Let’s say, hypothetically, that you’ve got problems at home. You have a little Girl Who Likes Dinosaurs, facing off every morning with your little Boy Who Likes Trains. They do nothing but fight over what to play, because she’s only interested in DinoPark and he only cares for his Thomas PVCs.

Fortunately for you, the Jim Henson Company has devised a solution: television! More specifically, Dinosaur Train, the first show designed to bring together children with diverse interests by catering to dinosaur and train aficionados alike. Finally, a little peace and quiet after breakfast.

In fact, Dinosaur Train, which debuted in September, revels in diversity. Although you may look different, enjoy unusual talents and pastimes, and eat a diet that should almost certainly include your siblings, Dinosaur Train promises that you and your natural enemies can live together in harmony. The show stars three baby Pteranodons – Shiny, Tiny, and Don – and their brother Buddy, a Tyrannosaurus who just happened to hatch in their nest alongside them. And until Buddy inevitably succumbs to the call of the wild, the foursome has set out to explore the Mesozoic together.

These explorations involve the chums embracing new differences (Buddy’s a better tracker, but Tiny can hide in crawl spaces), and itching to learn more about a particular dinosaur in each episode – the fastest one, the largest one, or that thing with feathers. Invariably, intellectual curiosity leads the gang to… wait for it… the Dinosaur Train! The kids will chat with the Barney Fife-like conductor before stepping off to visit with Mrs. Velociraptor or Mrs. Argentinosaurus (somehow it’s usually the mom) and her child, play a few games, learn a bit of dino-trivia, and take the train home. Enter the live action paleontologist Dr. Scott and a gaggle of human children to elaborate on a couple of details, plus a businesslike fellow in a fedora popping in with downers such as, “Point of fact: Dinosaurs did not put on fashion shows.” Rinse and repeat.

The show gives kiddie and adult viewers plenty to enjoy. We get catchy songs and off-the-cuff rhymes (check out the teacher guide and video page for the rockabilly theme song and further treats) along with a kicky score, sparkling views of the Pteranodon family’s seaside nest, and a fully fleshed-out cast. Buddy and Tiny, clearly the stars, find non-irritating ways to conduct their investigations, using the word “hypothesis” at least once per episode. Shiny acts and talks uncannily like Lucy van Pelt. And Don may be a bit slow on the uptake, but his habit of collecting odd curiosities and his affinity for spontaneous silly dances have thoroughly won my heart.

Dinosaur Train-watching only becomes harrowing if you expect a logical, feasible story about plausible characters set in a fact-based environment. I can accept the idea of a family of friendly, talking cretaceans, and even their vaguely anthropomorphic games like Dinosuar Hopscotch and Dinoball. Matters start to get sticky, though, when the show’s double agenda of depicting a relatively peaceful society, as well as some degree of scientific accuracy, necessarily undermines itself.

Countless creatures on the show – from Troodons to frogs – exchange lighthearted chit-chat with our heroes, who could easily start eating them, or each other, any minute. To learn a species’ full rap sheet we need the basics: How many football fields long, and elephants heavy, is it? Is this creature a carnivore, omnivore, or herbivore (or more specifically, a fish-hunter like the Pteranodons)? Rather than avoiding the subject of food, Dinosaur Train jumps through hoops to address it. To get around potential ickiness, the fish on the show conveniently don’t talk, and Tyrannosaurs’ favorite dish is the shadily procured “carrion,” an ambiguous pile of bones and viscous red goo. Could Shiny’s elderly Aunt Cloise have gotten mixed in there? Too late now.

Another device that fits the show’s storytelling methods, as well as my penchant for finding loopholes, is the way each species occupies its own corner of this veritable zoo. Valerie the raptor can only leave Velociraptor Valley by taking the Dinosaur Train through a Time Tunnel (even traveling within one’s own time period always incurs a Time Tunnel, and probably a Time Tunnel Toll). Why doesn’t traveling back to the Triassic ever disrupt the space-time continuum? More pressingly, why can’t multiple species coexist on the same soil? What kind of scientific authenticity, not to mention healthy social model, is this? It’s as though the U.N. sat down and laid out its very own prehistoric partition plan, so that Pteranodon Terrace wouldn’t include enough T-rexes to constitute a majority voting block.

I ask this as though 3-6 year olds really give a hoot, and they surely don’t. In the Dinosaur Train universe, relationships between the characters carry far more weight than their place on the food chain. In my favorite episode so far, Dolores Tyrannosaurus and her daughter Annie stop by for a visit, with mauling nowhere on their agenda. Buddy enjoys sharing his T-Rex talents with Annie so thoroughly that Tiny, feeling unneeded, sulks off on her own; Buddy wins Tiny back by reminding her that as siblings and best friends, they have far more commonalities than differences – and therein lies the true charm of Dinosaur Train. In episodes to come, Dolores and Annie will welcome our adventurers into Rexville as equals, and meanwhile I’ll welcome them all equally into my living room.

