Muppet First Impressions

[dwmckim]

Muppet First Impressions (childhood memories)

Okay, was watching season 1 of The Muppet Show and i had this total flashback that i hadn't thought about in ages about how when i was a kid watching this new show that had Muppets (but different ones that were on Sesame Street, even though Kermit was there), how intrigued i was by Scooter...for one thing his eyes reminded me of Spagetti-Os, and then there were those weird times when the original Scooter puppet would occasionally look full on into the camera and the light would hit the outer rims of his glasses and you'd see this white glare and it always kind of freaked me out! I also kinda liked how he gave Kermit a hard time because at that age Kermit also freaked me out just because i thought frogs were really yuchy and i always liked it when monsters on Sesame Street or what have you gave him a hard time.

So anyway, i thought it would be fun to create this thread dedicated to what you initially thought of the characters, especially when you were a little kid!

It took me the longest time to learn Fozzie's name was Fozzie and not Fonzie Bear (Happy Days was a totally iconic show then with The Fonz being the hero of schoolkids everywhere)...it took me ages to learn Gonzo's name - it frustrated me because i had this poster of The Muppet Show cast in my room and Gonzo was the only person whose name i didn't know...then when i finally caught on, i thought it was Gongzo because he would always be trying to hit the O in the Muppet Show logo like it was a gong in the first season opening theme (when the new theme debuted and Gonzo was not only no longer trying to hit the O but was inside it, i thought "Gonzo and the O made friends")

Likewise, of all the members of Electric Mayhem it took me the longest to learn Janice's name, so i always thought of her as "spagetti hair" since her hair reminded me of raw spaghetti noodles. Animal's nose reminded me of a red meatball so in the same band you had spagetti and meatballs!

Over to Sesame Street, while i loved the construction workers, it took me a while to learn their names - i learned Sully's first (since Biff did all the talking but Sully was mute, you heard Biff call Sully by his name much more often than you heard someone address Biff by his name), but of course at first i thought his name was "Silly" especially because he WAS silly and always made me laugh hysterically. Then when i learned Biff's name i though it was Biz, just like a popular dishwashing detergeant at the time - all the more so because i think one of the first times i heard it was when he was "helping" trying to fix one of the adult's washing machines which was of course unsuccessful and they would yell his name so of course putting two and two together i heard it as "Biz" So two of my fave Muppets were the classic duo of Biz and Silly!

Even though some Muppets may have freaked me out in kind of a weird fascinated by them kind of way like Kermit (who in addition to being a frog seemed to be a bit set apart from the others), the only Muppet i remember ever really being scared by was Herry-with-a-blue-nose. For one thing it always weirded me out when a Muppet would speak with a different voice or have something change on them...and seeing Herry's usually purple nose become fuzzy and blue was strange enough but when it DID happen he seemed meaner and more monster-ish so i used to have nightmares about opening a trashcan and having Herry pop out and chase me or come out of a dishwater bucket! (The idea of blue-nose Herry popping out of something was probably borne out of seeing him pop out of the present in the "First and Last" song) Also occasionally seeing Herry double as the Big Bad Wolf (where his nose would be replace by a bug blue snout) didn't help quell that fear either.

I fully admit to being one of those kids who could NOT sit down at a piano without head banging like Don Music! And when someone would finally encourage me to try to actually PLAY a piano and not bang my head on it i would pound a whole bunch of keys at once at which point my parents or babysitter would say "no, you hit one key at a time" to which i would say, "but that's not how Little Chrissy does it!"

Many times i'll read on threads like "what Sesame sketches scared you as a child" and people will mention the Martians...i wasn't really scared by them but it would freak me out that the blue one looked like Cookie Monster and i didn't understand why he was acting like he was.

I was totally FASCINATED by curtains as a kid not only thanks to those classic red tabs on the Muppet Show but also before that how on a lot of the game shows, Guy would appear emerging from a behind a curtain (and often missing the entrance and bumping into it a few times before finding the opening) and i would drive my parent CRAZY getting behind the window drapes and pretending i was Guy Smiley! And of course later when i had all the hand puppet versions of my Sesame and Muppet Show friends, i just COULDN'T play with my Muppet Show puppets without being near a window so Kermit could stand in front of curtains and they could open and close on each act! I also would constantly be playing with my Oscar puppet in the bathroom so i could use the clothes hamper for his garbage can (eventually my parents got me a little wastebasket just for my Oscar to be his trash can so i would stop doing that) I also remember being FASCINATED by the Waiter Grover sketches - not just because they were always fall-down-laughing FUNNY but because Grover would always run back and forth through the doors (to the kitchen where Charlie was) and i was so intrigued by those doors that were kind of like cardboard cutout looking doors instead of real ones...there was this cabinet in the kitched where things like breakfast cereal and stuff was stored and i always used to love to play Waiter Grover with that cabinet having him always going in and out of the cabinet doors yelling "Charlie, I need another hamburger" Then there was my Cookie Monster puppet that had the slit in his mouth so he could really eat stuff and OF COURSE i would always have to use real cookies and eat them myself after they disappeared down Cookie's throat!

