The International Muppet Show

[Twiddlebug]

Will the real Fat Blue Freddie Johnson please stand up?

 

[Twiddlebug]

Eyes

Hot Tub Sarah,
The eyes were on through the take and the break.

 

[sarah_yzma]

hmm so are the eyes a plastic? that's pretty much what they would have to be to melt in that amount of time. or a rubber maybe.....i don't know i think i am thinking wayyy to much about eyes.....

Sarah

 

[BlueFrackle]

Sarah,

I would think they are thin plastic, Because of weight and so that the light can shine through.

Twiddlebug ,

Hehehe !




Movin' and Groovin' !

 

[sarah_yzma]

you're probably right! sometimes i need to think things over before I ask!

Sarah

 

[Gorgon Heap]

Question for Twiddlebug

Twiddlebug-

I was wondering, do you mind if we ask you questions here? Would it be all right if one of us started a threat to chew the fat with ya? I have a couple of questions I was wondering if you could answer:

1) Who are some stars who you wished could've done The Muppet Show? Did you know of any who wanted to do the show but for whatever reason were never able to? (Elliott Gould springs to mind here, with his two movie cameos)

2) As you know, Muppet fans know a lot about the performers, but there are still some who are lesser-known: John Lovelady (never even seen a picture of this guy), Eren Ozker, Peter Friedman, Betsy Baytos, and Brian Muehl. I was wondering if you could share some of your memories of these colleagues of yours.

Thanks much. Take care and God bless.

David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole

 

[BlueFrackle]

Guys,

I think that i may have a picture of Peter Friedman or John Lovelady, The only thing is i dont know for sure...

Take a look and see -
http://www.angelfire.com/space/collect/Who.html

I also added the Top of The Pops Screen Grabs to the 'Halfway Down the Stairs' page -

http://www.angelfire.com/space/collect/Halfway.html


See ya

 

[Twiddlebug]

Questions

Some Guests I would like to have seen on TMS.
The Beatles come immediatly to mind. There were some talks with Paul or at least his Representative but his condition ( as I understand it ) was Wings and Linda had to appear also which our budget could not handle.George or Ringo wanted to do it, I was told, but for some reason they didn't. I think whomever was negotiating for Muppets didn't want to compromise the deal they were talking with Paul. I also always thought Soupy Sales would have been good.As it was, so many of my favorite stars were on the show, I didn't really have time to regret anyone not included.

The picture Warrick posted about is indeed John Lovelady, who I'm told has his own company on the West Coast.

Eren Osker was also an actress and I'm sad to say the world lost her to cancer some years ago.

I don't know anything about Peter Freidman other than he was more an actor than puppeteer.

Brian Muehl is a writer and I guess he is doing ok with that.Marty Robinson would know more about him and what he is doing now.

Betsy Baytos was only hired for several shows as a specialty dancer.Before coming to Muppets Betsy had been in "This Was Burlesque" and while with us she helped put together a Burlesque show that some of our company performed at a club in London.Richard Hunt was the Interlocuter and introduced the acts which were done by Betsy Baytos, Steve Whitmire, Kathy Mullin, Chris Langham, Louise Gold and myself. I think there were a couple of other people as well, oh yes and Jim Henson played the drums , punctuating the jokes with rim-shots. A great time was had by all.

 

[MuppetDanny]

Twiddlebug

Speaking of TMS, may I ask while you were making the show was there any scenes cut out of the episodes?

Just wondering

I made a thread about it some time ago.

MuppetDanny

 

[Gorgon Heap]

Twiddlebug

Wow, thanks for answering my questions! Quick supplemental:

Re: guest stars- were there any stars you worked with on the movies who wanted to do the show that you know of? The stars who cameoed in the movies but weren't on the show were the following (hope I can remember the list in it's entirety): Elliott Gould, Carol Kane, Telly Savalas, Orson Welles, Charles Durning, Robert Morley, Peter Falk (strangely uncredited in the movie), Jack Warden, Gregory Hines, Joan Rivers, Dabney Coleman, and Art Carney. Speaking of Art Carney, he worked with you guys in the Great Santa Claus Switch as well (he'd have been the only Best Actor Oscar winner on TMS had he guested on it). And of course Lily Tomlin was in the Muppets go to the Movies and Dick Van Dyke and Johnny Mathis took part in the party The Muppets Go Hollywood.

Okay, so the short question got a little long. Boils down to this: did any stars you worked with in other projects ever express interest in being on the show but never made it onto the show?

What were these rumors about a new children's show called "Uncle Deadly's House of Weirdness"? The rumor came out a year or two ago but so far obviously nothing has materialized. Can you shed any light on whether or not the project in development even exists? If so, this is wonderful news, as Uncle Deadly is a cult favorite with us Muppet fans and if brought back could probably gain a large following. He was such a cool character. I wish he had been kept on; he disappeared halfway through the 3rd season of TMS.

One other quick question- ever read any fan fiction on the forum or the site? (Most of it's on the forum). For fun some of us write outlines of Muppet Shows that never were; TravellingMatt, another member of the Michigan contingent, has written the most by far. Nobody has written a Soupy Sales outline, but there was a Paul McCartney one a while ago. Sometimes they're a bit anachronisitc as fans like to incorporate newer characters in, and Matt in particular likes having the Fraggles drop in on the Muppet theater (though he has yet to use my suggestion of having Traveling Matt exploring it )

Hope all is well. Take care.

David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole