• Welcome to the Muppet Central Forum!
    You are viewing our forum as a guest. Join our free community to post topics and start private conversations. Please contact us if you need help.
  • Christmas Music
    Our 24th annual Christmas Music Merrython is underway on Muppet Central Radio. Listen to the best Muppet Christmas music of all-time through December 25.
  • Macy's Thanksgiving Parade
    Let us know your thoughts on the Sesame Street appearance at the annual Macy's Parade.
  • Jim Henson Idea Man
    Remember the life. Honor the legacy. Inspire your soul. The new Jim Henson documentary "Idea Man" is now streaming exclusively on Disney+.
  • Back to the Rock Season 2
    Fraggle Rock Back to the Rock Season 2 has premiered on AppleTV+. Watch the anticipated new season and let us know your thoughts.
  • Bear arrives on Disney+
    The beloved series has been off the air for the past 15 years. Now all four seasons are finally available for a whole new generation.
  • Sam and Friends Book
    Read our review of the long-awaited book, "Sam and Friends - The Story of Jim Henson's First Television Show" by Muppet Historian Craig Shemin.

Should Walter be a main character in place of Rowlf and Scooter?

should Walter be a major muppet

  • yes

    Votes: 1 4.2%
  • no

    Votes: 23 95.8%

  • Total voters
    24
  • Poll closed .

Drtooth

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2002
Messages
31,717
Reaction score
6,710
Also they kinda knew that there was a fake Kermit because Kermit hired him in the first place.
 

Muppet Master

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2014
Messages
2,599
Reaction score
1,621
So after taking about twenty years out of the spotlight, and barely returning back, Rowlf and Scooter should be replaced by a random muppet, honestly he is so plain, and is nowhere near as funny as the other characters, in a movie they should keep him in the background, and give him one or two really funny lines to make the audience like him more than they do now, they mostly have mixed feelings.
 

Beakerfan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2004
Messages
3,136
Reaction score
100
Why on earth would Scooter and Rowlf be replaced? Yikes man. I mean, yeah they haven't had much screen time lately but you can't replace a staple character like that. Walter is a nice character, but the fact is that he will never have the following that the other two have. Besides, I think it would be a dishonor to Jim and Richard to do so...
 

charlietheowl

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2011
Messages
2,752
Reaction score
1,810
I don't think any characters need to be replaced, nor do I think Walter and Constantine have to go away. There's no reason the Muppets can't have a large stable of characters for any new project, it allows for more freedom when it comes to plotlines and ideas.

Would I like to see Walter take a little step back for Rowlf or Scooter? Yes, but I understand Disney wanting him to be front and center because he's "their" Muppet.
 

BlakeConor14

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2015
Messages
1,908
Reaction score
1,044
Beakerfan I was asking that because rowlf and scooter are my favourites so I don't want waltdo taking their place
 

Drtooth

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2002
Messages
31,717
Reaction score
6,710
Oh dear. Let's not discuss Most Wanted on ere. >_< that movie is highly mean spirited and everyone except Animal seems to have been given the idiot ball. I mean HOW long have these guys been together that they can't tell a bad imposter from the real deal? Plus everyone just seemed rather... not themselves in the film.
(facepalm)

Seriously? You get that it was supposed to be a joke, right? It's supposed to be completely idiotic and illogical because it's making fun of that stupid cliche. The movie was full of winks and nods. In fact, I've seen that sort of thing done even more idiot ball-y. Remember the Powerpuff Girls where three huge muscular guys were in bad PPG costumes and beat the crap out of the Mayor, and even he didn't know the... no... even the PPG themselves didn't know the difference at some point. Parody of a bad cliche, just like here. If they knew it was Constantine, the movie would be like, five minutes long. Questioning the logic of that is like questioning the logic of making the same exact space station with the same exact flaw in it that causes it to explode violently when someone shoots something into it.

That sort of thing reminds me of the King of Queens episode where Arthur didn't enjoy a movie because the entire plot of the movie could have been resolved by having them call ahead. Plot happens at the risk of logic.

Plus, quite honestly, nothing's more mean spirited than the time they turned Piggy into a dominatrix singing about how gruesomely she's going to kill someone. Yeah, I Muppet Godwin's Lawed this son of a gun and mentioned MWOO. That film was far more disgusting than the characters being stupid/selfish.

