

The worst things do have their best, though it might be hard to pick something from the Lady Gaga special (maybe the opening number and auditions sequence). The "Brick House" sequence from Muppets from Space would be a must. I'd say "Life as a Pet" is one of the high points from Kermit's Swamp Years, and "The Witch is in the House" and "When I'm with You" high points from The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. Hmm, I wonder if a screening of the best moments from the worst productions would include any of Jim Henson's lesser works (while some are not perfect or very great, I don't think anything Jim Henson did is bad enough to be considered the "worst"). Could they pick out the best of Peek-A-Boo (I'd pick the opening song as the best)?

 

[dwayne1115]

I've been thinking about Tough Pigs' Muppet Vaults. I haven't been to any, as I live a few states away and can't really justify the trip just to see a Muppet screening (even if it is a good cause), so it would be kind of pointless for me to make wishlists of what kinds of vaults there should be and what clips should be included. Of course that hasn't stopped me from thinking up a few wishlists on occasion.

But last week I suddenly thought of something that might make for a good vault (though I'm not sure how marketable it would be, but I also don't know how important marketability is for these): The Best of the Worst of the Muppets! It could have the best clips from the worst Muppet productions (or at least the ones that fans consider the worst, if they do this maybe they should look at the "Best of the Muppets at Their Worst" article series on The Muppet Mindset).

The worst things do have their best, though it might be hard to pick something from the Lady Gaga special (maybe the opening number and auditions sequence). The "Brick House" sequence from Muppets from Space would be a must. I'd say "Life as a Pet" is one of the high points from Kermit's Swamp Years, and "The Witch is in the House" and "When I'm with You" high points from The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. Hmm, I wonder if a screening of the best moments from the worst productions would include any of Jim Henson's lesser works (while some are not perfect or very great, I don't think anything Jim Henson did is bad enough to be considered the "worst"). Could they pick out the best of Peek-A-Boo (I'd pick the opening song as the best)?

They could always have a poll on there forums about which the fans think is the best and worse. Have you tried to bring the idea up to them?

 

[minor muppetz]

I've noticed over the years that Frank Oz has never provided audio commentary on any Muppet DVDs (not even The Dark Crystal or MTM). For awhile I wondered if that was because of his busy directing career, though he has provided commentary for some of his past films (Little Shop of Horrors, and I think he did commentary for Bowfinger), or maybe because he had distanced himself from the Muppets. Of course there's also the fact that there have been very few Muppet/Henson productions that actually have commentary by the performers as themselves (I think the Dinosaurs commentary tracks are the only ones, not counting Brian Henson doing commentary on MCC or MTI because he only directed those). But something else hit me: In interviews, Frank Oz tends to cuss a lot. Could it be possible that he hadn't done commentary on any Muppet DVDs because he didn't want to accidentally cuss during the commentary?

 

[JimAndFrank]

I've noticed over the years that Frank Oz has never provided audio commentary on any Muppet DVDs (not even The Dark Crystal or MTM). For awhile I wondered if that was because of his busy directing career, though he has provided commentary for some of his past films (Little Shop of Horrors, and I think he did commentary for Bowfinger), or maybe because he had distanced himself from the Muppets. Of course there's also the fact that there have been very few Muppet/Henson productions that actually have commentary by the performers as themselves (I think the Dinosaurs commentary tracks are the only ones, not counting Brian Henson doing commentary on MCC or MTI because he only directed those). But something else hit me: In interviews, Frank Oz tends to cuss a lot. Could it be possible that he hadn't done commentary on any Muppet DVDs because he didn't want to accidentally cuss during the commentary?

I doubt Frank would have any problems with cussing; there's a forty minute interview I've watched where he kept his language quite clean. I think it's more the fact that he feels like his time with the Muppets ended once he retired and doesn't see the point in looking back just for a commentary. It's not that he doesn't care, he'd just prefer to move on with his life.

 

[Ladywarrior]

wilL kemit and piggy, camillia and gonzo, and floyd and janice ever get married?

 

[Whatnot1988]

Minor Muppetz' comment about Frank swearing in the commentaries to his own films reminds me of something found in season 3 in TMS. In the sketch where Fozzie is seen sawing a robot in half, the robot begins to whine ("Mama, mama!"), after which Fozzie tells him to shut up. What Fozzie said (to my ears at least), sounded something like "Oh, shut the--" (as if he was about to say "Oh, shut the **** up!"). It really bugs me that Frank almost made Fozzie drop an f-bomb (or h-bomb) on international family TV--a huge taboo now, but an even bigger taboo in 1978!

 

[Muppet Master]

Minor Muppetz' comment about Frank swearing in the commentaries to his own films reminds me of something found in season 3 in TMS. In the sketch where Fozzie is seen sawing a robot in half, the robot begins to whine ("Mama, mama!"), after which Fozzie tells him to shut up. What Fozzie said (to my ears at least), sounded something like "Oh, shut the--" (as if he was about to say "Oh, shut the **** up!"). It really bugs me that Frank almost made Fozzie drop an f-bomb (or h-bomb) on international family TV--a huge taboo now, but an even bigger taboo in 1978!

Well, it was primetime, not anywhere near as bad if he did it in Sesame Street, so that is about what I think.

 

[minor muppetz]

Been thinking about how the majority of Sesame Street anniversary/greatest hits albums tend to have at least a few tracks that feel a bit random (the same can be said for most character spotlight albums and videos). Which gets me trying to determine which one has the best representation of the songs that are considered the best of the show, the ones everyone knows about. And of course some have the unfair advantage of having multiple records and discs, but would a single-disc release celebrating the best-known songs have the least amount of "random" songs than a multi-album set?

Of course there are a lot of well-known Sesame Street songs to include in a release of the most essential songs, and it can be a struggle balancing between the songs everyone expects and more obscure songs fans might want, or pleasing the casual fans (who may not have every album) who want the songs they expect as well as the hardcore fans who have multiple copies of many of the best-known songs and want stuff not on previous albums.

But even with songs that seem like random choices, there are a lot of well-known songs that have not had any official audio releases. Surely they could have found room for such songs as Imagine That, Bert's Blanket, and Wheels on my Feet on Sesame Street's Best or Songs from the Street.

 

[AnimatedC9000]

Today is the 26th anniversary of The Jim Henson Hour. Oh wow.

I'm bot excited and apprehensive about this, mainly because, well, I co-run a fan blog for the show on Tumblr. And while I am excited that I've gotten pretty decent response so far, right now, I'm second-guessing my organization skills for this whole thing.