The ask Jim Lewis thread is now open

[minor muppetz]

Before Jim Henson died, it was often common for Sesame Street Muppets to make cameo or crossover appearances in Muppet Show-related productions (especially during Henson's last few years of life, though none of them appeared on The Jim Henson Hour), but after Henson's death, very few crossovers happened (the only ones I know of are The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson, Jim Henson's memorial service (which probably shouldn't count a s a production), Muppetfest, and to a lesser extent the "We Are Family" video (that one featured characters from many childrens shows, so I question whether this one counts) and CNN Newstand: People Profiles: Sesame Street (characters from The Muppet Show and Sesame Street talked about Jim Henson during the documentary), and since Kermit was a regular on both shows I don't count any of his appearances on Sesame Street or related productions as crossovers). I know that now it would be difficult to have such crossovers, but The Jim Henson Company still owned the Sesame Street Muppets for ten whole years after Jim Henson's death, and The Muppets for four years longer. So is there any reason why there weren't as many crossovers after Jim Henson died? It would have been great if an epsidoe or two o Mupets Tonight had a cameo by a Sesame Street character or two.

 

[dwayne1115]

Wow that is cool im so glad you asked that cause i was thinking about that at work. i also wonder if any corssovers where ever writen. really good question.

 

[dwayne1115]

we need somthing to happen in here

 

[theprawncracker]

I agree... I was waiting for more questions before sending them to Jim... should I just go ahead and send them?

 

[dwayne1115]

sure i think about three whould be fine if you want you can make some more up. Im kind of suprised we havent really asked some qustions about some things. how about Piggy being a Diva or anything about Muppet Classic Theater, or even Muppet Magaizn. theres a lot of things we could tap into if we got creative.

 

[minor muppetz]

sure i think about three whould be fine if you want you can make some more up. Im kind of suprised we havent really asked some qustions about some things. how about Piggy being a Diva or anything about Muppet Classic Theater, or even Muppet Magaizn. theres a lot of things we could tap into if we got creative.

Yeah, there is one thing about Muppet Classic Theater that I think a lot of us fans have been wondering about. I already asked a question this round,t hough. Maybe next time, unless somebody beats me to it.

 

[Beauregard]

Go ahead and ask a second question, Muppet Minor (scratch that...reverse it). We need a variety of questions and there arn't a great many people asking.

Dwayne, I think that could be because we have already asked questions about many topics we care about (such as the Piggy and Kermit romance) and Jim's explained answers to those things, which makes more of the same style questions mute.

 

[minor muppetz]

Okay, heeeeeeeere goes my Muppet Classic Theater question.....

Muppet Classic Theater only had six recognisable characters (Kermit, Piggy, Gonzo, Rizzo, Fozzie, and Robin), and everybody else was either newly-created, a previous puppet reused as a new character, or a generic animal character (like the penguins and sheep). I did notice that Yolanda from The Muppets Take Manhattan was also used (and I think she was mentioned by name... I'll have to watch the special again). Was there any reason for the big lack of older, known characters? I would have liked it if the orchestra featured the usual Mupet Show orchestra (featuring Floyd, Animal, Rowlf, Zoot, Lips, Nigel, and sometimes Janice) rather than the penguin orchestra, and many of the crowd scenes could have easily featured Bunsen, Beaker, Lew Zealand, Beauregard, Bean Bunny, Sam the Eagle, Link Hogthrob (though I imagine that he would have been silent), Dr. Strangepork (he could have also portrayed Miss Piggy's father), Pops, and various Muppet monsters (I did see two frackles in the audience) (and in a perfect world, Digit and Leon from The Jim Henson Hour would have been in the special). Heck, I'm suprised that Statler and Waldorf weren't in the special (they had already been recast at the time). It's also too bad that there weren't any big backstage scenes (these could have easily featured some older characters like Beauregard). I know that Jim Henson and Richard Hunt were dead, which would be an explanation for the lack of their characters, but Frank, Jerry, Dave, and Steve were all stil active at the time. It was still a good special, but it was a bit sad to see so few old characters and so many new ones, especially in crowd scenes.

 

[theprawncracker]

Alright, I'm sending in the next batch with another question from myself...

Jim, was it a writing decision to begin including original-Muppet-sung songs in the Muppet movies? What with there being no original songs in "Muppets From Space", then bouncing back with "Everyone Matters" in "It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie", which was one of the best Muppet songs to date, in my opinion. I was also wondering why there was only one original song? Was it put in there to test the waters, so to speak? See if the public responded?

 

[SarahOnBway]

Okay, going off Ryan here, I have a question about songs:

When you're writing a show, like Muppet Classic Theater or It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, how much collaboration do you have with the songwriters? Do you write the movie with an "insert song here" place? Do they come to you with the song and you place it in the script? Or do you discuss with them the kind of song that's needed and then they go and write it?