The MuppetCast - Show #31 - The Captain, the Club, and the Banana

[stephenjlizard]

I was thrilled to receive in the mail this week several episodes from Fraggle Rock as it appeared in the UK! A listener, Jon Melville from Scotland, sent these to me, and watching them is like seeing an entirely new layer to the episodes we already know and love. The Fraggle segments are the same (as they are for all international versions), but the human scenes - Doc and Sprocket - are completely different. In the UK, we meet the Captain, who lives in the lighthouse built atop Fraggle Rock.

I decided that this material had to appear on The MuppetCast ASAP. So what you'll hear in this episode is a review of "Red's Club" from Season 2. We then listen to various US and UK clips and make some comparisons. This is footage you've probably never heard before if you're a Fraggle fan in the US!

There are some great links in the show notes at MuppetCast.com, including the link to Amazon to buy the Muppet day-by-day calendar, more Miss Piggy television appearances in the UK promoting the Muppet Show Series 2 DVD release over there, and a few more fun things as well.

Vote for your favorite Fraggle song in the new online poll. Voting is unlimited, and I'll play the winning song on the podcast once the voting ends.

Right now, The MuppetCast has 12 reviews in iTunes. I'm asking people, anyone who listens to the show, to please go to the iTunes music store, search for The MuppetCast, and leave a review for the podcast. You can do so annonymously, and without creating an iTunes account. I always like getting listener feedback; it's the only way I can continually improve the show!

Questions/Comments can be sent to me@muppetcast.com, or even better, just leave me a voicemail. You probably talk faster than you type anyway, so just dial 614-989-6326 and let me know what you think!

Have a great week.

 

[stephenjlizard]

I noticed the Count posted this list of "things to expand on", so I'll tackle a few of them here, and Count if you can provide some clarification on things that I don't address, I'll get to them later.

6 Bloviated?
8 Loved FR UK.
11 Ending shots?
12 Where's Drew?
13 Facebook applications.

=========================================

6. Bloviated?
It's "bloviating", actually. Strange word, I know. This is a reference to Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, who ends the majority of his nightly broadcasts by saying something like "feel free to opine, but please no bloviating," after giving the email address for listeners to send feedback. To opine means simply to give one's opinion, but to bloviate is to speak excessively or pompously. I knew that most people wouldn't get that reference, but I thought it was clever and funny, and sometimes I just have to entertain myself. There's one more quote in my comments on that particular news story which is kind of famous, and I'll be interested to see if anyone picks up on that one too.

8. Loved FR UK
Me too. The only thing better than hearing the UK portions of these episodes is seeing them. I want to do more of these US/UK comparisons if listeners want to hear more, and in lieu of showing the actual video I'll try to be as descriptive as possible when talking about them. If I ever get permission to show the Captain/Sprocket segments in a vidcast I'll do it, but without permission we'll just have to use our ears.

11. Ending shots?
I love them, and I hope you do too! They are done by David Quesal, a listener and good friend of the show. David recorded these a while ago and sent me a very long mp3 with all of these shots recorded together. Every week I just copy a new one into the ending slot. I hope he records some more; I'm running out!

12. Where's Drew?
Good question. I wish I knew! Andrew recorded some MuppetCast UK segments a while back and, for a while, had a weekly slot in the MuppetCast, providing some great material from the perspective that only a British Muppet fan could provide. I know that Andrew was, and is, busy with school. So if he has time, I'm sure he'll send in some more great stuff for the podcast.

13. Facebook applications.
I hate them. I joined Facebook a year ago because, unlike MySpace, Facebook provided a simple, clean interface and was a better way to network with new friends and catch up with old ones. A year ago, it was wonderful. MySpace has become absolutely terrible in my opinion; I don't want to have to deal with an mp3, terrible backgrounds and page layouts, and six YouTube videos loading which, all put together, absolutely kill my network bandwidth! And believe me, no woman who looks like that is at all interested in being my friend. Facebook was simple; you write on my wall, I write on yours, you get to see my photos, and we both get on with our lives. But now I get Super-Poked! And people are writing on my Super-Wall! And Facebook essentially opened their code up and let people develop new components for their website that I just know are going to take Facebook down the same road as MySpace. So unfortunately, I'm not a fan of Facebook apps. Sorry!


