The New New Quote Thread

[antsamthompson9]

While discussing MFC, the Movin' Right Along podcast starts a theory that Big Bird gave everyone chocolate covered birdseed, because he's naive enough to think non-birds would like it.
Joe Hennes: I agree, especially when birdseed milkshake is on the menu at Hooper's, there's more than one customer buying that.
Anthony Strand: I'm not so sure.
Ryan Roe: There's other birds on Sesame Street.
Anthony: But also, anyone can drink a birdseed milkshake, you don't have to be a bird.
Joe: But you have to like birdseed to wanna purchase it.
Anthony: But you don't think Mike was out there buying birdseed milkshakes just to see what they tasted like? (Ryan laughs)
Joe: I mean, maybe.
Ryan: Just to clarify, Anthony, you just made a reference to Mike, a Sesame human that no one remembers. (Joe and Anthony crack up)
Anthony: Yes!
Joe: David Rudman remembers him. (referencing when he quizzed Jeff Dunn and Cookie on who worked in Hooper's, and Cookie suddenly said "How about Mike?")
Ryan: We already mentioned Maria, Susan, Bob, and David, so you went for Mike.
Anthony: Well, remember when we did ToughPigs' 50 in 50 Sesame articles? For season 22, I watched 44 street stories from season 22, and brother, Mike was all over the place! So that diseased my brain, and now I think of Mike as one of the main guys.
Ryan: Great. I'll have to go watch some good Mike episodes.
Anthony: I've definitely seen Mike in more stories than I've seen Nina. Is that her name?
Ryan: Yeah, Nina is one of the current cast members.
Joe: You would've seen more Nina episodes if they were still making 130 episodes a year.
Ryan: Well, that's the other thing, Nina doesn't have as many opportunities to be in street stories.
Anthony: I'm sure Nina's a lovely person, don't get me wrong.
Ryan: Well, now I want you to write a ToughPigs article comparing and contrasting Nina and Mike.
Joe: Just write The Oral History of Mike, Anthony. (everyone cracks up)

 

[D'Snowth]

Even I remember Mike, because he was on the show during my informative years as a preschooler.

 

[LittleJerry92]

The only instance I really saw anything of Mike as a kid was on the Dance Along video that I remember renting from the library (I think when I was like 6 or 7). Though I was incredibly bugged by how so many of the segments were intercut with the framing material.

 

[antsamthompson9]

Adam Kreutinger: Was there an added pressure knowing that you were taking over characters of Frank Oz who's still here, he's just moved on to do more directing and other things? Was there more pressure knowing that he would potentially watch this or something? I'm pretty sure Frank Oz is not gonna watch THIS, but the fact that he could.
Cam Garrity: "I could've done that interview on Puppet Tears better!"
Adam: No, I'm sure he doesn't have that type of attitude toward you, but you can't help your own subconscious of thinking "What if".
Eric Jacobson: Yeah, I always say that Frank has a parking spot reserved in any time he wants to come back. He is welcome to, he is the originator of these characters. That's the way I feel. That said, I'm doing them now, and I have to feel a certain responsibility, I dunno what to call it, it's not an ownership, but it's this kinda very special exclusive relationship with these characters for the time being, where it's my decision, my choices, and I have to deal with the materiel that I'm given, and I have to try and make it come alive.
Adam: Did you ever talk with Frank about these characters?
Eric: Not a lot, but we have talked. But I think the nature of the relationship is that he wasn't there, and that's why I was brought in. So if he was there, he wouldn't be spending that precious time telling me how I should do the characters, he would just do it. But we've talked about the characters and I had the chance to watch him in action both with the Muppets as well as Sesame Street. And it was an invaluable experience working alongside him, getting to watch his process in action. But when you take your work seriously, you have blinders on, and you can't let all that other stuff affect you, the weight of the responsibility or "Oh gosh, I wonder what he thinks or she thinks or they think". You have to just trust yourself and be committed to delivering the best performance you can.
Adam: Of course. I didn't necessarily imagine that he was formally coaching you, but I could imagine a world where he gave you some things to think about, or even a little affirmation like "Looking good, buddy, keep doing what you're doing." Since there wasn't formal training some sort of acknowledgement would be reassuring to yourself.
Eric: He has done that, he's thanked me for the job that I've done and we have very civil words with one another. But you know, he may play Yoda in the movies but I'm not his Luke Skywalker.
Adam: Of course, and I'm sure this isn't something he thinks about that often, he's worked on so many projects, Star Wars, Little Shop, all these other movies he directed, the Muppets were a huge part of his life and what got him started, but sometimes people just kinda move on, and that's what this story sounds like for him.
Eric: Yeah, he still loves the Muppets, he loves all of us, he wishes us all the best, me included. I think the only tip I got from him early on was "Make sure you articulate." He heard something I did and he was like "I couldn't understand you. Make sure you articulate so we can understand what you're saying." And of course, he was right. This is a funny story: I had just started doing Piggy and I already started doing some of Frank's characters on Sesame, and there was this We Are Family video with Niles Rogers.
Cam: Yeah, it was like almost every children's character singing We Are Family.
Eric: Yeah. And I had already pre-recorded Piggy for that, and I dunno when we were expected to shoot, but I was at Sesame doing some Bert and Ernie bits, and the day was going along, but I don't think that was even it. I think there was a last second call because, Diana Ross outta nowhere said, "I wanna sing We Are Family with Miss Piggy". And I was at Sesame busy performing Bert, so they wound up calling Frank to perform Miss Piggy with Diana Ross, I think it's the last thing he did with Piggy, and he wound up having to lip-sync to my voice! (everyone cracks up) He had to listen to it and performed to my voice, which is just insane! I know he's seen other stuff that we've done, he remains a steadfast supporter of the Muppets today, and you know, I owe him everything.

