As promised - and only about five hours behind schedule - here's the first part of segment 4. Meant to state that above part is the continuation of part 3.
IV.
“I sold the studios back to you,” Kermit corrected.
“Doesn’t matter,” the assistant muttered, sliding out of his seat and standing next to Kermit. To anyone else, it may have looked like a show of solidarity, but in reality Scooter was seriously afraid that Gonzo, Piggy, and Rowlf were going to kill him and that Fozzie wasn’t going to stop them, either by being mowed over by the trio or that he’d actually consent in holding the younger Muppet down to prevent his escape.
“You remember when my uncle died?” he stated, receiving a few nods. “Well, as his only living relative, I became his heir and he basically left everything to me. His businesses, the house, and…the lot where Muppet Theatre sits.”
“Which of course,” Kermit added. “Encompasses what is Muppet Studios.”
“You told us that JP Grosse gave us the theatre,” Fozzie said, a look of unbelievability on his face.
“Yeah,” Kermit chuckled nervously, running a hand over his neck. “Well…not exactly. JP didn’t…give us Muppet Theatre.”
“I did,” Scooter continued. “I gave the theatre and the lot to you guys. I told Kermit to tell you that my uncle put it in his will, so…you know, the less known the better. And…I wasn’t going to be around that much and…besides, why wouldn’t I just hand it over? I love you guys. And I trusted Kermit to handle everything the way we had always done because I knew he wouldn’t do something stupid or insane. Ironically enough…”
All the heartfelt feeling that Scooter had in his initial decision to turn over Muppet Studios to the one person he thought would be capable to keeping it afloat petered out once he realized Kermit had done the exact opposite of what he expected him to.
This news that the two of them were sharing did nothing to calm the feelings of hurt that the other four currently felt. To learn that Kermit had made such a huge gamble, which nearly cost them the studios in the first place and then to discover that he and Scooter had basically sold the studio without even a vote on the matter, combined with the fact that what they had previously known about how they got in possession of the studios in the first place was becoming a difficult pill to swallow.
“So where does this leave us?” Rowlf asked, quietly.
“Uncle John put a proviso in his will that states that should I ever sell one of the companies he owned, that if I thought they were going under or if the owners came to me because they thought they were going under, I could buy back the business and regain complete control. And…that’s what Kermit did. In this instance.”
“So other than ruining our lunch,” Gonzo whined. “And possibly dinner, is there a reason why we’re here?”
It should have been clear from the beginning, from the very moment that they all sat down together, this was not going to be a friendly meeting; there was already tension from the first announcement Kermit had made and tempers were obviously flaring. Scooter couldn’t say that he wasn’t annoyed by Gonzo’s flippant attitude; he could understand that the group had felt betrayed by this, but he would have at least thought they’d give them a chance.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Gonzo,” he responded, sarcastically. “Did you have something planned today? Because surely dipping yourself into a vat of mustard is more important than this!”
“Hey, knock it off, Scooter,” Rowlf chastised. “You’re the last person here who should be in a snit over this.”
“Oh!” the red head cried, turning on the piano playing pup. “Like I’m oh so happy about this! Because certainly that’s what I was looking forward to when I came back;” Rounding back on Kermit, he continued with, “Nothing thrills me more than to learn that one of the people I look up to the most nearly bankrupted my company!”
“Alright, knock it off!” the diva commanded and when Piggy gave a command, you generally listened. “Kermit, you and Andrew obviously had more than reason to gather us all here and I’m going to assume it wasn’t just to tell us that, oh, you’ve been lying to us about a great many things for several years it seems, so why don’t you just get to the point before someone – namely, the two of you – find yourselves chopped through the kitchen wall.”
“I want to split the company into six,” Scooter replied. “I want to give you guys your own share.”
“How does that help?’ asked Fozzie.
“Well, obviously,” Scooter sneered at his frog boss. “One person can’t handle everything that goes with having a company. So…if we split it up into six equal shares, everyone gets a say in any major thing we do, from production to financial liabilities. And no one can do anything without the agreement of the other five.”
Kermit stifled an indignant huff. That was rather harsh and coming from Scooter made it all the worse; it wasn’t as if he had been sitting in his office or at home all these years, cackling madly and plotting the downfall of the Muppets. Why would they even begin to think that?
He wasn’t sure what hurt more – the fact that they thought he had planned this or that they honestly thought they couldn’t trust him anymore.
“You’re just gonna give them to us?” Fozzie asked. Honestly, he was a little uncomfortable about this whole thing. If Scooter couldn’t trust Kermit to do this, why in the world would put the comic on the plate along with him?
