How did the Cold War end? Maybe you thought it was the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but in reality, the seeds were sown by Marlo Thomas three years earlier… and she never could have done it without the Muppets, in a TV special that you probably haven’t seen. In 1988, Thomas produced a TV special called Free to Be… a Family.



It was a follow-up of sorts to Free to Be… You and Me, her lovely 1974 special which explained how boys and girls are equal, and people who are different can still be friends, and other stuff that everyone really should have already figured out by 1974.

The Free to Be… a Family TV special is an international variety show, as kids in Moscow meet kids in the New York City via the magic of television. Penn and Teller teach the kids how to do a magic trick, a Russian rock singer sings a song with words I can’t understand (Honestly, it’s like he’s not even speaking English), and Robin Williams shows up to be hyper for a few minutes.

The other executive producer of the special was longtime Sesame Street contributor Christopher Cerf, and it was written by Cerf with Sesame writer Norman Stiles and Sesame composer Sarah Durkee… all of which explains why there are Muppets in the show. The first Muppets we see are Kermit and his (non-Sesame) pal Miss Piggy, in a filmed segment demonstrating how the American puppets traveled to Moscow to meet with a Russian puppet character to “hammer out the terms of this show.”



Piggy doesn’t say much, so I’m guessing Frank Oz wasn’t present for the filming, (photographic evidence from Muppet Wiki suggests Piggy was puppeteered by Kathy Mullen) but they’re really in Russia, so I’m guessing Jim Henson made the trip, which is pretty impressive. Less impressive is the Russian puppet character, Kruscha the Pig (whose name I’m probably spelling wrong. If anyone reading this is familiar with Russian children’s television, please correct me). Compared to the expressiveness of Kermit and Piggy, Kruscha looks pretty lame. He’s really just a fancy finger puppet, and his mouth doesn’t even move. No wonder the Soviet Union failed, if that’s the best puppet they could come up with to represent their nation.

Kermit and Kruscha’s negotiations involve a lot of yelling and banging on the table, but finally, as Marlo Thomas tells us, “the exact details of our show were agreed upon.”


The next time we see Muppets in the special is a segment called “Pig to Frog,” which is presented as a panel discussion between “a distinguished panel of Americans, and an equally distinguished panel of Soviets" who "participate in a frank and open discussion” of their differences. The American panel includes two Honkers, a penguin, and Meryl Sheep; in other words, the very definition of the word “distinguished.”


So this is the weirdest part of the special. The purpose of the whole project is to teach kids that their counterparts in a Communist country are just like them, and that citizens of both countries have a lot to offer each other. But in this segment, Kermit talks about how crappy life in the Soviet Union is, and then Kruscha talks about how terrible life in the USA is. It’s completely contrary to the message of the show!

They’re pretty funny, though. Kermit shows us a Soviet elephant who lost his job and the love of his life…


…and Kruscha tells the story of a homeless bear, performed by Kevin Clash, who just can't catch a break.



I’ve never been to 540 Park Avenue in NYC – a web search tells me it’s the Regency Hotel – but if I ever find myself passing by, I’m going to look for this sign:

This bit features an appearance by Whoopi Goldberg, in what would be the briefest, most random cameo of her career until Letters to Santa: A Muppets Christmas 21 years later.


So basically, the “Pig to Frog” sequence teaches us that Americans and Soviets can never get along, and that both countries are awful places to live. So much for druzhba.

But wait, there’s still more Muppets! An ongoing gag in Free to Be… a Family is the premise that the satellite link between Moscow and New York is maintained by Lily Tomlin’s character Ernestine the operator. She sits in a control room inside a van parked on the street, and of course she gets to count ringy-dingys.

About halfway through the show, Ernestine informs Marlo Thomas that if she wants to continue the connection, she’ll have to feed the parking meter. Thomas doesn’t have any change, but she’s rescued by a passing Honker, who gives her a quarter. But where has he been keeping that quarter? Honkers don’t wear no pants -- they ain’t got no pockets!


There’s one more super-brief appearance by a Muppet who shows up in a montage, but I’ll let you see for yourself in the following YouTube clip, which contains the rest of the aforementioned Muppet moments too.





And here’s a fascinating tidbit if you’re a fan of the sitcom Scrubs: One of the American kids who gets to talk to his Russian penpal is Donald Faison, who would grow up to play Turk on that show. And Faison’s younger brother Olamide was the third actor to play Miles on Sesame Street, which just goes to show you that everything and everyone in the world is inexorably linked to Sesame Street forever.

In conclusion: If Marlo Thomas ever writes a memoir, she should definitely call it Rescued by a Passing Honker.
Click here to talk about Communist puppets on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: Muppets on TV, Sesame Street

Do you remember the days when you had to sit in front of your TV all day just to catch a glimpse of that commercial everyone is talking about? Or when you actually had to wait for the new season of your favorite show to debut before seeing what they had in store for you? Me neither.

This new-fangled age of immediacy on the internet has completely spoiled me. Now as soon as something Muppety shows up, we can share the wealth! And in the past week, a lot of Sesame Street and Muppet videos have been begging to be shared. Let's take a peek:

The latest videos to hit the net are the Muppet Monsters on Disney.com, celebrating the Pagan candy holiday, Halloween. Give a click and see Big Mean Carl, Yorick (the skull, not the purple dude), Mo Frackle, and some other spooky-yet-obscure characters tell some not-so-scary jokes.
There was a surprise cameo or two on last week's episode of Dancing with the Stars, featuring Animal, Gonzo, and Aaron Carter. That last guy isn't a Muppet, but he does dance to one of their favorite jams.

The Muppets have been popping up all over the Disney websites lately, promoting Disney's "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" campaign. Three commercials have already hit the net, the first of which (featuring James Denton) can be seen below. The other two aren't on YouTube yet, but you can watch Miss Piggy lock eyes with Taye Diggs here and butt heads with Teri Hatcher here.

From the same campaign, Kermit and Piggy donned their hardhats (to protect their puppeteers' hands, I guess) to officially announce "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day." According to the video uploader, this took place on September 29, which hopefully means that Steve Whitmire is back performing Kermit. Charity shmarity, I'm just glad Steve is back!

Next month, Sesame Street starts its 40th season, making it only ten years away from joining AARP. To get us started on the party early, they released some videos to keep us amused. First, take a look at the updated opening sequence. The hipper version of the theme song is still in play, but now we get to see Cookie Monster eating chalk (what, are they turning him into Chalk Monster now??).

Following in the footsteps of her First Lady brethren (sistren?), Michelle Obama is slated to appear on Sesame Street to talk about the all-important issue of gardening. How much longer must we endure Obama's liberal agenda???

In order to give Leslie Carrara's arms a rest, Abby Cadabby will be appearing as a much more static (and creepy-eyed) version of herself in the CGI segment, "Abby's Flying Fairy School". I wonder what she did to get kicked out of Storybook Community School...

It didn't take long for Apple to sneak some product placement into Sesame Street. When do you think we'll see the "I'm a Mac/I'm the letters P and C" parody?

Lastly, the video that's been hitting all the blogs in the right places, we've got Sesame Street's Mad Men parody. It's exactly like Mad Men, except less sexism and cigarettes, and more Joey Mazzarino. The sketch is also notable for the triumphant return of Frank Oz, who performs a better Don Draper than John Hamm himself.

Click here to write an ad for the Happy Honey Bear account on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: internet, Muppets on TV, Sesame Street

So the Muppets performed Wednesday night on America's Got Talent on NBC, and the question all Muppet fans are asking now is: What the hell happened to Kermit?

Kermit, Miss Piggy, and some chickens appeared on the show, singing "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart." The chickens were lovely, and I thought Miss Piggy looked and sounded great. Of course, the Muppets have already done "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart" once before, on The Muppet Show with Elton John, but most people don't remember that, so it's not a bad song choice for a Kermit/Piggy duet. The attempt at presenting the number as a little romantic drama was really awkward, but that wasn't the thing that made Muppet fans do double takes and fall off their couches in disbelief.

Perhaps it wasn't obvious to David Hasselhoff or Sharon Osbourne or the average viewer, but we Muppet geeks noticed immediately that Kermit the Frog -- our old pal Kermit, our close personal friend Kermit -- was not performed by Steve Whitmire, the dude who's performed the frog since Jim Henson's death in 1990. If you missed it, you can see for yourself -- As of this writing, the number is on YouTube, as seen below:



So we Muppet fans are confused and upset right now. There are two questions that immediately come to mind. The first, of course, is Who? If Kermit was not played by the guy who's been playing him for the last 19 years, then who was it? Word has it that it was Artie Esposito, a puppeteer who's worked on several Sesame Street projects in recent years. You know, I have no doubt he's a decent guy and a fine puppeteer, but I gotta say, I'd hate to be in his shoes right now.

