What Muppet Fans Are Thinking About

[minor muppetz]

I've been puzzled over an internet meme inspired by the Lipton ads. It's a photo of Kermit drinking tea, with a caption which starts begins pointing out something fairly negative about something and then ends with "but that's none of my business".

It goes well with the still image, but Kermit never says anything like that in the ad, nor does it sound like something Kermit would say. I wonder who started this meme.

 

[minor muppetz]

• If all the Muppets from the Muppet Show, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock and other Muppet productions past and present sang "Life's a Happy Song" together, what would it look like?

I think it'd be funny if Oscar changed a line from "I just can't wipe this smile off my face" to "I just can't wipe this frown off my face".

 

[Rugratskid]

Will we ever get new Fraggle appearances? (I'd die to see some news Wembley or Boober appearances, or all of the Fraggles, on TV or internet)

 

[animalrescuer]

I think it'd be funny if Oscar changed a line from "I just can't wipe this smile off my face" to "I just can't wipe this frown off my face".

That or "Will you please stop singing? I really hate that song!"

 

[minor muppetz]

I'm now thinking about how, since this thread was started, I have not started a new thread in the Classic Muppets folder (in fact I think it's been awhile since I last started any thread, but especially not Classic Muppets). If there's something I want to talk about that doesn't have its own thread (or at least it's own thread within the first few pages of the folder) I just talk about it in this thread.

 

[minor muppetz]

Lately, I've realized that the two Sesame Street albums The Sesame Street Book and Record and Sesame Street 2 are the only ones to not be tied to a theme, I guess because they are two of the earliest Sesame Street albums (though there were a few in-between them).

Most albums were themed around an educational subject or other gimmick, or had some kind of on-going story between the songs, or spotlighted a character, and a few focused on people behind the scenes (Joe Raposo, Jim Henson), or celebrated an anniversary, but those two seem like the only ones that were truly just a random selection of the shows music.

At first, Jim Henson didn't want to license the Sesame Street Muppets. Would an album release of the shows music count, or would he have allowed an album release regardless? In fact, I wonder if the Sesame Street Learning Kit merchandise (five books, the first album, sticker set, and I think a poster) came out without his approval, or were those released after he had changed his mind about licensing?

And I've been wondering, in the pre-video recording era, which was the better way to experience the show: By listening to the albums or reading the books?

 

[Janice+Floyd<3]

There are quite a few things that have crossed my mind being a muppet fan.
1. Are Janice and Floyd dating or married? Its obvious that it is a romantic relationship but it never is confirmed by Jim Henson. All we do know for sure is that they are romantic partners.
2. How did the electric mayhem band meet?
3.How did Janice and Floyd start dating/meet?
4.Where and how did floyd find animal? Or who did and where did he come from?
5.If Gonzo was originally from outer space how did he end up on earth and get started in the plumbing business and meet Camilla?
6. Where and what happened to Robins parents?
7.Rowlfs full backstory
8.How did Janice and Zoot get romantically involved and break up?
9.What happened to Fozzies dad?
10.How did Beaker and Bunsen meet?
11.What happened to Clifford? That dude was just awesome and what was his story and how he meet the muppets?
12.Any other muppet character backstories and how they met/joined the muppets?

Never found any answers yet for these.

 

[C to the J]

I've always wondered why Pepe doesn't wear the green shirt and blue jacket anymore. I mean, with a black sweater and necklace, he seems a bit... less colorful.

Also, I saw an article on Muppet Wiki about a TV special about The Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow. If that ever comes out, I'd be more than happy to watch it. The mind of Jim Henson was always whimsical and full of ideas worth sharing with everyone regardless of age!

 

[minor muppetz]

I've been thinking about something Craig Shemin said when he was interviewed for The Muppet Mindset. He said that in the ten years after Jim Henson had died, the company had produced a lot more hours of television than Jim had in his lifetime.

It is an accomplishment, but I do wonder about this. Could it be that other people from The Jim Henson Company were better at making deals with networks? Could the networks have been more interested in broadcasting shows from the company out of respect for Jim Henson? Or could it be that more people were pitching ideas?

And on that note, did Jim Henson come up with all of his ideas for television shows? I know he thought up the majority of shows in his lifetime, but did he come up with the concepts for Little Muppet Monsters, Jim Henson presents (probably), The Ghost of Faffner Hall, and Mother Goose Stories, or did somebody else at the company come up with them? Those are shows from the company that we don't really hear much about, especially not when it comes to how the ideas came to be. Ditto with shows that didn't make it past the pilot stage (Star Boppers, Puppetman, Island of the Little Mermaid... Though now I remember that Lighthouse Island, which was intended to be a series, was Jerry Juhl's idea). I know that Lisa suggested the concept of The StoryTeller to Jim, but would that make her the creator of that series?

And thinking about the various Henson Company shows from the 1990s, it seems most of them lasted a few years and were fairly successful, yet they also don't seem to be as well-remembered as The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and Muppet Babies. The biggest Henson Company shows from that period (in terms of success) are Bear in the Big Blue House and Farscape (and to a certain extent Dinosaurs). The others don't seem to be rebroadcast often or referenced in pop culture. While The Jim Henson Company has gotten more of its retained productions released on video or online than Disney has with its acquired Muppet productions, the majority of shows don't seem like the kind of shows that I'd expect to see get the "complete season/complete series" box set treatment anytime soon.

 

[Muppet Master]

I've been thinking about something Craig Shemin said when he was interviewed for The Muppet Mindset. He said that in the ten years after Jim Henson had died, the company had produced a lot more hours of television than Jim had in his lifetime.

It is an accomplishment, but I do wonder about this. Could it be that other people from The Jim Henson Company were better at making deals with networks? Could the networks have been more interested in broadcasting shows from the company out of respect for Jim Henson? Or could it be that more people were pitching ideas?

And on that note, did Jim Henson come up with all of his ideas for television shows? I know he thought up the majority of shows in his lifetime, but did he come up with the concepts for Little Muppet Monsters, Jim Henson presents (probably), The Ghost of Faffner Hall, and Mother Goose Stories, or did somebody else at the company come up with them? Those are shows from the company that we don't really hear much about, especially not when it comes to how the ideas came to be. Ditto with shows that didn't make it past the pilot stage (Star Boppers, Puppetman, Island of the Little Mermaid... Though now I remember that Lighthouse Island, which was intended to be a series, was Jerry Juhl's idea). I know that Lisa suggested the concept of The StoryTeller to Jim, but would that make her the creator of that series?

And thinking about the various Henson Company shows from the 1990s, it seems most of them lasted a few years and were fairly successful, yet they also don't seem to be as well-remembered as The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and Muppet Babies. The biggest Henson Company shows from that period (in terms of success) are Bear in the Big Blue House and Farscape (and to a certain extent Dinosaurs). The others don't seem to be rebroadcast often or referenced in pop culture. While The Jim Henson Company has gotten more of its retained productions released on video or online than Disney has with its acquired Muppet productions, the majority of shows don't seem like the kind of shows that I'd expect to see get the "complete season/complete series" box set treatment anytime soon.

A lot of those shows were very short lived, so it really is not much of an achievement for that era to have more hours of television. Jim Henson made SS, TMS, and FR which are all widely acclaimed and the first two shows have been put on the top 100 television shows of all time compared to the Animal Show, the Dr. Seuss show, and MT. I love MT and Seuss, never seen Animal Show, but those shows lasted at most 65 episodes and are not even at all to the general public. Obviously it does not matter how many more hours were made, TMS and SS have been much more successful than Farscape or Animal Show will ever be, which shows Jim's staying power.