Why on earth would Scooter and Rowlf be replaced? Yikes man. I mean, yeah they haven't had much screen time lately but you can't replace a staple character like that.
Exactly my point. Scooter and Rowlf were pulled essentially out of thin air to add the obligatory nostalgia complaint. Both characters just came back and have been more prominent in recent years. I don't see why now there's a complaint about them when they've actually appeared. Remember in MFS when Rowlf grunted and Scooter had one line about t-shirts and how incredibly amazing that was? The fact of the matter is, it took until VMX to really get the classic characters back and we've lost more newer characters than older ones.
 

Iscah

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2014
Messages
112
Reaction score
57
Also they kinda knew that there was a fake Kermit because Kermit hired him in the first place.
Not at the beginning. It wasn't until the end of chapter 2 that Scooter tried to reveal the fake Kermit only for the real one to go "yeah, actually I hired him"...
 

minor muppetz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2005
Messages
16,073
Reaction score
2,660
I had mentioned how Rizzo and Pepe seemed to fill Rowlf and Scooter's spots in the "main six" (or "main seven", if you want to include Animal among them and/or consider Animal to have been a more major character than any of them), but at the same time, both are so different from Rowlf and Scooter. Rowlf and Scooter are pretty much "straight man" types (even if Rowlf does deliver his share of puns), while Rizzo and Pepe seem more like "comical" types. The four of them can have a conversation (though Bill Baretta has two characters in that grouping) without the interaction feeling odd.

In fact before Scooter was retired, Scooter did interact a bit with Rizzo in The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson and Muppet Vision 3D. Who knows, if Richard Hunt didn't die so young, we might have seen Scooter and Rizzo as a duo instead of Gonzo and Rizzo. Rizzo's job on Muppets Tonight was pretty much the same as Scooter's, and it seemed like Rizzo was Scooter's assistant in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie.

I wonder if it would be funny if in a future production, Walter is not only "The Generic Guy", but his "role" as generic guy gets lampshaded in every scene he's in.
 

Drtooth

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2002
Messages
31,717
Reaction score
6,710
Either way I DON'T hate walter. He's adorable and all but he seems to basically be a self insert. As for Rowlf and scooter I would have liked to see more parts for them and dr. teeth as well.
To be honest, TM and MMW had more of those characters than we have seen in years. And I really think we've had that since VMX. I really hope that whatever the next project is the Mayhem band gets their own song. I just keep thinking back to their silent appearances since MCC. I mean, the one that doesn't talk actually talks more than anyone else.

I never understood the odd semi-Rowlf retirement phase. He had that whole big sequence in the making of the Weezer video only to be back to two word lines until... I wanna say LTS, but I think it wasn't until the viral video with the dog on the skateboard he actually said multiple things. Scooter we've seen since MFS with an expanded role since VMX, and the only problem there was the lack of a constant recast. Still baffled why it took so long to recast him with David Rudman who was recast previous Hunt roles. And let's face it. Baby Bear totally would have been a Richard Hunt character.

Funny thing. I remember when MWOO was first announced everyone was complaining about how Pepe somehow replaced Rowlf as Toto because Rowlf's a dog and therefore should have been the dog. Rowlf wouldn't have worked in the role of a yappy dog. Foofoo maybe, but not Rowlf. I hate the term "replacing" because the only real time anyone was "replaced" was MT. But that was before Richard, Jim, and Frank's characters were officially recast, so there were huge holes in the troupe. Frank did appear from time to time, but his characters were uncommon. I'd say that whole era up until VMX, Gonzo and Rizzo pretty much had to carry the franchise, along with newer characters.
 

CensoredAlso

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2002
Messages
13,453
Reaction score
2,291
maybe the film WAS spoofing the stuff but I still did not find it enjoyable. It felt extremely mean spirited to me. That's just my opinion. You don't have to agree.
It's OK, you're not alone in that opinion, lol. The Muppets had already done a Kermit impostor plot on Muppet Show (when the pigs took over) and did it correctly where Piggy knows he's not really Kermit but goes along with it for the sake of her career. That is Muppet humor. And frankly, I don't believe for a minute that the writers (who just seemed to be hired guns) intent was to spoof the impostor cliche. I think they honestly thought that was a typical Muppet joke. And even if they were trying to do an impostor cliche spoof, why? It's not exactly a beloved film genre like the jewel heist in Caper. It's a dinky plot device from the seventh year of a TV sitcom, lol. And bottom line, even if their intent was to spoof, as you say, it doesn't come off that way. It just made me embarrassed for the non-Kermit characters. It was uncomfortable and I would have left the theater if my friend hadn't been there. The Muppets are gently insane, not frustratingly stupid, lol.

....Oh boy, now we're really asking for it, Ladywarrior, lol. :wink:
 
Last edited:
Top