Of course, every professional puppeteer wants to work with the Muppets, and I'm sure it would be very tempting to take a gig as one of the world's favorite puppet characters... but on the Tough Pigs and Muppet Central forums, reactions to the appearance have been overwhelmingly negative, and not without reason. Kermit's performance was stiff, and the voice... well, we know what Kermit sounds like, and this just didn't sound like Kermit. The moment when he ran backstage and yelled at Nick Cannon was especially unfortunate.

The next question, then, is Why? Why wasn't Kermit performed by Steve Whitmire? And that question is bound to have a more complicated answer. I don't have any first-hand information, so all I can do is speculate, which is exactly what we've been doing on the Tough Pigs forum. Did Steve have to drop out unexpectedly? (We were originally promised a Statler & Waldorf cameo, and the fact that they failed to materialize is eyebrow-raising considering Steve Whitmire has been Statler's performer for the last few years.) Was the new performer brought in at the last minute?

Or is there a more dramatic reason? There's the possibility that The Great Kermit the Frog Switch has something to do with contract negotiations... but that suggestion opens a door to a dark and messy place I'd rather not venture into. In fact, I had a lot more to say here, but I just deleted it because it's way too early to get too doom-y and gloomy, as fun as that would be.

The fact is, this thing just happened, so the whole story's not clear yet. With any luck, we'll get an explanation soon... though it may or may not be reassuring. Jeez, what a weird day to be a Muppet fan.

Click here to talk about the AGT Kermit debacle on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: controversy, Muppet performers, Muppets on TV, news

This past weekend, America celebrated its 233rd 4th of July. Other countries had a 4th of July too, but they just called it "Saturday." PBS did their part with A Capitol Fourth, which featured British celebrities, Chinese fireworks, German frankfurters, and a touch of good ol' fashioned American patriotism. The Sesame Street gang was on-hand to lend some red white and blue (and green and yellow and pink) to the celebration, and while we wait for some kind soul to add the entire segment to YouTube (which included an introduction by Barack "I'm the President and You're Not" Obama), let's take a peek at the two videos that are available to us.

First up is a promo for the special featuring former fictional President Jimmy Smits and some red furry thing that sounds like the baby from Dinosaurs.

Next is the whole Sesame clan at the tail end of their appearance with special guest Natasha Beddingfield. And for some reason, Cookie Monster looks really bored. Maybe he hates America.

Click here to stick a feather in your cap and call it macaroni on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: Muppets on TV, Sesame Street

I realized something recently: Jim Henson was the most effective advertiser in history. Allow me to explain this bold statement in the form of a pointless personal story.

Just a couple of years ago, a YouTube user named batman1971 (probably not the real Batman) posted two old commercials produced by the Muppets in 1969 for a new snack food called Munchos. These commercials feature a funny-looking Muppet named Fred, but are much more notable for starring a shaggy, blue, hungry monster who would soon become America’s sweetheart.

Check ‘em out:





(Side note: Is it just me, or does the monster have a different performer in the second spot? In the first commercial it’s obvious that both of the voices are Jim Henson’s… In the second one, it’s not Jim, but I can’t tell who it is. Could it be a young Frank Oz, still new to the world of monster voices? End side note.)

So, when I saw these on YouTube, I said, “Well, those are pretty fun. And these Muncho things sound pretty good. It’s too bad they don’t make them anymore.” And that was that, and then I probably moved on to another YouTube video, which may or may not have been a spotlight for the talents of a toilet-flushing cat.

But soon thereafter, I was at the grocery store when my eyes beheld an amazing sight: There, in the snack food aisle, in amongst the Ruffles and the Tostitos and the artificially flavored puffed corn snacks, was Munchos! I was startled, but then it dawned on me: It wasn’t that my local store had just started carrying them. It was simply that I had never noticed them.

Of course I had to buy a bag so I could try them for myself. After all, how could I refuse a product whose coming was heralded by a primitive version of Cookie Monster and a Muppet who bears a striking resemblance to a thumb? And as it turned out, I liked Munchos. A lot. They’re addictively salty and delightfully crispy, although I have to say, I think they’re actually thinner than standard potato chips. So either they’ve tweaked the recipe or Fred was a big fat liar. Since then, they’ve pretty much become my potato-based snack of choice (as Fred points out, they’re potato crisps, not potato chips).

And to think: All these years, I had been completely ignorant to the fact that I was living in a universe where Munchos existed! But this commercial made by Jim Henson and his crew was so attention-grabbing, so persuasive, that it sold me on the product almost 40 years after it was produced. If that’s not a well-made commercial, I don’t know what is.

And that’s why Jim Henson was the most effective advertiser in history.

Do you have a similar story? Did decades-old Muppet commercials inspire you to drink RC Cola, to eat La Choy Chinese food, or to try Wilson’s Meats? Does Wilson’s Meats even exist anymore? I have no idea! Let's talk about it on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: Muppets on TV, other Muppet/Henson shows

While we eagerly await the next Muppet movie, upcoming Doozers TV show, the new season of Sesame Street, and that dusty VHS you've got of Aliens in the Family, it kinda seems like there aren't any Muppets on television these days. Well, you're wrong. Dead wrong. Really really super dead wrong.

In one form or another, the Muppets have been popping their little heads on TV a lot lately. Let's take a peek at a few of them.
Three (three!) recent episodes of 30 Rock have contained tidbits that'd make more than a few Muppet fans' eyebrows to raise. Three weeks ago, a picture of Miss Piggy appeared in a non-sequitor about Jenna's wardrobe. One week ago, Alan Muraoka made a cameo as a guy about to get fired. But the kicker was two weeks ago when the cast was seen as Sesame Street Anything Muppets! Click here and here to see the video while they last!
The whole Muppet gang (kinda) made an appearance on Saturday Night Live in what might be construed as a disturbing deleted scene from The Muppet Movie. But it begs the question: Why is Rowlf driving?? Click here for watching!
Elmo and Abby Cadabby went on Bonnie Hunt's show to promote the new DVD, "Being Green," and to promote their own cuteness. I couldn't find the first half of the interview, but here they are talking about how kids can greenify their home.
Kobe Bryant, along with Mini Kobe, will be on the 40th season of Sesame Street. Mini Kobe sounds like a cut of steak on the children's menu. Watch the video!
Lastly, Elmo was on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon earlier this week. And we're doing you the great favor of linking to a video of the interview, rather than making you actually watch an episode of Jimmy Fallon's show. You're welcome. Click here, yo!

Click here to discuss this article on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: celebrities, Muppets on TV, Sesame Street

Who is Kermit the Frog? He's often described as the glue that holds the Muppets together. When Jim Henson's colleagues are asked which character Jim was most similar to, the frog is often the first one name-checked: He was the guy making everything work, a straight man in the middle of a throng of eccentrics. -"I wish I'd never been born!" Freakouts are seemingly rarer in Kermit's Steve Whitmire era, but Whitmire showed us he could bring the frantic with Kermit's Christmas Eve rant in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. The Muppet Theater has been lost to a greedy corporate type, and Kermit blames himself. His self-loathing diatribe to Daniel the angel (which mostly consists of variations on "I WISH I'D NEVER BEEN BORN!") is really just a device to steer the movie into the "world without Kermit" sequence, but it manages to be sad and hilarious at the same time.
On the Freakout-o-meter: 9



-Stop That Bus Stop
Even rarer than a Kermit/Cookie Monster pairing is a Kermit/Oscar the Grouch pairing, and this one finds Kermit understandably displeased when Oscar tries to build a bus stop in his living room. "This is a terrible place for a bus stop! What kind of bus is going to drive into my living room?!" he demands, and of course the next thing that happens is a bus drives into his living room. You can't stop civic progress. As I was watching Sesame clips in preparation of this article, I noticed that they almost never used the same set more than once to represent Kermit's apartment, but if you think about it, there's a perfectly reasonable explanation: He keeps moving, in a desperate, futile effort to prevent the other Muppets from dropping by and annoying him.

On the Freakout-o-meter: 4
Watch it on the Sesame Video Player!


-Kermit's Telephone Demo
So we've seen Kermit abused by Grover, Cookie Monster, and Oscar. Now how about America's dumbest urban cowboy, Forgetful Jones? In this sketch, Kermit tries to teach Forgetful how to use the telephone, and of course everything goes smoothly and Forgetful gets it right on the first try and nothing funny happens whatsoever.

On the Freakout-o-meter: 3
Watch it on the Sesame Video Player!

