The RHLC!

[Muppet Newsgirl]

I know - the posture I often use at the computer, or when reading, would make an osteopathic doctor or surgeon weep. The problem is also the furniture - when the university buys furniture for the dorm rooms, they have cost in mind more than ergonomics.

But you know, I guess it's kind of the same for the Muppet performers. I mean, they spend the better part of the day with at least one arm in the air, and their dominant hand is moving almost constantly...and we've seen all the positions they've had to sit/stand/lie in.
I wonder if they had a physical therapist or a massage therapist on staff...my mother once remarked that a massage therapist could make a small fortune just off of working out the kinks in the Muppet crew's spines.

Same here - I've had teachers who look strict but turn out to be nice, and I've had nice-looking teachers who wouldn't hesitate to bite your head off.

(oh, and about my name: you can call me Erin or MN, whichever one's better for you - trust me, I routinely get people's screen names and real-life names mixed up, so in many cases I just go with the screen name)

 

[CensoredAlso]

Oh I know, I just now rearranged my position at the computer! Lol And thanks for clarifying the name thing.

Frank Oz often said that for the Muppet to look good, the puppeteer needed to be uncomfortable, lol. In one appearance he did with Jim, Frank tried to demonstrate the typical Muppeteer pose (hands up, looking down etc.) But then he said, "But of course, it usually has to be much more uncomfortable than this so..." And he spread his legs way out and stretch in arms in an impossible position, lol.

Anyone ever see this? It's part of the film the early Muppet performers made when they were contributing to the 1965 Wilson Meat ad campaign. It's a rare opportunity to see the early performers (Jim, Frank, Jerry Juhl and also Don Sahlin)just goofing off for the camera. I wish the other one was available, becaue Jerry Nelson's in that one. You can see the similarities between the Muppet characters and the performers themselves.

Obviously this was pre-Richard, but it's fun to imagine this is world the eager young lad was eventually introduced to!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=w282YjrFIGE

1965...Wow, Richard was 14 years old!

NOTE: I just changed the link, to a more complete version of the clip!

 

[BeakerSqueedom]

Wow, age certainly caught up with our beloved muppeteers...
It makes me happy and sad...all at the same time.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Aww, well it happens to us all (if we are lucky! Lol)

Btw, those were the actual advertising guys from the Wilson company in the film. In the other film that's not posted, you can see them pretending to threaten Jim at one point, lol.

 

[Muppet Newsgirl]

Yeah, that's pretty much nature's way.

Let's see...Richard was 14 when Jim and co. did the Wilson's Meats ads, which would have put him in late middle school or early high school. And think on this...when Jim started work on Sam and Friends, Richard would have been about four years old.

 

[CensoredAlso]

And in 1965, Steve was 6 years old! (...Awwww!)

"The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on. You can't hold back the clock. It just ticks on and on. The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on. So treasure memories...for what is gone is gone."

"Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset."

Hehe, how are finals going btw, MN?

 

[Muppet Newsgirl]

Oh, I'm all finished for the semester; I came home Friday afternoon after I turned in my last exam and paper and got the room straightened up. And I'm getting ready for the start of my last semester.

It's kind of scary, knowing that I'm getting ready to make the leap from the academic world into the professional one...on the other hand, I am not going to miss writing term papers and doing the registration-day cha-cha.

That's right - when some of the first Muppet productions were being made, some of the key Muppet performers we know and love were young kids - if they were even born by then. And you know, it's really cool to visualize Jim and the crew doing a Muppet routine on the Ed Sullivan Show or something - with a teenage Richard eagerly watching from the Hunts' living room in Closter.

Richard: (thinking) Wow...these guys are so cool...
Jane Hunt: Richard, are you doing your homework in there or are you watching the Muppets?

 

[The Count]

Heh... Don't you think he would've answered "both"?

 

[BeakerSqueedom]

LOL!
That was a hilarious mental image.

Richard: Gosh, I'm doing homework, sir!
(Smiles devilishly, neglecting his homework just to watch a muppet sketch)

 

[The Count]

Ah... But isn't he doing his homework by watching a Muppets sketch?