Your Thoughts: "Muppet Guys Talking" premieres on-line March 16, 2018

[dwayne1115]

Sorry for all the double posting....

Since the announcement of Muppet Guy's Talking Frank has done a lot of interviews about the documentary and his characters, and also the way Disney handled his script of "Cheapest Muppet Movie". Today I sat down with all of this new information and watched The Muppets, and I could not watch it all the way through. Now for those who don't know I loved this movie, and didn't really see to much out of place character wise, until today. I can honestly see now why Frank had issues with the movie.
So I'm wondering has anyone else had their mindset or thinking on the characteristics of the Muppets change since watching Muppet Guy's Talking?

 

[dwmckim]

After being so excited and doing a lot of spreading the news and helping promote Muppet Guys Talking, i logged on at 3am on the 16th and was absolutely gutted to discover the Below Stage Pass package that fans were given zero forewarning about and was just just suckerpunched in the gut that there's no way i could afford it. I went through my severe depression/suicidal phase most of the day and the day after...but now i'm trying a last ditch effort to see if i can raise the funds with the very very short window left.

I'm going out on a street corner and singing Muppet songs with a hat at my feet for people to drop donations it. Well...virtually at least.

On my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mupp.freek you'll see i did a live concert last night of Muppet songs. I'm hoping people can visit and then make a donation to my paypal at dw_m@webtv.net I doubt anyone would wish to subject themselves to the full 3 video 26-song concert, so in the comments section for each, i listed the set list and approx times each song begins so you can go directly to your favorites to see if i kill them or butcher them.

This was a very hard and humiliating thing to do as i've very deliberately stayed away from singing in front of others for at least 12 years. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and i can't be a desperate housewife since i'm neither a wife nor have a house so this is the best i could do. Helping spread the word and the link address to those who might be likely to donate would help a lot too.

Please help - AND HURRY - 3/21's the deadline.

 

[DarthGonzo]

....uhhh...is that post for real?

 

[MrBloogarFoobly]

Please, don't talk about suicide so flippantly. If you are seriously in danger, please seek help. It is not the sort of thing to just drop into a conversation. I am saying this sincerely.

 

[Cookie Chris]

I streamed the documentary on Friday, and I loved it. To get it off of my chest, I wasn't too bothered by the unconventional filming techniques in which the roundtable interviews were filmed hand-held and you can see the camera operators in the background. I'm glad Frank posted a video on Facebook explaining that the Muppets are about breaking the rules and being anarchical hence why the documentary is filmed differently from a conventional documentary.

As a Muppet fan, it was delight to learn and re-learn some of the personal backgrounds of the performers and how the classic characters originated from. Some of my favorite segments were Don Sahlin planting squibs underneath Dave Goelz's desk and exploding them when Dave was at his desk and the stories about Richard Hunt. However, learning stuff like how the Muppets climbed up the castle to avoid the dogs in The Great Muppet Caper is a revelation. I never knew performing the Muppets could be so dangerous. Most of all, it was great to see Jerry Nelson on film before he passed away. I can't thank Frank and his wife Victoria for this.

The only flaws I have with Muppet Guys Talking is that I wish it was at least 20 minutes longer. Overall, I give it a 9/10.

 

[dwayne1115]

I just realized something about Frank, and his current position with the Muppets...He never officially retiered! I think he always had the mind set to one day come back and prefom. Sadly it doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon....

 

[dwayne1115]

After being so excited and doing a lot of spreading the news and helping promote Muppet Guys Talking, i logged on at 3am on the 16th and was absolutely gutted to discover the Below Stage Pass package that fans were given zero forewarning about and was just just suckerpunched in the gut that there's no way i could afford it. I went through my severe depression/suicidal phase most of the day and the day after...but now i'm trying a last ditch effort to see if i can raise the funds with the very very short window left.

I'm going out on a street corner and singing Muppet songs with a hat at my feet for people to drop donations it. Well...virtually at least.

On my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mupp.freek you'll see i did a live concert last night of Muppet songs. I'm hoping people can visit and then make a donation to my paypal at dw_m@webtv.net I doubt anyone would wish to subject themselves to the full 3 video 26-song concert, so in the comments section for each, i listed the set list and approx times each song begins so you can go directly to your favorites to see if i kill them or butcher them.

This was a very hard and humiliating thing to do as i've very deliberately stayed away from singing in front of others for at least 12 years. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and i can't be a desperate housewife since i'm neither a wife nor have a house so this is the best i could do. Helping spread the word and the link address to those who might be likely to donate would help a lot too.

Please help - AND HURRY - 3/21's the deadline.

Be careful about posting stuff like that. I posted something about me going to ether hurt myself or someone, and within minutes the police were at my house to make sure I was ok.

 

[JimAndFrank]

Frank's decided to have DVDs of the documentary posted out to all of the Below the Stage members....which he'll actually be autographing....so that's something I've got to look forward to!

 

[MelissaY1]

I thought the film was excellent, but my only gripe is that Steve wasn't included. No disrespect to Bill Barretta who I adore as a performer and a person, but Steve was one of the original performers, I think he should have been in there. I'm curious to know the reasons why he wasn't, but I'm not going to get into a whole speculative thing.

Second thing, I share everyone's frustrations about the extra footage price and the DVDs you get. For a film that was produced and distributed on a grass roots level, made solely for the fans, making the initial download/stream option affordable then to turn around and say "But Wait! For an extra 100 bucks..." is just kind of lousy.

And yeah you get extra stuff, and yeah Frank signs the DVDs, but like someone on Twitter said, I wouldn't want to play a signed DVD. Second, it's a single movie, about an hour in length. Tell me you were getting several discs in a physical package with extra merch/goodies, like you do when you buy TV shows or special editions of movies on DVD, then I can understand having that kind of price tag. But I'm sorry, as a hard working middle class woman who hasn't even been able to afford to go on a real vacation since her honeymoon almost 6 years ago, shelling out 100 bucks for a single movie on disc is just not feasible. And I already have Frank's autograph when I met him at MOMI several years back that didn't cost me a dime other than the ticket to the event he was speaking at. He signed my Little Shop of Horrors DVD cover, and it's proudly on display in my home personalized to me. I'm happy.

 

[MrBloogarFoobly]

I thought the film was excellent, but my only gripe is that Steve wasn't included. No disrespect to Bill Barretta who I adore as a performer and a person, but Steve was one of the original performers, I think he should have been in there. I'm curious to know the reasons why he wasn't, but I'm not going to get into a whole speculative thing.

I didn't want to bring this up, because I butt heads with people a lot about Whitmire's involvement. But I agree, 100%. Bill Barretta is fantastic, but he is not an original Muppet performer. Whitmire should have been there, or else, they should have just kept it with the four OGs (and maybe Carroll Spinney, who, granted, was just a Sesame performer, but he still knew Henson.) If they wanted to balance out the male/female ratio more, maybe include Bonnie Erickson.

By his own admission, Bill Barretta only met Henson a few times, and it was in a superficial capacity. Whatever the case may be with Whitmire, he was there since 78, and was a part of the Muppet show ensemble. And sure, Barretta has original characters, but when people think of the Muppets, do they really think of Johnny Fiama, Peppe, Bobo?