-Piggy is fired
This is the one, right here. In the Loretta Swit episode of The Muppet Show, Miss Piggy leaks a story to a tabloid that she and Kermit are secretly married. To say that Kermit is unamused would be a vast understatement. "I will not stand around while you do dumb things like that!" he snaps, and when she asks what he's going to do about it, he has an answer: "I'll tell you what I'm going to do, Piggy, I'm going to fire you! Piggy, you are fired! You are fired, Piggy! You are fired! FIRED!" And he fires her! But of course she's back by the end of the episode. You know, sometimes when I watch this stuff it really hits me just how dysfunctional Kermit and Piggy's relationship is.

On the Freakout-o-meter: 10
Watch it on YouTube!


-"Go ahead and walk!"
In The Great Muppet Caper, Kermit confronts Piggy at a duck pond in the park, the day after she tricked him into believing she was Lady Holiday. This scene is really more about Kermit and Piggy snapping at each other...

PIGGY: I'm playing over 800 different emotions here!
KERMIT: Well, why don't you try playing one of them right?!
PIGGY: I have a career of my own! I don't need this lousy duck pond!
KERMIT: Okay, sure, go ahead, walk! Walk! Go ahead and walk!

...than a rant from Kermit, but it's entertaining as always to see him make scrunchy faces and breathe heavily. Naturally, this scene of Kermit and Piggy screaming at each other is immediately followed by the most romantic scene in the movie, the "Couldn't We Ride" number.
On the Freakout-o-meter: 5


-The Huggies
And here's another classic Kermit/Piggy scene that confirms the notion that for these two crazy lovebirds, yelling is like foreplay. Kermit's just discovered that Piggy (whom he thought was far away at a new job) has been spying on him and his new friend Jenny. If she's just a friend, Piggy demands, why were you giving her the huggies? And then I just have to quote the scene:

KERMIT: Jenny and I were hugging because we're friends! That's what friends do! Friends do not spy!
PIGGY: I spied because I care!
KERMIT: I care too!
PIGGY: Well, why don't you say so?!
KERMIT: I JUST DID!
PIGGY: ALL RIGHT!
KERMIT: AAAGH!
PIGGY: AAAGH!
KERMIT: AAAGH!
PIGGY: AAAGH!

So the only thing that can come next is a romantic carriage ride around Central Park.

On the Freakout-o-meter: 8


Now I'm trying to remember, and I honestly can't: When was the last time we saw Kermit yell? I can only hope it happens in the next Muppet movie. I mean, lots of Muppet characters and guest star cameos are great, but could we have Kermit flipping his lid, please? Thanks.

Click here to tell me which Kermit freakouts you can't believe I forgot on the Tough Pigs forum! And scroll down to the previous post for some Tough Pigs April Fools' Day merriment!

Labels: fanaticism, Muppet movies, Muppets on TV, Sesame Street, The Muppet Show

As I mentioned here a few days ago, the Sesame Street Muppets appeared on ABC's Scrubs on Tuesday night. If you missed it, you can watch it online for free over at ABC.com, at least for a while. Also, if you haven't seen this online promo with Elmo and Zach Braff, you should check it out.

Labels: Muppets on TV, review, Sesame Street

Missed the special? It's available online here until December 31!

This week, the Muppets did something we haven’t seen them do in about three and a half years: they made a new TV movie. And SPOILER ALERT: It’s pretty dang good.

In A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (sometimes incorrectly, yet better-sounding, “A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa”), Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, Pepe and Rizzo embark on an international voyage northward to deliver mail to an old man who has some shipments to deliver himself. And someone might or might not learn the true meaning of Christmas.

The story was pitched by Paul Williams, who you should know as the writer of the Carpenters hit song, "We've Only Just Begun," and as Virgil from Battle for the Planet of the Apes. Oh, and he wrote the music from The Muppet Movie and Muppet Christmas Carol and appeared in the Paul Williams episode of The Muppet Show. I know, I just blew your mind.

Having grown up in a Jewish household, I never paid much attention to Christmas specials. Only in the past few years have I bothered with the non-Muppet ones, and really appreciated the Frog-centric ones on the same level as any other fanatic. So it’s with thought in mind that I say this: This movie had too much Christmas.

What I mean by that is that Christmas movies tend to come with a certain level of schmaltz, and a story about delivering a little girl’s letter to Santa Claus is chock full of it. But what saved us all from ODing on schmaltziness was the Muppets’ new writing team of Hugh Fink, Scott Ganz, and Andrew Samson. Their combined knowledge of Muppet history and their ability to write a successful prime-time special turned this movie from a potential schmaltzfest into a wonderful movie that’s both great for the family and fun for nostalgia buffs.

Despite the schmaltzitude, Paul Williams did come up with a fun story to toss some Muppets into. He also wrote four new songs for the special. The first, “Delivering Christmas,” was the absolute best. It was maybe even the best Muppet song since the Muppet Christmas Carol soundtrack. That also might be due to the myriad of Muppets and choreography going on in the background of the song. Next was “What’s in Your Heart,” which was nice, though not the most memorable song I’ve ever heard (I’m trying hard to hum it right now, and it just ain’t happening). The next song, “I Wish I Was Santa Claus,” was the clinker for the special. I found it hard to believe that Paul Williams wrote it, as the lyrics were eye-rolling and the tune made me want to use the song’s 45 seconds to run to the bathroom. Though it did give us (as far as I know) Gonzo and Fozzie’s first duet, which is nothing to be ashamed of. The final song, “My Best Christmas Yet,” picked the pace up again and sounded like a song on the Muppets' repertoire for years. Whether Paul’s music was a success or not, he made it up to us by appearing as an elf, which is the most appropriate casting in the history of motion pictures.

Letters to Santa brought the Muppets back to A-list (or at least close to it) celebrity cameos. Uma Thurman was utterly adorable as Joy the ticket agent. Nathan Lane stole the spotlight as TSA Agent Officer Meany. Those two guys from the Sopranos reprised their roles as Ernie and Bert from Elmo’s Christmas Countdown. Jesse L. Martin did a song and dance, just like he does on Law and Order. Petra Nemcova has a name that’s hard to pronounce. Whoopi Goldberg portrayed God, taking human form and judging mankind in the guise of Alex Reiger. Michael Bloomberg ran for a third term. But the star of the cameo show was Jane Krakowski, whose every smirk was hilarious, and not to mention realistic for someone who shares a brownstone with a bunch of weirdos.

The terrific Muppety moments were a-plenty. The stamps on the intro. The Muppet employees of the post office. The Great Muppet Caper-esque “delivery” to the apartment. Fozzie being funny instead of pathetic. Sam’s PSA for the USPS. Beaker’s wish (and her speech impediment). Bunsen’s latent jealousy. The Swedish fish head pizza. The Electric Mayhem’s voices (especially Zoot’s trailing off). The two names being paged at the airport. Where Gonzo stores his trumpet when he travels. Bear-on-bear violence. A worse way to travel than like your luggage. A turkey serving a turkey. Lew Zealand’s Christmas present.

Of course, nothing is perfect. Some moments left me a little flat. For example: Gonzo not acting like Gonzo. He was surprisingly melancholy and muted, only breaking out to have fun in the mail sorter, in the x-ray machine, and possibly while jumping off the plane. Also, Rizzo was given very little to do, considering he had just as much screen time as the other leads (I’m ok with Piggy’s lack of screen time, as we shouldn’t be forcing her into the main story just because we can). I thought David Rudman did a fine Scooter voice, but he’s got to work on that “Scooter Fist.” The scene with the pigeons was completely forgettable (and I’ll bet it took you a few seconds to remember what I’m talking about). Everyone’s favorite Muppet, Animal, was given a total of one joke, which is more surprising than upsetting. But these are all minor complaints, and I’m sure Messrs. Fink, Ganz, and Samson are hanging on my every word and will write the next Muppet movie specifically to my personal tastes.

Despite my complaints (because we really do like to complain ‘round these parts), I thought Letters to Santa was a great success. The Muppets sounded and acted like Muppets. There was comedy and heart. And there were times when it really felt like it could have been from the era of the original Muppet movies. The Muppets very well might be moving into a new age for a new audience, and we’re off to a great start with a genuinely good movie.

But I do have one last nitpick. The plot revolves around a little girl’s wish to spend Christmas with her friends, the Muppets. But she lives in an apartment building with all of them for the other 364 days of the year. Greedy much???
Click here to share your thoughts on Letters to Santa on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: Christmas, Muppets on TV, review

We have no doubt that you've set a myriad of alarms to remind you about the new TV movie starring the Muppets coming up this Wednesday. But in case you haven't...

Letters to Santa premieres on NBC this Wednesday, December 17, at 8pm EST!

I hope that was bold enough for you. In the meantime, here's a couple ways to get yourself primed for such a momentous event:

-Click here to add the event to your Facebook page, courtesy of writers Andrew Samson and Scott Ganz.

-Click here to read a recent interview with all three writers, Andrew, Scott, and Hugh Fink at our "rival" fan site, Muppet Central.

