Watching JHH at the Museum of TV and Radio

[Chilly Down]

Here's what I love about living in LA.

In the past, if I needed a Muppet fix, and I didn't have anything new on tape, I'd have to watch something I'd seen 100 times anyway.

Today, on the other hand, I went to the Museum of TV and Radio in Beverly Hills. I typed in "Jim Henson" and got 189 references.

I watched an episode of The Jim Henson Hour that I'd never seen before, and got new appreciation for the show. Unfortunately, the library closed before I got to watch The Storyteller. But I can always go back.

Folks, they have Tales of the Tinkerdee there. They have a NBC Bob Hope special from 1983 with the Muppets in it. They have 30+ episodes of TMS, and 5 episodes of JHH. (For that series, 5 episodes is a HUGE representation!) They have Storyteller and The Greek Myths and Fraggle Rock and Ghost of Faffner Hall and Jim Henson Presents The World of Puppetry and...

I could go on. If you can get over there at all, people, do it. It's well worth your time. It's free, but they do ask for donations. Parking is free for the first 2 hours.

I love this town.

 

[WiGgY]

There is a museum of television and radio in new york too. I've gone there many times but not recently. I always looked up the Muppets but never thought to look for the Jim Henson Hour in the list. I should go back and look it up too. It's a great place! I was able to watch the sex and violence piolet and when you don't like what your watching you can punch in random numbers to see what comes up. It's also a great place to watch the Fraggles now that they're gone. If you like watching TV but you're getting soft in the belly it's a good idea to walk there watch tv for awhile and walk back home and watch more TV.

 

[Cantus Rock]

Oh Chilly one, I cannot say enough about the greatness of that place.

I posted about it in one of my very first posts, as I had registered on here only days before my family went on a vacation in California, when I was able to go to the museum. It is PHENOMINAL.

I watched The Cube, and several collections of Jim's early works, including many Sam and Friends episodes, and a lot of commercials. Stupidly, I didn't select watching Youth '68.

Luckily I have a great deal of Henson stuff on tape (including most of what Sir Chilly mentioned), but still, I don't have it all. I wanted to just move to the museum and never leave. I think I actually have a paper on which I was plotting how I was going to rob the museum's vault that I made for laughs on the planeride home.

Be thankful for your fortunate proximity to the palace of TV immortality, Chills. When your there next, I suggest sampling other things they have on tape, besides JH stuff. They have some GREAT Marx Brothers rarities from what my mom told me. Be careful when selecting a Eureeka's Castle episode though, as it didn't load up properly for me.

I wish I could be there right now...

-Matt

 

[Jeffrey Gray]

A Bob Hope special with the Muppets?! I guess that's something to go see when I go back...I saw a ton of Henson stuff there (I spent FOUR DAYS watching almost nothing but Henson/Muppet stuff)

 

[Chilly Down]

Sam & Friends? That's awesome, Cantus. I didn't even see that listed. Do you have to type in Sam & Friends directly, or it was under some other name (like a Jim Henson compilation)?

 

[Cantus Rock]

I found it when I typed in 'Jim Henson'. I believe, though, that it was part of what was listed as "Jim Henson's Early Works". If you see that or something similar appear next time your there, try that.

I loved seeing the old S&F episodes, more than because they're awesome, but also because you see many clips of skits in documentories, compilation shows, etc, but you never see the full skits themselves. At the museum, I got to see the full versions of most of those that are shown in the mentioned shows, like Sam and Kermit singing "Old Black Magic" and "Visualizing Your Thoughts", among others. I also got to see some great ones that weren't shown in clips. So, so great.

-Matt

 

[Chilly Down]

Dude...I am *so* there again soon.

 

[Luke]

Guys, sounds great, next time anyone else goes there could someone type 'ALF' into the search engine and see if they have any appearances or anything. I'd love to know if he's represented there.

I wish we had a museum like this in the UK !

 

[scarecroe]

At some point I would imagine that the MTv&R will use their database to construct a series of servers containing all of this material available on the Internet in an instantly accessible stream for viewers all over the world to enjoy. Heck, I'd pay a membership fee for such artifacts to feast my eyes upon. A few years later, I'll expect to be able to plug a USB cable into the back of my neck and feed it directly into my brain

 

[Cantus Rock]

Originally posted by scarecroe
At some point I would imagine that the MTv&R will use their database to construct a series of servers containing all of this material available on the Internet in an instantly accessible stream for viewers all over the world to enjoy.

Though that would be extremely excellent, I doubt that will happen any time soon. That's kind of like saying the MET is going to digitally photograph all of their artwork and put it online for everyone to see. Unless, in my teenage ignorance, this has already happened and full museums have become cyber-museums already, I personally don't see anything like it happening for a good deal fo time. Of course, I TOTALLY hope I am wrong, and everything in the museum database becomes available online (of course, it'd probably help if I got off this freakin' 56K connection!! , hehe).

-Matt