The RHLC!

[CensoredAlso]

Aw, no problem!

 

[Muppet Newsgirl]

Yeah, it's cool to know what everyone's real name is - but in true Forgetful Jones fashion, I forget which screen name goes with which real name from time to time.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Lol, yeah tis a strange phenomenom!

:: Things are rough for me lately. And it's just very hard to be cheerful. And I like coming here to de-stress but everyone's so excited about the new Muppet projects. To me, it's just another reason to worry. (Though I know I haven't seen them yet, and they could be OK). Not that I mind if other people are happy or anything, hehe. I just wish I could feel that way.

Sorry for the blah, just had to get it out.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Have a hug heralde. You certainly need it.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Aw, thank you. I mean we all know the world can be a cruel place. I'm just getting an over abundance right now (though I absolutely know there are others worse off).

 

[CensoredAlso]

Hi again, well this little snippet from an interview with Steve on Tough Pigs was a nice little mood lifter today:

For Statler, I was trying to decide if I should make it more like Jerry’s original, or do I make it like Richard’s, which everyone knows from The Muppet Show, or do I make it like Jerry’s since Richard’s. He’s just been passed around a lot. It’s always been a problem for me that the characters got passed around. I get very conservative about this idea of one person doing the characters, and we shouldn’t recast them so the character can grow and not be different every time we see them. So, I’ve tried to aim for more like what Richard did on The Muppet Show. And I know I don’t really sound like Richard, and I have so much fun doing the character. And they only do like three lines at a time, but when we ad lib with them between scenes, it’s so much fun. We have so much fun.

....Yeah, you guys know there’s all these Muppet duos. Jim and Frank did all these characters together like Ernie and Bert, and Fozzie and Piggy with Kermit. Jerry and Richard did a lot of characters together like the Two-Headed Monster, and Floyd and Janice. They always seemed to team up as a performing team, and Dave and I do that too. Dave was actually the person who suggested that I do Beaker when Richard died. So I had to learn to make that noise by sucking air in. So it wasn’t “Mee Mee Mee”, it was ((sucks air in)) “Mee Mee Mee.” You’re pulling air in the whole time, so if you’re doing a long thing, and you forget and take a deep breath, you’re doing the wrong thing. You have to exhale before you start. It’s bizarre, and Richard could do that. I had to learn to do that without choking. (Laughs) The truth of the matter is, it’s always hard… the more you know about the person who did these characters, the harder it is to take them over, because it’s something we never had to do when the person was alive or still doing the character, because we have a desire to be really faithful to what that person created.

TP: Do you think that’s easier with a character like Beaker where he never actually speaks?

SW: A little bit. And it helps that Dave is consistent with Bunsen. I can’t tell you exactly where that character came from, from within Richard, because I just don’t know. Whatever was going on in Richard’s head with what he did with that character, I don’t know what it was. I’m winging it in that respect, I’m taking it in a different direction. These days, after we did the viral stuff, I get the impression that Beaker is a guy who goes home at night, you know he’s pretty intelligent, he’s a smart guy, he works in a lab, and he probably doesn’t have much of a social life. He’s pretty introverted because he really can’t talk, so his only means of communication is the internet. I love the idea that he spends all of his time in front of a computer, which is perfect for the YouTube stuff. (Laughs)

"It's bizarre, and Richard could do that." I love that quote!

 

[Muppet Newsgirl]

Yeah, when you're recasting a Muppet, the goal is to find a performer who can capture the character's spirit as much as the original performer did. And Steve hit it right on the money when he said he didn't know what was going on in Richard's head when he played Beaker.

As for recasting, it gets really difficult it the character is so much an extension of the original performer - and they say that's why they had so much trouble finding a new performer for Scooter, because Scooter and Richard were so intertwined.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I am sort of intrigued by the idea that maybe Beaker is a bit more knowledgeable about the Web than Busen, lol.

Another issue with Scooter is that his voice was basically Richard's voice, and not an exagerrated cartoon voice like some of the others. It's extra difficult to try and imitate someone's vocal chords!

There's some really good posts on that Scooter recast thread, like this one:

That's really the only thing that bothered me about Brian Henson's and Ricky Boyd's Scooters. They were too high-pitched. They sounded like Scooter from the first two seasons of The Muppet Show, which is good, but Scooter's voice got deeper as time went on. Almost as if Richard had been aging him.

I haven't really seen the newer performers de-aging Scooter, but it's an interesting observation. I do think it's probably true that Richard tried making Scooter seem older over the years. Like when we notice Scooter's voice was close to Kermit's in Disney 3D, or in the memorial service when he basically had Richard's more mature voice during "Just One Person."

The main change that I noticed from Scooter over the years was really the same change all the other characters went through when comparing Muppet Show to the movies. From being at semi-odds with Kermit but still a close family on Muppet Show, to being this really sentimental group that's totally devoted to the frog in the movies, lol.

Maybe it's because I'm not used to it, but I don't always love it when Scooter threatens Kermit with his "Uncle power", lol. In the early days, it came across a little unfeeling. But that's just cause they were still finding their way. Similar to how early Fozzie and Gonzo provoked pity and depression rather than humor.

 

[Muppet Newsgirl]

Yeah, there's certainly a change in the group dynamic from TMS to the movies. In the early days of TMS, they're all at each other's throats all the time, but as the show goes on, they become a much more tightly-knit gang, and by the time of the movies, they're an inseparable bunch.

And yes, as we've noted many times, Scooter starts channeling Kermit in season three, so that by the time MuppetVision 3-D comes along, Scooter is the frog's second-in-command, and then leader of the pack at Jim's memorial. Since I've not seen enough of the more recent Muppet material, I can't make a call on whether the new performers are "de-aging" Scooter, but it is an interesting concept.

About Scooter routinely invoking his uncle: yeah, I wasn't used to that at first, but as you said, the writers and performers were still finding their way with all the characters. I mean, except for Kermit and Rowlf, Jim and the gang came up with a completely brand-new cast of characters for TMS.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

I actually fist noticed a change in Scooter's vocals cords after seeing the Brook Shields episode of the Muppet show one night. I instantly recognized how it was higher pitched in earlier episodes and how it sounded more in the range of Gladys The Cows. It was also more distinguished and mature. Like he was more confident and self assured about what he was doing.