The MuppetCast - Show #53 - Follow That Fran!

[dwayne1115]

Yeah, I'm really excited about JHH. Although I have to admit, the statement that I "recently" got the discs means within the last two months, and I still haven't had time to sit down and watch them! Hehe...I almost have to schedule time to sit down and watch Muppet projects that I'm not covering on the show that week. I know! I'll just do a series of shown about the JHH, and that way I'll get to really watch all of them!

Hey Steve when ever you get done with the JHH disks, can I browe them. I'm so cheap I have nothing to trade to get them from anyone.

 

[The Count]

You don't really need to have anything to trade to get them... Just talk to KermiClown and a deal can be made no problem.

 

[stephenjlizard]

I second what Count just said Dwayne. Not that I'd have a problem lending them to you, but one thing I've found about "trading" is that, if you have nothing per se to trade, people are still very accommodating. I hardly had anything when I started up last year, and thanks largely to the kindness of people right here at MC (and especially the MUP3 thread), I've amassed a collection that I'm quite proud of

 

[theprawncracker]

I've amassed a collection that I'm quite proud of

Yeah, okay, but our collections are still better. Hehe, just messing with you Steve my man.

 

[BEAR]

Well... In the rereleased album titled Sing the Alphabet, that song was indeed sung by Elmo. But in the original Muppet Alphabet Album, it was sung by Big Bird with no additional dialogue from Susan either preceeding or following the song. That is the version I refered to when citing it as one of the highlights of this episode. Hope that helps dispell any confusion.

And I actually have a version of it with additional dialogue between Big Bird, Susan and Gordon (Matt Robinson) in which they explain to him that the long word is really the alphabet. Cute.

By the way, Steve...loved loved LOVED this episode! Been waiting for some kind of interview with Fran Brill for a long time!

 

[BEAR]

Oh good grief, don't bring that incident up again... Haha.

Oh yes...the lemon custard. Cookie Monster's been asking about that.

 

[minor muppetz]

Wow. This was great. Jim Henson being inducted into the television hall of fame (it makes me want to see the actual video clip... I especially can't tell what's going on in the Muppet NY workshop sequence... Boy I hope that Disney can get permission to include that clip on a Muppet Show DVD), the Fran Bril interview, the Daily Show appearance, and the Follow That Bird review.

By the way, was your review meant to be for the movie or the DVD? I thought I'd heard you say it was a DVD, yet you pretty much just talk about the movie, not that there's much else to say about the DVD. Listening to the audio, there are things that I hadn't heard before. I don't know if just listening as opposed to watching helps hear small details or if the DVD really has better audio (I haven't seen the movie on DVD). I heard stuff like the feather friends' book with Big Bird being passed around the table, and some dialogue I hadn't noticed at the end, and during the news sequence, I heard some off-screen whispering that I don't remember hearing, such as someone whispering "Sesame" to Chevy Chase and someone else (presumably) whispering "You're on!" to Kermit.

And some of the more emotional scenes (reading Big Bird's post card, Maria telling Miss Finch about what kinds of people live on the street) effected me more when listening to those scenes, as opposed to seeing the action. I wonder if it's harder to get an emotional effect when I'm looking at all my favorite characters.

The interview was great. It's a shame that Brill didn't know the drumers name, which eithe rmeans that the character didn't have a regular performer, or that I've been wrong all these years and performers do forget about performing certain regular characters. I thought I'd read that the drummers only speaking appearance was in teh Musicians episode, and I recall several months ago a clip from that epsidoe with the band talkign to Kermit, and I thought I'd heard a Fran Brill-voiced character, and assumed it was the drumer. Various performer listings cite Fran Brill as the drumer (without any name given, of course). And of course Fran Bril was shown performing her in The Secrets of the Muppets (though I also recall a brief shot of a performer who I couldn't identify performing in the scene, though his character was off-camera, and he obviously wasn't assisting anybody).

Maybe I should have asked you to ask her if she remembered the name of Merlin's Assistant. I've read that she recently did an impression of the character at a recent event, so she must remember performing that character.

 

[dwayne1115]

Well on the Farn Brill and Kevin Clash Interviews If I could try and give some advice, one interviewer to another. It's always good to ask the people that you are interviewing stuff they know. What I mean is if your going to ask about a secondary project that they where in, you need to really make sure they where in the project. Because it does two things when they where not in a asked about Project. The first thing it does is that it make you the Interviewer look like you did not do your homework on who you are interviewing. Second it makes the interview sound a little flat when your getting a lot of the same answer, No. Now in the Kevin Clash Interview you where asking him about diffrent projects that he was not involved with. He bounced back really well with talking about how there where projects he wanted to be in , but because he was busy with SS could not.
I hope this did not come across as me trying to be a know it all. That is just something I have been seeing in the interviews. If you would like maybe we could work on the next one together that way you could have someone to double check everything. Just a thought, I Know that when I wrote the Jim Lewis Interview I was so nervious, and I sure don't see how you are able to talk to them on the phone.

 

[stephenjlizard]

Hehe thanks Bear, glad to be of service.

 

[stephenjlizard]

And good advice too, Dwayne. Don't worry, it didn't come off in a negative way