-Click here to watch some teaser videos.

-Come back here to ToughPigs on the day after the special for our review of Letters to Santa.
Click here to get into the Christmas spirit on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: Christmas, Muppets on TV

Wow, it really looks like this YouTube thing is taking off! People really seem to like watching things move on their computer screens. And who can blame them? I've been watching things move in real life for years now.

The Muppets have been tossing videos online a lot recently, and we don't want any of you folks to miss out on the good ones. Which is all of them. So get your popping corn ready, because it's Movie Sign!

First up is an official (read: not fan-made) music video to promote Letters to Santa, featuring clips and outtakes from the movie. Be cautious, as spoilers abound.


Next is the furry, the funny, the fabulous Fozzie Bear, along with Bobby Flay, demonstrating how one might go about building their own Whatnot. After the show, Bobby Flay served his Whatnot with a light raspberry creme sauce and braised asparagus on the side.


Live from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, here's Kermit singing the brand new song, "I Believe". This is not to be confused with the opening lyrics of Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All".


Here's a backstage view of the brand spankin' new Emmet Otter musical. Click here and scroll down a tad for the vid. It's times like these when I wish I knew anything about embedding videos in HTML. Sorry folks.

Kermit and Piggy made it to the lighting of the giant mutant tree at Rockefeller Center. Here they are introducing the very talented, and very off-screen, Harry Connick Jr.


Lastly, here's four teaser videos from NBC.com for Letters to Santa. Put your spoiler goggles on, as we've entered the SPOILER ZONE! Someone wake Kenny Loggins up.




We now return you to your regularly scheduled ToughPigs blog, now more motionless and static than ever before!

Click here to view video responses on the ToughPigs forum! Or, y'know, regular ones.

Labels: celebrities, Christmas, Muppet movies, Muppets on TV, Thanksgiving, Whatnot Workshop

The following article was written by Tough Pigs' close, personal friend Peter Papazoglou. Thanks for the review, Peter!


As a loyal and - let's face it - masochistic fan of the Muppets, you have no doubt had the pleasure of reading my girlfriend Leah's review of Studio DC: Almost Live. So it should come as a surprise of John-McCain-endorses-Barack-

Labels: Disney, guest bloggers, Muppets on TV, review

Has everyone read Joe Hennes' article from September 9th, in which he told the story of visiting the set of the new Muppet TV special Letters to Santa? (If you haven't, you should click on this link right here and read it.) In Joe's article he mentioned that he was invited by some of the Muppet people to come back for day of studio shooting. He recently took them up on that offer, and this time I got to come too.

I met Joe at the studio in the early afternoon. As we entered the stage, Joe said, "Nathan Lane is here," and yeah, actually, there he was. He's playing an airport security official in the special, which will also include appearances by Uma Thurman, Jane Krakowski, Jesse L. Martin, Tony Sirico and Steve Schirripa from The Sopranos, Richard Griffiths, Disney Channel star Madison Pettis, and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. But with all those celebrities, is there any space in the special left for Muppets?

As a matter of fact, there is space, which is good, because the first scene I saw them shoot featured Bobo, and the Bobo puppet is frigging enormous. He's so bulky that when Bill Barretta performs him, he has to wear a harness kinda thing to keep Bobo steady. One take ended abruptly with Bobo toppling over, which cracked up everyone in the room, including Nathan Lane. Lane found Bobo pretty hilarious in general, and he struggled to get through a few takes without laughing. Hearing Bobo speak inspired several people in the room to do their own Bobo impressions, which makes me wonder if the annual informal holiday Talk Like a Pirate Day should be replaced by Talk Like Bobo Day.

Between takes, Joe introduced me to director Kirk Thatcher, who told us that Letters to Santa was greenlit and put into production quite suddenly. The whole shoot, in fact, will total only 15 days, which is less time than I take between trips to the laundromat.

After the scene was finished, I met and chatted with Steve Whitmire, Eric Jacobson, Dave Goelz, and Noel MacNeal. Here's the thing about real live Muppet people: They're impossibly friendly, and they're almost as interested in the Muppet fan community as we are in them. Several of them commented on the recent New York Times article about Disney's big plans for the Muppets, which they described as "mostly accurate." They did not, however, comment on the difficulty of the Sudoku in that issue of the Times.

After the scene was finished, it was time for the cast and crew's favorite part of the day: lunch break! Joe and I talked some more with Steve and Kirk, as well as Bill Barretta. Among other things, they mentioned that Frank Oz had briefly dropped by the set last week to say hello. Apparently he's a bit of a Muppet fan himself.

One thing that came up over and over again throughout the day was a feeling of optimism among everyone involved. All the puppeteers believe Letters to Santa is a genuinely good Muppet production in the spirit of the classic stuff. Dave Goelz described it as the best thing they've done since Muppet Treasure Island, with "the perfect mix of lunacy and heart." I think every single puppeteer we talked to used the word "heart" in their assessment of the new special. This thing is lousy with heart. Which is great news for all the fans, unless maybe there's a faction of fans who've always felt the Muppets would be better if they were really mean.


During the break, we also got to talk to Andrew Samson and Scott Ganz, two of the writers on the project (along with Hugh Fink, who wasn't there that day). They have a lot of ideas for the Muppets, and I really got the impression that they're One of Us. Or Two of Us, or whatever. They're a couple of guys who grew up watching and loving The Muppet Show and the movies, and they want to see the characters get back to doing the kind of material they did in their heyday. Also notable: Scott's wife Brooke ran the "Sesame Seventies" fan website a few years ago, which was a fun and groovy celebration of Sesame Street's crazy disco records.

Soon it was time to start shooting again, and it was more airport stuff. One thing that struck me as the day went on was the fact that, although we only saw a tiny portion of the production, every single shot we saw them do had a joke in it, and all the jokes were funny. Unless we just happened to see the only funny scenes in the entire special, that bodes well. And as Joe pointed out, the performances seemed to get funnier with every take. If that's always the case, how do they know when to stop?

Another thing I noticed: Muppet performing is hard work. The scenes we saw them shoot had several human extras, but the sets were not "built up" to allow the puppeteers to perform standing up, so they had to sit and kneel and crouch and contort and roll around on wheely things (which probably have a real name other than "wheely things"). And while we tend to take for granted that a Muppet can do anything a human can do, the mere act of Rizzo putting his coat in an airport security bin required several attempts to get right.

Of course, it would have been easier to just cut the Rizzo coat-placing. I'm sure it's not crucial to the plot, but they kept doing it until it worked. I know this is going to sound cheesy, so maybe you want to skip this paragraph, but somehow it seemed very true to the spirit of the Muppets, and even to Jim Henson's own creative philosophy. From Kermit playing the banjo in an actual swamp in The Muppet Movie to Gonzo driving a lawn mower in Muppets From Space, it's always been about creating a world in which the Muppets are real, living beings. So they did take after take until Rizzo got it right. Man, if it had been a real airport, the people in line behind Rizzo would have been seriously ticked off: Just drop your coat, already! (And by the way, what's this talking rat doing at the airport?)

And after all that trouble with the Rizzo shot? They immediately did it again, with a shot requiring Pepe to hold various objects in each of his four hands, and drop them in the bin one by one. This required Bill Barretta, Matt Vogel and Peter Linz to squeeze in close together so they could each perform a prawn hand or two. I couldn't help but think it's a good thing none of the Muppet performers smell bad. Marty Robinson called that gag "a joke that's easy to write, but hard to do"... but once again, they did it until it worked.

While this stuff was going on, Joe and I got a chance to talk to the aforementioned Marty, Matt, and Peter, and they were all a bunch of jerks. No, of course that's not true at all. Like everyone else, they were as nice as could be and very enthusiastic about the new special. This was also about the time I saw one of the puppet wranglers stapling Kermit's winter shoes together so he could hold them in the next scene. I think it would be amazing, when your friends ask you what you've been doing at work, to be able to say, "Oh, today I stapled Kermit the Frog's shoes together."

To a humble, slack-jawed yokel like myself, the whole process of shooting a big TV project like this is pretty impressive. Great care was taken for every shot to ensure that no puppeteers' hands or heads were seen onscreen. Kirk Thatcher made sure Fozzie carried the same candy cane from shot to shot, for "continudity" purposes. And a few times, Kirk and the writers had to confer on whether or not a particular joke would be allowed in a Muppet special.


Speaking of which, here's an interesting tidbit: Remember Gonzo/The Tin Thing's line "Those are my nipples" in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz? I thought that was pretty darn funny, but I was surprised it made the cut. Well, the story behind that came up during a discussion about what the Muppets can and can't get away with: Dave Goelz thought up the line and jokingly suggested it to Kirk Thatcher, prefacing it by saying, "We'll never actually use this, but it would be funny if Gonzo said..." And then Kirk put it in the movie! And that's the story of Gonzo's nipples.

