Questions for Jim Lewis – September 30, 2009
From dwayne1115…
Did you help with putting together the Muppet Monopoly game? How did that come about, and how did you decide who was going to be where and whatnot?
Yes I did. The folks who do those games (on everything from the Beatles to your local NFL team) basically asked that we fill in the spaces and cards with characters, set-pieces and shtick that would be familiar to fans. We also got to help choose the game pieces as I recall. Then someone else figured out what went where and made it look good.
From BobthePizzaBoy…
Did you have anything to do with the DVD menus for The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island or was that Steve and Dave improvising?
I didn’t. I suspect it was Steve and Dave improvising. If I could take credit for it, I would. Unfortunately I cannot.
From Super Scooter…
... What's your favorite movie?
For drama, “The Godfather”. On the comedy front, I love “Arthur”. Musicals, I like “The Music Man”. Among many others.
But seriously, if you were a tree...?
Y’mean I’m not a tree?
But seriously, seriously, Jim-Joe, I have a Muppet Classic Theater question. How did the three Elvises come about? I mean, obviously it's a great play on "elves," but that's not really what I mean. Great Moments in Elvis History was one of my favorite bits on Muppets Tonight, and I guess I was just wondering about their origins. Why were there three and so on.
Bless you, bless you, bless you! I loved those MT bits, too.
Well, the origin is just what you imagined. I was researching classic tales we could twist for “Muppet Classic Theater” and I, of course, saw “The Elves and the Shoemaker”. Now you can’t look at the word “Elves” without seeing “Elvis”. And it snowballed from there. Such a natural extension that they’d be making blue suede shoes. And then Bill, Dave and Brian did those marvelous Elvises. Why three? I guess because three is the perfect comedy number (see Three Stooges, Marx Bros minus Zeppo, Ritz Brothers, etc) I’m glad you remember.
From Fluffets…
Did you write the bits on The Muppet Show DVD menus?
Yes! I sort of did. I helped set up the scenario, then as always they performers ran with it.
From theprawncracker…
Jim-bo Slice! (Sorry... UFC fighter Kimbo Slice was on Jimmy Fallon last night and I've gotten less than four hours of sleep... you can piece that together.)
I love that name “Kimbo Slice” I think I once bought a kimbo slicer on late night TV.
Were you at all involved with the fantastic Disney Park promos we're seeing with the Muppets? They just debuted online today and it's all so exciting and classic and awesome! Did you have a hand in it?
I helped early on to refine the concept somewhat, but the true genius (geniui….geniuses) is director Kirk Thatcher and the performers and workshop.
From TogetherAgain…
Hi Jim! TogetherAgain again. (I just like saying that.) I've been thinking a lot about Zoot lately. Why does he sleep so much? Is it just that he has trouble sleeping at night, and therefore has trouble being awake during the day? Or does he just really like sleep? And why saxophone? And does his saxophone have a name that we will probably never know because he never talks? And speaking of talking, is playing saxophone his way of communicating with the world?
You raise a good question: Why doesn’t Dave Goelz do one of these Ask Dave threads. I can answer none of your specific questions, but Dave thoroughly understands and is the character. When I’ve asked Dave to articulate these particulars about Zoot, Dave actually becomes Zoot and doesn’t say a thing. Which I guess is an answer in and of itself, and not a good one at that.
On a completely different subject, do you have any preference of what type of pen you use when writing with a pen, or will any pen do? And how on EARTH do I think of these questions? ...Wait... you probably don't know the answer to that one. ...Do you?
I know how you think of these questions; in much the same way that I answer them, without a whit of thought beforehand, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. It’s great just to let loose whatever is in your head. Usually, for me, I have to consider many variables and parameters to a scene or the needs of particular bit of writing, but here I can just ramble on and on, just as I’m doing right this minute.
As for pens, I usually write (or in this case ramble) on the computer, and before that on a typewriter. But when I do use a pen, it is ideally someone else’s that I can then pocket and bring home. Otherwise anything with ink will do.
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