Of course i was always fascinated by pinball machines because the flippers reminded me of Guy Smiley's eyebrows going up and down!

I loved Oscar and he was one of my favorites because he was always playing tricks on the humans (esp Bob who i really could not stand when i was a kid, if he was on without any Muppets around and would sing, i would cry "Yuchy song" and hide in the closet until it was over - David on the other hand i really liked, he reminded me of a big brother) but i was a little scared of ever meeting him in real life because i thought he'd probably try to throw a pie in my face...and i was scared of pies in the face when i was a kid because that was often a horrible indignity that would happen to people on kid shows and cartoons (because it was a mean thing to do to someone that was still kinda "not violent" because it didn't hurt) - i always saw it as this horrible punishment that happened to people on tv - and while i loved to see it happen to people i was terrified of ever having it happen to me - i thought maybe they were like really super hard to get off your face like it was glue or something and you'd have to go around a long time with it stuck to you (i didn't even like to eat pie except for pumpkin which i LOVED and didn't look like the cream pies on tv that people would get hit with). Course later on not only did i eventually get over that fear but also found i really loved to have pie fights with friends and think getting hit with a pie is a fun treat! On kind of a similar note, buckets of water being thrown at people had a similar freaky effect on me (and just the same, i later found i dearly loved water fights!) all the more so because of that one sketch were Luis would play a circus ringmaster showing before and after with the "Lovely Linda" as his assistant who he would put through several indignities (this is "Linda BEFORE jumping throught the hoop - BEFORE" with a freeze frame then "this is Linda AFTER jumping through the hoop") Well one of the last things they did was "This is Linda BEFORE getting hit with a bucket of water" and seeing water freeze framed was really freaky to me....not only that but at the end of the skit Linda has had enough and taps Luis on the shoulder and throws a bucket of water at him - and the WEIRD EXPRESSION ON HIS FACE after she did really freaked me out BIG TIME!

Loved loved LOVED Mahna Mahna as a kid though i thought maybe he was a caveman (he reminded me of Captain Caveman especially on the record of Every Body's Song, i thought the girls singing with him were like the teen girls that hung out with Captain Caveman). ANYTIME "Some of us are here" would come on, i would spend all day running around like i was part of the song - and anytime i passed someone, i would have to briefly stop and give an open mouth smile to them before proceeding like a lot of the Muppets would mug into the camera!


Wow - so many memories! Can't wait to hear some of yours!

 

[Barry Lee]

Ahhh when I was younger it was in the 1990's. So pretty much I was raised with the Muppets being on Nick Jr. I specifically remember seeing "Hey Cinderella!" thinking Mona & Lisa were the girl version of Beaker from TMS. They also had re-runs of The Muppet Show I remember watching the Milton Berle episode and seeing the opening number of "Ugly" and everytime a monster would pop up the screen i would JUMP! I had a Kermit doll that I called Mermie. Since Miss Piggy called Kermit "Kermie."

Now with Sesame Street I knew all the obscure characters when I was young, so I would pretend to be like Frazzle or Guy Smiley allll the time. I loved Big Bird and Bert, though I never liked Ernie or Elmo that much. But yes I did get a "Tickle-Me-Elmo" when I was little.

A specific sketch on Sesame Street scared the living daylights out of me. It had Whoopi Goldberg saying "WHOOOOPI!" Her dreads and voice scared me to the point of tears. I could always tell if any of the sketches on Sesame Street were old or new. Since I was young I somehow always prefered the older sketches versus the newer ones.

In our family we had a daily schedule, when I was in Preschool here's what it was: Go home, Watch Sesame Street, Eat dinner at six. Well my dad decided one day to take us out after pre-school. But I threw a HUGE fit throwing forks and such because I missed "Sesame Street" thats the ONLY time I had ever mis-behaved in a public place.

When I was little I always knew that Jim Henson wasn't alive. One of our family friend's died and we went over to the widow's house. I told the widow I was sorry about her loss BUT at LEAST her husband could MEET JIM HENSON! She still tells that story to this day.

I had an obsession with "Mahna Mahna" when I was in elementary school where I would RANDOMLY go to a child and scream out "MAH-NA-MAH-NA!" That turned out interesting. I was pretty bad because I would steal different muppet stuff from our school, because I loved them so much.

