In Defense of the TV Films

[Mo Frackle]

Also, sorry about this, but can't resist pointing out that there is one Statler line they left unlooped towards the end of the film ("Historical landmark!").

Yep, that was Steve (likely) performing Statler for the first time.

 

[Muppet Master]

Actually, VMX was the first Muppet film without Nelson. I'm not sure who voiced his characters in this film, though.

As others said Nelson while not puppeteering still gave the voices for Robin, Pops, The Announcer, and Statler. He is also still credited for being a muppet performer. Steve Whitmire performed Statler for puppetry, Dave Goelz did Pops, and I don't know who did Robin.

 

[cahuenga]

I think Alice Dinnean did Robin...I saw a pic of her performing Robin singing at the end of the movie..

 

[Princeton]

Bumping.
1) One parallel I found between VMX, MWOO, and LTS is that they were all directed by Kirk Thatcher. Do you think that these three films fall short because of his direction or because of how each film was written?
2) To those who said that Statler, Pops, and Robin were voiced by Jerry in VMX, are you absolutely sure? Because they don't sound like him.
3) Even though the thread is primarily about the early 2000s TV films, we've talked alot about the Kermit/Piggy relationship through the years. Now that both MMW and the new Muppets TV series have debuted since the thread was updated last, how do you think the relationship was handled in those projects? In MMW, Piggy was much less evil as she was delusional. And I think the new TV series improved on Piggy's character. Now if only Scooter was so lucky.

 

[muppetlover123]

I believe the problem with some of these projects was the writing. I'm sure a lot of people here have mentioned that. I didn't read through the whole thread. Frank Oz even says a lot of people are fans of The Muppets but they can't really write for them.

I wish (and I'm sure every one else on here does too) they would let the performers/Muppet team write and create a special/tv film. I'm sure they would be able to come up with something cause they've been working together for so long! Anyway that's my two cents. I still enjoy all the projects in certain ways though.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Bumping.
1) One parallel I found between VMX, MWOO, and LTS is that they were all directed by Kirk Thatcher. Do you think that these three films fall short because of his direction or because of how each film was written?
2) To those who said that Statler, Pops, and Robin were voiced by Jerry in VMX, are you absolutely sure? Because they don't sound like him.
3) Even though the thread is primarily about the early 2000s TV films, we've talked alot about the Kermit/Piggy relationship through the years. Now that both MMW and the new Muppets TV series have debuted since the thread was updated last, how do you think the relationship was handled in those projects? In MMW, Piggy was much less evil as she was delusional. And I think the new TV series improved on Piggy's character. Now if only Scooter was so lucky.

1) I think Kirk actually did a great job directing all of those projects. It was definitely the writing that was the problem
2) Yes, all of Jerry's characters were voiced by him except for Lew Zealand
3) Yep, the last two movies and especially the most recent TV show added a lot of depth to Miss Piggy's character. I mean, for the first time since the early 90s, she actually felt like an interesting, fleshed out individual. She was given reasons for her actions and she learned from her mistakes. She wasn't an empty shell of herself that only got angry and spouted catchphrases. For the first time in a long time I didn't cringe whenever she was on screen, wondering, alright, when is she gonna do that tired karate chopping bit again. I'm really excited for them to use this new and improved Piggy in future projects, as I am also excited for Chip, Gloria Estefan and Yolanda to become main parts of the group. As for Scooter, yeah, I thought what the writers did with him was pretty over the top. Although, I would like to see them keep some of the dorkiness they added to him, just to differentiate him from Walter a bit more. However, I thought in the TV show they made him a bit too naive. I think Scooter was always optimistic like the rest of the group, but I always thought he had just a slight more of a cynical edge to him and he was a bit more practical than many of the others. I mean, sure he was a bit nerdy, but the new show writers took it to the extreme, basically making him a completely different character.

 

[Mo Frackle]

Don't quote me on this, but I've heard that the writing suffered at least partially because of TV executive meddling.

 

[D'Snowth]

Again, I think the main problem with the writing was bringing in Simpsons writers. Simpsons and Muppets have completely different styles of humor, and you can't really expect to bring one style over to another and expect it to work well. Imagine if they tried to bring in Family Guy writers.

 

[D'Snowth]

The one TV movie that wasn't directed by Kirk Thatcher was KSY - that was directed by David Gumpel. It was also the one TV movie that didn't bring in "outside" writers, but rather, was written exclusively by Muppet writers (Jim Lewis and Joey Mazzarino).