The Jim Henson Hour Appreciation Thread

[RedPiggy]

Thanks to this thread, I had a really weird dream of a Muppet sequel to the movie where they find a newly rebuilt (and more hot than cyber zombie) Digit. Thanks a lot, LOL.

Still, I admire what JHH tried to do. It has an important part, IMHO, in the evolution of humor from the early days to things like Dinosaurs and Farscape.

 

[Scooterforever]

Thanks to this thread, I had a really weird dream of a Muppet sequel to the movie where they find a newly rebuilt (and more hot than cyber zombie) Digit. Thanks a lot, LOL.

Still, I admire what JHH tried to do. It has an important part, IMHO, in the evolution of humor from the early days to things like Dinosaurs and Farscape.

I'd love to see Digit in the next Muppet movie. He was sort of like TJHH's Scooter in many ways, acting as Kermit's right-hand man.

 

[Xerus]

When I first saw the Jim Henson Hour, I was disappointed that the only familiar Muppets I recognized were Kermit, Gonzo, and Link. But as I watched more episodes, I fell in love with the show. I especially liked how in the beginnings where it showed Muppet characters in the 9 main screens and it showed who performed who. Like Dave Goelz as Digit, Steve Whitmire as Bean, and Jim Henson as Kermit would appear in the center square. But sometimes it would show Jim Henson as Rowlf or Link in another square.

Besides the guest stars, MuppeTelevision would have other human characters too. Like Chris Langham playing multiple parts, or Muppeteers Camille Bonora and Dan Redican playing live action people. And of course, there are the live action couple playing the dolls, Brad and Bootsie. With the live action girl who plays with them.

When I didn't see any more Jim Henson Hour episodes, I wondered if it would come back. But then they aired The Muppets at Walt Disneyworld, and JHH characters Bean and Clifford had become regular characters. And Waldo appeared in The Muppetvision 3-D show in Disneyworld. And Digit made a surprise appearance in the Muppet Party Cruise video game.

 

[Zeliboba]

I'm watching this show on youtube now (it's a pity it isn't available elsewhere, except for a few specials like Dog City that were released on DVD), I have yet to see about 5-6 episodes out of 12, but I'm really enjoying it. Love the experimental nature of the show, love the creature gimmicks (that lion! wow!!! the best-looking lion ever!) and the new characters (Digit is probably my favorite of them), love the humour, the guest stars and the stories in the specials.
It's definitely not on the same level as the classic Muppet Show, but way better than The Muppets Tonight (which is also not bad, by the way, it has its moments).

Considering all that it's really sad the Jim Henson Hour was cancelled due to low ratings and is now mostly forgotten

 

[Scooterforever]

I'm watching this show on youtube now (it's a pity it isn't available elsewhere, except for a few specials like Dog City that were released on DVD), I have yet to see about 5-6 episodes out of 12, but I'm really enjoying it. Love the experimental nature of the show, love the creature gimmicks (that lion! wow!!! the best-looking lion ever!) and the new characters (Digit is probably my favorite of them), love the humour, the guest stars and the stories in the specials.
It's definitely not on the same level as the classic Muppet Show, but way better than The Muppets Tonight (which is also not bad, by the way, it has its moments).

Considering all that it's really sad the Jim Henson Hour was cancelled due to low ratings and is now mostly forgotten

I thought there were maybe 1 or 2 solid episodes of MT. The only one I really loved was the Rick Moranis episode, because he seemed like such a perfect host. I believe JHH was by far the better of the two; both the Muppet Central segments and the weekly specials were more often than not fantastic. Plus JHH had the benefit of Henson's actual involvement.

 

[LinkLady77]

I loved The Jim Henson Hour! You can see reruns of them on youtube now (including the lost episodes that only aired in the UK!), I like how they poked fun at the fact that the show had low ratings. The new characters like Leon and Clifford also worked well with the classic Muppet characters.

 

[muppfozz]

Oh yeah I know! And just a couple days ago I was watching "Secrets of the Muppets" and my Mother was walking by and said, "Is that a real l lion?" Lol

That Lion is wonderful. So life like and just amazing to watch. I think I read where Brian Henson worked him but I am not sure.

 

[minor muppetz]

For a long time I thought the Food episode might have been the first one, then I learned that the one with Bobby McFerrin (officially titled "First Show") was the first. Mainly because of the band being a bit different and an article from Muppet Magazine depicted the band that way, but since Solid Foam wasn't involved in the "First Show", maybe "Food" was the second or third produced and then they decided to change Solid Foam to all-original characters.

Another thing of interest is that "First Show" and "Food" are the only episodes with the Gorilla Television crew and the "Hurting Something" segments, and the only MuppeTelevison ones with Camille Bonora. It's interesting how Gorilla Television was only involved in those two episodes, yet Zondra and Ubu were featured in a lot of promotional images, as if they were intended to be main characters. So I wonder if they were quickly dropped. Sure, it could just be because the show was canceled and they didn't have time to develop everybody, but there were 8 half-hour episodes produced. Surely they could have made it to another episode or two.

 

[Oscarfan]

Another thing of interest is that "First Show" and "Food" are the only episodes with the Gorilla Television crew and the "Hurting Something" segments, and the only MuppeTelevison ones with Camille Bonora. It's interesting how Gorilla Television was only involved in those two episodes, yet Zondra and Ubu were featured in a lot of promotional images, as if they were intended to be main characters. So I wonder if they were quickly dropped. Sure, it could just be because the show was canceled and they didn't have time to develop everybody, but there were 8 half-hour episodes produced. Surely they could have made it to another episode or two.

Usually, sketch comedy shows only two of certain recurring segment a season. Like, Stefon shows up twice a season on SNL, as did the Celebrity Jeopardy bits. Sesame Street usually filmed a couple more than that, what with the amount of material they needed.

 

[minor muppetz]

Usually, sketch comedy shows only two of certain recurring segment a season. Like, Stefon shows up twice a season on SNL, as did the Celebrity Jeopardy bits. Sesame Street usually filmed a couple more than that, what with the amount of material they needed.

I thought that recurring segments often had many installments per season. Okay, so all recurring segments from JHH (Hurting Something and Merlin MD) only had two each (while Bootsy and Brad, the non-Muppet segment, got a few more???), and most of the recurring segments on Muppets Tonight only barely got a few more in the whole run. But most of the recurring segments from The Muppet Show appeared many times a season. So Bear on Patrol only got three segments it's initial season (one of which was a variant of the usual formula), then only one the fourth (while Fozzie appeared as Patrol Bear two more times, outside of Bear on Patrol), and a little more in season five, and Muppet Sports only appeared twice in each of the last two seasons, Muppet Labs only appeared three times in the last season, but otherwise all the recurring segments got plenty of time each season they were on.

Regarding SNL, there are recurring segments that appeared more than twice. Weekend Update appears in every episode, the bees were in many of the first season episodes, same with Land of Gorch, and there were a lot of Mr. Bill segments during the original five years (I think he only appeared once in the first season, if at all), and I'm sure the Coneheads appeared many times a season. Of course the Festruck Brothers appearances were limited due to the fact that Steve Martin was not a cast member, plus the fact that he first hosted in the second season and Dan Aykroid left after the fourth (it wasn't until I read on TV Tropes that seasons 2-5 had Steve Martin hosting up to three times a season, so they could have appeared more often... I've read they were only in four segments those years, and oddly enough it took awhile for them to become a hit with the audience... I wonder if that's why the same Festruck Brothers skit appears on so many compilations). And SNL was a 90-minute show, there should have been more time to feature the recurring bits each season.