Little things we've noticed

[jobi71]

According to Jim Henson: The Works, Henson loved playing "dumb, pompous characters like Link Hogthrob. He gave them just the right pontificating voices and smug yet confused facial expressions." (page 102)
To me, Link Hogthrob is the only example of that. I can't recall any of Jim's other characters from Fraggle Rock, TMS, SS, or LOG (Land of Gorch) that fit the description.

These are not exact matches to the description but The Newsman (especially in season 2 onward when he became a bit more animated) was a very serious important newsman who had the rug pulled out from under him with the puchline to each newsflash. And the Twiddlebug Dad certainly was very confused most of the time. As I said neither character reaches the heights of Link, but there are some traces there. Also, I think it was Brian Henson who mentioned that when Jim carved a turkey or did something important he would use a voice similar to Link's. So maybe the voice was a go to voice when hanging out with family and friends?

 

[minor muppetz]

Interesting thing I just recently noticed about Kermit's three part plan in The Muppets Take Manhattan: the two parts we see in action both end in failure while Kermit seems to give up before getting to the third part which we never hear of, but of the two failures we see, Kermit is unaware of the first one's failure but is very aware of the second failure. In fact he is down after that and considers not doing the third plan, but he didn't know that the script he gave to the theater agent wasn't being shopped around (or would the lack of hearing from producers have indicated that?).

 

[cjd874]

Richard Hunt played TWO short-lived canteen workers on the Muppet Show: Gladys and Winny.

 

[minor muppetz]

Today I've noticed that in the few times when a Muppet Show guest star appeared as one of their signature characters, they appeared as such backstage as opposed to on-stage.

Peter Sellers appeared as Inspector Clousea in his dressing room cold open, and Gilda Radner was Emily Litella in her dressing room cold open. Neither actually appeared as the character on stage (though Sellers was presented as being unable to really be himself, even when not performing).

And then there's Carol Burnett's janitor character, who actually did appear on-stage, but was presented as a different person from Carol.

 

[jobi71]

Today I've noticed that in the few times when a Muppet Show guest star appeared as one of their signature characters, they appeared as such backstage as opposed to on-stage.

Peter Sellers appeared as Inspector Clousea in his dressing room cold open, and Gilda Radner was Emily Litella in her dressing room cold open. Neither actually appeared as the character on stage (though Sellers was presented as being unable to really be himself, even when not performing).

And then there's Carol Burnett's janitor character, who actually did appear on-stage, but was presented as a different person from Carol.

Another exception is The Star Wars episode. Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels appear both on and off stage as Luke and C3PO and Peter Mayhew on stage as Chewbacca. These next two might be splitting hairs but both Edgar Begen and Senor Wences perform characters they are known for onstage. Granted the characters are puppets.

 

[minor muppetz]

Another exception is The Star Wars episode. Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels appear both on and off stage as Luke and C3PO and Peter Mayhew on stage as Chewbacca. These next two might be splitting hairs but both Edgar Begen and Senor Wences perform characters they are known for onstage. Granted the characters are puppets.

I wasn't really counting the Star Wars characters, but it seems like Mark Hamil and Carol Burnett are the only guest stars to play characters who are separate from them (as opposed to characters they play on stage while in the episode context they are playing themselves) in addition to themselves.

I feel like Edgar Bergan's dummies are treated more like they are "real" in the Muppet universe than Senor Wences' puppets/dummies. Bergan had his dummies backstage interacting with the Muppets (but they didn't appear without Bergan) while Wences' characters were only on stage, and the Muppets constantly acknowledged him as a puppeteer/ventriloquist, while with Bergan, I don't think they ever really directly said what his talent was (when Fozzie talks with Edgar about his act, he says he's "doing an act like [his]" rather than flat-out call it ventriloquism, though when Fozzie struggles Kermit does tell him something important "about how ventriloquism works").

 

[minor muppetz]

Previously, I was thinking Mark Hamil and Carol Burnett were the only guest stars who appeared as both themselves and a character, with the two presented as two separate characters (as opposed to them playing themselves as a character in a sketch), but now I remember that John Denver appeared as both himself and his grandmother, with his grandma apparently in a different room at the same time he was in his room.

And Leo Sayer appeared as both himself and a mime, with the two shown on stage at the same time, though that seems more like it's his imagination.

And after Roy Clark's opening number, we see him pass backstage three or four times, as if there are three or four of him. Don't know if that should count.

 

[Muppet Master]

Rewatching The Muppet Show and it appears that there are 3 episodes where the show begins backstage

S1E20: Valerie Harper [Kermit confronts George the Janitor and Valerie auditions for Kermit]
S2E13: Rudolph Nureyev [Sam the Eagle inspects Kermit, Robin, and Scooter to ensure everyone is "dignified" before the guest arrives]
S3E09: Liberace [Kermit tells everyone in the canteen to be on their best behavior because Liberace is the guest]

I actually really enjoyed when the show began like this as it was a refreshing change of pace and keep things engaging.

 

[minor muppetz]

I don't think this was intentional, but in thinking about The Muppets Take Manhattan, it seems like with Kermit having all his friends be in Manhattan Melodies, they really saved money by not having to hire a casting director or auditioning actors (did they audition an understudy for Kermit?).

Could have made for an interesting angle, if the producers didn't want to just cast all of Kermit's friends. Ronnie Crawford clearly doesn't have a problem with it, Bernard Crawford asks Kermit who will be starring in it as if it's all up to Kermit, and of course in scamming them Martin Price seemed fine with the idea of casting them all as opposed to big-name stars. They could have had a producer be interested but didn't like all of Kermit's friends in the roles and Kermit could have demanded they either hire them all or not get the musical, or he could have given in to the producers decision and fired whoever (I guess it would have been Fozzie or Miss Piggy if they only wanted to keep one of them from being part of the show).

 

[D'Snowth]

In Bunny Picnic, the farmer was so allergic to the bunnies, that apparently his grand master plan was to have them captured so he could make them into a stew . . . but, wouldn't that potentially be fatal to him if he consumed the very thing he was allergic to? Granted, maybe it's just their hair/dander he's allergic to, and not necessarily rabbit meat or anything, but still, looking back on it as an adult, it strikes me as kind of a bone-headed plan.

On the other hand, the farmer was one of Marty Robinson's very few non-Sesame Muppet roles, and he was absolutely fantastic.