C'est Les Muppets Showue!

[CensoredAlso]

I personally thought the Jim Henson Hour was good. A little unfocused like everyone says, but not enough to warrant being cancelled, in my opinion. The thing was, it was perfect for hard-core Muppet fans but probably didn't reach a big enough overall audience. Plus, I think the TV people took it for granted The Muppets would be around forever!

And yes, in my opinion, better than Muppets Tonight. That was the first Muppet thing I was shocked to realize I couldn't sit through. Just trying too hard to be 'modern'.

If the French show proves to be good, then I don't mind its existence. A lot of the recent "American" stuff just hasn't been the Muppets.

 

[Vic Romano]

IMO, The Jim Henson Hour was so out there and creative, that a lot of people didn't really get it. It simply refused to be categorized and be like everything else. It clearly marched to the beat of it's own drum and was just way ahead of it's time.

I haven't watched every episode of MT, nothing personal, I just haven't gotten around to it, but what I have seen was entertaining. Maybe I'll watch 'em over the weekend and finally see what it's like.

 

[Marky]

Well, French humor is sooooo different from English humor. Or American humor for that matter. Or Canadian (which is basically English with American accents themed often and heavily to poke jibes at the entire U.S. culture).

Hoo-boy.

 

[CensoredAlso]

That's true, the French like Jerry Lewis right? Or is that a myth? (Nothing against Lewis).

 

[Marky]

That's true, the French like Jerry Lewis right? Or is that a myth? (Nothing against Lewis).

Well, that's a running gag found all over American pop culture. A cliche started likely by a popular sub-culture. But with every cliche, there's a grain of truth buried there.

French humor is very exagerated and visual. Absent from irony, mimes, clowns, pratfalls, etc. are very prominent, as is crude humor. Hence Jerry Lewis' and Jim Carey's popularity there, and their blank faces drawn from verbal witicisms.

For comic actors in Ottawa (right across the bridge from Quebec), this fact is very well known - being aware of the audience is important, and the difference is very distinct.

 

[Drtooth]

The difference is they created ORIGINAL Muppets for International Sesame Street. I refuse to acknowlege this as Muppet canon...its pretty much like if I broke into their wherehouse, and my friends and I made short films of the real puppets. Yeah, ok...technically they are the actual puppets, but its all hollow.

I've changed my position on this recently. I agree with you now. Unless the puppeteers are at least trained- like international versions of Bozo the Clown- to act like the characters and take on their personalities... and of course, puppeteer well, this really could be a fiasco. Even if they do the best they can, it won't be too enjoyable.

I'd love to see clips of this on Youtube to at least look at the quality of it, but they're going to protect their ownership of the Muppets fiercely from showing free clips, and yet... not offer anything as an alternative. Y'know... like most companies.

 

[Stulz]

French .. roll.. hahahaha

Although I love the characters and spirit the French production is going for, my deep down feeling about this that it's such a short sighted concept.

I would rather have them make they show in english using the real Muppet perfomers, then dub it into Frech. That way if it caught on Disney could air it anywhere and release it on DVD or any other format here in the states as well.

If Disney thinks the market for Muppet projects here in the states is low, just think of the market for subtitles or re-dubbed BACK into English Muppet projects! Yeah .. those would just fly off the shelves!

Whereas if they did it in english it could be at leat be released in England as well, where even though I don't live, the muppet market is much larger then the french market and if we bought region free DVD players we could actually see and UNDERSTAND the show!

To summerize my take on the Muppets TV - Great concept. Great Characters. Great look puppets ('cept for maybe Gonzo and Staler). Wrong Performers. Wrong Language. Sort Sighted.

I hope it does well, but the sad truth is most of us will never see it, and if we do will we need a translator to enjoy it?

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Closed-captioning subtitles for those of us who don't know French.

I know FrenGlish, but that doesn't count! Unless I'm talking to Inspector Clouseau or Pepe Le Pew.

 

[Luke]

Actually i don't get this, because as people have said, they could have made so much more out of this by making an English version and then selling it overseas. Wierd! Only thing i think can be said here is that right now, Disney must have absolutely no intentions whatsoever of reviving the Muppet Show in the UK/USA otherwise they would have taken the other option. Unless for some wierd reason they've decided to make versions of the show for each different country but that would just be stupid.

It's good to see they are emphasizing how closely Disney are involved with the look and script, and i would expect Henson have been involved in advising on the puppeteering and stuff.

So there are pictures of these puppets?

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I would imagine they would be using the same looking puppets of The Muppets. Probably some new background characters for those versions, mais non?

Mayonnaise?