The next scene we saw was an interaction between Fozzie and Bobo. Have we ever even seen those two talk to each other before? Here you have two of the greatest fictional bears ever (equal to Winnie the Pooh, and miles above Andy Williams' Cookie Bear) and they're both part of the same entertainment franchise, but I really don't remember ever seeing them in the same scene. I predict that once viewers find out about this moment, they'll flock to the special by the billions.

During this scene, Scott Ganz told us that a lot of the last-minute additions to this production were "stolen" directly from the script he and Samson and Fink wrote for the now-canceled election special. Which is reasonable. If you're working on a new Muppet special, and you happen to have a perfectly good, unused Muppet script lying around, you might as well use it, right?

At one point, there was a young kid present on the set... I'm not sure who he belonged to, but he was having a good time. As things were getting set up for one of the last scenes of the day, Bill Barretta brought Pepe over to talk to him, which was pretty great, although I'm not sure the kid had any idea who Pepe was. Pepe asked him about school and his favorite subjects, but he politely rebuffed the kid's attempts to stick a candy bar wrapper in his mouth.

It was also around this time that some glossy photos of the main Muppet cast (not to be confused with The MuppetCast) were making their way around the room. These were being autographed to give away to kids, and each puppeteer actually signed his characters' names on each copy. Of course, they could have easily gotten some intern to do that, but instead they guarantee that those kids get the authentic John Hancocks of Kermit, Bunsen, Animal, et al. And for the record, Eric Jacobson does a lovely Piggy signature.

The last shot of the day required Kermit, Gonzo, Pepe, Rizzo, Fozzie and two penguins, so it was all hands on deck for the puppeteers (For those of you keeping score: Steve was Kermit while Noel was Rizzo, Peter was Fozzie's right hand, and Matt and Marty were the penguins). This was some kind of POV shot, apparently taken from the perspective of another character watching the Muppets from a distance, and there didn't seem to be any specific scripted dialogue.

This allowed the puppeteers to ad lib, and danged if they didn't come up with something different to say for every single take. Once, Gonzo confided to Kermit, "If you run fast enough [through the metal detector], you don't have to take your belt off." Another time, Kermit noted that the security checkpoint is easier to get through when you don't wear clothing.

After a few successful takes of this shot, Kirk Thatcher announced that it was a wrap for the day, and everyone quickly dispersed. Joe and I, amazed that we were allowed to stay so long without being politely kicked out, said our thank-yous and exited to the real world, a world where prawns can't talk and bears rarely wear sweaters.

There's still a lot we don't know about Letters to Santa. And we know even less about the Muppet feature film that's being planned for 2010. But I have to say, I'm feeling more optimistic about the future of the Muppets today than I have in quite a while. The creative people know -- and they know that we know -- that not every production from the last 10 years or so has been a home run. But the enthusiasm on that set was pretty infectious, and while I've been "cautiously optmistic" about most of the recent Muppet productions, this time around I think I'll drop the adverb and just look forward to seeing what my favorite characters are up to this Christmas.

Click here to comment on this article on the Tough Pigs forum!

ToughPigsRyan@yahoo.com

Labels: celebrities, Christmas, in development, interview, Muppet performers, Muppets on TV, The Muppet Show

About a week ago, I found a post on a Brooklyn Heights blog with an image of a notice on a lamp post saying that “Muppets Prod, Inc.” would be filming in the area on Monday morning. Being a Brooklynite myself, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see real live Muppets, as I’m sure none of us could. So I woke myself up extra early and bustled down to the Heights for what I hoped would be a good show.

For those who don’t know, “Letters to Santa” (working title) is a Muppet Christmas movie set to premiere on NBC this holiday season. According to the description written on a notice: “Our characters are forced to give up their Christmas vacation plans, of escaping the NY snow, to help get Santa’s lost mail into his hands before Christmas Eve.” I don’t know about you, but I’m gripping the arms of my easy chair already!

I showed up at 8:00am and stood on a street corner in front of a Cosby-esque brownstone and watched as 16 people stood in the late summer heat wearing winter coats, hats, and scarves. There was no doubt about it, this was a Christmas movie. A synagogue had been altered slightly to look like a US post office. The people all stood impatiently as a mailman drove his van up to the building, walked up the stairs, and went back to do it all over again. And again. And again. I forget that when making a real film, one take is never enough. The repetition made me dizzy.

But still, no Muppets to be seen. That’s when I saw Steve Whitmire and Bill Barretta, and a minute later, Kirk Thatcher. Now, people who know me well know that I’m fearless when it comes to talking to celebrities on the street. I’ve approached many here in New York, and most of them are happy for the attention. But when Steve and Bill walked past, I suddenly turned to a nervous ball of sweat and shakies. Crap! There goes my chance. Might as well go home, head in my hands.

Knowing the fuzzy ones were nearby, I wouldn’t even think of leaving until I saw a Muppet, so I stayed. I waited until Kermit made his little green face shown, followed immediately by Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Camilla, Pepe, and a team of rat carolers (adorned with tiny reindeer antlers). They went through a scene a few times and while I marveled at the fact that there were real Muppets mere feet away, I noticed that the crowd around me grew and grew. Parents were holding their kids up in the air to see Miss Piggy, kids were refusing to go to the playground (lest they miss the frog do something funny), and adults were dumbfounded that this was actually happening in their neighborhood. One woman in particular was completely unfazed, as Brad Pitt was two blocks away just last year. Psshh, girl didn’t know what she was talking about: Frog always trumps Pitt.

During a pause in filming, Steve brought Kermit into the crowd to say hi to some of the kids (he did this several times during the day, and while this might get tiring to you or me, he seemed to find a new delight with every child he made smile, and rightly so) when I finally found the courage to introduce myself. He shook my left hand since Kermit was sitting on his right, and said that he loves ToughPigs.com (Hi Steve!), but he really must get back to filming and he’ll try and stop for a conversation later. Ok, that might have been a very polite blowoff, but at least he was enthusiastic.

During the next pause in filming, the crew took an ice cream break (ye gods, I want to work for these people!). Steve came and found me in the crowd. Come on, he said, I’ll introduce you to the guys. I didn’t care who “the guys” were, I’d be following. Steve then introduced me to Martin Robinson, Tyler Bunch, Noel MacNeal, and Matt Vogel (Hi guys!). They were kind enough to chat with me for a while. Unfortunately, they didn’t have much info on upcoming productions (which was what most of my prepared questions involved), but I did get a lot of behind-the-scenes tidbits.

For example: Martin Robinson has no idea that people know what he looks like, as evidenced by the fact that I congratulated him on his recent marriage before he said his name. Puppet designer Jane Gootnick is the one responsible for the recent appearance of The Swedish Chef’s wedding ring. Dave Goelz performs, and has always performed, the eyes for Sweetums via remote. Martin Robinson was able to have his wedding on the Sesame Street stoop for free because nobody had ever asked before (though he did have to pay three unions since they were using a TV studio). And so on and so forth.

While we were milling about, an entourage of large black cars filled the street. None of us had any idea what was going on. Then New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg stepped out and readied himself for a cameo in the movie. Someone mentioned that he must be filling the role listed as “Handsome Celebrity Male” in the script. Well, they’re about half right (Sorry, Mike! I couldn’t resist). Then, just as quick as he appeared, Mr. Mayor fled into the night, joining David Dinkins and Ed Koch on the list of New York Mayors with articles on the Muppet Wiki. Yeah, I’m sure that’s why he agreed to it.

Puppet designer Bonnie Erickson, who, to my knowledge, hasn’t worked on a Henson production in some time, also showed up for the filming. It turned out that she lives only a few blocks away, and a phone call from Dave Goelz sent her running to the set. She also claims to enjoy ToughPigs.com (Hi, Bonnie!), and was just as thrilled to see the Muppets making a quality production as I was. And then her husband asked to take my picture, which means I’ve got to become famous quick, or else the photo will be worthless.

When the puppeteers got ready for the next scene, Steve pulled me aside again and helped me to find a cranny-like nook to squeeze into to watch the filming up close. When Kirk Thatcher saw this, he introduced himself (and no, Kirk, we almost never say you’re a bad director!) and took me into the director’s tent to watch the monitors over his shoulder. After every shot, Kirk would swear, yell, or wisecrack, then turn around and explain to me why directing is hard. And then I bit my tongue to keep from bringing up his appearance in Star Trek IV.