Click here to discuss Dinosaur Train on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: Jim Henson Company, other Muppet/Henson shows, review

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

The following review was written by Tough Pigs' close, personal friend Peter Papazoglou. Here, Peter shares his thoughts on the Jim Henson Company's live stage musical version of Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas, which completed its run at the Goodspeed Opera House in Haddon, Connecticut on January 4. Take it away, Peter!

I have a confession to make. Until a couple of hours ago, I had never seen Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas. Worse yet, it’s not for lack of opportunity; I’ve had in my possession for over three years now not only the HIT! Entertainment-released DVD (gifted to me by my then-girlfriend, now-fiancé, and sometime-Tough Pigs contributor Leah) but also a copy of the much sought after original cut of the 1977 HBO special.

When I shared my secret with Tough Pigs’ own Joe and Ryan last month, they were, of course, shocked. After all, in certain Muppet fan circles, this surely amounted to nothing less than blasphemy. But luckily for me, they had a touch of the Christmas spirit about them, and rather than run me out of Riverbottom, they took their seats beside me as I was introduced to Russell and Lillian Hoban’s story in a brand new way - on stage.

And having finally seen the television special, I can confirm that Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, the new musical produced by the Goodspeed Opera House in association with the Jim Henson Company, adeptly and (for the most part) faithfully adapts its source material.

The story, for those of you fellow cretins unfamiliar with it, tells of Emmet Otter and his ma, Alice, two of the poorest residents of rural Frogtown Hollow, where bartering is common practice and even fifty cents can make a difference. Since the death of Pa Otter, the two have barely managed to sustain themselves with odd jobs and a laundry service. But just as they resign themselves to another year without gifts beneath the Christmas branch, word comes out of nearby and newly electrified Waterville that Doc Bullfrog is hosting a talent contest with a first prize of fifty dollars cash.

In a plot twist that borrows from O. Henry’s short story, “The Gift of the Magi,” Alice and Emmet, both inspired by Pa Otter’s legacy of foolhardiness, decide to enter the contest so they can afford a treasured gift for the other - for him, a guitar with mother of pearl inlays; for her, a down payment on a used piano. But when Alice hocks Emmet’s tool chest to buy fabric for a dress to perform in and Emmet puts a hole in Alice’s only washtub to fashion a makeshift bass for his jug band, they put their only sources of income at risk. So when the Riverbottom Nightmare Band, a devilish but talented rock quintet (whose incongruous style foreshadows the juxtaposition of the funky Electric Mayhem with the vaudevillian setting of The Muppet Show) wins the contest, Emmet and Alice are left to put a brave face on their impending destitution.

This being a Christmas story, all ends well for the Otters when Jane, who had previously sacrificed her place in the talent contest roster to Alice, who had showed up moments too late to register, realizes that the songs performed by Alice (“Our World”) and Emmet’s Frogtown Jubilee Jug Band (“Brothers”) could be performed in counterpoint as “Brothers in Our World,” just in time to convince Doc Bullfrog to hire the newly formed quintet to perform nightly at the Riverside Rest.

What’s that? You don’t remember Jane? Oh, come on. Jane. You know...little girl? About eleven, maybe twelve. Short. Brown hair. Human?

That’s right. Human.

I guess I forgot to mention Jane. You see, it’s Christmas in Jane’s world, too - the first since her mother’s passing - and she’s pushing her father, Russ, away. What has this got to do with Emmet Otter, you ask? Well, it was (conveniently, of course) her favorite book when she was a child, one that her mother had read to her and left a heartfelt inscription in. So when her father suggests he read it to her, she grudgingly concedes.

And before you can say deus ex machina, Jane is magically transported to Frogtown Hollow, where nobody seems to notice that she’s the only one around without her species as a last name. So, quite naturally, she sings a song, solves a plot complication that wouldn’t have existed if she had never showed up in the first place, saves the day, and then - get this! - wakes up.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, in a plot line lifted straight from a short story I wrote when I was eight years old, in which Alice (of Wonderland fame) fell into the wrong rabbit hole and ended up in Sherwood Forest instead, our heroine wakes up at the end of the story to discover that the whole thing was just a dream; she had never been to Frogtown Hollow at all. What a cop-out.

I want to be clear. What bothers me about Jane is not that Timothy A. McDonald and Christopher Gatelli, who adapted the work for the stage, felt that the story needed a framing device. After all, the original special was bookended by scenes featuring Kermit the Frog, who could obviously not be reused here due to copyright issues. It’s that the playwrights don’t trust their material.

Because the rest Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas is wonderful and remarkably complex. Like all good Christmas stories, it weaves together themes of commercialism, charity, and sacrifice. But unlike so many stories written for today’s children, its protagonists are passionate and reckless, sympathetic but tart. Its lessons are far from simple; the villains, after all, walk away with first prize. And its grief is real. Emmet and Alice don’t miss Pa in some abstract way; they reminisce about him and obsess about him. They blame him for their predicament and look to him for a way out. Nothing about Emmet Otter is simple, so it’s a testament to the strength of the source material that the play shines in spite of the framing device, which is at best an unnecessary way to give children a way into the story.

