Your Muppet mistakes

[bingboingcutie]

When I watched Fraggle Rock for the very first time, I was watching "A Helping Hand" and I got Wembley and Sprocket mixed together--I thought Wembley WAS Sprocket. Gobo was a brave little fraggle with a trusty colorful dog, who was so dum he got himself stuck in a big hole in the wall.

 

[ilovemusic]

Actually I like that! I'm sure there were a few times Beaker wanted to retort against Bunsen, so to speak. ; )

actually, dear, is it from the latin word ´rhetor´, that was in Roman times a well-speaking person, do you get the joke?
But, you're a bit right, it's also from the verb retort.

 

[CensoredAlso]

actually, dear, is it from the latin word ´rhetor´, that was in Roman times a well-speaking person, do you get the joke?
But, you're a bit right, it's also from the verb retort.

Oh yeah I know, I was just having fun with words, lol.

And yes it is ironic for Beaker to be labled as a "well-speaking person."

 

[minor muppetz]

Oh! I just thought of a minor mistake I always made! In the song Rainbow Connection, you know the line: "so we've been told and some choose to believe it"? Yeah, I always thought the line was: "so we've been been told assumptions to believe in." Strange.

For some reason before I got the soundtrack album I thought it was called "The Rainbow Punishment".

A few more misconceptions that I had...

I used to think that Jim Henson was the creator and person in charge of Sesame Street, including ALL of the non-Muppet inserts. Ironically, I think I first learned that the show used a variety of animators and filmakers around the time Sesame Street Unpaved came out, when I first learned that Jim Henson worked on some of the animation and live-action films (and I sort of feel like I was surprised when I read that fact). Ironic because I think Jim Henson was the only person acknowledged as an animator/filmmaker on the show in that book.

Also, for many years I thought that the only non-Muppet contributions Jim Henson worked on were the baker films and the King of 8. King of 8 and Song of 10 were the only Henson contributions in Sesame Street Unpabved, the page for the 10 Song mentioned Henson's invovlement in that and King of 8, and those were the only non-Muppet SST contributions mentioned in the Jim Henson biography page.

I used to think that the reason Skeeter wasn't around in the adult Muppet world was because she died. I think I just made the explanation up myself, but I beleived it to be the reason.

Once my household got the internet and I learned more about Muppets there were a number of things I read that I thought were different, especially on Bill Sherman's Muppet Home Page. I read his Muppet Show episode guide, and under the entry for the Bruce Forsythe episode, it said "only episode I don't have - Trudge trudge streaka streaka!" That made me think that "Trudge Trudge Streaka Streaka" was part of that episode as opposed to just posting an annoyed grunt over not having the episode. Also, the entry for the Valerie Harper episode mentioned "Valerie and the Clodhoppers", and I assumed the Clodhoppers were the Mutations.

Also, after looking at a number of character and performer lists, I thought that Betsy Bird was Fletcherbird. Yes, I did think Fletcherbird was a male before that, and I guess the fact that Betsy was only in one episode made it difficult to know who she was to those who hadn't seen the James Coburn episode.

While I did see The Jim Henson Hour when it was broadcast, for many years I thought that the MuppeTelevision half took up the whole hour. I remember seeing the first episode and being surprised when they stopped showing Muppets, without seeing the end credits.

When I got the "Muppet Hits" album and read the performer credits, I noticed that it listed Annie Sue Pig among Louise Gold's characters, and I thought that "Annie" and "Sue Pig" were different characters. And I thought that this "Annie" was Mean Mama. Even more confusing: The first time I heard Annie Sue mentioned by name was in the Roger Moore episode, and as I recall Roger only referred to her as "Sue".

It wasn't until I got the internet when I learned that Nickelodeon cut entire scenes from The Muppet Show. I had been familiar with the promo for the Playhouse video releases and when I first saw the Loretta Switt episode I was surprised that the Loretta Switt clip wasn't in her episode. It made me wonder if she was in another episode though I was sure none of the guest stars appeared multiple times. I was also confused when I got the "Monster Laughs with Vincent Price" video and saw that "You've Got a Friend" wasn't included (never saw the episode on Nickelodeon). And now I realise that it never occured to me that those could have come elsewhere (after all, Gonzo Presents Muppet Weird Stuff had clips from the movies).

Back when Nickelodeon aired Muppet Matinee I'd check the TV listings to see what was going to be on (many of the specials shown I hadn't known about yet). I saw Miss Piggy's Hollywood and The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show before I first saw all of The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years, and when seeing those specials listed I thought those included the clips shown in commercials where Miss Piggy got out of a limo and the flashdance parody (having forgotten that a clip of the flashdance parody was in The Secrets of the Muppets). When I first heard about The Muppets Go Hollywood I also assumed the flashdance parody was in that special, as opposed to the I'm Gonna Always Love You music video.

Finally, I recalled seeing a clip from Rocky Mountain Holiday with John Denver and the Muppets in the openign montage of the 30th anniversary special. I was also very familiar with the promos for the Playhouse video releases, which showed a clip of John Denver from the Grandma's Feather Bed number, and putting these together I thought that the John Denver episode was about camping. Of course this turned out to be true, and I expected that clip of John and the Muppets over the campfire to have been in that episode, and was confused when it wasn't, when it ended with Kermit camping without John or the other Muppets. It wasn't until a year later when I learned that Denver and the Muppets did a camping special.

 

[Puckrox]

For some reason before I got the soundtrack album I thought it was called "The Rainbow Punishment".

