Little things we've noticed

[D'Snowth]

From the time that they began giving the Muppets fabric mouths with throats and tongues (as opposed to Jim painting them on like he did originally) up until about the mid-70s, Muppet tongues had the dial (line) go all the way down the middle of the tongue, then afterwards, the dial on the tongues only went down part way and have pretty much stayed that way since.

 

[minor muppetz]

Back in 2002, after looking at Jim Henson: The Works for the first time, I noticed that Kermit very rarely wears shoes, even when he's otherwise fully dressed (he did wear shows when appearing in a few parody roles in Muppet Magazine).

One of the few times he wore shoes was during the showdown scene in The Muppet Movie, where he's not fully dressed (the only other thing he wears is a cowboy hat).

But recently, I noticed another instance where he wears shoes that I never noticed before. In The Muppets Take Manhattan, he wears shows with his business suit when he thinks he's Phillip Phil (the shoes can be seen when the Muppets drag him to the theater as well as when Piggy karate chops him).

Also, I've always imagined that, during the "Right Where I Belong" number, the Muppets wear silver pants, or pants that matches their visible clothing, but Kermit seems to be wearing black pants. As they get ready, his business coat gets replaced with his suit for the number, but he's wearing the rest of what he was wearing, including the black pants. Unless he either changed pants off-screen before Manhattan Melodies started (or unless somebody changed his pants from below the camera and we just didn't see it).

I've also seen behind the scenes footage of them singing "Right Where I Belong" where Kermit is naked (I think he might be wearing his top hat) and the rest are in their outfits, but I don't know where that would have fit the movie, unless the scene was re-shot or it was just rehearsal footage. But in the comic book adaptation, before the number he takes off all his clothes from when he was "Phillip Phil" and performs naked while the rest are dressed up in their shiny tuxedos. That might have been hard or implausible for the movie (even for the Muppets, but Frank Oz did want to avoid a lot of wacky humor and make it more real).

 

[minor muppetz]

A running gag in The Muppets Take Manhattan is that Kermit would describe Manhattan Melodies and start breaking into the opening song before getting interrupted, the first time Janice is there to provide a guitar riff, making it sound a little more like a ragtime song, as Kermit sings "Look at me, here I am, right where I belong...."

But when we finally see them do the number on stage, the music is much more grand in style, and they're all singing together, making it "look at us, here we are...."

I guess you could say that the did change the script, which Kermit thought needed work, at least a little. Then again, considering when he starts singing it backstage the way he'd been singing it in earlier scenes, with the music a bit more serious than either the earlier ragtime renditions or the grand rendition that would occur on stage, combined with the fact that Kermit decided to let their friends be in the show right before it started, perhaps Kermit also decided that the rest of his friends would be singing the opening number with him as they entered the stage, necessitating a slight change in lyrics.

This could count as fridge brilliance or wild mans guessing at TV Tropes.

Of course, I'd like to see Kermit do a full performance of the song the way he had sung it to Martin Price and his secretary.

 

[minor muppetz]

Wow, I've had "Right Where I Belong" on my mind quite a bit lately, because I got a few more things I've noticed....

Kermit sings the song in the dressing room right before they go on stage and sing it, but by then there's a bit of a change in the lyrics. There's an entire verse changed. In the dressing room, he sings "I see that old face coming back to me like an old familiar song....", which is more appropriate for the scene (since Kermit has just gotten his memory back AND he's reunited with most of his friends), while on stage they sing "the curtain's up and the lights are bright and they're playing our old song..." Also, on stage the last verse ends a little sooner than it did backstage. Maybe Kermit decided on these changes just before they go on stage, or somebody did make the changes and Kermit was informed of the change before the curtain raised.

When they come across all their friends who are backstage, why are Bill, Gil, and Jill there? All the others came with the main characters as they traveled, but I don't know why those three would be there. The others didn't exactly befriend them while trying to cure Kermit's amnesia. Could they have decided, after Kermit was taken away, to inform Pete that some of his staff stole him and he explained things to them? Could they have just paid attention to the fact that they mentioned something about him doing a show that night (though they didn't say the title or theater... though again, they could have talked with Pete or Rizzo or someone and given the details, or maybe, with the mention of a show opening that night, Manhattan Melodies might have been the only show opening that night).

It's interesting that the rats were not among the friends backstage who Kermit decided to let on stage (unless maybe they were behind some characters or it's a rare case of them actually putting them to proper scale with the others, preventing them from being seen by the camera), though they do appear in the play.

And does Kermit, as just the shows star and writer, have the authority to just let all his friends appear in the play on such short notice? Wouldn't he need to talk with Ronnie or Bernard Crawford on the subject (though I can see Ronnie being okay with it)?

With the running gag of Kermit starting to sing the song only to be interrupted, it would have been appropriate if that was the song he sang before getting hit by a car, instead of Together Again (though in this case singing that song is a bit more appropriate since he's expecting to see his friends again soon). Like, Kermit could have sung as far as he had at other points only to be interrupted by a car instead of somebody stopping him from singing.

 

[D'Snowth]

I know I mentioned this in another thread long ago, but when it comes to weddings, one side of the sanctuary is usually reserved for friends of the bride, while the other side for friends of the groom. In MTM, the SS Muppets are sitting on Piggy's side, when it seems to me they'd be sitting on Kermit's side.

 

[minor muppetz]

Out of all the Muppet movies (not counting Muppets from Space), The Great Muppet Caper and The Muppets Take Manhattan seem to have the longest gaps between musical numbers.

The Great Muppet Caper doesn't have any songs between "Piggy's Fantasy" and the end credits, so almost the entire last 30 minutes are without songs. Though there is the "Muppet Fight Song", which is instrumental in the movie but I've read that it has lyrics on the soundtrack album (it'd be great if that was online to hear).

And The Muppets Take Manhattan barely has any songs during the last hour before Manhattan Melodies starts. Of course we do get three songs during the first half hour, then for the second half hour we get two songs ("Rat Scat" and "I'm Gonna Always Love You") but it still feels like a long time without songs, and then we don't get anything else until Manhattan Melodies starts, though it kinda makes up for it by having three back-to-back-to-back songs. I wonder if they had a limit on how many songs the movies could have (I feel the average Muppet movie has about eight original songs, which is more than the average Disney animated movie which seems to have five original songs, not counting reprises).

And the odd thing about this is that The Great Muppet Caper seems to be a callback to old musicials (did old musicals have long periods without a musical number?), and The Muppets Take Manhattan is about the Muppets trying to get a musical on Broadway.

 

[LittleJerry92]

I will actually admit,

It took me awhile to notice that the Swedish Chef's hands were real ones.

 

[cjd874]

I will actually admit,

It took me awhile to notice that the Swedish Chef's hands were real ones.

Speaking of which: I noticed that the Swedish Chef is one of three characters from the Muppet Show with five fingers. Kermit and Dr. Teeth are the other two; and coincidentally, all three Muppets were performed by Jim Henson.

 

[minor muppetz]

I will actually admit,

It took me awhile to notice that the Swedish Chef's hands were real ones.

I always noticed they looked real in his first scene in A Muppet Family Christmas, but otherwise it took years for me to realize that they usually are real.

 

[Whatnot1988]

As anyone ever noticed that the description of the Peter Sellers episode on Time Life's TBOTMS collection misnames the chiropractor sketch with Link Hogthrob as "(Sellers) plays a strange doctor on Veteranarian's Hospital..." I looked at the chiropractor sketch and the only similarity is in the sets. Now I can see why they were confused!