Your Thoughts: The Muppets Character Encyclopedia

[SkeetScootSquat]

I Just got the book!!!!! WA-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[FrackleFan2012]

I loved the book.
The only thing I did not expect was the absence of Droop.
Droop did had an interview in "Scratching the Surface" on The Muppets Blu-ray release. I don't know why the author didn't add Droop into the book but only mention him.
A picture of Droop was included in the Luncheon Counter Monster page.

 

[minor muppetz]

In the section on Whatnots, I noticed two who look like Zeke. One is dressed as a jungle man, without sunglasses (and his eyes there look like Zeke's eyes in Rocky Mountain Holiday), appearing with a jungle girl who looks like Lou. And then Zeke is shown dressed in a leather jacket.

There's a number of characters who get mentioned without having their own sections. The section on Clifford mentions Digit, Beard, and Flash (and incorrectly refers to Animal as a member of Solid Foam... He was a member in one episode, along with Zoot... It's a shame they didn't even mention the female drummer's name there). The Gogolala Jubilee Jugband is mentioned in the page on Lubbock Lou's Jughuggers.

I sort of wish that the Pigs in Space section briefly acknowledged Deep Dish Nine. It's not a big loss, but should have been mentioned. In fact the Pigs section should have featured the Muppets Tonight pigs not in the book.

Just because they're not in the book doesn't mean that the writer didn't want to include them. According to Tough Pigs Craig Shemin wanted to include more characters from The Jim Henson Hour but Disney wouldn't allow it. There could have been more characters Disney objected to including. I've heard that the Tough Pigs people plan to interview him soon about the book (I wouldn't be surprised if they already did the interview).

 

[SkeetScootSquat]

I've heard that the Tough Pigs people plan to interview him soon about the book (I wouldn't be surprised if they already did the interview).

they haven't yet,But I'd like them to.

 

[Duke Remington]

There's a picture from an alternate angle of the Inch Worm sketch with Lenny Lizard (as far as I know, Lenny only did that sketch once). I know that photos were taken from many of the shows sketches (many such images appear in the Muppet annuals, back covers of videos, and Jim Henson: The Works), but there's also a different non-still photo of that sketch on the back of the Muppet Moments VHS packaging.

Maybe it was performed on the Goro Noguchi special in Japan in 1976, which aired before The Muppet Show premiered on TV:
http://www.henson.com/jimsredbook/2012/03/30/3301976/

 

[minor muppetz]

I read on the Tough Pigs forum that Craig Shemin recently revealed that he wanted to include Spamela Hamderson, but Disney said no because the company was afraid Pamela Anderson would sue. But she's a parody, Pamela Anderson could really sue over it? Was Disney afraid of such a lawsuit when they approved of Spamela in Muppet Snow White?

Also, I heard that Disney was okay with including Waldo, but there were no good-enough-quality images. I don't know what kind of quality they wanted, but quite a few of the characters in this book seem to only have average-to-worse quality images. I doubt any of the pictures of Hilda, Jacques Roach, Muppy, or Rufus are better than what they had for Waldo.

 

[minor muppetz]

Looking at some Toughpigs posts, I read that Craig Shemin said that the reason most Jim Henson Hour characters weren't included was because the rights were so murky that it'd likely never get a home video release. So I guess the lack of those characters was because the fans might not be able to see those characters (well they could search YouTube.....).

I wonder what's so "murky" about the rights. According to the 2004 documents which showed up online last year, Disney did get the rights to the Muppet portions of The Jim Henson Hour, and the JHH characters were listed among various copyrights that transferred to Disney. I wonder if it's due to Jim Henson's introductions including clips from later in the show (though I know they recorded alternate intros, which were used in reruns when MuppeTelevision was shown on its own). I wonder if it's because of any of the monitor images. They all look like they were recorded just to be on the monitors to me, but Muppet Wiki says that some of the images are from existing productions, like Sam and Friends. Maybe it's because of the music rights, though the show doesn't feature as many numbers as the average episode of The Muppet Show.

But then if leaving out characters is because they might not ever get released on video, this gives hope that the rest of The Muppet Show and Muppets Tonight will be released eventually. The book has the Snowman and Turkey from A Muppet Family Christmas, I wonder if that provides hope that that special might return to video (though there are the out-of-print releases...).

I also read that some characters were left out because the productions were so old that only us hardcore fans would really care. I wonder if it was really "too old" (after all, the Sam and Friends characters are in there) or more "too obscure". The book does have Splurge and Rufus, but not King Goshposh or Featherstone.

I feel like the book should have had a section listing all the Muppet Show and Muppets Tonight episodes, for the sake of the first appearances. Episodes are listed by numbers, with no guest stars listed. Casual fans wouldn't know the episodes by number.

In recent years, there have been nonfiction books on Sesame Street and Jim Henson which had sections on other recommended nonfiction books, and even acknowledgements of Muppet Wiki and other fansites. But this book doesn't have such acknowledgements.

 

[Duke Remington]

Let's hope that they'll actually publish a Muppets Character Encyclopedia Volume 2 sometime in the near future to include all the characters that were left out.

Someone should let Disney and Craig Shemin know that we want that and that this whole thing screams for a second volume.

 

[minor muppetz]

Let's hope that they'll actually publish a Muppets Character Encyclopedia Volume 2 sometime in the near future to include all the characters that were left out.

I'd be surprised if we got a volume 2. I could see an expanded edition, with the characters Disney wouldn't allow (or, more likely, characters who get introduced in a future).

I read that Craig Shemin made a list of characters he wanted to include, with Disney shortening the list for various reasons. It'd be great to see his original list. I wonder if there were any pages typed that didn't make it to the final book.

 

[Duke Remington]

I'd be surprised if we got a volume 2. I could see an expanded edition, with the characters Disney wouldn't allow (or, more likely, characters who get introduced in a future).

I read that Craig Shemin made a list of characters he wanted to include, with Disney shortening the list for various reasons. It'd be great to see his original list. I wonder if there were any pages typed that didn't make it to the final book.

Shemin should ask them to let him write a second edition of the book in the near future, to include the characters that got left out.

On the same token, I do agree that they should publish a second edition for whenever the next movie comes out, to add in all the missing characters.