I then met Hugh Fink (formerly a writer for Saturday Night Live) and Andrew Samson who, along with Scott Ganz (not present), have been given a 1-year development deal with Disney to write for the Muppets. According to Fink, their pitch to Disney consisted of an idea for a Muppet roast and the previously announced election special. Disney loved the latter idea and had them sign on the dotted line. Unfortunately, now neither production is going forward, but they did write the script and screenplay for “Letters for Santa”, and they’ll continue to write for the Muppets for as long as the funny holds out. It seems that Disney’s finally getting a clue as to who their audience should be, and they’re showing it by hiring Fink to give them a “late night sensibility”, which sounds a whole lot easier to stomach than the ill effects of Studio DC.

I also discovered that not only did Paul Williams provide the music for the film, but it all stemmed from his original pitch. And that gives a whole new credence to the production. Add that to the great performers, Kirk Thatcher, and new writers Hugh Fink, Andrew Samson, and Scott Ganz, and we’ve got a Christmas movie that might just make it onto a few shelves. I know it’ll be on mine.

The last person I met was Kevin Frawley (apologies if I spelled your name wrong!), who talked up the recent Muppet productions with such enthusiasm that he gave me a true hope that the Muppets are back in the entertainment game for good. He also showed an unwavering faith that the Jason Segel-penned Muppet Movie will premiere in 2010, no matter what the trends of in-development movies are. He seemed genuinely concerned that the Muppets were previously only being kept barely alive for merchandising purposes and that he is making it his personal vendetta to keep them making quality productions. That’s a man I want fighting for the Frog.

At this point, I got a slight fear, like a sneeze about to ruin my family’s Thanksgiving dinner, that I might be looking over everyone’s shoulder a little bit too much. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that I may be there to have fun, but everyone else is there to work. So I made the hardest decision of my life and left the set. The puppeteers and crew were all incredibly cordial and never hinted that I was disturbing them, and a few made the offer for me to go back later this month (assuming they approve of this write-up, I suppose). So I guess I’ll do that. Y’know, if I’m still into Muppets by then.

It’s nice to know that we’re all on the same team, the fans and the creators. Everyone wants every production to be great, and everyone wants there to be more of everything. I want to thank everyone who took the time to talk with me, including the folks I mentioned in this article, the puppeteers, the P.A.s, the Creative Affairs department, and anyone I may have accidentally stepped on. Special super thanks to Steve Whitmire, who turned me from an outsider to an insider. Also for being the Frog.

There are a few things that I learned that didn’t quite fit into this article, so please head on over to the ToughPigs forum where you’ll get some more details about the Emmet Otter musical, the Muppet election special, and more. It’s also a great place to find me if you have any questions (but sorry, I won’t reveal plot details or anything said under strict confidence. However, I will plagiarize this book I have about ethics).

Labels: celebrities, Christmas, in development, interview, Muppet performers, Muppets on TV

How many Muppet Christmas specials have there been? Twenty? A hundred? Nine thousand? It must be one of those numbers.

And now there's another one on the way... The Hollywood Reporter is, um, reporting that NBC is working on Letters to Santa: A Muppets Christmas. Which is interesting, because you might think that Disney, who owns the Muppets, would want their special to air on ABC, the network which they also own.

But whatever. If there's one thing Muppets know how to do well, it's being merry at Christmas, so this should be fun. The plot is something about the Muppets intercepting kids letters to Santa Claus, which promises to be just adorable.

Guest stars include Whoopi Goldberg (Will she be reprising her role as God from It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie?) Tony Sirico and Steve Schirripa from The Sopranos (Will they be reprising their roles as Bert and Ernie from Elmo's Christmas Countdown?), and some people from Harry Potter. And the Reporter says the songs will be by Paul Williams, who wrote the songs for a little thing called Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas.

So, assuming The Hollywood Reporter has their facts straight, the whole thing is really just going to be a Muppet Christmas reunion. Ho ho ho.

Click here to comment on this story and eat some figgy pudding on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: Christmas, Muppets on TV, news

It's being wildly reported that there's a new Muppet TV show in the works, being written by Jason Segel. A "source", who we'll call "Stu the Intern" for the time being, has stepped into the spotlight to say "Jason is a massive Muppets fan and is seen as the man to finally bring The Muppet Show back to TV." Exactly 2.5 seconds later, the news ticker was off, printing a ribbon of text predicting the future of a nude Jason Segel-penned television series starring a bunch of talking socks. (Although to be fair, the story was buried by another newsbit about 4 seconds later regarding Barack Obama leaving his wife for the Montauk Monster.)

Now, I'd love to see a new Muppet series as much as the next fanatic, but I'm thinking that this was just a slip-of-the-lip by our friend Stu. I mean, TV and movies have so much in common, it's easy to say one instead of the other. Just look at M*A*S*H; I heard that was supposed to be a radio drama before a debacle involving a typo'ed press release.

Though this is hardly the first time we've been teased about a new Muppet Show, especially in recent years. Just take a look at this list that I totally didn't make up at all:

-Back in the 80s, there was a show on ABC's schedule in which two Whatnot Muppets would don wigs and eyelashes in a vain attempt to get an apartment in an all-female apartment building. The idea was blatantly stolen by Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari, who are currently having one half of a terrific career.

-After the success of The Great Muppet Caper, a series was planned featuring Marla, Carla and Darla. The trio gave up their jewel-stealing days to work undercover for the FBI. The series was put on permanent hold after executives learned that there would be no puppets in the show. No wait, not puppets, I meant nudity. Nudity.

-Five words: The Clive Cahuenga Variety Hour.

-An issues-oriented talk show on CNBC starring The Muppets at Walt Disney World's Quentin Fitzwaller.

-Had Animal Jam continued its run, the last 15 minutes of every episode would have been dedicated to "Bozark's World," a segment in which everyone's favorite elephant and his pet iguana would spotlight a topic and talk it to death.

-A family sitcom called "Good Grief, Our Dad's a Bear!" starring Fozzie Bear and Téa Leoni. Unfortunately, the idea of a comedian lead with an attractive wife had already been done on "Everybody Loves Raymond," "According to Jim," "My Wife and Kids," "Still Standing," "The Flintstones," and countless others. And that's not to mention the pilot starring Sweetums and Jennifer Aniston as a husband and wife traveling salesman team.

-After their dismissal after the first season of The Muppet Show, NBC purchased the contracts for Mildred, George the Janitor, Hilda, the Guru, and Wayne and Wanda to star in a competing variety show. When it became obvious that the show would fail, NBC just threw them in the Saturday Night Live band.

-In order to fill in the plot holes within episodes of Fraggle Rock, "White Collar Doozers" covered the thrilling stories of Doozers in the contracts department, toiling away at their tiny desks, drinking their tiny coffee, and having tiny little ulcers.

So while we wait to see-it-before-we-believe-it regarding a new Muppet series, we'll just keep our fingers crossed and hope that the rumors are true. No, not that The Clive Cahuenga Variety Hour is coming to DVD; that a new Muppet Show is a real possibility, and I'll get to stop making up lists about obscure characters in fictionalized productions!
Click here to daydream about Muppets in your TV Guide on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: lists, Muppets on TV

Today's article was written by ToughPigs' own Leah Hooper. Special thanks to Leah for all her hard work!

Last night I sat down to watch a television special that recently aired on the Disney Channel. Entitled Studio DC: Almost Live!, the show purported to feature the Muppets, which is how I came to be watching the program to begin with.

First, some background: I'm a fan of the Muppets, but not a Fan. My boyfriend, Peter, is the Fan in our house. He knows which episode of The Muppet Show featured Clive Cahuenga; I can't tell the difference between Clifford and Jar Jar Binks. But I watched Sesame Street and The Muppet Show as a kid—the latter with my parents, who would laugh at mysterious jokes that eluded me and suggested that the comely, curious puppets on screen were more than just kids' stuff. So I've always had an affection for—if not an encyclopedic knowledge of—Hensonia and its inhabitants. Which brings us to Studio DC.

Joining us for the viewing were two other Muppet Fans who, like Peter, were anxious if unoptimistic about possibilities of Studio DC: Almost Live!. Watching these fans await the premiere of this new Muppet endeavor was a little like watching the law of entropy in action: no matter how excited you want to be or how well you want it to end, you know the chaotic tragedy is predestined. Outside Sesame Street, which continues ("Elmo's World" notwithstanding—just ask a baby) to live up to its legacy as outstanding programming, it seems that many recent Muppet offerings continue not just to disappoint but to be lost in a frenetic, Disney-crafted phantasmagoria of cross-marketed incoherence. It was in this tradition, and not in the beauty of "Turn the World Around" or the sanguine whimsy of Gilda Radner and the Seven-Foot-Tall Talking Carrot, that Studio DC continued.

The show begins with an announcer oozing Cool™ over a pre-fabricated bass beat that I can only assume was meant to indicate to the pre-teen audience that this is not your older cousin's (no, not that one; the one who just started at Arizona State—yeah, that one) Disney Channel. You know, the Disney Channel that actually showed Disney cartoons and had no commercials. But whatever.