“I’d like to buy mine,” Gonzo stated, sitting back and crossing his arms over his chest. “Heck, I’ll buy Fozzie’s too.” At the bear’s look, the stuntman winked at him. “For all those birthdays and holidays I missed. Besides, this way, in case something like this happens again, I can pull out before I’ve done any real damage.”
“Done that before, have you?”
“Really?” Gonzo growled. “Really Piggy?”
She knew that was rather below the belt and she knew somewhere Gonzo knew it too; she was being petty, but until she could get the frog to herself, she’d have to take aim at the easiest targets and Gonzo was the easiest when he got all cocky like that.
“I’d like to buy mine too,” she said, copying Gonzo’s relaxed state. “And Rowlfie’s; to make up for that unfortunate incident with the vet.”
“Oh yeah,” the dog muttered. “Had forgotten about that.”
“And the frog’s.”
“Could’ve mentioned me first,” Kermit groused.
“After you put us here to being with?” Rowlf countered.
“How soon could we get this done?” the comic asked.
“I’ve already talked to our lawyer,” Scooter whispered. “He’s out of town until Wednesday, but he’d be able to have the paperwork ready to go by the end of the week. We can go in next week and sign it.”
The group was silent then, each contemplating what this new course would mean. Certainly, they all had their own inputs in what the Muppets were doing and where they were going, but this was making it official and they were doing it on the back of their leader’s mistake.
The frog sighed. He wasn’t sure if there was anything he could possibly do that would change their opinion of him. “I’m really sorry, you guys,” he whispered.
In times past, he would’ve expected the quiet, “don’t worry about it” or a good pep talk about how he wasn’t to do it again, but this wasn’t times past. This was the time now and the time now showed that he had overstepped his bounds this time.
“I gotta get home,” Gonzo muttered, sliding out with Rowlf quick behind him.
“Well,” Fozzie replied, also sliding out from the booth. “I’ve had a perfectly lovely time. Too bad this wasn’t it.”
The group made their way to the door, where Kermit made more plea for forgiveness.
“We know!” was Rowlf’s response, who didn’t bother to look back. Fozzie gave him a rather sad and disappointed glare, while Scooter tried to avoid eye contact with everyone.
“You should be thanking Camilla, Kermit,” Gonzo replied, patting the frog on the shoulder as he headed out.
“Oh? Why’s that?”
The performance artist smiled at him, but it wasn’t reaching his eyes and it was more like the maniacal gleam he got whenever a dangerous idea had entered his mind.
“Because she’s the only thing keeping me from killing you.”
“And certainly not our years of friendship,” Kermit joked.
Gonzo looked at him. “No.”
“Yeah, well,” Kermit countered or tried to. The prospect of Gonzo killing him wasn’t sitting well with him. “I’m sure Piggy would stop you. Wouldn’t you, darlin’?”
Both the pig and the whatever looked at Kermit before looking at each other and then back at the frog. “Yeah, right,” the weirdo smirked, taking his leave like the others.
When it was just two, the frog looked at the diva as she stood by the door. If anyone was going to hurt him out of this, it was going to be her and he could think of a million and one ways in which she could do it.
“Are you mad?”
“Mad?” she asked. She had been leaning against the door, but was now steadily making her way towards him, causing him to gulp. “No. No, I’m not mad.”
“Oh.”
“I’m furious.”
“Ah huh.”
“In fact,” she continued. “I believe I have reached a new state of anger. See how calm I am?” Kermit nodded. “I haven’t decided if I’m going to kiss and hug or strangle you.”
“I…I would much rather prefer that kissing and hugging thing.”
“Oh I’m sure you would,” she said. Looking at him, she could clearly see that this was weighing on him more than he maybe led the others to believe. “Kermit, you are the most responsible person I know.”
“I know.”
“So you can imagine the complete and utter disbelief I have when I hear what I’ve heard today.”
“I know.”
“Seriously, what in heavens were you thinking?”
Kermit threw himself in the arm chair behind him; suddenly standing seemed to take too much out of him. “I was thinking work would keep us together,” he admitted. “Not just us, but everyone. It was a dumb idea then and it’s a dumb idea now, I know that.”
Sighing, Piggy shook her head at him. “Your heart was in the right place,” she said, delivering a kiss to the top of his head. “But I have no idea where your head was.” That was ended by a slap against the back of his head.
He of course winced, moving a hand to rub the sting away. Watching her sit across from him on the couch, he retorted, “I’m sure you’ve thought up a few places.”
“Of course I have.”
Once the sting from her hit had died down to a throb, Kermit couldn’t help but look at her earnestly. “Piggy, what am I’m gonna do?”
Welcome to the Muppet Central Forum!
Jim Henson Idea Man
Back to the Rock Season 2
Bear arrives on Disney+
Sam and Friends Book
! So here is our conclusion to segment 4 from above.
to restrain a mad rooster of a weirdo.
Aaah!
