Playhouse Muppet Videos

[Stulz]

could anybody please tell me what info was listed on the inside flaps? I can't even remember what was written on the inside flaps of the ones I have seen.

was it common for videos to have these kinds of flaps back when the videos were released?

Not it was not common. I have all insides scanned but I need soemone to host the images.

 

[minor muppetz]

Not it was not common. I have all insides scanned but I need soemone to host the images.

For awhile I wondered if maybe it was common on Playhouse Video releases. It's common for me to find videos from Playhouse in flea markets (though never the Muppet ones) and for the most part they don't, but the Fairie Tale Theater videos do.

I recently found images of the inside covers for Children's Songs and Stories and Country Music. It was hard to read the facts, but it looks like in Children's Songs and Stories it says that Scooter has never ridden a scooter, and that Rowlf is related to somebody. I saw the inside images at amazon (after doing google searches for the videos and looking at images).

 

[minor muppetz]

At one point in Gonzo Presents Muppet Weird Stuff, several Gonzo clips are shown in a row (including clips from the movies, every other clip). I recall that when most of those clips end and the next ones start, they cut to a shot of Gonzo watching them on TV, I think making some comments or observations. As I haven't seen it in a long time, it makes me wonder if Gonzo introduced all of these as his work or something.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I recently found images of the inside covers for Children's Songs and Stories and Country Music. It was hard to read the facts, but it looks like in Children's Songs and Stories it says that Scooter has never ridden a scooter, and that Rowlf is related to somebody. I saw the inside images at amazon (after doing google searches for the videos and looking at images).

I have Children's Songs and Stories. The inside cover says: "Few people know it, but...Scooter has never ridden a scooter in his life! No one has the faintest idea where he got his name!"

 

[minor muppetz]

Funny thing is that most of the trivia contradicted either things said on the show/ movies or what we know to be fact.

I remember reading this post when it was posted, and all these years I had misread/misremembered it as saying that most of the trivia contradicted things mentioned in the videos themselves. Which would have been funnier.

 

[minor muppetz]

Something has hit me recently... I've always known that later compilations lacked linking footage and guest star clips, and at least for the guest stars I wondered if it had to do with paying them... But something else I've kind of noticed: At the time these videos were made, videos were very expensive. Many classic animation VHS tapes (particularly from WB and Disney) seemed to be more aimed at collectors and historians in addition to kids, including many of the best-known most-important shorts and great packaging art, while in the 1990s it seems such videos were aimed at kids (though I've seen Jerry Beck mention in the late-1990s/early-2000s that companies releasing children's cartoon VHS tapes were aimed at soccer moms), with more double-dipping, more b-list or c-list (or lower) cartoons, lesser packaging (though I kind of like the art on the Disney Cartoon Classics covers), and in the case of Disney releases they usually only had three or four shorts while Warner Home Video and other companies included at least five cartoons per release.

And so I wonder if It's the Muppets and The Very Best of the Muppet Show were aimed at kids more than kids and adults. It wouldn't surprise me, and with that in mind I wouldn't be surprised if the makers of the videos figured kids wouldn't care about celebrity guests or, perhaps, original footage (when the It's the Muppets releases came out it had been a year since TNT dropped TMS and a year before Nickelodeon aired the show, and there were no "full" episodes on video yet).

 

[minor muppetz]

I was looking at the Internet Movie Database entry for Fozzie's Muppet Scrapbook, and it mentions that Beaker appears in it. Is this true? I haven't seen anything on Muppet Wiki on the subject... For the majority of Muppet Show compilation pages at IMDB it tends to only list performers and characters who appear in the original footage (though there are a few that list performers and characters only in archival footage, but otherwise the only "archive footage" people listed are the guest stars), and as far as I know Beaker doesn't appear in any of the clips on that video.

 

[minor muppetz]

Today I thought up a "what if" scenario regarding these releases: What if instead of them being compilations, they were video releases of 2-3 full episodes, but still had their titles?