Whew! Well there's a start Count. Send me more details of what those other things meant, and I'll get cracking on those too.

 

[The Captain]

Hi Steve,

Congratulations on another brilliant Muppetcast. I don't know how you find time to put them together so fast!

Glad the FR DVDs arrived safe and sound in the post (it's me Jon - I just thought I'd register with a different username, it seemed very apt!) and glad to hear the comparisons. I'd love to hear more over the next few months.

I just received a new Muppet DVD in the post - Muppets Magic. It has various clips from the Ed Sullivan show in the 1960s, and probably 70s, though I haven't got that far yet. It's great to see the genesis of the Muppets, and brief sightings of Jim Henson and Frank Oz.

There are a few other Fraggle episodes I'm sure I can get over to you at some point - don't watch them all at once! If you enjoy watching Fulton Mackay as The Captain, he's also in the fantastic film, Local Hero, as well as the UK TV series Porridge as Mr Mackay.

Anyway, looking forward to the next edition already and I'll make sure I get over to itunes soon to vote.

Have a great week,

Jon

 

[The Count]

Aw man... You beat me to it, especially when I wanted to talk to you about it over Email. But now that Show 31's thread is upn, here's as good a place as any.

First of all, would've liked a mention of Sesame's birthday being this past Saturday, but the info on Sesame Tree was most useful. Heh, new additions to my massive master Muppet Listings. Version 17 is up in the Classic Muppets section if you want to take a look-see, updates are constantly being worked on, Season 38 and the Christmas special will make Version 18 an end-of-year present to MC.

Now then...
1 Really liked when you read the original lyrics to "Yes, We Have No Bananas". It reminded me of the one time Mike Harvey, host of Supergold read out the sole copy of the indiscernable lyrics to "Louie, Louie" by the Kingsmen.
2 Yes, that song is indeed found in the Steve Martin TMS episode (Season 2, Episode 08).
3 Unfortunately, I need to correct a little foible. The Muppet character who was the fruits' conductor, and regular Muppaphone mallet masher, is "Marvin" Suggs, not "Martin" Suggs as mentioned on the show.
4 It might interest you to know that in Episode 4142 of Sesame, Big Bird Helps a Zero, Alan sang a new different version of "Yes, We Have Zero Bananas". You might want to see if any of the MUP3 collectors have it and could get it to play it on the next show.
5 Thanks for explaining the term from the O'Reilly Factor. Yes, things did get heated regarding Tinsel Town here on MC, and it's unfortunate that discussion of the show itself got confuzzled and bemuddled with such redderick. I'm interested in seeing the show myself, just because I watch all Henson productions I can to stay current and updated.
6 Speaking of which... If you wanted to showcase Kermit's "looseness" on Deal or No Deal, you should've aired the dialogue between him and Danny where...
Danny: Kermit, I'll make you a deal.
Kermit: I'm listening.
Danny: If I win more than $200,000...
Kermit: Uh-huh...
Danny: You and Miss Piggy have to go out on a double date with me and Layla.
Kermit: Oh uh... Can you take Piggy and I'll take Layla?
Layla: Deal!
7 Don't feel too bad you missed out on the MR Kermit stop in Cleveland... Missed out myself on his stop here in PR, heck, never even knew about it. And when I think of missing out on an opportunity like that. Wanted to tell you this since the show where you read the letter from Kermit from Cleveland, with the joke about the alli-guitars.
You said what a terrible joke that was... But as Jim would say, it may be a terrible joke, but it's terribly perfect for us.
8 Well, this listener says you should definitely continue. As an aside, I just noticed that John signed up here as a new member.
9 Moving on to music from Sesame... The song "We Are All Earthlings" was used as the song for the annual float at the Macy's T-Day Parade this decade, probably 2002 or so. It was neat because different international Muppet characters were gracing the carriage as Sesame ambassadors.
10 What's The Name Of That Song? Well, it was a treat to hear that one again, from Bert & Ernie's Sing-Along, the same source you pulled it from for Episode 15 (probably the one where I started listening and contributing, so that put an extra smile on my face).
But I have a different version from the show... It's probably the one featured in Episode 796 on Old School Volume 2, and was in the old Sesame VHS series Volume 9: Sing: The Songs of Sesame Street.
For comparison's sake I'll refer to Show vs. Album version.
Show: David starts off the song, and sings the first verse.
Album: Luis is the one who starts the song and takes the first verse.
Both: Verse 2 is Bob,and Verse 3 are Susan and Gordon, followed by María with the first line of Verse 4.
Show: Herry and Bert speak/sing the rest of the lines of Verse 4, "oh no, that must be wrong."
Album: Ernie speaks/sings these same lines.
Show: Luis speaks up asking "¿como se llama esa canción?"
Album: David pipes up at about the same time into the song.
Show: Oscar then follows, singing Verse 5.
Album: Bert, in the tub, takes Verse 5 as his own.
Show: During Verse 6, The Count comes in for a couple of lines:
"Something shining above.
La-de-da-de-dum, la-de-daa-de-dum-de..."
Album: Big Bird takes my namesake's place for these lines in Verse 6.
If you want, I can forward the song I have and you can judge for yourself.
11 Yeah... You'd think that for a UK spotlighting episode, Drew would've had a segment. Oh well, I wish him luck with his own "life".
12 Hey, I do like the ending shots recorded by David. The thing is, with the one used for Show #31, wasn't that originally done by Floyd and Janice? It just sorta made me go "hmmm?" to hear David's voices the hecklers instead.
13 Well, if that's how you feel, then that's OK. Been playing there meself, to the degree that I do on occasion.
But here are the ones I found that I thought might perk your interest/curiosity.
a. There's a TV Show Trivia application you can add and answer questions. They range from 10 to 50 points incrementally by tens arranged into either Easy, Hard, Moderate, Ridiculous or Insane. There are versions of this for Sesame, Muppet Show, and Fraggle Rock, you only have to type the show's name and it'll bring you all the questions submitted so far, though you can add questions as well. If you get it wrong you can see why, no points are deducted, and you can even comment on why you think it was wrong of you to get it wrong.
b. There's another one named annaroo's Random Muppet Thing which changes every hour on the hour, displaying an image of a different Muppet in your profile with information on that character.

