Your Thoughts: Henson's Place DVD

[BlueFrackle]

It has just been passed and given a certificate for release in the UK. Fraggle Rock season one is also being released, and is available for pre order on play.com!

 

[Kermieuk]

Great news, I guess its just re issues of the USA releases?

Chris

 

[D'Snowth]

Everybody talking about how hard it is to find this DVD in stores, I think mainly because a lot of DVDs are getting caught up like what Amazon has going on where DVDs are sold exclusively online via "On Demand" programs and such... anymore, you have to order DVDs online, because they're not even being retailed in stores.

I know this, because I've been to fye, Best Buy, Walmart, etc, and none of them had it in stores, they were all available exclusively online, so I had to order it... BUT, I'm glad I did, because it was worth every penny in the insecure world of online transactions.

Was this documentary recorded in England, like TMS and some of the movies? I couldn't help but notice that much of the footage appears to be in PAL format. Either way, it was really a great watch; my only minor quibble is the quality is rather iffy, sort of like in the early days of video tape, but after watching for a while, you stop noticing.

And I like that it's "dated", because it almost makes it seem like Jim is still with us (in person), and it was wonderful to see him share his own insight on the Muppets, the projects he's worked on, the people he works with, etc (and here's a little insight for those who aren't aware, the interview portions with Jim were featured on the SST Biography special, particular when talking about the original sketches of Big Bird, and talking about how long the characters will live is something they're waiting to see from the audience).

Speaking of which, I LOVED the intro with Big Bird barging into Jim's office, with a bag of Doritos, offering him a nacho, and propping his feet up on his desk. Admittedly, I was slightly disappointed to see that there were no interviews, or insight from Caroll, considering Big Bird appears in the documentary, but we did get some very nice interviews with Jane, Frank, Lord Grade, Jerry Juhl, and Joan Ganz Cooney to name a few.

And, as always, I LOVE seeing behind-the-scenes footage whenever they're shooting stuff, but I also loved the footage from inside the Creature Shop, seeing the beginning stages of various characters, like Jim playing with a completely goblin, whose helmet was too large for his head. Another bit I liked was test footage with Kermit and Fozzie in a pasture talking to a herd of cows, it was really funny.

All and all, definitely worth every penny if you truly admire and appreciate Jim and all that he's done.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Everybody talking about how hard it is to find this DVD in stores, I think mainly because a lot of DVDs are getting caught up like what Amazon has going on where DVDs are sold exclusively online via "On Demand" programs and such... anymore, you have to order DVDs online, because they're not even being retailed in stores.

I was actually surprised to see it at my Borders the other day (though pleased of course, hehe).

And, as always, I LOVE seeing behind-the-scenes footage whenever they're shooting stuff, but I also loved the footage from inside the Creature Shop, seeing the beginning stages of various characters, like Jim playing with a completely goblin, whose helmet was too large for his head. Another bit I liked was test footage with Kermit and Fozzie in a pasture talking to a herd of cows, it was really funny.

I literally grew up watching this documentary, as a very young child. I actually think it's what got me so interested in Behind-the-Scenes footage in the first place (along with some of the Peanuts documentaries from around that time). My friends are always asking why I NEED to have decent special features on my DVD's and I really think it's in part because of this special (even though it was on VHS at the time, lol).

Funny it never broke the magic of the Muppets for me or anything, it actually probably enhanced it! I wish more children's entertainment would trust kids in this way.

Everyone always talks about this, but that Sesame Street store, wow! I never would have left!

 

[D'Snowth]

I was actually surprised to see it at my Borders the other day (though pleased of course, hehe).

Borders has an impressive DVD section for a bookstore... even BAM and Barnes and Nobel only have like those Walmart-esque "discount bins" for random movies that aren't very popular to begin with... but Borders is a different story, though I didn't see this one... ironically, though, I DID see the original DVD edition of Follow That Bird that's long been out of print.

Everyone always talks about this, but that Sesame Street store, wow! I never would have left!

Lol, neither would I... and that little boy didn't want to leave either, he just wanted to stay in there and play with everything, lol.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Lol, neither would I... and that little boy didn't want to leave either, he just wanted to stay in there and play with everything, lol.

Yeah he was so cute. I always wondered if the father had to say at some point "OK, we need to buy something or they'll kick us out!" Lol

Another nice about these documentaries is that my Mother would watch them with me and she would recognize Frank Oz and explain to me that he and Jim were close friends. Again, it was just nice to have that extra dimension of knowledge as a kid.

 

[D'Snowth]

Yeah, you don't often see such comradery between two professionals like Jim and Frank.

And I agree heralde, to me, one of the points of a DVD is having some decent special features; I mean I can remember as a kid being bummed about whenever movies were being released for home entertainment, the DVDs had all the great behind-the-scenes footage and such, and the VHSs didn't (very rarely, they would have like maybe ONE featurette after the actual movie, like Doug's 1st Movie, or a bonus toon before and after the movie, like Pixar movies). That's one thing that annoys me sometimes, like when long-running TV shows release individual season sets with no special features, then they re-release all of them in a complete series set WITH special features (a lot of M*A*S*H fans complained to 20th Century Fox, and they recalled the complete series set for a short time and released the special features alone, though that didn't last long). OR, if you have an older movie released, and the only feature you may get is like a trailer, when you could at least get something like a commentary track or something. *Shrug*

 

[CensoredAlso]

Yeah it was a rare treat when a VHS had bonus features back in the day, lol. I remember my copy of The Wizard of Oz had some behind the scenes clips for the 50th anniversary. I'm glad I still have that, it's sort of a fossil now, lol.

And you're right, the nice thing is that nowadays sometimes companies take notice and improve bonus features if they get a second chance (though not always of course). I remember reading that the first Thundercats DVD set had a short featurette of adult fans reminiscing about the show. Which was a nice idea, but what people really wanted to see is actual behind the scenes stuff with the creators. Thankfully in the second DVD set the bonus features included a documentary with the voice actors and creators, very cool and often surreal, lol.

 

[D'Snowth]

Another bit of a bummer is whenever you've got season or volume sets, they'll have a great amount of features for the like the first two sets, maybe a couple by the third set, then none whatsoever for the remaining sets (ala Rocky and Bullwinkle).

 

[CensoredAlso]

Another bit of a bummer is whenever you've got season or volume sets, they'll have a great amount of features for the like the first two sets, maybe a couple by the third set, then none whatsoever for the remaining sets (ala Rocky and Bullwinkle).

Yeah definitely, well that's probably comes down to availability too, especially for an older show. I was definitely spoiled by more recent projects like, say, The Lord of the Rings DVDs which had access to so much and stuck in EVERYTHING, lol.

Btw you mentioned about the quality of Henson's Place looking a bit iffy. I was actually relieved that it looked the way I remembered and not all digitally enhanced, lol. Archivists often disagree on this point, whether artifacts should be cleaned up, or kept as they were.