The Rainbow Punishment? That's funny, and a little strange. XD

 

[minor muppetz]

Back when I first got a VHS copy of The Muppets Take Manhattan, and I had become familiar with some of the celebrities in the film, I thought that Art Carney played the role of the man who showed Kermit to his table at Sardi's. He was real skinney, like Carney was on The Honeymooners, and his hair seemed similar. It took awhile before I knew Art Carney was actually Bernard Crawford... He changed quite a bit between The Honeymooners and MTM (I really was thrown off... He looked bigger and was more serious... was Art Carney ever typecast for his role as Norton? Because I don't know of any other roles Art Carney played besides his roles in The Great Santa Claus Switch).

At the end of The Great Muppet Caper, when Miss Piggy talks to Nickey for the last time, she says "Somewhere along the road I learned the difference between wrong and right. You're wrong. (turns head to Kermit) He's right". I used to think that she was telling Kermit that Nickey was right, even though she'd just told Nickey he was wrong... I didn't realise that she was telling Nickey that Kermit was right. And sometime before I figured it out I wondered if that was meant to be a joke, showing that she didn't learn the difference.

 

[Dearth]

was Art Carney ever typecast for his role as Norton?

Yep. I wrote an article for Star Wars Insider magazine a couple of years ago, about the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, in which Carney guest-stars as Trader Saun Dan. Throughout the special, Saun Dan does many bits of business that Honeymooners fans will recognize.

A friend provided me a copy of the script, and in the stage directions for one scene, it even said something like "Saun Dan does Norton schtick".

It was sort of a comedy shorthand for them for non-verbal moments; they also gave notations for R2-D2 to do an "Oliver Hardy take" and a "Jack Benny stare".

Maybe they shouldn't have recycled so much?

Alex

 

[G-MAN]

I've known the Muppets since I was little, sadly I can't remember many mistakes, though I did think Mean Mama was Big Mama, one big one though was that I believed that every puppet special I saw when I was little were from the Muppets such as Santa's Magic Toy Bag and this old show named Whirligig

 

[dwmckim]

I've known the Muppets since I was little, sadly I can't remember many mistakes, though I did think Mean Mama was Big Mama, one big one though was that I believed that every puppet special I saw when I was little were from the Muppets such as Santa's Magic Toy Bag and this old show named Whirligig

I don't consider Big Mama to be a mistake; in fact i would actually argue on behalf of that being the puppet's official name until evidence is provided otherwise.

The only time the character was ever provided a name in public capacity was in merchandise - as Big Mama. An insider told the people who run Muppet Wiki that the puppet was referred to behind the scenes as Mean Mama and they changed the Wiki to reflect that. Now i trust the judgement of the Muppet Wiki people for the most part, but this is one instance where i say they goofed.

I would say that if a name is provided to the public, then until and unless it's later changed, that is the character's name. If a puppet is called something behind the scenes but that info isn't made public that that's essentially the same as giving a character a name in a script but changing it to something else by the time the finished product hits the screen. By Muppet Wiki's arguement, ANY character can be given a name onscreen or in official merchandise, but if it's called something else only on the set, than that's the character's name. So we could eventually learn that after all these years, Sal Minella's "real" name is Funky Hunky Monkey or Animal is "Fuzzyface". I don't buy it and i still contend that until the character's ever publicly named something else, that it is indeed Big Mama.

 

[minor muppetz]

I don't consider Big Mama to be a mistake; in fact i would actually argue on behalf of that being the puppet's official name until evidence is provided otherwise.

The only time the character was ever provided a name in public capacity was in merchandise - as Big Mama. An insider told the people who run Muppet Wiki that the puppet was referred to behind the scenes as Mean Mama and they changed the Wiki to reflect that. Now i trust the judgement of the Muppet Wiki people for the most part, but this is one instance where i say they goofed.

Do you recall if any of the scripts you have/had refer to Big/Mean Mama by name? I think you mentioned in the Muppet Central guide for the John Cleese episode that John Cleese wrote that episodes Pigs in Space sketch... Not sure if that info came from a copy of the script or not, but Mean Mama did appear in that episode (eating John's agent). If you did have that script, did it refer to the character by name (this does make me wonder... Most of the monsters do have names, even if their not referred to on-screen and lack consistient personalities... I wonder if they actually put the monsters names in the scripts or if they just write in "monster" or "Monster #1", "Monster #1", and so on)?

I used to think that Gorgon Heap and Behemoth were full-body characters, since they do look fairly big and were in the very back in the finale of The Muppet Movie (along with the other full-body characters). Of course Behemoth did appear in full-body form in the Sandy Duncan episode... I'm not quite sure if he was full-body there or not. At first I thought they did some impressive trick to hide the performer during the wide shot of him sitting on the bench, and the character was wearing long pants, easy to just add to the bottom of the puppet as opposed to building a verison with bare legs. But I think the Muppet Morsels refer to him as a full-body character there, and I noticed that his mouth was closed the whole time, freeing both arms to move, and since he was just sitting on the bench his performer didn't need to look out the mouth to see what he was doing.

I think i also used to think Luncheon Counter Monster was a full-body character, though he obviously wasn't in The Muppet Movie; He was sitting in the second or third row, and not at either end of the row. If he was a full-body character it wouldn't have been easy to see what characters were sitting behind him.

I think I used to think Digit's name was Gadget. The names sound similar, and he is very similar to Inspector Gadget (as far as I remember I mistakenly thought he was named Gadget before I knew of Inspector Gadget). And later I thought the character's name was Tigid.

The first time I saw The Muppets Take Manhattan after I saw The Muppet Christmas Carol and had been familair with Rizzo's name beign Rizzo, I wondered if he was Rizzo, but saw the "Pete's" logo on his shirt and thought that meant that the rat in that movie was named Pete, not Rizzo. I didn't realise until the next time I saw the movie that Pete was the boss and the place was called Pete's.