That's all I got for now... Gotta go ask my mom if we still have that photo of Barkley stored somewhere, story on that if I find it.
Take care buddy and I'll see you next time at the Muppetcast.
Statler: OK Swanson, we sat through your show.
Waldorf: Now let us out!

 

[stephenjlizard]

I got a new toy for the podcast in the mail today, and I think I'm in love...

 

[stephenjlizard]

In fact, here, listen to this. I did this in about an hour, and it might be indicative that the MuppetCast Unplugged Vol 2 collection is underway. No metronome, no real prior planning, I just did this as a test piece and it seemed to turn out well. Audio quality AND content-wise, tell me what you guys think.

 

[The Count]

Sounds good. A Fraggle song was that? The chorus where you sing "rainbow in the sky" came across both rich and with a second backup voice in tune with the lead. The chord at the end was also nicely done.
But the real test for this new microphone thingy should be an interview with special guest star. Noticed that during the interviews, there are moments where your voice sort of double bubbles toils and troubles back on you, an audial glitch. Dunno how this can/could be tested, but I look forward to Show #32 this weekend as always.

 

[stephenjlizard]

Thank you! Yes, that was a Fraggle song from "Manny's Land of Carpets," sung by Gobo and Wembley. This mic really seems to pick up a pretty rich dynamic range. And I'm confident that it will pass the guest test, mostly because I can now use the laptop instead of my tower. The laptop is many times faster and more agile, so the "Skype skip" effect will not be there any more.

 

[The Count]

Hurra! Though I will miss you Skype Skip, we shall retire you with great honor as the first Muppetcast retiree.
*As one of the Beetles: Quick lads! It's MU, run or we'll be crushed!
Hope this signals the return of Muppetcast Unplugged.

 

[dwayne1115]

What a wonderful song im going to have to call your voice mail now so we can hear how clear it really sounds on the next muppetcast.