Your Thoughts: Muppets Live at the Hollywood Bowl September 8-10, 2017

[muppetlover123]

Here is the full melody even though you can't see too much you can hear the beginning of moving right along

 

[BobbyBenson64]

Hold up there was a new Wayne and Wanda skit?! This show seems to be the rebirth of that classic Muppet feeling and I couldn't be happier with it.

 

[Oscarfan]

TWO new Wayne and Wanda bits.

 

[Oscarfan]

No one got video of the Wayne & Wanda segments? Darn. They get chased by monster clowns - or something - and eaten by a shark, and I missed it.

Anyone know if the shark was a new or old character? 'Cause the shark from TMS (and I think MT) is definitely too small to eat another Muppet, much less two.

It was a regular shark puppet, that just bit them and dragged them out of frame.

 

[LipsGF4Life]

Watching the Suffrage City clip, I see that that's a different song than what I thought it was.

One of the reviews I saw mentioned that each member of The Electric Mayhem got a line. Did Zoot or Lips get any lines? I know they sang together at one point, but I couldn't really tell if either got their own solo line.

I'm assuming Wayne and Wanda both sang in their numbers (I haven't seen those performances online), I'm surprised that the program doesn't list who performs either (David Rudman most likely performed Wayne, was Wanda again performed by the performer who did her in the 2011 film?).

So rights issues prevented them from being able to release this on DVD or television or anything, but I wonder if the pre-recorded video footage could be released.

tbh the only time I could tell Zoot and Lips even opened their mouths was during the suffrage city song when they sang backup

 

[minor muppetz]

It was great to see Doglion included. I wonder if he was rebuilt or if it was the costume last seen in the late-1990s (if that wasn't the original). If it was the original or had existed for a long time, it's a shame he wasn't in either of the last two films (he could have replaced Timmy in the arches).

It's also a shame that Thog didn't at least appear in the opening (though an image of Thog did appear in the Muppet Labs segment). Makes me wonder if the newer Thog suit deteriorated/wore out/whatever in the seven years since he was rebuilt (though I heard some gossip at Tough Pigs that nobody wants to be inside the character, not sure where they heard it, but if true, it's kinda stupid, I know many performers have done things they didn't really want to do, and they can't find one person willing to take some discomfort for a little bit?).

In thinking about this in comparison to The Muppet Show Live, I feel like this seems a little better. The Muppet Show Live was pretty much done for the Muppet Show's 25th anniversary, which isn't a bad thing, but this show was done for the sake of giving the Muppets live exposure as opposed to celebrating any anniversary. Both shows had a lot of video footage, but most of the video footage in TMS Live was taken from past productions while, as far as I know, all video footage here was shot especially for it (I wondered if the Mahna Mahna stuff was the same from TMS Live, but I think - don't know off-hand, it's been a while since I last watched the footage on YouTube - that it's newly shot; I heard Matt Vogel makes an on-screen appearance and I don't think he was in TMS Live, and I saw a promotional image of Mahna Mahna on the town which must have been shot while the footage was). And TMS Live had quite a bit of lip-synching to existing Muppet recordings (mainly in a few cases of characters who weren't yet fully recast), while it seems all the pre-recorded singing was newly-recorded. Of course both shows heavily included songs that the Muppets have already been associated with (but I think this has a lot more original stuff for the Muppets).

Also, this one has the advantage of being made long after most of the classic core characters had been recast (though some recasts had to premier here), so we get plenty of Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Animal, and Sam in new footage, Scooter has a big part, and there's dialogue from Dr. Teeth, Janice, and Link Hogthrob (and even, I assume, Wayne and Wanda). In addition to characters who weren't present at The Muppet Show Live, including Uncle Deadly, Lips, Doglion, The Mutations, Dr. Strangepork, Crazy Harry (I think), and others (not to mention the aforementioned characters who were pretty much in early recasting stages). Of course TMS Live also had a few characters who don't appear here. It had Elmo, in one of the last Muppet/Sesame Street crossovers (which came shortly after Henson sold the characters to Sesame Workshop), as well as some characters who were still used back then but aren't used anymore (Clifford, Sal... did Johnny Fiama appear in The Muppet Show Live? I know he was at Muppet Fest but I can't remember if he appeared at all in the live show).

This time, the guest star was the guest host, which seems weird at first (and enforces fan misconception that TMS had guest hosts), but it does make sense here. With a celebrity guest hosting instead of Kermit, they don't have to worry about Kermit introducing something featuring another character from his performer (well, I guess they could have pre-recorded the audio...).

I wonder how long ago this was planned. Can't remember if it was announced before or after Steve Whitmire's departure. It'd be interesting to see if early drafts of the script (or outlines/planning material) included Rizzo in any kind of notable part, or if there were segments written with Kermit interacting with characters like Uncle Deadly, Floyd, Lew Zealand, Sweetums, or other characters currently performed by Matt Vogel.

