My Version of Behind the Scenes of "The Muppet Movie"

[travellingpat]

Thats awesome! Thanks!

 

[minor muppetz]

In the screening room, Baskerville, with legs, is next to Gonzo. Rowlf and Lew choose to stand. And Rowlf even throws a paper airplane, that lands infront of the Lunche On Counter Monster.
Muppets that gained legs could only sit I think... Link, Luncheoncounter, Baskerville, Boppity, Nigel, Marvin, Zoot, Statler, Waldorf, Fozzie, Bunsen, Beaker, Robin, Kermit, Floyd, Janice, Animal, Camilla, Dr.Teeth, Crazy Harry, Sam, Piggy.
And, they have an extra chicken in those scenes. Who was supposed to be there? Beauregard? Gloat? Droop? Deadly?

Who's to say that somebody else was originally planned to be there? I think the screening room scenes featured a good mix of main, secondary, and minor characters. These scenes also have every major Muppet from the movie, with the obvious exception (untill the end) of Sweetums (I keep thinking that he should have caught up with the cast before the story ended, instead of jumping through the screen... either that, or he should have made more random cameos, like when he ran out of the tent).

However, I do keep thinking it's strange that there weren't more fairly major characters in the screening room, such as The Newsman, Dr. Strangepork, Annie Sue, Gladys, and Beauregard, as well as Thog, Droop, and Louis Kazagger. Since the first draft of the script was most likely written before the thrid season began, there probably wasn't much time to include characters who were introduced in season three, and I have a feeling that Lew Zeland's lines were written in one of the last drafts, possibly because of his sudden, unexpected popularity (he was originally meant to be a one-shot character).

 

[Tim]

I don't know what the thinking was behind that scene, or how much pre-planning went into "casting" that shot, but I can tell you this. I got a look at Jim's personal production notebook, (a 3-ring binder with that full-color close-up photo of Gonzo and the balloons we've all seen on the cover) and there was a layout for that scene. In one of the sheet protector pages was a photo-copied sketch of the screening room set looking down at the floor layout, puppeteer pits and all. The little chairs were represented by what looked like capital letter "D"s and the names of which characters that were supposed to be sitting where hand-written inside each. The sketch matched the scene as it was set up, so nothing was left to last minute chance or on-set change.

 

[minor muppetz]

I don't know what the thinking was behind that scene, or how much pre-planning went into "casting" that shot, but I can tell you this. I got a look at Jim's personal production notebook, (a 3-ring binder with that full-color close-up photo of Gonzo and the balloons we've all seen on the cover) and there was a layout for that scene. In one of the sheet protector pages was a photo-copied sketch of the screening room set looking down at the floor layout, puppeteer pits and all. The little chairs were represented by what looked like capital letter "D"s and the names of which characters that were supposed to be sitting where hand-written inside each. The sketch matched the scene as it was set up, so nothing was left to last minute chance or on-set change.

That sounds cool. I wonder how often that kind of stuff is done for crowd scenes like that. I guess it was probably done for The Muppet Show opening and the wedding finale of The Muppets Take Manhattan, and I suppose there probably wasn't much planning like this for The Muppet Movie finale (maybe there were arrangements regarding what types of characters went where, but probably not any specific order of where each character was supposed to be).

 

[Tim]

The sketch in "Muppets & Men" shows a similar solution with characters indicated in which archway.

When we first blocked the Rainbow Finale (durning a break of the Mel Brooks scene) Jim called me over along with every available crew member to an open area on stage and had us stand close together with our hands in the air. (one of the big Teamsters right next to me said to his friend "What is this-a hold up?"). Jim and Frank stood on a piece of equipment trying to visualize the scene, and how many people and puppets it would take. Jim estimated a high number of characters (naturally) but Frank reminded him about "bulky puppets".