This would have made a good selection:

The Muppet Review

• Juliet Prowse
• Rita Moreno
• Harry Belafonte

The Kermit and Piggy Story

• Avery Scrieber
• Marisa Berenson
• Loretta Switt

Children's Songs and Stories

• Lynn Redgrave
• Brooke Shields
• Marty Feldman

Rock Music with the Muppets

• Elton John
• Paul Simon
• Debbie Harry

Muppet Treasures

• Ethel Merman
• Madeline Kahn
• Gilda Radner

Muppet Weird Stuff

• Mummenshaz
• Glenda Jackson
• Melissa Manchester

Country Music with the Muppets

• Loretta Lynn
• Arlo Gutherie
• Johnny Cash

Fozzie's Muppet Scrapbook (though if it were a release of actual episodes the "scrapbook" part of the title wouldn't make much sense)

• Sandy Duncan
• Milton Berle
• Cleo Lane

Rowlf's Rhapsodies with the Muppets (but again, like the above entry, if this was a release of full episodes, it wouldn't make much sense to have Rowlf's name in the title, unless the videos still had original introductions)

• Julie Andrews
• Liberace
• Beverly Sills

Muppet Moments

• Bernadette Peters
• Stars of Star Wars
• Shirley Bassey

 

[minor muppetz]

I've done google searches for all of the videos, and found the inside covers of a few more videos. The inside cover for Rock Music with the Muppets says that Dr. Teeth has his name because he's never had a cavity, while the inside cover for The Kermit and Piggy Story says that Miss Piggy's first name is "Miss" while Kermit's middle name is "the". Gee, it seems a lot of these facts involve character names (Children's Songs and Stories mentions Scooter never riding a scooter).

And of the images I've found in recent memory, most of them begin with "Few people know it, but....", but I saw that in the inside cover for Rock Music, it starts with "Did you know....?"

And do all of the inside cover facts concern the hosts of the videos? Children's Songs and Stories and Country Music both concern the hosts, as opposed to the theme of the videos (Children's Songs and Stories very well could have had a fact about Robin). I remember that the inside cover fact for Muppet Weird Stuff has something to do with Gonzo and Camilla, and I remember the inside cover for either The Muppet Revue or Muppet Moments has a fact about Fozzie, maybe both Kermit and Fozzie.

I also find it interesting how although Beaker is the co-host of Rock Music with the Muppets, he's not pictured on the cover, his hosting duty is not mentioned on the back cover, and he's not mentioned in the inside fact (I didn't mention the lack of a back cover picture because I assume none of the back covers have pictures representing the linking footage). At least the coming attractions for the collection includes a clip with Dr. Teeth and Beaker from the linking footage.

 

[Stulz]

I've done google searches for all of the videos, and found the inside covers of a few more videos. The inside cover for Rock Music with the Muppets says that Dr. Teeth has his name because he's never had a cavity, while the inside cover for The Kermit and Piggy Story says that Miss Piggy's first name is "Miss" while Kermit's middle name is "the". Gee, it seems a lot of these facts involve character names (Children's Songs and Stories mentions Scooter never riding a scooter).

And of the images I've found in recent memory, most of them begin with "Few people know it, but....", but I saw that in the inside cover for Rock Music, it starts with "Did you know....?"

And do all of the inside cover facts concern the hosts of the videos? Children's Songs and Stories and Country Music both concern the hosts, as opposed to the theme of the videos (Children's Songs and Stories very well could have had a fact about Robin). I remember that the inside cover fact for Muppet Weird Stuff has something to do with Gonzo and Camilla, and I remember the inside cover for either The Muppet Revue or Muppet Moments has a fact about Fozzie, maybe both Kermit and Fozzie.

I also find it interesting how although Beaker is the co-host of Rock Music with the Muppets, he's not pictured on the cover, his hosting duty is not mentioned on the back cover, and he's not mentioned in the inside fact (I didn't mention the lack of a back cover picture because I assume none of the back covers have pictures representing the linking footage). At least the coming attractions for the collection includes a clip with Dr. Teeth and Beaker from the linking footage.

I have most of the original boxes, and I used the front and backs to when I transferred them to DVD.. most of the back photos DO represent the footage uses, although some use stills from The Muppet Movie to represent something. For instance "Rock Music" uses a pic of Floyd and Zoot from The Muppet Movie to represent the Electric Mayhem which was heavily featured in that video.