Then the hosts come out, Cole and Dylan Sprouts, or something like that. They're starring in a show on the Disney Channel that I think is supposed to be, like, if Eloise had a sex change and instead of running around the Plaza bossed around her single mom and a black guy. As the hosts arrive on screen, I realize that I saw them in Big Daddy. I don't know who the other kid is, but I swear the one of the left is Adam Sandler. Only he got fat. Pepe and Rizzo show up and tell a joke that could have been written by a baby seal, post-clubbing.

Next, Billy Ray Cyrus sings part of a song. Where's the rest of the song? Maybe he's hiding it in his soul patch for later. Then Billy Ray's daughter, Rhoda Minnesota or something, sings her hit song called "G.N.U.," a ballad about a party-loving equine mammal. Her back-up band was the Electric Mayhem, but they seemed a little more like the Battery-Powered Tameness. At least Animal got a chance to cop a feel on Billy Ray's daughter. I wish Annie Leibovitz had gotten a photo of that.

I started to suspect that things were going downhill when I could actually understand something the Swedish Chef said. And the situation only got worse. Have you noticed that I've not mentioned the Muppets much? That's because Studio DC didn't either. Zac Efron got more play, and he wasn't even there.

A plot rubbed its sleepy eyes, looked around, tried to muster the strength to get up and start the day but ultimately decided to hit the snooze and stay in bed for the rest of the show. So much the better; I wouldn't want the product placement to get obstructed.

Then an Olympics-themed commercial aired for the Disney Games, featuring the Cheetah Girls. Are they the ones who sing "Don't You Wish Your Girlfriend Was Legal Like Me?" In any case, I'm glad to see the Disney Channel is building a cavalcade of players that I'm sure will rival "Your Show of Shows" in the glory days. With more lip-synching, of course.

Studio DC recommences, and I'm starting to feel like I need something to restore my faith in mankind and my optimism about the future. Say, a mushroom cloud? A speech from Dubya? A Seth Green movie?

Now Ashley Tisdale shows up and asks Kermit, "Where's Miss Piggy?" My thoughts exactly. Presently Titsdale shimmies around speaking white-lady-talking-to-gardener Spanish and THEN THERE IS AN AMAZING PIECE OF PUPPETEERING WHEN STEVE WHITMIRE MAKES KERMIT DO A KICK. Mucho gusto, indeed.

A few minutes later, Miss Piggy joins the Jonas Brothers for a song. The Jonas Brothers, as you may know, made a fortune last year in cloning and then spent it all in waxing services and Hot Topic merchandise. And I notice that Piggy, unlike the Jonases, isn't wearing a promise ring. The whore.

And then Adam Sandler and his co-host show up and I think the show ended. At least that's when credits came up and Statler and Waldorf started cracking jokes. This was the part that hurt the most, because it made the distance between Studio DC and The Muppet Show all the more glaring, since The Muppet Show is where Statler and Waldorf's choleric heckling began and ripened to full vaudevillian juiciness. Maybe it's because Peter and I have been watching so many episodes of The Muppet Show, which represent, to my inexpert audience mind, a television Camelot of Muppetdom, full of artistic and comical beauty so great that it imbued even a bulbous nine-foot blue monster with a kind of knightly comeliness. Whatever the reason, watching Studio DC: Almost Live felt like seeing Jackie Kennedy trawling the Port Authority area, with one tooth, offering to do the no-pants dance with you for a pack of Newports. You keep trying to reconcile this image with the older one, the better one, and they simply don't match up.

But like I said, I'm not a Muppet Fan, I'm a fan. That's why I don't jump at any chance to see the puppets doing, say, an appearance on The View or selling Ginsu knives on QVC. I want the Muppets, and they were nowhere to be seen in Studio DC: Almost Live. And, no, it doesn't deserve the exclamation point. Period.
Click here to discuss selling out on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: Disney, guest bloggers, Muppets on TV, review

It’s no secret that kids no longer care about Muppets. To gather proof of that, I called my cousin Ryan, age ten. This is not a boy who hasn’t been exposed to the Muppets. He has seen The Muppet Show before, and he admits to having had a good time watching it. But he doesn’t think about them when they aren’t around. Our conversation went like this:

Me: Can you name three Muppets? Any three, off the top of your head.

Ryan: Okay. Kermit . . . um, Miss Piggy. Umm . . . . actually, I can only name two.

Now, my cousin Ryan doesn’t represent all American children, but he is pretty typical. Kids are aware that the Muppets exist, but it doesn’t matter to them. With DVDs of The Muppet Show readily available, there should be a new generation of Muppet fans springing up, but it isn’t happening. The Muppets are at best something weird that their parents or older siblings like, or at worst this one thing that looks kind of like Sesame Street, that baby show they used to watch. Whatever the reason, kids just don't have any interest in the Muppets.

So far, Disney’s response to this problem has been to stuff the Muppets in a drawer and forget about them, focusing all of their energy and money instead on Disney Channel properties like The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and High School Musical. Recently, though, someone got the bright idea to toss the Muppets in with those things, and we got last night’s half-hour TV special Studio DC: Almost Live.

I’m not going to dwell on the quality of the special – it was probably enjoyable enough for the target crowd, but I personally found it soul-crushingly awful. No, what I want to talk about today was the wise decision to use the special to actually introduce The Muppets to a tween-age crowd, using the Disney Channel stars as surrogates for the audience.

In the opening number, “Some Song About Being a Girl and Having Fun,” Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus is repulsed to learn that Muppets exist. Her face shows complete horror when Pepe and Rizzo start talking at her. She’s baffled that her dad wants her to play with the Electric Mayhem, even after the oddly-accented little talking dolls tell her that they’ve played with “Garth Brooks, Elton John and Prince”. She seems to be thinking “Old people like the weirdest things.” In the end, though, she reluctantly does the song. By the end she’s in love with them. “The Electric Mayhem are great,” she screams. “Especially Animal!”

“Look, kids!” the special is saying. “These creatures might look weird and old and outdated, but they’re awfully wacky and fun!”

The second sketch involves Kermit, Piggy, and Gonzo guest-starring on The Suite Life. Fifteen-year-old twins Cole and Dylan Sprouse, as Zack and Cody, clearly have no idea who Kermit and Gonzo are as the sketch opens. In fact, they have to be introduced to both characters by their tormented father figure, Mr. Moseby. Once they are, though, typical Suite Life nonsense ensues, with Kermit rushing around to please his guests and Gonzo dismantling an air conditioner for some reason.

“You know you like The Suite Life,” Disney is telling the children. “These characters also engage in nonsensical hijinx. Wouldn’t you like to see more of that?”

As the third segment opens, we find High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale telling Kermit that she loves The Muppets and always had a crush on Fozzie Bear. She then enthusiastically does a song number with Kermit. What’s that, you ask, a child who’s familiar with The Muppets? Unfortunately, no. At 23, Tisdale might firmly be in the Muppet Babies generation, but she’s certainly old enough to remember when the Muppets were still popular.

“Ashley Tisdale grew up with these guys!” the Disney Channel is shouting. “And you love her! Why don’t you love them too?!”

Finally, fabricated pop sensations The Jonas Brothers (the oldest of whom is 20) sing a song with Miss Piggy. Surprisingly, they address her by name before she has to be introduced. By now, the young audience should be familiar enough with The Muppets (Piggy has appeared in the last two sketches before this one) that no introductions are required. There just be hope yet for the younger generation.

“See how quickly the Jonas Brothers became Miss Piggy fans?!” Mickey Mouse is pleading. “Won’t you do the same? Please, for me?!

We'll have to wait and see if it works.

Click here to be surprised that Muppets still exist on the Tough Pigs Forum.

Labels: Disney, Muppets on TV

Don't forget to set your TiVo, VCR, or kinescope this weekend for Studio DC: Almost Live! The special airs on the Disney Channel on Sunday, August 3 at 8 PM Eastern, and it features the Muppets interacting with some of the most popular performers around, like Miley Cyrus, Ashley Tisdale, and the Jonas Brothers. If you're older than eleven, you may not have heard of any of these kids, but trust me -- they're huge.

This special is actually nowhere near live -- it was recorded a year ago, when Ashley Tisdale still had her real nose, and Miley Cyrus had yet to shock and appall every human on Earth by showing us the backs of her shoulders. We don't really know why Disney waited a year to air it, but I'm guessing it's because the special is so incredibly good they had to wait until we were truly ready for it. Or... some other reason.

Consider this: When The Muppet Show ended its run, the average Jonas Brothers fan was 18 years away from being born. So they may not be intimately familiar with Gonzo, Animal, or Floyd. But if the young people in the Disney Channel's audience like this special, they'll probably be open to seeing more new Muppet stuff, which I personally am in favor of, as long as it doesn't make me cringe.

