My Version of Behind the Scenes of "The Muppet Movie"

[minor muppetz]

I think that everything that was shipped from New York or the UK was used in the film. Puppet historian Alan Cook was in the old New York shop at the time and tiold me "there were maybe 3 Muppets left in the whole place"-an exageration, but I don't think they would have shipped anything they wouldn't have used. There was one puppet used only in that film, and only for the finale however. They made up a puppet of the director James Frawley. You can see him right near Kermit at the end, and if you have the old People Magazine from that time, there is a great picture of Frawley holding the puppet.

Was Once Ernie mentioned in a thread once that he saw the James Frawlry Muppet but couldn't remember if he was in the finale or not. I remember seeing Kermit in front of Miss Piggy and Fozzie (I used to think he was between them, but on closer examination he is in front of the middle of them), and I know Rowlf was standing next to kermit, but I don't remember any unfamiliar characters standing close to Kermit. I'll have to check that out next time I watch that scene.

The '3 Muppets in the whole place" line was probably an exaggeration. I've read that most of the characters created in the late-1950s/ early 1960s weren't there.

A for the monsters, I didn't get to check out those particular puppets since they were part of the "Big Guys Group" (as it was called on the set), and isolated from us, but I would imagine that they are both one person puppets, since there was no time to co-ordinate manipulation with anyone else (Even Sesame Street's "Two-Headed Monster" was done by one person.). It might be that due to Behemoth's size the peformer could wear the figure on his/her shoulders, and use both hands to move the Mouths, but I think that both if not just Gorgon are basicly just very large hand puppets.

I am assuming that you are refferring to the finale, and not elsewhere, like I was refferrng to. I was talking about scenes where they might need to move their hands, if they had another performer moving both arms (like how Frank Oz normally performed both of the Swedish Chef's hands while Jim Henson performed the body).

 

[Tim]

I'm sure everyone switched off at times. I mean, if they used my arm to block a scene for lighting, then anyone could jump in just to get a shot done.

 

[minor muppetz]

They made up a puppet of the director James Frawley. You can see him right near Kermit at the end, and if you have the old People Magazine from that time, there is a great picture of Frawley holding the puppet.

Well, I just watched that scene two days ago (and I've started quite a few threads relating to The Muppet Movie since), and I looked for the james Frawlry Muppet, but couldn't find him. I kept replaying the scene, to see if I could see him near Kermit, but i didn't see him. I looked at everyone that was close to Kermit. Only recognizable Muppet Show characters.

 

[Tim]

I'll have to double-check the production shots I have, but if I remember, the puppet is just to the left and slightly behind the group of major Muppet characters. The puppet was lighter in color, and might be obscured by the rainbow scrim. Also, the camera move is pretty fast.

 

[Was Once Ernie]

You know, I have a sneaking suspicion that some people didn't hold their puppets up for every take. The girl who had Oscar was right behind me and I can't see Oscar in any of the pictures. Maybe "Jim Frawley" didn't make the take that was actually used.

 

[Tim]

I know I have (somewhere) one other production shot probably not taken turing an actual take, that I'm sure shows the puppet right near Kermit and th egang. A couple of more eBay auctions, and maybe I will unearth it!

 

[Fozzie Bear]

That had to be great fun working on that set. Did you and WasOnceErnie meet then, or only here at the boards?

 

[Tim]

Unfortunately, I only know "Ernie" online

I did some checking, anf the Jim Frawley puppet is actually down fron with the other major Muppets, just to the left of Sam Eagle, and directly in front of Bobby Benson' Babies. I'd post the photo, but it's one of those in-house copyright thngs.

 

[minor muppetz]

You said that you were on the set when the movie screening room scenes were being filmed. I've noticed that the first take in that room was a long take, with the camera moving in one take and many characters from the same performers talking at different times. I doubt that there would have been time for the performers to take their hands out of their characters and swithc characters before they had to speak (and it didn't look to me like any puppets were just laying there without performers operating them at any time). So my question is, do you remember if the dialogue for that scene was pre-recorded or if all performers performed the voices live on the set and the proper performers looped the voices later?

 

[Tim]

When Lynn Klugman walked me down to the set from the Muppet office, she had fully intended to introduce me to Jim, and than get back to work, leaving me on the stage. When we came up on the screening room set, we found everyone pressed into service under the scaled-down chairs each working a characters. We came up on Michael Frith standing nearby and when Lynn told me "Jim's under there somewhere..." Michael responded "EVERYONE'S underthere somewhere!"

For that shot, where Doglion tears out the seat, Muppeteers performed the most dominant of the their own characters, while the rest were lipsynced to pre-recorded dialog. Frank Oz for example was doing Piggy and his other characters all had recordings.

One funny thing, for the next shot, where Jim has Kermit enter Frank again was doing Piggy, but Sam had the line "Kermit..does this film have socially redeming values?". (That was the first time I ever actually saw Jim Henson in person-DOING Kermit live!) Frank pre-recorded that line half a dozen ways until they got one thy liked. I think it was a one-take (maybe two), but Kermit comes down the aisle, and does his exchange with Sam while the stage hands are off camera throwing popcorn and paper airplanes into the shot. Sure enough, one the planes gets caught in Sam's mounted wing during the take, and whoever was puppeteering Sam had him react. Kermit does his line "I dearly hope so Sam." then ad-libs "Sorry about that." and continues on with Piggy who was extra hyper since they knew they just struck gold. The director Jim Frawley litterally spun around on his heels at that moment knowing they got lightning in a bottle. At post, Frank had to loop that same line again, only adding a "gasp" to Sam's reaction to the plane.

A lot of work for one maginc moment.