Little things we've noticed

[MuppetSpot]

I think David Rudman is puppeteering the singer Louise Gold is voicing.

 

[Oscarfan]

Nah, that's distinctly Louise doing the puppetry.

 

[MuppetSpot]

Then why does it say on Muppet Wiki, she only provided the vocals?

 

[Oscarfan]

It says the lead vocals are done by her, not exclusively the vocals and nothing else.

 

[MuppetSpot]

I must’ve read it wrong, my apologies.

 

[D'Snowth]

I've noticed these different colored recycling bins beside Hooper's Store before.

 

[minor muppetz]

Not exactly sure whether this is the thread for what I'm going to bring up, but here goes.

I wonder if the Muppet segments were supposed to be repeated. I know that primarily the animated segments, particularly letter and number segments, were made with the intention of being shown in multiple episodes, like commercials. And in the first season, when each episode of the week was sponsored by the same letters and numbers, they'd at least repeat many of the film/animation segments throughout the week, but the Muppet segments didn't get that treatment (it was rare for the same Muppet segment to be shown twice in one episode, but I think I've found some examples on the wiki).

But recently, I was looking through Muppet Wiki's guides for the first few weeks, and it seems like it took a while before any Muppet inserts were repeated. Can't remember how long (maybe three or four weeks) or what the first Muppet insert was to be repeated in a later episode (of course I'm not counting the three crocodiles in Baker #3 or five monsters in Baker #5).

I'm sure Muppet inserts were always meant to be repeated, but now if I saw official word to the contrary I would not be surprised. Aside from it taking a bit of time before any Muppet segments were repeated (which, while I can't remember how long it took, wasn't really that long), the first season had a lot of Muppet inserts that ended with them introducing the next segment or began with them talking about (sometimes watching the end of) the previous segment, and the first season had a lot of multi-part segments (and with many cases where they introduced specific cartoons before the next part, making it a bit complicated to repeat a lot). I think a lot of the really long multi-part segments (especially ones that took four or five parts) were introduced in the first weeks of the show.

Of course I wonder if street scenes and segments with human cast members were intended on being repeated. I'm certain street scenes with celebrity guests (like James Earl Jones) were, but there are a lot of street scenes that weren't repeated (and a lot of them didn't tie in with a plot, so there's not really a reason not to), though with looking at many Muppet Wiki guides, it looks like there were a lot of cast segments that don't take place on the street that weren't repeated, like the many renditions of "One of These Things". And while they did take place on the street, the first season has a lot of scenes where the adults read an existing children's book, which all seem to have been meant to only show in one episode (I assume that might have more to do with the rights to include the book on the show, though inserts featuring existing songs were repeated in other episodes).

 

[minor muppetz]

In the past year, as I've learned of more segments Jim Henson did during his final season, it seems like Sesame Workshop has released very few of his final segments on home video or online.

Segments Jim Henson performed in that premiered during season 21:

• Kermit News: Old MacDonald's Health Farm
• Kermit News: The Amazing Mumford's big and small trick
• Kermit News: The Tortoise and the Hare rematch
• Kermit News: The Bird Family
• The Heart of a Frog
• I Wonder About the World Above Up There
• Don't Throw That Trash on the Ground
• Best Friends Blues
• Bert and Ernie: Heavy and light game
• Ernie and Bert's opposite game
• Cave Person Days: Taking out the trash
• Air with Guy Smiley
• Guy Smiley's audience goes to lunch

Out of all of those, back when sesamestreet.org had a lot of classic clips, only "the audience goes to lunch" and "Don't Throw That Trash on the Ground" were included (and I really don't know whether those are still on the site). In recent years, Sesame Workshop has uploaded I Wonder About the World Above Up There and News: The Bird Family on YouTube, but I think that's it when it comes to Sesame Workshop officially uploading material Jim Henson did.

And, at least in North America, none of this has been released on home video (the closest is a small clip from Mumford's big and small trick being included in the Sesame Street News montage in The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street). Kinda reminds me of being disappointed when 40 Years of Sunny Days didn't have any of Jim Henson's performances from season 21 (at the time there were only four segments I knew for sure were from that year, one I suspected, I also incorrectly suspected the Ernie and Cookie Monster "zero cookies" sketch was from that season, and I had wanted to know more about what sketches Henson performed in during his last year).

It's probably just a coincidence that so few of the segments made during Jim Henson's last year have been made available online (and pretty much none of it on video), but it is a shame, many of them are great, some underrated.

But wow, Henson had such a busy schedule, yet they were able to get him to do at least 13 segments in one year (not sure if Henson did any one-shot Anything Muppets that season), though I don't know if any were held over from previous seasons (there's some that I know I can rule out on being held over). And I had wondered for years if Henson and Frank Oz performed together on Sesame Street during seasons 19-21 (considering both had really busy schedules and might have had trouble being booked at the same time for the show, though in the "In Their Own Words" documentary Oz said that the two were scheduled to perform together on the show on the day Jim Henson died), and I now know that the two performed in at least three sketches that season.

 

[LittleJerry92]

I actually think Henson provided some backing vocals for the green Alphabeat in “Startin’ Kindergarten.”

 

[minor muppetz]

In addition to all those season 21 segments I listed that Jim Henson did, Muppet Wiki does list Ernie and Bert going to the movies to see "The Picnic" with a season 21 EKA, but looking at a wiki page from after its earliest known appearance, the wiki just lists it as an eka, not first, so it could have aired earlier (and I have been told that the scripts do indicate segments that debut in the episodes so it probably aired earlier).