Mr. Johnson's seating arrangement

[minor muppetz]

I've recently noticed that in the 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Johnson always sat at a table in front of the doors at Charlie's Restaurant, but by the 1990s, he started sitting at a different table, closer to the wall to the right side of the door, and not in front.

Does anybody have any idea on whether there was a reason for this? Could there have been safety concerns involving sitting right in front of the kitchen doors?

It does make it a bit ironic that in the sketch where Grover keeps bumping into Mr. Johnson, Johnson didn't sit in front of the doors.

 

[D'Snowth]

Either that, or it might have something to do with the children's attention span in a way...

And by that I mean, sometimes educational research would turn up that children have a tendancy to pay more attention to certain parts of the screen than others (ala, the J in the animated segment from the original test pilot show couldn't be in the upper right-hand corner because kids don't look there apparently).

 

[dwmckim]

Hey, if YOU were Mr. Johnson and always got Grover as your waiter when you went to Charlie's Restaurant, after a while, wouldn't you try changing tables in hope it might mean the possibility of a different waiter serving you?

 

[minor muppetz]

Hey, if YOU were Mr. Johnson and always got Grover as your waiter when you went to Charlie's Restaurant, after a while, wouldn't you try changing tables in hope it might mean the possibility of a different waiter serving you?

Heck, going to different RESTAURANTS rarely give Mr. Johnson a different waiter.

I started noticing maybe a year or two ago that many 1990s sketches had Mr. Johnson sitting in a different area, and I kept thinking that the set was rebuilt. And I thought the wall was different (purple in some sketches, blue in others), but that could just be lighting, or maybe I'm subconciously seeing different colors. In the earlier ones I guess I didn't pay much attention to wall coloring besides the door.

I wonder if the extra walls are seperate set pieces or the same. Most of the waiter sketches where Mr. Johnson sits in front of the kitchen doors just show the front of the doors. I hadn't seen the singing and dancing waiter sketch in quite a while, but the extra wall is seen there (it's where the guitar player plays his guitar), though I think it's used as a lobby-type area. And I watched the relative birthday sketch on youtube, and that sketch actually shows a good view of the wall on the other side of the doors (both sides get good views in that sketch).

 

[minor muppetz]

I recently saw the "waiters memory" sketch, which is obviously from the 1980s, and I noticed that the table was in a slightly different spot in that sketch. It's not right in front of the door, but it's also not quite in the corner. It's the same in the "service bell" sketch, though that one used a different set.

 

[minor muppetz]

I started noticing maybe a year or two ago that many 1990s sketches had Mr. Johnson sitting in a different area, and I kept thinking that the set was rebuilt. And I thought the wall was different (purple in some sketches, blue in others), but that could just be lighting, or maybe I'm subconciously seeing different colors. In the earlier ones I guess I didn't pay much attention to wall coloring besides the door.

I wonder if the extra walls are seperate set pieces or the same. Most of the waiter sketches where Mr. Johnson sits in front of the kitchen doors just show the front of the doors. I hadn't seen the singing and dancing waiter sketch in quite a while, but the extra wall is seen there (it's where the guitar player plays his guitar), though I think it's used as a lobby-type area. And I watched the relative birthday sketch on youtube, and that sketch actually shows a good view of the wall on the other side of the doors (both sides get good views in that sketch).

After watching one of them again and looking at the area around the door, I can see that it IS a different set, though a little similar.

I also recently noticed that the "alphabet soup" sketch has a different colored door than in later sketches from the early years. It looks more reddish there. Odd that it was changed so soon.

I have noticed that the tablecloth and wall behind the door are often different, and those are more understandable (it is fun looking an dseeing if the kitchen room is a plain-colored background or a brick wall).