Little things we've noticed

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Season 7 is the only one of the first 30 seasons to start in December instead of November.

 

[YellowYahooey]

Season 7 is the only one of the first 30 seasons to start in December instead of November.

The previous season, Season 6, premiered on November 4, 1974. It makes me wonder if a labor strike may have delayed tbe season 7 premiere by one month? Or was it due to the taping of the New Mexico episodes, which is far away from New York?

 

[YellowYahooey]

I noticed something about the segment "Hands count to 11". It was believed that they were Muppet hands based on the colors, but contrary to popular belief, they appear to be human hands wearing latex gloves whose colors bear strong resemblence to Muppets. The reason I believe this, is because a human hand has five fingers,, and doesn't a Muppet hand usually have just four fingers?

 

[SkyeFan]

I've noticed how in some books, the Two-Headed Monster would be illustrated with their heads on the opposite sides. I don't know if this was a result of the book illustrators having a reversed photograph of the character for a model and figuring that's what they really look like.

I've also found it interesting how in most book illustrations, as well, Oscar The Grouch would wear the lid of his trash can on his head, like a hat, rather than it being hinged on the back of the rim of his can. I guess this just looked more appealing in illustrated form, for a more cartoon-ish style.

I don't know if anyone else has ever noticed this, but it appears that the lavender AMs (both versions) were nowhere to be seen during season 1.
It wasn't until season 2 that those AMs made their debut. I always noticed how much of season 1, we don't get to see many good selections of color in many videotaped scenes. This was not just a result of the videotape, or even the studio cameras for that matter, that they were using during much of that season, but maybe due to the producers, directors, or even the Muppet designers and builders not focusing too much on the overall look of the show, but rather focusing on the show's curriculum, since that was more important during this first and "experimental" season. You can see how the Muppets lack appealing color choices in their design during the first year. Examples : Ernie has a maroon nose and an orange and purple striped shirt, Oscar is a flame orange color, pre-Grover is a dirt brown color (although this character existed sometime before the show), etc.

The Anything Muppets during season one are very limited in designs, features, and costumes.
During season 1, the most common AMs we see are -
- Fat blue father with balding brown (or black) hair and moustache, wearing a red, plaid vest w/tie (and usually no shirt or pants!)
- Tall orange mother with red hair and a pale green housewife dress
- Green boy with a yellow shirt w/ red stripes, and no hair
- Purple boy with short brown hair
- Small pink girl with yellow braids and pale blue checkered party dress (a.k.a. Betty Lou)
This limited variety was rather boring and monotonous. Thank goodness we start seeing more variety in season 2-onward. On many occasions, the Muppets that appear in certain segments would have to be dressed in costumes of such colors that can help them blend well together, especially with any necessary props, scenery and/or selected background color. During season 1, anytime they use illustrations (usually as part of some kind of game) we just see picture cards with simple line drawings without any color. That's also changed in season two. They start using illustrations with full detail, and rich, vibrant colors (created by whoever did that magnificent drawing of the Muppets in the apartment windows during the season 3-5 end credits).

I guess statistics proved that many children who viewed the show during season 1 watched it on a color TV set, more than those who viewed it on a black and white set. That's probably why the show starts looking more colorful and appealing during the second season.

 

[D'Snowth]

I've also found it interesting how in most book illustrations, as well, Oscar The Grouch would wear the lid of his trash can on his head, like a hat, rather than it being hinged on the back of the rim of his can.

I've mentioned this before, it's something that always really struck me as curious.

 

[YellowYahooey]

I've noticed how in some books, the Two-Headed Monster would be illustrated with their heads on the opposite sides. I don't know if this was a result of the book illustrators having a reversed photograph of the character for a model and figuring that's what they really look like.

I've also found it interesting how in most book illustrations, as well, Oscar The Grouch would wear the lid of his trash can on his head, like a hat, rather than it being hinged on the back of the rim of his can. I guess this just looked more appealing in illustrated form, for a more cartoon-ish style.

I don't know if anyone else has ever noticed this, but it appears that the lavender AMs (both versions) were nowhere to be seen during season 1.
It wasn't until season 2 that those AMs made their debut. I always noticed how much of season 1, we don't get to see many good selections of color in many videotaped scenes. This was not just a result of the videotape, or even the studio cameras for that matter, that they were using during much of that season, but maybe due to the producers, directors, or even the Muppet designers and builders not focusing too much on the overall look of the show, but rather focusing on the show's curriculum, since that was more important during this first and "experimental" season. You can see how the Muppets lack appealing color choices in their design during the first year. Examples : Ernie has a maroon nose and an orange and purple striped shirt, Oscar is a flame orange color, pre-Grover is a dirt brown color (although this character existed sometime before the show), etc.

