When the Muppets Flopped?

[Squonk]

Here's something I've been wondering if other Muppet fans have thought of. Can you think of a time when something the Muppets did was just a total flop? The bit wasn't funny, people didn't get it, or you were just plain disapointed. Now I'm talking about classic Muppet stuff. I'm sure most people would agree that there have been disapointments since Jim died, but let's keep this to stuff that happened when Henson was still around.

The one that always sticks out for me is the skit "The Glutton" which appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. In the skit a huge, gross character is eating everything in sight. At the end of the skit, a little creature shrinks him down and an identical huge, gross character eats the first. The skit is available on DVD and you can tell from the response of the audience that they are repulsed. When Sullivan calls Henson and Oz out for a curtain call there is such a lack of applause that he waves his hands around and says "Oh, come on!" to try and get the audience to applaud.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan and it takes a lot for me to think something the Muppets did was no good. But I think I have to agree with Sullivan's audience on this one. I think they missed the mark.

Anyhow, what say you guys?

 

[CensoredAlso]

Interesting topic! I know what you're saying, there were times when The Muppets appeared on Ed Sullivan or The Tonight Show and jokes didn't get huge laughs. ::shrugs:: That's normal for live performances, you never know what will go over.

 

[travellingpat]

Some of the sketches on TMS i never thought were funny


but none are coming to mind right now

 

[Tim]

Remember, Jim's stuff worked on so many levels, and a lot of it was political or "balck humor" in the vien of "The Far Side". It doesn't evoke belly laughs, but it's a different kind of entertainment. I love Jim's comments about Sullivan: "He never understood what we were doing, but he knew it was good. That's why he put us on."

As far as "flopping" goes, there has been a lot more of that recently, of course. The Johnny Fiama stuff on the MDA telethon is always a train wreck. I remember when the hosted "The Tonight Show", there wer a couple of long dead spots, and the "Saturday Night Live" stuff didn't really work that well either.

 

[minor muppetz]

Some of my least favorite pre-1990 productions/ moments featuring the Muppets include:

*The Glutton sketch from The Ed Sullivan Show.

*The Muppet Show episodes with Rudolph Nueyev, Pearl Baley, Carol Channing, and John Denver. I am a bit mixed over my feelings about the Elton John and Paul Simon episodes. In the case of the Elton John episode, I think he was in too much of the episode, even though all of his numbers were really good, and most of them were the best parts of the episode, and the non-guest star scenes felt a bit boring, even though I think of most of them as being classic quality. In the case of the Paul Simon episode, while I liked a lot of the songs, I think there should have been a few more non-music skits. When seaons five gets released on DVD, I hope that Paul Simon doens't charge too much for his songs, or flat-out refuse to license all of his songs. Otherwise it would be a very short episode.

*Although John Denver and the Muppets: Rocky Mountain Holiday is a great special, there are quite a few slow moments, mainly John Dennvers solo singing scenes. It's especially boring when it's just Denver singign and flashback footage of him playing with his kids, or footage of real animals, are shown, taking screen time away from the Muppets. I also think that more characters should have been involved. Zoot should have been there the whole time, and not just in one song, where he appears out of nowhere to play the saxaphone, and both Dr. Teeth and Lips should have been there, to make the whole Electric Mayhem be there. Bunsen, Beaker, Sam the Eagle, Beauregard, Link Hogthrob, Dr. Strangepork, Lew Zeland, Crazy Harry, and the various monsters all seem like they would have fit in with the camp setting. If there wasn't a budget for so many performers, then let them be part of the many flashbacks seen in the special.

*Big Bird in China also could have been better. For most of the special, only Big Bird and barkley are present. The other Muppets either just have cameos or, in the case of Oscar and Telly, are only part of a subplot that doens't have much developement. Let the other Muppets hang around china.

*Learning to Add and Subtract could have been better. The linking plot isn't very good. Most of the skits are really good, but some aren't. And there are too many animated segments and not enough Muppet segments. Why not also include The Addition Game, Kermit's subtraction lecture, Cookie Monster eating The Counts apples, and One and One Make Two?

*The Best of Ernie and Bert is better than Learning to Add and Subtract, but not too much better. The obvious problem with this is that Ernie and Bert are not involved with the linking footage at all. Sure, Henson and Oz may have been too busy with other things, but they normally found time to perform new footage on Sesame Street, and related specials. Why not wait untill they were available to produce this special? Jim Henson was able to perform Kermit at the end of Big Bird's Story Time the previous year. Henson and Oz had also performed in a handful of street segments in the late 1980s, though mainly in television specials, so that wouldn't be out of the question. To have a "best of Ernie and Bert" video be more about babysitting is weird (was the curriculum for that year learning to babysit or something?). And while all of the segments included are really great, with many of them beign from the early 1970s, it seems like the producers just randomly compiled segments for the video (then again, maybe the producer thoguth these were the best; this video was, after all, produced years before the internet, which would make it hard to determine what moments fans associate as classics). At the time this video was remade, segments didn't get rereleased in other video releases, and many of the Ernie and Bert segments that we associate as classics (Rubber Duckie, Doin' the Pigeon, the rhyming game, La La La, Dance Myself to Sleep) had already been released on previous videos, but there were still a lot of classics that were not included that should have been included (such as the Caveman Days skits, One and One Make Two, Ernie and Bert going to the jungle, Ernie and Bert going fishing, Ernie substituting Berts cowboy hat with a pan, Ernie putting a banana in his ear, Ernie and Bert sharing jellybeans, Ernie usiing Berts nose to finish a sculpt of Bert). These semgnets would have made more snes eto be included than the skit where Ernie's doctor coems over or the skit where Ernie and Bert go camping.

 

[Princeton]

Are we forgetting "The Dark Crystal"? That was one of the company's biggest box office failures.

 

[jediX]

As for total misses that bore me to death:
-Muppets From Space
-Muppet Oz
-Fantastic Miss Piggy Show
-Some of the UK spots on TMS
-Muppet Valentine Show

 

[Fozzie Bear]

There were a few Muppet Shows that I'm not a huge fan of, several sketches over the years flopped. On the new Red and Green CD, the Fozzie joke song (and sadly the Piggy/Kermit title song) weren't very good--however, thank GOODNESS for Bill Baretta! He makes that CD awesome!!

MWoO didn't do good on TV, but the DVD is really good.

That's all i can think of.

 

[Barry Lee]

Misses for me:

- Kermit's Swamp Years

- Muppets from Space

- Muppets Wizard of Oz

- Fantastic Miss Piggy Show (Too much Miss Piggy for me, and the guest are not funny, esp. Andy Kaufmen)

- Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree (Boring in my opinion)

-Appearance: The Orson Welles Show with the Muppets, the most horrible muppet appearance (in my opinion) its so dreadful, and Orson changes topics, and he doesnt know how to do interviews. You can almost tell Jim & Frank didn't have too much fun with that show.

 

[Beauregard]

I'm going to go with KSY, also, and MFS. And the Croc Hunter scene in VMC. Pretty much everything else out there is classic.