Seeing Kermit in the Happy Feet number, his legs look kind of weird here. Almost as if he's been given longer legs (I think somebody at Tough Pigs commented that the puppet looks a little bigger here). Other instances of Kermit's whole body being shown don't look so weird, but then again, in most such instances, he's sitting down.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

I don't know if this was true or not, but I heard that there may have been AutoTune involved?

 

[Oscarfan]

It's also a shame that Thog didn't at least appear in the opening (though an image of Thog did appear in the Muppet Labs segment). Makes me wonder if the newer Thog suit deteriorated/wore out/whatever in the seven years since he was rebuilt (though I heard some gossip at Tough Pigs that nobody wants to be inside the character, not sure where they heard it, but if true, it's kinda stupid, I know many performers have done things they didn't really want to do, and they can't find one person willing to take some discomfort for a little bit?).

In thinking about this in comparison to The Muppet Show Live, I feel like this seems a little better. The Muppet Show Live was pretty much done for the Muppet Show's 25th anniversary, which isn't a bad thing, but this show was done for the sake of giving the Muppets live exposure as opposed to celebrating any anniversary. Both shows had a lot of video footage, but most of the video footage in TMS Live was taken from past productions while, as far as I know, all video footage here was shot especially for it (I wondered if the Mahna Mahna stuff was the same from TMS Live, but I think - don't know off-hand, it's been a while since I last watched the footage on YouTube - that it's newly shot; I heard Matt Vogel makes an on-screen appearance and I don't think he was in TMS Live, and I saw a promotional image of Mahna Mahna on the town which must have been shot while the footage was). And TMS Live had quite a bit of lip-synching to existing Muppet recordings (mainly in a few cases of characters who weren't yet fully recast), while it seems all the pre-recorded singing was newly-recorded. Of course both shows heavily included songs that the Muppets have already been associated with (but I think this has a lot more original stuff for the Muppets).

I wonder how long ago this was planned. Can't remember if it was announced before or after Steve Whitmire's departure. It'd be interesting to see if early drafts of the script (or outlines/planning material) included Rizzo in any kind of notable part, or if there were segments written with Kermit interacting with characters like Uncle Deadly, Floyd, Lew Zealand, Sweetums, or other characters currently performed by Matt Vogel.

Let me answer some of these:

-The new Thog puppet is stupidly huge, a couple of feet larger than the original. Looking at the set, there's no way he would've fit through the arches like the other monsters (just like his size in the M11 caused him to half to walk in front of them). I don't remember where I heard people don't like performing Thog; it might have been a podcast.

-All the footage for "Mahna Mahna" in this show was new. And the 2001 show only had two instances of lip-syncing ("Mahna Mahna" and "Can You Picture That?"). That was only a one-night thing, not a whole weekend, so it's a little easier on everyone's throats to do it live. If you watch the video, the results aren't always great - people's mics are cut in and out a bunch and miss their singing cues. Lip-syncing fixes all those issues. Plus, there's so many other elements in the Bowl show - the screens, projections and such that all depend on precise timing that lip-syncing really is the only viable solution (there's no way Eric would be able to have sung "Hello" as well if he did it live, running around the stage like that).

-This was announced in February; Steve was let go in October. Whether or not this was in the works at that point is unknown to us.

 

[Gorgon Heap]

It was a regular shark puppet, that just bit them and dragged them out of frame.

Thanks. Given that no footage has popped up online, I'm assuming this was one of the pre-taped bits?

It was great to see Doglion included. I wonder if he was rebuilt or if it was the costume last seen in the late-1990s (if that wasn't the original). If it was the original or had existed for a long time, it's a shame he wasn't in either of the last two films (he could have replaced Timmy in the arches).

It's also a shame that Thog didn't at least appear in the opening (though an image of Thog did appear in the Muppet Labs segment). Makes me wonder if the newer Thog suit deteriorated/wore out/whatever in the seven years since he was rebuilt (though I heard some gossip at Tough Pigs that nobody wants to be inside the character, not sure where they heard it, but if true, it's kinda stupid, I know many performers have done things they didn't really want to do, and they can't find one person willing to take some discomfort for a little bit?).

I wondered that myself. I think DogLion was last seen on MT before this, and Thog had been MIA since I think "The Great Muppet Caper" before the 2011 rebuild. And I wouldn't think the Thog suit deteriorated in as short a span as seven years.

But it's weird that when one appears, the other is nowhere to be found.

David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole

 

[Oscarfan]

Thanks. Given that no footage has popped up online, I'm assuming this was one of the pre-taped bits?



I wondered that myself. I think DogLion was last seen on MT before this, and Thog had been MIA since I think "The Great Muppet Caper" before the 2011 rebuild. And I wouldn't think the Thog suit deteriorated in as short a span as seven years.

But it's weird that when one appears, the other is nowhere to be found.

David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole

The Wayne and Wanda bits were live. If you scour the TP Forum thread about the show, there's some FB links to some people's videos that have their stuff. I didn't feel comfortable sharing their pages here.

Thog was last seen in TMM before the 2011 movie, and hasn't been used much since. I think the size is the main issue; he's much bigger and has a more limited mobility.