Little things we've noticed

[minor muppetz]

Clifford not being with the band in MCC was perhaps due to the unavailability of Kevin Clash.

Well, Animal's the only member of the band who spoke in that movie, so Clifford could have been there and silent. But somehow I think he'd look out of place in The Muppet Christmas Carol (if Muppet Treasure Island came after the Pirates of the Carribian movies I could see him fitting in there).

 

[minor muppetz]

I was recently watching the UK spot from the Andy Williams episode (where Sam talks about his family life), and it seems that must have been shot during the Christopher Reeves episode. There are images of Superman backstage. Something tells me this was intended for that episode but for some reason shown in a later episode. Also watched "Sam's Song" (the UK spot from the Christopher Reeves episode), which begins in the part of backstage where those Superman pictures appear in the Andy Williams UK spot, and those Superman photos aren't there (instead there's pictures of a number of past guest stars).

Also noticed that in both UK spots, there's a black and white photo of Kermit from the original opening.

 

[Oscarfan]

I would say they were taped at the same time, considering there's a continuity thing involving the singing cheeses in the Andy Williams episode.

 

[Mo Frackle]

In "It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie", watch the Club Dot scene closely. When Daniel asks Kermit if he believes what he is seeing, and Kermit says that he is starting to, you can see Sal walking behind Daniel. He appears to carrying a tree and wearing a wig, and I'm assuming he had a scene in Club Dot that was cut. We get a better look at him in some of the behind the scenes footage.

 

[Nasubionna]

This may be old news, but I only just noticed while taking screencaps for drawing reference that Link's sergeant uniform from "Bear on Patrol", the patch on his left shoulder says "Macho Desk Sergeant". Ha!

Also noticed that during the "Last Dance" number from the Lesley Ann Warren show you can see a bit of Jim's arm (wearing what looks like a plaid flannel shirt) performing Link for a moment. While some might consider anytime you catch a glimpse of the puppeteer as a goof, I find it rather magical and endearing.

 

[minor muppetz]

Somebody recently uploaded Gonzo Presents Muppet Weird Stuff on YouTube, and there's something I noticed about one of the introductions. While Kermit is visiting and referring to Gonzo's "cultural" interests as weird, Gonzo tells Kermit that's he's always been very stubborn/dismissive of Gonzo's acts. This is followed by the Jabborwocky clip and then the clip where Gonzo tells Kermit about his dancing cheese act. Somehow, I wonder if the original intent may have been to have the dancing cheese scene follow that introduction, since in that clip Kermit clearly WASN'T interested in Gonzo's act, and then the editors chose to put another clip between those two scenes.

 

[minor muppetz]

Somebody recently uploaded Gonzo Presents Muppet Weird Stuff on YouTube, and there's something I noticed about one of the introductions. While Kermit is visiting and referring to Gonzo's "cultural" interests as weird, Gonzo tells Kermit that's he's always been very stubborn/dismissive of Gonzo's acts.

Rewatched the scene, and the actual quote is "Why have you always had such a stubborn resistance to art?" So Gonzo didn't directly say anything about his acts, but still, seems the clip of Gonzo trying to pitch his dancing cheese act should have immediately followed. Or the backstage scene that preceded the hypnotism act (since Gonzo had to have his hypnotised chickens force Kermit to make an introduction). Or some of the backstage scenes from the Charles Aznavour episode.

Does anybody else feel like the presence of the jugband during Roy Clark's Rocky Top number was there just so it wouldn't be a guest star-only segment? They appear, in different sides of the split screen, each getting replaced one-at-a-time by Roy Clark, and they only come back at the very end as the song ends. If this was any other variety show or music video (at least of the non-puppet variety), the guets star would have most likely have been the only one there. Interestingly, most of this performance is instrumental, with the lyrics only sung at the end. I remember, years before this, hearing an audio recording of Rocky Top, and thinking that it sounded like a Muppet jugband song... Sort of a waste to have most of it instrumental and not even have the jugband sing back-up.

 

[blackaerin]

While scavenging for "new look" Electric Mayhem pics for fanart references, I noticed that Zoot and Janice have matching bracelets.
Oh, and Nigel looks uncannily like a Fraggle. Wonder if he wraps his tail around his waist like a belt under that suit he always wears...

 

[minor muppetz]

Is it just me, or is Gonzo a bit more egotistical than usual in Gonzo Presents Muppet Weird Stuff (unfortunately, the person who uploaded it removed it recently)? He tries hard to hide the fact that he lives in a mansion, and he seems to have a number of self-congraduatory comments ("Naturally I need no introduction, but I am Gonzo the Great", "And now let's focus on a great artist - me!", "And now I'll show you some more of my great acts, but how does one condense such talent in such a small time frame? Well we will try"). I know on The Muppet Show he often pushed for his acts, sometimes needing to convince Kermit to put him on or defend his weird acts, but still...

