Behind the Scenes of "The Muppet Movie"

[Vic Romano]

...and then when no one was looking, I sneaked over to the Sesame Street line.

Ha! You little sneak! That's classic!

 

[Beauregard]

Awe-double-some! That is amazing, and you are obviously full of initiative! Moi, I'd probably have been too scared to sneak across to SS for fear of being in no where in the line up if they caught me. (he he). But, yeah, never settle for Emmet Otter when you can go all the way to Ernie! Way ta go!

 

[minor muppetz]

you said that every muppet except for the earlier ones and the ones from saturday night live were there. actually, this is not true.

there are a lot of full-body characters not there. sweetums wasn't there, but that was probably so his ending appearance would be a surprise. The Mutations (three identical full-body monsters) were not there. neither was sam the robot, a sesame street character from 1972-1976 (the puppet should have still been in good condition by that time). Thig (thogs buddy from The great santa Clause Switch) and splurge (the purple monster from hey, Cinderella) also weren't there. I also didn't see any of the bad guys from The Muppet Musicians of bremen. I am not sure whether this scene was filmed before or after the sesame street season (i think the movie was filmed in 1978), but bruno (the garbage man who carried oscars trash can. he first appeared on sesame street in 1978) was not in that scene.

and most obviously, mr. snuffleupagus was not there. of course, this might have been because at the time of the movie nobody except big bird ever saw him. Sure, he could have been behind everybody, so that nobody could have seen him, but then the muppets in the audience were watching, and could have seen mr. snuffleupagus, although with the scene so crownded they might not have noticed and/ or thought he was just one of many weird-looking muppets in the background (but by that logic big birds friends should have believed that mr. snuffleupagus was real).

Do you know/ remember if Caroll Spinney performed Big Bird in that scene, or if he wasn't availible for that scene?

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Minor Muppetz, sometimes to say "every" isn't meant to be literal. Just like if I say I'm a 'huge Muppet fan,' that doesn't mean I'm actually "huge" per se, but 'really, really, really love Muppets.'

WasOnceErnie, this is a fantastic story!! I hope Phil sees it and (with your permission) applies it to the MC articles section. Thank you for coming in to MC and hanging out with us and telling us all this great information! It's fun to live the process viariously through your experience.

As far as the director, I wanted to say Steven Speilberg. But then, MinorMuppetz mentioned John Landis who, in a lot of his movies, references Muppets and uses Muppeteers so...I think I might change to say John Landis and agree with Minor Muppetz.

 

[Beauregard]

I didn't know that Stevie Speily was even rumoured to be there. Where did this information leak from?

 

[Vic Romano]

I read that George Lucas and Jim were quite fond of eachother and desperately tried to "really" get together on a project (the closest "real" team-up came about in either Labyrinth or DC; I forget), but both visited eachother's sets often, so I'm gonna' go for a long shot and guess George.

 

[minor muppetz]

I didn't know that Stevie Speily was even rumoured to be there. Where did this information leak from?

I read this in the trivia page of The Muppet Movie section of the Internet Movie database. although trivia there is sometimes wrong, that trivia page mentioned that it was confirmed in an interview with john landis. and i think I read that interview, but i am not sure if i did or if my mind is playing tricks on me.

 

[Beauregard]

Awesome. Last time I looked at Muppet Trivia there, there was hardy any except a couple of pieces I put there. Also a couple of goofs I included in VMC.

Someone I know has soem cool Muppet Caper trivia, but I'm not revealing it yet, since it is his place to do so.

 

[minor muppetz]

I read that George Lucas and Jim were quite fond of eachother and desperately tried to "really" get together on a project (the closest "real" team-up came about in either Labyrinth or DC; I forget), but both visited eachother's sets often, so I'm gonna' go for a long shot and guess George.

their "real" team-up was in Labrynth. I wonder if that had anything to do with having the star wars cast on the Muppet Show and Sesame Street? according to the internet movie database, George Lucas appeared as an extra in the crown at the end of Follow That Bird. I am not sure how true this is, but I saw somebody who looks like him (maybe it was him) standing near Miss Finch in that scene.

 

[Harvey Towers]

I didn't know there would be a test!

Anyway, this is a really great story - please keep on with your Muppety recollections!

Can you remember which puppets the main muppeteers performed in the scene?