Your Muppet mistakes

[minor muppetz]

After seeing The Secrets of the Muppets and hearing that Henson's workshops were in New York and London, I assumed that those were the only places that Henson's productions were made (excluding obvious exceptions like The Muppet Movie being made in Hollywood). And now that I think about it, a great deal of Henson productions were made in Canada, yet I don't associate Canada with the Muppets as much. But many of the Muppet specials from the 1970s and 1980s were produced in Canada, even when the Muppets were relatively unknown.

Of course in the 1980s it made a bit of sense to make more Muppet stuff in Canada. Fraggle Rock was produced there, and unlike The Muppet Show and Sesame Street when they began, Fraggle Rock employed many background performers from the start, most of whom were from canada. Making more productions in Canada provided more work for these background performers, and it especially made sense to produce the 30th anniversary special and MFC up in Canada, considering the large amount of Canadian performers and large number of Muppets used in those specials. Of course it is a wonder Henson didn't arrange for his Canadian and England-based performers to perform in the United States more often; The main Muppet performers were based in the US yet were often able to travel to England, Canada, and elsewhere, so why not non-US performers?

 

[minor muppetz]

I had some misconceptions about The Muppet Show, before I saw any actual episodes and only saw the compilation videos. For example, all of the compilation videos I had seen (both the Playhouse Videos and It's the Muppets!) listed the main eight performers from the later seasons and no other performers, so I assumed those were the only performers on the show. Then I got the Muppet Hits albums and I was confused that the performers credits didn't list Steve Whitmire or Kathy Mullen, but did list John Lovelady and Eren Ozker (I think I thought "Who?"). And the various compilation videos did include clips where those and other performers performed, while the albums did include songs with vocals by Steve Whitmire and Kathy Mullen. It wasn't until I saw the show that I saw that the performer credits weren't the same in every episode (sort of off-topic, but I wonder if any of the Playhouse Video releases featured any performers who weren't on The Muppet Show).

And the Playhouse Videos that I'd seen featured the fifth season version of the closing theme. I was confused when I got the It's the Muppets videos and then the Muppet Hits albums and heard the first version of the closing theme, with no trumpet solo. And that was my favorite part of the closing theme (one thing that's ironic: Lips is among my favorite minor characters and that part of the fifth season theme was my favorite part before I even knew Lips did that solo).

 

[minor muppetz]

When I first saw the Muppet Babies episode Muppet Babies: The Next Generation, before we got to the scene with Animal as a Yoda parody named Yodie, I thought they had called him Odie. And was expecting the Garfield character to appear. At the time I was unfamiliar with Yoda.

When watching the promo for the Playhouse Video releases, a clip from the English Country Garden segment was shown, and I thought that was part of the linking footage. I first figured it was part of The Muppet Show when the clip was shown in The World of Jim Henson (and it hadn't occured to me that there was no reason the documentary couldn't have shown clips from the linking foootage of any of those videos... after all, the TMS section of the documentary showed clips from The Muppets Go to the Movies and The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show, and a brief clip from Muppet Moments appeared in the 30th anniversary special).

Also, when I first saw the clip of the pigs taking over the show (the first clip in the Playhouse Video promo), I thought one pig said "Thanks for taking over the show!", instead of "Pigs are taking over the show!" And I didn't see it as "sarcasm", so I wondered why they put Kermit in a net and shouted "You'll never get away with this!" And the theme music started playing over a clip of Bobby Benson's Baby Band (was the clip from "Pensylvania 6-5000" or "Tuxedo Junction"? Both clips used the same set), and I thought the Baby Band was playing the theme song in that clip.

 

[Fraggline]

Thanks, Alex! Exactly the way it looks, then!

You see, I come from Southern Michigan (read: Lutheran country), and learned early on that the “oe” phoneme in German names can be pronounced like a long A, as in Matt Groening. That’s probably why I wasn’t sure how to say it.

Oh, so you don't say it, "Go-ells"? And I claim to be a fan...

 

[ilovemusic]

Oh, so you don't say it, "Go-ells"? And I claim to be a fan...

Be glad you aren't dutch, Fraggline, 'cuz in Holland the 'oe' sounds rilly weird... And I first spoke it out like the Dutch way...

 

[SeanC]

The evening 'Fraggle Rock' started on tv here ( '83? ) my Dad said something about The Fraggles being 'the Muppets' cousins'. Now, as a kid I took that literally. For many years I was utterly convinced that The Fraggles were indeed related to The Muppets, and not just in a behind the scenes creative team sense. So, in one episode of 'Fraggle Rock' where Gobo mentioned visiting cousins, I was CONVINCED he was going to see The Muppets.
I never saw 'A Muppet Family Christmas' as a kid, but I'm guessing it would have reinforced that belief 100%.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

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).

Yeah. That really shocked me when I found that out too. I couldn't picture that guy saying, "Hey, Ralphie boy!"

 

[MuppetsFan4Life]

I loved the Muppehow when I was small, and I still do! But, then, I made the dumb mistake of always wondering, "Who is that lady doing Ms. Piggy's voice?" Boy, was I surprised when I found it was actually a man! To this day, I am still shocked!

When I saw the Fraggle Rock episode "Fraggle Wars" for the first time, I thought "why isn't Boober with the other Fraggles?" I don't know why I thought that. I guess they're both dull in a way, but Boober laughs sometimes, so I guess that explains it a little bit.

 

[bazingababe24]

When I saw the Fraggle Rock episode "Fraggle Wars" for the first time, I thought "why isn't Boober with the other Fraggles?" I don't know why I thought that. I guess they're both dull in a way, but Boober laughs sometimes, so I guess that explains it a little bit.

It's such a treat to hear Boober genuinely laugh. Part of the reason I love that song from "Invasion of the Toe Ticklers".

 

[Fraggline]

Be glad you aren't dutch, Fraggline, 'cuz in Holland the 'oe' sounds rilly weird... And I first spoke it out like the Dutch way...

Gee, I guess I should be glad! Out of many people I know, I am one of the ONLY ones who can't roll her "r"s. So much for Pepe impersonations.