No matter what, it'll be fun to see Muppets on television again... and maybe, just maybe, it'll be entertaining for those of us past puberty.

Click here to discuss the Disney Channel special on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: Muppets on TV

I’m gonna be honest with you, it’s been a long time since I’ve watched anything on PBS other than Sesame Street. I know there’s quality programming out there, but who has the time for “quality” TV when there’s great shows like Studio 60, The War at Home, and Punk’d to keep me busy?. Now that the regular TV season is over, I’ve taken notice of PBS once again. And their new commercial campaign, which they call “Ready To Learn,” is outta this world. I mean that in a wow-this-is-great kinda way and not a yip-yip-yip-uh-huh-uh-huh kinda way.

The commercials go back to what made shows like Sesame Street entertaining back in the day. They took an educational lesson in one hand, hilarious parody in the other hand, then began a round of applause. It’s like friggin’ chocolate and peanut butter over here! So while the child watching won’t get the Casablanca reference, they’ll still giggle over Grover’s shenanigans.

The commercials also show the latest collaboration between Sesame Street and Between the Lions. If you want to jump in my phone booth time machine, we can take a peek at the other times we’ve seen Theo, Cleo and the gang team up with their Sesame brethren.

Our first stop is 2001, in which Bert, Ernie, and Big Bird all appeared in a bird-themed episode of Between the Lions. The cameos were just brief enough to tease the idea that they would visit the lions’ library, yet so short that it makes the viewer wish he had Tivo.

Next up, 2002, when the Between the Lions gang teamed up with characters from the Muppets, Sesame Street, and Bear and the Big Blue House (as well as a shload of other characters and celebrities) for “We Are Family,” a video that promoted diversity and tolerance. Actually, I’m more amazed that they got characters from the Muppets, Sesame Street, and Bear in the same room at the same time. Rumor has it that they don’t get along so well after the Cookiegate incident of 1999.

Our last blast to the past is 2006, where PBS first began to produce “Ready To Learn” commercials. The only one that featured a BtL/Sesame crossover was an American Idol parody, featuring Ernie’s desperate attempt at rhyming on stage while being judged unscrupulously by BtL’s Theo, Emily Elizabeth from Clifford the Big Red Dog, and Oscar the Grouch. Other commercials featured a faux BtL family sitcom, a CSI parody starring Ernie and Bert, and a game show which featured the triumphant return of Guy Smiley, along with his constant contestant Cookie Monster.

While the last set of commercials featured television parodies, this year’s batch focuses on film parodies, old and new. And really old, and not-so-new-anymore.

First up is a ToughPigs favorite, the West Side Story parody. Theo and Ernie are leading two dangerous street gangs who may be tiny, but will rip your ear off if you look at them funny. Plus, they’ve got some wicked choreography. In all seriousness, I’m glad they didn’t rumble, because Ernie vs. a lion isn’t the fairest bout they could have had. I was a little thrown off by the Jet/Pet graffiti in that one scene, but I guess they were having a tough time rhyming “Shark” with anything. And a nice Great Muppet Caper-esque cameo by Oscar at the end. Totally unnecessary, which is one of the things that make the Muppets great.

Next we’ve got the Mission: Impossible spoof. Now, far be it for me to put down any production that features a full-bodied Cookie Monster puppet being dangled on a string, but come on, how old is this spoof? Not only was Mission: Impossible released in 1996, but the parody was already overused by 1999. Heck, even Fozzie Bear took a turn at being a suspended spy in a Muppet parodies calendar. In any case, the scene is still hilarious. That little guy on the screen is BtL’s Arty Smartypants, which is a fun name to say out loud. Go ahead, try it. And Cookie Monster shows a wide array of emotions, from frightened to anxious to content, all within a few seconds. Needless to say, his acting abilities were fueled by his need for one single cookie. Now that’s dedication!

Commercial #3 is a Casablanca parody, featuring Grover and BtL’s Cleo. Now, I don’t think I’ve seen Grover in black-and-white since Monsterpiece Theater’s “39 Stairs.” And he doesn’t let down here either. Though a love affair between a monster and a lion seems a little… unnatural, I completely buy the idea that Grover would get caught up in a rhyming game, well past his partner’s patience. And that look of accomplishment on his face at the end is simply priceless.

Finally, we’ve got my favorite, the Superman parody. The world has been begging for more of a Super Grover/Superman connection, other than the “Smarter than a speeding bullet” speech. And now that Superman Returns is a solid part of pop culture, it’s about time Super Grover takes full advantage of that. I’ve got a Super Grover toy next to a Superman toy on my shelf, both of which depict the character flying upward with a fist in the air. That right there makes me think that there’s a world of possibility for parody in Grover, and I’d love to see Sesame Workshop take full advantage of that.

So there you have it. Four new commercials and four wonderfully executed parodies. But this begs the question: if this is the kind of entertainment they can create with just a little bit more of a budget, why can’t we see a larger parody akin to this on the Street? Or better yet, on the big screen? Maybe once someone discovers the connection between Abby Cadabby and Anne Bancroft in The Graduate, a new world of parody will be opened to us.

Click here to discuss a spoof of this article on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: Muppets on TV, Sesame Street

Hiya, folks and people. Welcome to the all-new, all-different, now-vanilla-scented ToughPigs.com. I'm Ryan Roe, and I hope you'll come to know me as the Ryan-Roe-iest of the contributors here.

You know that show Deal or No Deal? It’s a prime time game show hosted by Howie Mandel, whose previous jobs include voicing Scooter’s imaginary sister and putting rubber gloves on his head. Recently, our favorite freakishly tall avian Big Bird made an appearance on a special, two-hour Christmas episode of the show.




If NBC really had their act together, they would have let Big Bird co-host the show, or at least had him take over for one of the models who holds the briefcases. Like #18. She's not that hot anyway. But alas, they’re not that bright. His appearance was brief, and didn’t occur until about ¾ of the way through the show. I’m guessing most of you missed it, because, come on, what kind of loser wants to spend his Christmas watching Deal or No Deal? (Note: My apologies to any of said losers who may be reading this.)

So here’s a recap, to be read while eating the last of the leftover pistachio pudding from Christmas dinner.

To set the stage: Our contestant is Lamar, a jovial ice cream man who looks like he takes full advantage of the free ice cream available at his job. I’m not going to reiterate the rules of the game, as it would take way too long, and because I’m not sure I understand them. But let’s just say that Lamar has the choice of either selling his briefcase to the show’s mysterious Banker for $39,000 (deal!), or rejecting the offer and continuing to play for a prize amount somewhere between $.01 and $500,000 (no deal!).


Why all the scaredy talk, Howie? It soon becomes clear that it’s a setup, as a door behind Lamar opens and Big Bird walks in, wearing a very Christmassy necktie. Big Bird is one of the few TV stars who can get away with wearing a tie without a dress shirt. Or pants. As he enters, the audience goes nuts, and he sneaks up behind Lamar, who is still unaware.




And then Big Bird taps Lamar on the shoulder, and then BLAM! The audience erupts, Lamar’s eyes go wide, and he turns and walks off the stage. Wait a second-- what’s up with that? It seems unlikely that a guy who’s just spent half an hour tolerating Howie Mandel would walk away from a meeting with Big Bird.


Hooray! It’s really Caroll Spinney in the bird! And hooray, Lamar returns to the stage, having regained his composure, and gives Big Bird a big ol’ Christmas hug. You know, at this point it really doesn’t matter whether Lamar wins $500,000 or a mere penny. He got to hug Big Bird, and that’s a prize you can’t place a value on.


There’s more applause and cheering, and Big Bird starts jumping up and down, and you can’t help but think that Caroll Spinney is awfully spry for 73. As I implied earlier, Lamar is a pretty large dude, so it seems like Big Bird’s suggestion that he resembles Snuffy is, in fact, a fat joke. But it’s Big Bird, so he gets away with it. He could cheerfully insult all your flaws and shortcomings, and you’d stand there and take it with a smile, because he’s an American institution.

Also, I think the whole “If you believe, you will achieve!” thing was some sort of personal motto of Lamar’s, but I’m not sure. I wasn’t really paying attention.


And then Howie kind of pushes Big Bird away, as if to say, “Get outta here, kid, we got a show to do,” and he makes his exit, and that’s it. The whole thing lasts approximately eighty seconds. Just a cameo, really. Still, the rock-star-like reception Big Bird got was good to see. After all these years, America is still thrilled to see Big Bird, and that feels sort of like a gift in itself.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Lamar said no deal, of course. When an eight-foot-tall canary tells you to keep playing, you keep playing.

ToughPigsRyan@yahoo.com

Labels: Muppets on TV, Sesame Street