The Muppets Kitchen with Cat Cora

[Duke Remington]

In response to some of the most recent posts here, here's why I don't think they would've let Rowlf co-host a cooking show like this--he'd probably get his brown hairs all over the food.


P.S.: Inquiries like this should really be taken to the "Ask Jim Lewis" thread.

 

[Mupp]

Well this is not the first time that a new Muppet has appeared suddenly front and center;

Remember that in the early 90's Clifford was new and automatically became a member of The Electric Mayhem. (Like on the Jim Henson Hour)

But it seems that nostalgia won out, because after "The Muppets at Walt Disney World" Clifford was never a member of the band again.

In recent years (partly due to Kevin's work on Sesame Street) Clifford has sort of fallen by the wayside.

Heck, the only recent new Muppet character to stick around was Pepe, and that is partly because of his upstaging personality.

I still don't think that there is anything necessarily wrong with Angelo. He is only seen in this web show, and I am not worried about the kids not knowing who the Swedish Chef is. The Muppets Studio is obviously not going to let people forget about him.

 

[frogboy4]

As for the Swedish Chef, he CAN fit into the current format, if they just change the run time. When it comes down to it, I REALLY hate the 5 minutes, commercial (that completely ruins the loading of the episode online anyway), and one more minute... adding an extra minute near the end would help the flow and give us more to look forward to after seeing the same Honda ad over and over.

By which, the chef could counter-intuitively fit OUTSIDE the program. Just before the Pepe closing, we'd see the Chef (watching on a laptop in the kitchen) attempt to make the same dishes, only with more disastrous results.

Overall, I think the biggest problem is that they filmed so many of these at once, and didn't really have the time for things to fully bloom.

That's exactly what I was thinking - they could easily have the Swedish Chef sign off the program by judging the resulting dish as "Okie-dokie!" Just a nod to the famous Muppet Swed that will help new viewers who've wandered into a single episode.

 

[Drtooth]

Heck, the only recent new Muppet character to stick around was Pepe, and that is partly because of his upstaging personality.

Well, the ones that really seemed to stick were Pepe, Johnny, Sal, VanNeuter (at least for MFS and a game show appearance), and Bobo. We did, unfortunately lose VanNeuter and Sal to Brian's unavailability. We also had a lot of dud characters come out of MT. So new characters always have a massive trial, and some stand out on top. That's why Zoe and Rosita managed to stay so long on SS, when Benny, Sherri Netherland, Monty and a host of others. Of course, A) Sesame Street has been continuously running on TV and B) there's also a lot of performer availability that gets in the way. Clifford would probably be a bigger staple in the Muppets today, if it wasn't for the performer being Elmo's performer.

In response to some of the most recent posts here, here's why I don't think they would've let Rowlf co-host a cooking show like this--he'd probably get his brown hairs all over the food.

I think Bill's doing a great job with Rowlf and I think he's becoming more and more comfortable with him. I think he does slip into Bobo's personality from time to time (there was an interview posted somewhere... among the things he discussed was that Bobo's performance was meant to be an homage to Jim, making him sound as much like a Jim character would sound... so there's always that).

Which also brings me to this. Again, it's not that I really dislike Angelo (I'm probably one of the few people that really enjoys him, but wants to see him bloom into a more complex character), But I think the concept needed a little more gestation time. Instead of having a new Muppet co-host character, they could easily have rotated cast members they already had... pushing Angelo into the role of a behind the scenes person that isn't supposed to be seen on camera (I don't know what they call it in cooking shows, but the person who cleans up or sets up the equipment and ingredients) but always manages to get caught.

Or of course, I say split the difference and use Bobo as the bumbling assistant in a role similar to his LTS/MFS appearances (only with Cat having a sense of humor about him screwing up).

That's exactly what I was thinking - they could easily have the Swedish Chef sign off the program by judging the resulting dish as "Okie-dokie!" Just a nod to the famous Muppet Swed that will help new viewers who've wandered into a single episode.

Yeah. Like something disconnected yet connected. Like he's watching the show trying to make food that doesn't blow up that they can actually eat. Something at the beginning and or end to tie everything together.

 

[frogboy4]

Clifford's design is striking. He's a colorful, beautiful and dynamic puppet even without eyes. There's so much that's expressive about his shape and flexibility and it's partly why I dug Clifford okay on the Henson Hour even though I felt he took some time away from the Mayhem.

He later regressed to some sort of playa' and then introduced himself as a "homey made of foamy" on the first episode of Muppets Tonight. Clifford had a lot of work to do to win me back after that and he ultimately rose to the occasion (only to be diffused again by his rote "Shanaynay" comment in MFS). He really should have a Scooter role under Kermit's direction in MT, but hindsight is 20/20.