The Anything Muppets during season one are very limited in designs, features, and costumes.
During season 1, the most common AMs we see are -
- Fat blue father with balding brown (or black) hair and moustache, wearing a red, plaid vest w/tie (and usually no shirt or pants!)
- Tall orange mother with red hair and a pale green housewife dress
- Green boy with a yellow shirt w/ red stripes, and no hair
- Purple boy with short brown hair
- Small pink girl with yellow braids and pale blue checkered party dress (a.k.a. Betty Lou)
This limited variety was rather boring and monotonous. Thank goodness we start seeing more variety in season 2-onward. On many occasions, the Muppets that appear in certain segments would have to be dressed in costumes of such colors that can help them blend well together, especially with any necessary props, scenery and/or selected background color. During season 1, anytime they use illustrations (usually as part of some kind of game) we just see picture cards with simple line drawings without any color. That's also changed in season two. They start using illustrations with full detail, and rich, vibrant colors (created by whoever did that magnificent drawing of the Muppets in the apartment windows during the season 3-5 end credits).

I guess statistics proved that many children who viewed the show during season 1 watched it on a color TV set, more than those who viewed it on a black and white set. That's probably why the show starts looking more colorful and appealing during the second season.

Just want to ask, was Herbert Birdsfoot the first lavender Anything Muppet character ever? I know he made his debut not long after the Season 2 premiere.

Count Von Count is perhaps the most visible lavender Anything Muppet character in the series, if it's the other kind with a built-in nose.

 

[SkyeFan]

I suppose Herbert Birdsfoot was indeed the first character made from the lavender AM, especially on account of the fact that both the character and the Anything Muppet design itself both debuted in season 2. It just make sense that this color AM would first be seen in the second season, since it seems as though the show's producers wanted everything to look nice for color TV (as I stated before, the first season was probably thought to be viewed more by children with black and white TV sets, but since the first run of the show was probably seen mostly on color TV sets, there was a lot more emphasis on making the show look presentable in color for the second season). You've got to admit, the lavender Anything Muppets' color just looks REALLY nice on brightly colored videotape. Cool contrasts of colors such as lavender, blue, purple, and green all look nice on videotape with rich tints due to the bright studio lighting. That's probably why Grover had to be re-made with rich royal blue fur instead of that yucky soil brown color the puppet was during the mid-60s-mid-1970. Let's not forget how Oscar was remade with bright green fur, instead of continuing into another season with that tacky bright orange fur.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Something that I noticed ( and was even highlighted in a recent ToughPigs article) is, starting about 1993 or so, the human characters started to feel less and less like people and more like kid show performers. Meaning, the performances and scripts made them increasingly hammy, and their personal lives became less important.

The only one who seems to have avoided that is Gina. Not only did she have a two year arc where she studied for and became a vet, but we also saw her adopt and raise a child. And just generally, the writers and Alison allowed her to be portrayed in a much more naturalistic way.

 

[D'Snowth]

Given that this was the era of SS that I grew up with, that actually never even really occured to me - even when watching Old School SS from the 70s and 80s, the only thing that really strikes me is that it seems like the human characters had more prominence on the street, but I suppose that could also be chalked up to the fact that the addition of more and more Muppets on the street was a gradual process.

But, I'll agree it makes sense, in a way . . . aside from Gina, and even Alan, we never really see the human characters actually do anything, well, grown-up . . . like, going to work, or having jobs, or anything like that . . . MADtv even lampshaded this in one of their SS sketches where the street was affected by the recession, and Keegan Michael Key's Gordon says, "Oh, I lost my job doing whatever it is I did before. . . ."

 

[Oscarfan]

I don't think anyone was really hammy during the 90s and 2000s other than Mike (I've gone on about this) and Ruthie (who was meant to be over the top). It really wasn't until like season 40-something that they really started yucking it up (specifically Alan and Chris).

That said, it certainly isn't something that happened recently. Look at these episodes and tell me the acting isn't "too much" (I'm mean, David crying over a ruined pot of soup?)