Your Thoughts: "Muppet Guys Talking" premieres on-line March 16, 2018

[dwayne1115]

I cannot believe we get Muppet gold and people are complaining.....sad.

 

[minor muppetz]

One thing I've been curious about is, before this was even shot, how close were Frank Oz and Bill Barretta? I've heard about Frank referring to Bill as "the new guy", but it seems they didn't work together on many projects. Most of the major productions the two worked on (Muppet Treasure Island, Muppets Tonight, Muppets from Space), Frank's availability was a bit limited, with him primarily only doing voices and only being on set for a few days. In the case of Muppets Tonight, I think he was on set performing his characters a lot, and it's clear he was there for the main taping dates for some episodes (don't know if he was available for all days of shooting or if it was on par with how much time the guest stars spent on the taping dates), but I think a lot of sketches with his characters were shot on a single day and inserted into multiple episodes (though I've mostly heard this from fans online, maybe it's an assumption).

Just because the two didn't exactly work together that often doesn't mean that they couldn't have been good friends regardless (and it seems like Frank still hangs out with his fellow performers, maybe Bill was included among his group of friends through the other performers), but it is a bit interesting to think.

 

[Froggy Fool]

So me and @gavry3 streamed Muppet Guys Talking (he'd seen it before, I hadn't) and oh my giddy aunt it was FANTASTIC!

The cool thing about it was - it didn't matter if you were a hardcore fan or just a casual one. There was something for everybody! Although there were many stories that I've heard before, there were also many that I hadn't. One of the best types of stories was about dangerous puppeteering. I won't give away the details, but those stories had me laughing so hard!!

So yeah. There was nothing flashy or fancy or mind-blowing about this documentary, just simple. And as Jim Henson said, "Simple is good."

Overall I give this a 9.5/10!

 

[dwayne1115]

This is a treasure for so many reasons, but one that stands out to me is Jerry Nelson. Did anyone else notice that he had a pony tail kind of like Floyd's?

Did anyone else also notice how Frank really lit up when he talked about both Richard and Jim? You can tell he and everyone else deeply love and miss them both.

I also love the fact that Guy Smiley is one of Frank's favorite characters.

 

[dwayne1115]

One thing I've been curious about is, before this was even shot, how close were Frank Oz and Bill Barretta? I've heard about Frank referring to Bill as "the new guy", but it seems they didn't work together on many projects. Most of the major productions the two worked on (Muppet Treasure Island, Muppets Tonight, Muppets from Space), Frank's availability was a bit limited, with him primarily only doing voices and only being on set for a few days. In the case of Muppets Tonight, I think he was on set performing his characters a lot, and it's clear he was there for the main taping dates for some episodes (don't know if he was available for all days of shooting or if it was on par with how much time the guest stars spent on the taping dates), but I think a lot of sketches with his characters were shot on a single day and inserted into multiple episodes (though I've mostly heard this from fans online, maybe it's an assumption).

Just because the two didn't exactly work together that often doesn't mean that they couldn't have been good friends regardless (and it seems like Frank still hangs out with his fellow performers, maybe Bill was included among his group of friends through the other performers), but it is a bit interesting to think.

Bill said something in the film about learning from Frank. I think that the frank,Bill relationship is kind of one of Jim and Frank. Jim tight Frank through his actions, and now I think Frank is doing that with Bill in his own way. I know many people would think that Frank would do that with Eric Jacobson, but he is not.

 

[dwayne1115]

If someone just can't afford to see this send me a private message and I'll see what I can do to help.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

If someone just can't afford to see this send me a private message and I'll see what I can do to help.

I would love to see this myself.

 

[Oscarfan]

The only thing I can complain about the film is the use of B-roll clips and photos in the crummiest quality. Like, a lot of them were ripped right from YouTube, and there was one photo of Jim on the Sesame set that had a huge watermark across it. I don't think it would've been hard to contact Craig or Karen at the Jim Henson Legacy and get some good quality stuff.

 

[dwayne1115]

The only thing I can complain about the film is the use of B-roll clips and photos in the crummiest quality. Like, a lot of them were ripped right from YouTube, and there was one photo of Jim on the Sesame set that had a huge watermark across it. I don't think it would've been hard to contact Craig or Karen at the Jim Henson Legacy and get some good quality stuff.

I think they did that on purpose to show that the film was not perfect. As Frank would say character flaws like Rowlf playing a slightly out of tune piano.

They may have also wanted to make it feel like the performers were sharing their own photos.

 

[Oscarfan]

I get that Frank wanted a "raw" movie, by having shots with camera men and the whole coffee break bit. But by that logic, they might as well have recorded the thing on camcorders from 1998. The film itself looks good, I don't see why they wouldn't want their b-roll to be the same.