That's what mystifies me about the way they just dropped Angelo into the mix. I think Disney is considering this as more of a small toss-away project rather than something they'd like to endure for years to come. Poor Angelo has the deck already stacked against him and the production hasn't facilitated him to connect with viewers very much. He's merely seen as a bland impostor to casual fans and an interloper to some die-hard fans like me.

I want to like this funky project and the Muppet segments are fantastic! It's the rest of the show that's not really working for me. This criticism isn't personally directed at any forum member or Muppet performer. It's meant to be constructive and communicative. This is a forum after all. We're not meant to passively agree. I've enjoyed most projects under Henson and the Muppets (with the exception of the more youth-targeted stuff like Muppet Babies cartoon, Kermit's Swamp Years, Elmo in Grouchland, Muppets From Space or overly niche marketed stuff like MirrorMask and Buddy.). But for everything I don't like there are plenty of fans who find a favorite.

 

[muppetperson]

I cant see why they couldnt of used the Swedish Chef with the other characters around to help interpret things.Not understanding the Swedish chef is part of the fun and chaos.
The other Muppets can be assisting cat, while the Swedish Chef is doing everything wrong.And for the Hasty Tasty episodes,where it would be only the Swedish Chef helping Cat,Cat could carry the show herself with the Chef making outbursts and Cat can pretend she knows what he is saying.Simple!

 

[Drtooth]

Clifford's design is striking. He's a colorful, beautiful and dynamic puppet even without eyes. There's so much that's expressive about his shape and flexibility and it's partly why I dug Clifford okay on the Henson Hour even though I felt he took some time away from the Mayhem.

He later regressed to some sort of playa' and then introduced himself as a "homey made of foamy" on the first episode of Muppets Tonight. Clifford had a lot of work to do to win me back after that and he ultimately rose to the occasion (only to be diffused again by his rote "Shanaynay" comment in MFS). He really should have a Scooter role under Kermit's direction in MT, but hindsight is 20/20.

Well, the problem with Clifford in MT was basically the fact that they really didn't know what they were doing WITH MT in the first place. After all, it came at a confusing time when they didn't know how much they wanted to use Kermit in a project, hence his less than major roles in MCC and MTI. I like how they explained that Clifford wound up being the host because everyone else ran away from the opportunity. I really like MT, but I feel that the best stuff was left in Britain, and we had to suffer though a bunch of unfunny overused Pigs... but above all, they had the most curious format, a combination between Jay Leno/Arsenio Hall (which was canned a while before the show if I'm not mistaken) and SNL. And somehow, I really think it should have had Gonzo be the host, and Clifford would keep to a smaller sidekick/behind the scenes role. Of course, the writers (again) didn't know what they were doing until the LAST episode, so everything's a blur there.

I liked how Clifford was used in WDW and MFS, a smaller one of the guys role, and I wish they kept that. But then of course, the performer had new responsibilities, and he was dropped.

As for Angelo, agreed. He basically plopped out of no where and we really in this format don't have room for him to really grow and do anything that would make him become more of a character. The segments are too short, the politicking (I'm really believing what Luke said) that would have got a character like him to be created in the first place is keeping him from developing anything solid in that department... so unless they take him out of the series, give him some sort of virmups (or XD shorts) of his own with the rest of the gang to play off of, there's no real room to bloom... especially if these were all relatively filmed in a short period of time to get them out.

 

[Mupp]

I cant see why they couldnt of used the Swedish Chef with the other characters around to help interpret things.

That's a nice thought, but honestly, for a web show with episodes of a relatively short length, the whole "Swedish Chef speaking, then someone translating" thing could get VERY tedious after a while, and would eat into precious show time.

 

[frogboy4]

Well, the problem with Clifford in MT was basically the fact that they really didn't know what they were doing WITH MT in the first place.

That's what I'm kind of getting from the Muppet Kitchen too.

There's fun peeking out from the edges. I just hope it takes center stage next go-round.

 

[Mupp]

And while were on the subject, some other characters from The Jim Henson Hour that didn't quite make it big were Beard, Flash, Digit, Ubu, Chip, and Zondra (later known as Daci on the Muppets Tonight UK sketches.)

Although Chip and Flash have made some background appearances in later projects.

I guess my point is, those characters were created during Jim's time. So he didn't seem to have a problem with introducing new characters on the fly.
New characters like that are not necessarily a bad thing.

Right now, I think that Angelo is a pretty good character, hopefully there will be more episodes coming, and we will get to know him more.