The day of the shot Jim Frawley expalined the scene to us, he showed some beautiful full-color drawings of what the final shot was to look like (never saw that again), but all we had to work with was a large whiteboard with a huge oval drawn on it with black marker representing the hole in the stage for the puppeteers to stand. Inside of that were circles indicating which group of puppets went where ("Sesame Street", "Emmett Otter", etc.), and an oval practice grid painted on the floor of the stage next to the screening room set. Once puppets wer assigned, and groups assembled on the grid we were to remember which number (or rather what part of the squared-off numbers) we were standing on.

With our puppet characters on our hands and the "Big Guys" following us(quite a sight for anyone on lot that day) we trooped along in broad daylight to the other stage where the Rainbow set was up. All we had to do was crawl under the false floor to the open area, find our spot on the grid pained here, and remember who we stood next to.

Not to sophisticated, but it worked.

 

[Erine81981]

I love it. Great story Tim. I'm enjoying all the questions and answers to your questions. Did you get to try on Grover and Herry Monster anytime you were there?

 

[minor muppetz]

The day of the shot Jim Frawley expalined the scene to us, he showed some beautiful full-color drawings of what the final shot was to look like (never saw that again), but all we had to work with was a large whiteboard with a huge oval drawn on it with black marker representing the hole in the stage for the puppeteers to stand. Inside of that were circles indicating which group of puppets went where ("Sesame Street", "Emmett Otter", etc.), and an oval practice grid painted on the floor of the stage next to the screening room set. Once puppets wer assigned, and groups assembled on the grid we were to remember which number (or rather what part of the squared-off numbers) we were standing on.

With our puppet characters on our hands and the "Big Guys" following us(quite a sight for anyone on lot that day) we trooped along in broad daylight to the other stage where the Rainbow set was up. All we had to do was crawl under the false floor to the open area, find our spot on the grid pained here, and remember who we stood next to.

That sounds cool. It's too bad that neither of the Muppet Movie DVDs have concept sketches or promotional art for the movie. Those would make great special features.

I think it's interesting that the performers had to remember who they were standing next to. The whole scene was one long take. There weren't any alternate shots of different angles during the scene. It makes sense that certain characters were grouped together, and it makes sense that character duos were next to each other, but odd that the puppets had to be in a consistent order in the scene.

 

[Tim]

I love it. Great story Tim. I'm enjoying all the questions and answers to your questions. Did you get to try on Grover and Herry Monster anytime you were there?

I remeber trying Herry and figuring out how his eyebrows worked (just like Bert's but surprisignly tricky to do), but I don't remeber getting to know Grover (darn it!)

 

[Tim]

That sounds cool. It's too bad that neither of the Muppet Movie DVDs have concept sketches or promotional art for the movie. Those would make great special features.

I think it's interesting that the performers had to remember who they were standing next to. The whole scene was one long take. There weren't any alternate shots of different angles during the scene. It makes sense that certain characters were grouped together, and it makes sense that character duos were next to each other, but odd that the puppets had to be in a consistent order in the scene.

Yeah, I was SO dissappointed with the so-called "50th" Edition of TMM since it had less extras than the regular one. In 2004 the film turned 25 years old, and it would have been so cool had they done a big 2-disk set with conceptual art, new and vintage interviews and "The Muppets Go Hollywood" special (the director of which, Stan Harris also directed me in my televison pilot a few year later). Thanks, Brian.

I think all that grid business was just to save time and make things easier. It certainly wouldn't have mattered at all if someone changed places, just Muppet groups-most "duos" were performed by the same person anyway. I wasn't going to give up my spot since even though I got the least screen time, it wound up being one of the most visible, especially in books and production shots!

 

[David French]

Out of interest Tim, were the scenes set in the projector room the last to do of the whole film or were there still bits to do? The reason I ask is because I wondered if you got to watch the film like the Muppets do in that scene.

Also, were all the scenes set in the projector room done on the same day or on different days? Were you involved in the final projector scene (the one while the end credits roll)? If so, was any of it scripted or was it all ad-lib?