Little things we've noticed

[minor muppetz]

Something that I noticed long before I joined the forum but had forgotten about until last week was at the end of the "You Can't Take No For an Answer" number in MTM there is a human actor sleeping in one of the bottom lockers (he sort of looked like Steve Whitmire).

I read a Tough Pigs article regarding a recent public appearance by Frank Oz, where he mentioned a scene cut involving a family of little people in lockers by the Muppets (they showed up at the premiere unaware they had been cut). I guess that person in the bottom locker would be a result of that. And I thought the first locker scene ended a bit awkwardly, as if something was cut.

 

[David French]

In anticipation for the new Muppet movie, I´ve been watching one episode of the Muppet Show per day. Well after watching through the entire series, something caught my attention while watching the very last episode last night. Every member of the Electric Mayhem is part of the show´s orchestra except for Dr Teeth. Upon viewing shots of the orchestra pit I JUST noticed that he was nowhere to be found. I know he wasn´t really needed because they had Rowlf on piano, but I just couldn´t believe that I never noticed after all of these years of watching that the band´s leader was missing from the group.

Two members as Janice was not a proper member of the house band. A Beaker clone of her turns up in the closing credits of the Mac Davis episode.

 

[LamangoNumber2]

Two members as Janice was not a proper member of the house band. A Beaker clone of her turns up in the closing credits of the Mac Davis episode.

Dr. Teeth was in the bandpit during Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie during the Moulan Scrooge.

 

[Mo Frackle]

In "Letters to Santa", Miss Piggy sings happily with the others during the "Delivering Christmas" song in some parts, but in others, she's in a grouchy mood.

Also, at the end of that scene, when the Muppets are all in the mail cart, Camilla is in the cart with the other main characters, but she was never seen going through the conveyor belt.

 

[beakerboy12]

In Muppets at Walt Disney World, Lips was seen trumpeting during the instrumental part of "Rockin' Around the World" but not in the rest of the song or when the Electric Mayhem is seen on the monorail.

Also in TMAWDW, Bean Bunny is seen with pink sunglasses entering the swamp but he's without sunglasses in Disney World.

 

[minor muppetz]

In Muppets at Walt Disney World, Lips was seen trumpeting during the instrumental part of "Rockin' Around the World" but not in the rest of the song or when the Electric Mayhem is seen on the monorail.

What I find weirder: It seems they couldn't make up their mind as to whether The Swedish Chef is part of the gang or seperate. He's seen with the Muppets when they enter Walt Disney World, and is with them in the swamp at the end, but when he appears serving tacos, I get the sense he was already working there. After all, he's not among the group when the guard captures the Muppets, and his part of the finale is part of a montage, appearing behind his cart but never in a group shot.

Also, Beaker isn't there at the swamp at the end. It would have been great to have seen him there with the bucket finally off his head. Bunsen's still there. Did Beaker wander off and get lost with the bucket on his head or something?

Also, since Rizzo helps the guard capture the Muppets, I would think the security guard would go easier on him, but when he captures them all, Rizzo's with them, as if he's going to be punished just the same. I'm not surprised he would betray his friends, but I would be surprised if he betrayed his friends expecting to be in trouble with them. Somehow I think they should have had Rizzo react to this, as if he'd been betrayed despite his help.

And that special seems to imply a side of Mickey Mouse we don't know. When the security guard is first seen, he's talking to a boss on the phone, I assume Mickey but can't remember. When he catches Rizzo and Rizzo brings up Mickey, the guard seems to be worried about what Mickey would do to him if he didn't catch the Muppets (and the Mickey Mouse we all know isn't a threat). Eventually the guard does catch the Muppets, who did break in without paying, but then it turns out that Kermit was an old friend of Mickey's, the guard suddenly feeling like he's in trouble, and at the end is shown scraping gum off a bench, as if he was in trouble for capturing a friend of Mickey's (who, I said, didn't pay). He did his job and didn't know they were friends, so he shouldn't have been fired for that.

 

[dwmckim]

In "Letters to Santa", Miss Piggy sings happily with the others during the "Delivering Christmas" song in some parts, but in others, she's in a grouchy mood.