During pre-school I remember a big bin of records, of Sesame Street. I would stare at the longest time on the album covers, didnt want to listen to it, but I kept staring, being deaf of course didnt make me want to hear the records.

We would go to a house in Richmond, VA and I always DASHED to the cold chilly (scary) basement with marble floors to get out the old Fisher Price Sesame Street playset. That was a blast. They also had "Sesame Street Fever" where I constantly drew Grover doing John Travolta poses.

Whew.

 

[Super Scooter]

When I was very, very little, my parents had recorded The Great Muppet Caper off TV. That and a few of the Playhouse compilation videos were my introduction to the Muppets. I loved every minute of these, and The Great Muppet Caper is still my favorite Muppet movie... possibly my favorite movie. It was only after seeing those that I ever saw Sesame Street. I don't remember much from it other than Telly and Baby Bear. I would also fall asleep listening to Sesame Street records from the '70s, and so I knew characters that weren't even around anymore, for the most part.

I remember in kindergarten (around '92) I would tell all my friends that my favorite color was green. They would say, "I like green. Ninja Turtles are cool!" ... At the time, I couldn't tell them I had never seen Ninja Turtles, and that the real reason I liked the color green was because of Kermit the Frog. I told them I liked Ninja Turtles, and would fake my way through their Ninja Turtle play sessions. Today, I would have proudly stated that I like green because of Kermit, but at that time, I just HAD to fit in.

I also remember that my cousin gave me four Muppet toys around the same time. I had the Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo and Piggy stick puppets, without the sticks. I brought them to school every single day. I kept them safe in my backpack. Another kid at school saw them one day during recess, and convinced that burying them would be a fun game to play. All of a sudden, he took out a spade and started hacking away at the spot where I'd buried him. Once he'd gone, I dug up Kermit, and he had all of these cuts across his back. I was devestated, and started crying. I still have that Kermit, though the others have all gone missing.

I used to make little cardboard boxes for those stick puppets. I wrote "frog" on one, "bear" on another, and "whatever" on the other. I would then play out the scene from The Great Muppet Caper where Kermit, Fozzie and Gonzo get dropped from the plane in our bathtub. Sooooo much fun!

When I was nine, Muppet Treasure Island came out. It was the first and, until two years ago, only Muppet movie I had ever seen in the theater. I remember thinking how great it was, despite the fact that my mother thought it was too dark for kids (she still bought it on video for me when it came out). I also remember wondering why Statler didn't sound like Statler. Throughout my whole life, I knew Jim Henson wasn't alive. I didn't understand it fully, but I knew it. I also assumed something was wrong when I didn't see Scooter in the movie. I understood from the time I was about five (maybe even younger) that these were just puppets, and that there was a group of people operating them. I knew who Frank Oz and Caroll Spinney were, and for some reason, I remember knowing about Jerry Nelson. I remember seeing Richard Hunt's name in the credits for something, but I didn't really know who he was. I just remember finally learning why Statler didn't sound like Statler in that movie, and why Scooter wasn't there. Somehow, I knew while watching it that the person playing those characters must have died, but it wasn't until my parents got the internet that I actually knew for certain that Richard Hunt was gone.

I remember my mom saying Muppets Tonight was too adult.

One that will always stick with me was the night my first dog died. We had to put him to sleep because of him biting someone (something he'd never done before). I felt horrible, like it was all my fault. That night, a friend of ours gave me a video of Muppet Show episodes that they had recorded for me. That was the moment I became a hardcore Muppet fan. This was when I was thirteen, I think, and I started realizing the Muppets had always helped me through stuff like that. I had always liked the Muppets, but with that, I became obsessed. Not in a bad way, but recognizing the Muppets for all the good they do, and the fun I've always had watching them and playing with my own puppets.

 

[Beauregard]

I remember being a puppeteer with vague memories of Sesame Street and the Muppet movies...and I knew that when I grew up I'd meet Jim Henson.

So my first real Muppet memory was seeing that MTI was produced by Brian Henson and my parents telling me Jim had passed away...

 

[Super Scooter]

I also recall having seen something that my parents were watching on TV when Jim died. Some news report or something... I don't think it was The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson, because the image I remember wasn't shown in that. It was of Jim talking with Kermit over his shoulder. I think it would have been around the time of his death. That's one of my earliest memories of anything Muppet related, and a vague one at that.

It may have been when I was four, which would have put it about a year, maybe a little less, after he died. I remember thinking "How can Kermit be sitting on that guy's shoulder if he's the guy that plays him?" An odd question for a four year old to think, sure, but I know I said that before I was ever in school, and I started school at five. Like I said, I've always recognized that these characters weren't real, and yet, they were some how. I still feel that way. You know they're not real, but you can't help but believe.