I also noticed at the very end of Muppet Weird Stuff there's a credit saying that "The Muppet Show is a production of ITC/Henson Associates". That particular credit doesn't appear in the few other compilations that are on YouTube (which are among the first four, according to the promo). Interesting that that credit would be listed. And I thought ITC was just the original distributor of The Muppet Show.

And speaking of credits, those Playhouse videos start out listing video-speciffic credits and then Muppet Show credits (with "The Muppet Show" appearing before the show credits and a switch in credit color, I think from white to yellow). But even then, it lists the guest stars and the main 8 Muppet performers before The Muppet Show set of credits (I'm pretty sure that not all of the main performers were in linking footage... I'm pretty confident Jerry Nelson didn't perform in any). Not too big a deal, but it would have been great if the first set of credits listed the linking footage performers and then the performers from clips were listed, maybe even to see if any non-TMS performers performed in any of the linking footage. And the videos don't seem to say who wrote the linking material (though the credits do list Jerry Juhl as "Creative Consultant", I guess that means he was the writer... and a Jim Henson's Red Book post mentions that Henson and Juhl selected the clips).

And I may have mentioned this before, but it seems every compilation (Playhouse Video, It's the Muppets, and The Very Best of the Muppet Show) only list the same 8 Muppet performers (Henson, Oz, Nelson, Hunt, Goelz, Whitmire, Mullen, and Prell), even though they do include performances from other Muppet performers. Heck, I've noticed that the It's the Muppets videos limit material from season one, and for awhile I wonder if it was to avoid including anything John Lovelady and Eren Ozker performed in (to avoid paying residuals or avoid crediting, perhaps?).

And I've noticed that while not many season 1 segments are in the It's the Muppets videos, it seems to me like season 5 is underrepresented in the Playhouse videos. Maybe it's just me, but I know some of the videos have only a handful of clips from those seasons (The Muppet Revue only has two, Muppet Moments only has one, Muppet Weird Stuff and I think Rowlf's Rhapsodies only have three, and in both cases two of the three season 5 clips on those videos originated in the same episodes). Yeah, the season 5 closing theme is normally used, and some of them are heavier on season 5 material (The Kermit and Piggy Story, Children's Songs and Stories, Rock Music, and Country Music... Two of which feature multiple backstage plot scenes from season 5 episodes and the other two featuring multiple clips with the same guest stars). Maybe I'm overthinking this... I recently tried to count in my head how many season 5 episodes have scenes that appear in those compilations, and by my count the videos altogether include scenes from 19 out of 24 season 5 episodes, so if the season is underrepresented, it's not too badly udnerrepresented.

 

[minor muppetz]

I'd just recently talked about how the It's the Muppets videos hardly had any clips from the first season (though the UK versions have a few more), but then I looked at Muppet Wiki's pages for The Very Best of The Muppet Show, and noticed that season 1 clips, aside from Mahna Mahna, were pretty much non-existient in those releases. I wonder who was in charge of selecting clips for those videos. I wonder if it was people who didn't like the first season or what... The Very Best of the Muppet Show came out around the time Time-Life's "The Best of the Muppet Show" video collection came out, and only a handful of season one episodes were on those (and the "Very Best..." DVDs didn't include any season one episodes as bonuses). Though regarding the Time-Life releases, I wonder if the lack of season one had to do with music clearances being harder to obtain for many of that season's best episodes and they refused to release any episodes they had to cut (after all, season one is the only season on DVD to have edits).

The first season may not be the best (though it's one of my favorites) but that doesn't mean the first season heavily lacked great material worthy of a "best of" release. The first season has many great sketches I'm sure casual fans would like or be familiar with if they saw them... Muppet Labs: Gorilla Detector, Java, Hugga Wugga, Halfway Down the Stairs, Gonzo eating a tire, "the comedian's a bear!", Tenderly... I wouldn't be surprised if there were certain things they wanted to avoid in the compilations, like Richard Hunt as Miss Piggy (the Temptation number is the only such segment included in any compilation, and the intro for that includes an explanation for her different voice), Eren Ozker as Janice, and maybe John Lovelady as Crazy Harry... The last two aren't in any compilation (and I'm only counting vocal examples).

Looking at images of the Very Best of the Muppet Show covers, I noticed that most of them list at least one of the featured episodes. Volume 1 lists "the Elton John episode", volume 2 lists "the Roger Moore and Sylvester Stallone episodes"... and then volume 3 lists "includes the Wonder Woman episode". Yeah, it includes the Lynda Carter episode, but she didn't portray Wonder Woman in the episode.

Also, one of the bonus episodes on volume 2 is, as mentioned, the Sylvester Stallone episode... and yet two of the clips in the main program are from that episode.