 

[LittleJerry92]

*family driving by with the kids acting up*
Dad: If YOU KIDS….. CAN’T KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELVES, I’m gonna TURN THIS CAR AROUND, and there’ll be NO CAPE CANAVERAL for ANYBODY!!!!!
*the kids then go silent. Nelson takes the opportunity to hit him on the back of the neck from the other side of the road, causing the dad to think it was one of the kids*
Dad: THAT’S IT! BACK TO WINNEPIG!!!!
*he then turns around driving on the wrong side of the road*

 

[antsamthompson9]

Kirk Thatcher: Probably the biggest frustration with the Muppets is they don't have a Kevin Feige or John Lasseter or Brian Henson to go "Okay, we trust you, we'll give you a big budget."
Madison Mantas: Do you think that's something that could end up changing? I feel like Muppets Haunted Mansion is gonna bring a lot of different people, and maybe that'll make it more popular.
Joshua Gillespie: It's getting a lot of marketing.
Kirk: My joke is it'll do really well and so they'll get Guillermo del Toro to do the Muppet Scary Movie or something. You're never profiting your own town. I don't know, I was very frustrated and have been with the way the Muppets are handled, and we're spoiled. People asked me about the Frank Oz interview in the Guardian, and what you have to understand is his frustration's the same as mine. When you worked with Jim or Brian, there was one person to basically deal with, he liked it or he didn't, you moved on and that was it. With a corporation, with marketing and business affairs, and everyone combing every piece of dialogue, lawyers. On Wizard of Oz, we got 40 pages of notes from lawyers a week before we started shooting. I remember telling Martin Baker "Lawyers are now doing script notes?" And that's sorta where we are now, lawyers and marketing people, and they're well-intentioned , they're trying to protect the franchise and being sued. They're not bad people but, it's a **** of a way to run a railroad. It kinda stifles creativity and when Frank said Disney doesn't wanna work with him, what he meant was they would work him tomorrow, but they wouldn't give him final cut. Being a director with a franchise, my casting suggestions are "Here's what we're gonna give you" and if I said I didn't want them, it doesn't matter. That's how Ashanti did WOZ, I said "she's a great singer, she's a lovely person, but she can't carry a whole movie, she's a singer, not an actress". And they're like "Well, that's your task. If you're a good enough director." I'm like "I'm not, I don't have that much time and money." I'm sure Frank doesn't want that, he'd be like "I want Steve Martin to play the yada-yada". And we recommend people of that era, the Steve Martins or Martin Shorts, and they're like "Kids today don't know who they are". I'm like "It doesn't matter, it's perfect casting." I love Jon Lovitz and I try to put him in everything. And the response I get is "Oh, he hasn't been on TV for a while." I'm like "But he's hilarious." Jerry Juhl and I when we were doing Treasure Island, we were coming up with casting when we're writing to give you an idea of what kinda voice you'd write for. We'd say "Oh, yeah, that's a Muppet person". Like Billy Connolly, Muppet person, Tim Curry, Muppet person. We were so fortunate on TI, and the Brits get the Muppets, that kinda British humor really works with it. Steve Martin, Martin Short, they're Muppety entertainers. And others who people really love are not, and that's not bad, it's just they don't kinda jibe well with the Muppet energy.

 

[D'Snowth]

And this is all exactly why it's better for creative people to remain independent and remain in control of their own creativity and artistic vision without having suits calling the shots that you obviously wouldn't agree with.

And yes, I will agree that Ashanti, despite being a Muppet fan herself, was not much of an actress . . . but then again, I felt like Jennifer Connelly brought a lot of narm to Sarah in LABYRINTH.

 

[crackmaster]

"You know something? This is the scariest part of the picture." ~ Bugs Bunny

 

[fuzzygobo]

It’s easier to fool people than convince them they were fooled.

Mark Twain

 

[fuzzygobo]

I may be schizophrenic, but I have each other.

Eric Idle