Little things we've noticed

[LittleJerry92]

You know, I have a very good feeling in all honesty that this segment was just filmed as an excuse to have Paul Simon and the Ladysmith band participate in “Put Down the Duckie.”

 

[MuppetSpot]

I heard when Paul Simon was on the show, Oscar insulted him and he was not amused.

 

[minor muppetz]

I assumed that all of the celebrities in that did appearances in season 19 (or maybe season 18, when the original came out), so I was surprised that all three of Danny DeVito’s appearances debuted in season 17 (well, one was produced then but premiered in season 18). Could they have really had him do a line of the song that early, before the original non-celebrity version premiered (and there doesn’t seem to be any hints or evidence that Put Down the Duckie was taped in season 17)?
Muppet Wiki points out celebrities in the segment who either otherwise did not appear on the show (do they know they did not do material that didn’t air?), or whom did appear but not that season, and doesn’t say anything in regards to Danny DeVito (or Rhea Perlman... I forget off-hand what season had her main guest appearance).

The first few of the celebrity montages featured actors as characters. This one has Yosh Schmenge, Edith Prickley, and Pee-wee Herman. I wonder if they were deliberately trying to get guests who had a character so they could put known characters in these (The Alphabet Song, with Lamb Chop, seems to be the last of the celebrity montages To include a character). I wish they’d allowed Kermit to be part of “Put Down the Duckie” in the 50th anniversary special so they could have that kind of cameo.

While the Sesame Street sets appear in these montages, the early ones seemed to avoid having regular Muppet characters make cameos, but then for the last two decades, many of them do include appearances by the Muppets, sometimes with a celebrity. I am trying to determine whether they’re better without all the Muppet cameos (just the lead singers being fine). Of course Monster in the Mirror has a brief appearance by Biff but I don’t think of that in the same league as the cameos. The revised edit of Put Down the Duckie does have a few Muppets in the celebrity cameos (including Ernie with Robert McNeil), all of which originated in the end credits for Sesame Street Special. But there it seems more fitting to have more Muppets be part of it than the insert does.

I wish there was info out there on the planning of the various pledge drive specials. Most of them include a celebrity montage (and in most cases they debuted in those), I wonder if the pledge drive specials were made for the sake of premiering these (well, putting them in prime time and having several celebrity-focused segments would bring in adult viewers). I also wonder if The Street We Live On, with the celebrity edit of Dance Myself to Sleep, was ever considered to be a pledge drive special, as opposed to just airing in regular prime time hours.

 

[D'Snowth]

Depending on the kind of AM Frank would perform, he seemed to love doing that Kermit face scrunch thing with them.

 

[cjd874]

Depending on the kind of AM Frank would perform, he seemed to love doing that Kermit face scrunch thing with them.

I've seen him do it with the Fat Blue, Little Pink, Green, and Large Lavender live-hand Muppets most often.

 

[LittleJerry92]

So I just noticed this alternate take of the Lefty carrots skit (which appears to have come from the HBO max release of 594) and..... did they seriously only do two takes for the first part of this skit? Seems kinda silly to leave off the last two:

 

[minor muppetz]

Recently when I watched the episode where Hooper's Store re-opens, at the end we just see Biff and Sully before Biff calls for Stella. And this was kind of done in "This Song's For the Birds", when Biff doesn't realize at first that Stella isn't there and he has to call for her. I wonder if that was a regular thing for Stella, her not showing up until Biff calls her name.

I also wonder if that's supposed to be a reference to the famous line from A Streetcar Named Desiree.

I should check Muppet Wiki and see if the Stella page says anything about it being a reference.

 

[D'Snowth]

I've seen him do it with the Fat Blue, Little Pink, Green, and Large Lavender live-hand Muppets most often.

And purple.

Then again, Caroll also had a tendancy to do it with the purple AM throughout Season 1 as well; purple seemed to have an especially flexible mouth.

 

[minor muppetz]

While watching Wet Paint recently, I only now notice that the keyboard player plays the instrument with his nose. And the keyboard player is a human AM, not a cow. I guess they were trying to make him cow-like.

 

[D'Snowth]

Nah.

In rock bands, it's not uncommon for keyboardists to bang their heads into their keyboards, not unlike guitarists who smash their guitars after a song. It's just one of those things.