The pig knows that when a production number is underway to stop everything and be tres fabuloux regardless of what else is going on.

 

[minor muppetz]

I watched You're the Director for the first time. I read a description a long time ago, but for some reason by the time somebody uploaded it on YouTube, I had low expectations for it (despite it being rare and having so many secondary characters not used much in the last two decades), but it was a lot better than I was expecting. Many made-for-video Muppet productions tend to only have a handful of established characters, filling out the productions with new characters (or existing characters recycled into new characters), but this one seems to have a lot more known characters (I counted nine).

Anyway, one thing that I had known previously was that David Rudman performed Strangepork here and his voice is heard of Strangepork on a few lines. But I was surprised to hear Rudman do the voice for one line in a song but Nelson doing his voice for the rest of the song. I thought the songs were always pre-recorded, so why have Jerry Nelson only sing some of his lines? Unless there was something wrong on that part of the audio and Jerry Nelson was unavailable for rerecording.

Another thing I noticed is that Kermit isn't really in much of it. He's backstage between the making of "movies", but doesn't take part in the films. I don't know how many days it took to shoot, but I wonder if Jim Henson's schedule was limited (it probably was). Kermit appears in the studio, Rowlf and Link take part in one movie, and The Swedish Chef makes a cameo in one of the movies. None of Henson's characters appear in the third film (and Statler appears without Waldorf).

 

[Mo Frackle]

What I find weirder: It seems they couldn't make up their mind as to whether The Swedish Chef is part of the gang or seperate. He's seen with the Muppets when they enter Walt Disney World, and is with them in the swamp at the end, but when he appears serving tacos, I get the sense he was already working there. After all, he's not among the group when the guard captures the Muppets, and his part of the finale is part of a montage, appearing behind his cart but never in a group shot.

Also, Beaker isn't there at the swamp at the end. It would have been great to have seen him there with the bucket finally off his head. Bunsen's still there. Did Beaker wander off and get lost with the bucket on his head or something?

Also, since Rizzo helps the guard capture the Muppets, I would think the security guard would go easier on him, but when he captures them all, Rizzo's with them, as if he's going to be punished just the same. I'm not surprised he would betray his friends, but I would be surprised if he betrayed his friends expecting to be in trouble with them. Somehow I think they should have had Rizzo react to this, as if he'd been betrayed despite his help.

And that special seems to imply a side of Mickey Mouse we don't know. When the security guard is first seen, he's talking to a boss on the phone, I assume Mickey but can't remember. When he catches Rizzo and Rizzo brings up Mickey, the guard seems to be worried about what Mickey would do to him if he didn't catch the Muppets (and the Mickey Mouse we all know isn't a threat). Eventually the guard does catch the Muppets, who did break in without paying, but then it turns out that Kermit was an old friend of Mickey's, the guard suddenly feeling like he's in trouble, and at the end is shown scraping gum off a bench, as if he was in trouble for capturing a friend of Mickey's (who, I said, didn't pay). He did his job and didn't know they were friends, so he shouldn't have been fired for that.

The whole Swedish Chef/Beaker goof probably resulted from a shortage of puppeteers. I can't think of man scenes from MAWDW in which all of the main characters appears together (except maybe the scene where the gang meet Mickey and maybe the scene before that one); even Clifford is absent from the group shots of the "More! More! More!" song at the end.

As for Rizzo, I don't think he was really betraying his friends. I always thought he was messing with the security guard the whole time.

 

[Mo Frackle]

Was Clifford still techinically supposed to be part of the Electric Mayhem during "The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson"? I know there's never any direct reference, but sort of makes sense. The interview that Jim did on the Arsenio Hall Show to promote MAWDW seemed to indicate that Clifford was supposed to be a permanent addition to the band. But because of the sudden passing of both Jim Henson and Richard Hunt, and the fact that Frank Oz wasn't always available, there really wasn't much that could be done with the Mayhem. Clifford not being with the band in MCC was perhaps due to the unavailability of Kevin Clash. And by the time MT! rolled around, it was already decided to make Clifford the host, while the principal Mayhem members practically made very few appearances. Also, in MCJH, there is a reference to MAWDW, and Clifford is seen next to the principal band members at the end of MCJH.