Please Bring Back (fill in the blank)

[dwmckim]

Okay, here's a thread for our Muppety nostalga of days gone by...what thing from Muppets past would you totally wig out to see brought back into modern times? You can name anything from characters, costume pieces, routines, things concerning the writing, any kind of element of the Muppets that you used to love but hasn't been a part of the Muppets for ages.

I'd like to see this limited to stuff that could actually be done...maybe not probable but possible...in other words things like "i'd like Jim, Richard, and Jerry Juhl to be back" while probably a very common sentiment among us all obviously couldn't happen despite our biggest wishes while a rebuild of the Thog puppet would as another example at least be POSSIBLE even if not probable due to the expense and no one wanting to spend the money on rebuilding what's seen as a minor character.

Some of mine...

Please Bring Back -

... Muppets saying things like "wigging out"
... the dark purple tuxes
... Fozzie's ear wiggling mechanism
... Annie Sue
... Fozzie/Rowlf scenes
... Sam/Floyd scenes
... Waldorf hitting Statler, scrunching up Statler's face
... Kermit's "double face scrunch" - how do i best describe this without a physical example...Jim used to do this a lot in early/mid 70's (i wonder if the change in Kermit's fabric has anything to do with the abondonment of this technique) - where not only would you see Kermit's upper lip droop down over top of his lower but at the same time the space between his eyes would go up and then down towards his face at the same time...i'll try to see if i can come up with a real good specific example
... Kermit's snarkiness/little asides to the camera before he starts yelling "WILL YOU GET OUT OF HERE?"
... seeing Lips playing along with the rest of the Mayhem
... the really cool jazzy threads the Mayhem would wear beginning around TMS season 5
... still photos made with real puppets and not the posers
... Nigel conducting (or whistling!)
... Marvin Suggs (come on Eric, you've done just about every other one of Frank's characters!)
... Fleet Scribbler
... Miss Piggy: "Are you out of your MIND?"

 

[minor muppetz]

When have the Muppets said "wigging out?"

Anyway, I agree with most of your list. But I mus talso say bring back...

• The cast of The Jim Henson Hour
• Seymour, Nigel the director, and Bill the Bubble Guy
• Clifford
• Link Hogthrob and Dr. Strangepork (they haven't appeared in puppet form since Muppets From Space)

 

[Luke]

Uncle Deadly!

The Muppet Show!

 

[Beauregard]

--Characters saying, "The Heck you say...?" (Although this might date them...)
--Characters saying, "Cute. Cute joke."
--Miss Piggy's, "Holy Maracas!"
--Miss Piggy placing emphasis on the first syllable on each sentence.

 

[minor muppetz]

Please bring back Kermit looking at the camera and saying "Think about this."

 

[Drtooth]

I never quite liked where these threads went. It basically turned into demands to see older characters that have yet to be recast officially. Which I think is what they want to get done. The characters come from the performer, and sometimes it takes a lot more than being able to sound like the characters to bring them back.

I remember Dave Golez was talking about how Steve just couldn't play Kermit at first. It was such an emotional burden, he couldn't get himself even to take Kermit out of his case. That's something that really stuck with me.

Look how long it took them to officially recast Scooter... it went from Brian Henson to Ricky Boyd (right?) and finally to David Rudman, who played a lot of Richard Hunt characters anyway... it was actually a shock it didn't go to him sooner.

There are four things I think are in the recast formula:

1) Availability

2) how the new performer can adjust to the character so it can be the same as he was before, but be unique to the performer enough that he can speak to the character.

3) How he works as the character... voice and speech pattern imitation, chemistry with other characters and performers, ability to act like the character both reading scripts and improvising (more so the latter than the former)... etc.

and 4) the staying power of the performer and character based on the above three.

Some characters are recast right away, some bounce around, some never even get that chance.

That said, I REALLY want to see Paul Rugg work with the Muppet Show Muppets as Marvin Suggs. If you knew Paul like I do (a fan of his work on the Amblin/Warner Bros showsand One Saturday Morning), you know what I'm talking about. His crazy foreigner (Manny the Uncanny) voice would fit perfectly...

 

[Beauregard]

I agree with what you're saying, Tooth, but I think this thread is a little more original than the "Give us old characters back!" threads (Else I'd have been here demanding more Beau ) and it's more about Character Tweaks.

 

[LamangoNumber2]

I sorta miss Gonzo's nose scrunch ability.

 

[dwmckim]

The Gonzo puppet actually still has the ability - they just save it for special gags so when it happens it's totally unexpected. When Dave Goelz spoke as part of the latest Jim Henson Legacy touring exhibit when it was in AZ last year, he brought out Gonzo at the end to take questions from the audience and one person asked about this red ball thingie that was part of Gonzo's controls and Dave demonstrated how he could use it to make Gonzo's nose curve inwards.

BTW i thought of a good example of that double scrunch technique of Kermit's i was describing earlier...the Temptation number in Juliet Prowse episode when the chorus all starts singing different songs at once...it's not the most dramatic example as far as the technique (there's been many similar scrunches on Sesame where it's even more pronounced and originates from higher in the face) but it's a good example since Kermit does it nice and slowly facing right into the camera.

 

[Drtooth]

I agree with what you're saying, Tooth, but I think this thread is a little more original than the "Give us old characters back!" threads (Else I'd have been here demanding more Beau ) and it's more about Character Tweaks.

Exactly what I was saying. There are a lot of things I wanna see back, myself.

First of all, I like how VMX gave us back the theater, and the next movie may just keep that going (with another theater, right? I keep forgetting). Secondly, I really like what the original concept of MFS had going with the boarding house.... at least as far as the opening number went. I'd love to see them bring that closeness and messiness back... something also done in the Happiness Hotel bit in GMC. That whole aspect of crazy characters living in a confined dump. That really speaks to the muppet characters, and in a better way than the apartment complex in LTS.... or maybe the best of both ideas... a crummy rundown apartment like in Hey Arnold.