It doesn’t hurt, of course, that the production is beautifully designed.

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas uses a costume-based approach for the majority of the main characters, who wear full-body outfits that only expose the actors’ make-up laden faces. The costumes, impeccably designed by Gregg Barnes (Fred Lizard, Harrison Fox, and Wendell Porcupine are favorites), achieve the aesthetic of the original puppets while also allowing the actors the physical versatility to perform their roles. The only snag, and it’s a minor one, is that the furry, mittened hands are distracting, pushing the costumes just a bit in the direction of the theme park variety.

More minor characters like Doc Bullfrog, Yancey Woodchuck, and Old Lady Possum are performed as bunraku-style puppets, with their performers either hidden among the scenery or dressed in black against a black background. Doc Bullfrog, in particular, is meticulously recreated and expertly performed by Tyler Bunch. And Yancey Woodchuck is built so that his puppeteer, the talented David Stephens, can effortlessly change from rod-operated hands to live ones to play the banjo on “Barbeque” at the talent show.

The remaining characters are performed as hand puppets based on the original Muppet creations. These include Howard Snake, who is seamlessly handed off from one onstage character to the next; Catfish, who spews water in other characters’ faces after appearing in the most unexpected of locations; George and Melissa Rabbit, and a quartet of gibberish-speaking squirrels who steal the show in their quest to grow a Christmas tree from scratch overnight. Even woodland creatures that appear only momentarily in the television special have been faithfully recreated for the stage: the ducks on the river in “The One Bathing Suit,” the egret at the end of “Ain’t No Hole in the Washtub,” and the owl at the end of “When the River Meets the Sea,” to name a few.

It is of note that while the majority of the puppets were recreated for this production at a larger size, so as to be more easily viewed by the audience, the puppets of Alice and Emmet that bookend the production are, in fact, the refurbished puppets from the original production.

The sets by Anna Louizos are versatile and make adept and surprising use of the small stage, most impressively conveying the illusion of Alice and Emmet rowing along the river on their way to and from Waterville. And the lighting by Brian MacDevitt effectively conveys the woodland mood while also carefully obscuring the puppeteers as necessary, particularly in the talent show climax in the second act.

As with recent adaptations of children’s films, the book and score for Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas has been expanded in order to fill the longer running time required of a stage musical. Composer/lyricist Paul Williams does an admirable job of matching the style of his new musical numbers to the ones ported over from the original score. And the revisions to the book do quite a bit to flesh out the history of Alice and Pa Otter, explaining, for example, the significance of Emmet’s wanting to give his mother a piano for Christmas. The additional material also serves to more fully develop the residents of Waterville and Riverbottom. And while the television special is remarkably efficient in its exposition, the pacing in the musical is definitely an improvement over the original, which now feels a little rushed by comparison.

Although there is some consolidation of minor characters (Yancey Woodchuck, for example, serves as the fruit stand owner in the stage version; and Will Possum’s role has been greatly reduced, split between Yancey and Old Lady Possum), only Shirley and Nat Muskrat (and their act, Carrots the Dancing Horse) appear to have been cut entirely. Most minor roles have been expanded, especially musically. Harrison Fox, performs the bouncy new song “Waterville” ; his jealous wife, Gretchen, attempts to sabotage the talent show with an incognito aria; and the heretofore unnamed Mrs. Mink gets two musical numbers - the brand new “At the Music Store,” the most lackluster and, frankly, unnecessary of the additional songs (which was also hindered by unfortunate staging that caused her to be constantly upstaged by the set), and the delightfully burlesque “Born in a Trunk,” which was written and recorded for but ultimately cut from the original special. Even Jane gets to sing with the scene-stealing squirrels, and “Trust” is one of those moments where you almost forget that she doesn’t belong in the story in the first place.

Aside from Jane and Russ, two brand new characters round out the cast. The first, Madame Squirrel, now leads the formerly haphazard acrobatic squirrels. The more notable addition, however, is the ghost Pa Otter, who appears to sing the lovely ballad, “Alice, Keep Dreaming,” when his widow has been disqualified from competing in the talent contest and is at her lowest. Tony Award nominee Alan Campbell, who appropriately doubles as Russ, captures Pa’s mischievous and compassionate spirit in his subtle, understated performance.

The rest of the cast is similarly talented, bringing vitality to roles that could easily suffer under the weight of their costumes or become mere caricatures. It is, unfortunately, the younger characters who have the most trouble. Instead of seeming like children, Daniel Reichard as Emmet, Jeff Hiller as Charlie Muskrat, and Daniel Torres as Harvey Beaver, all seem a little older, at least in part because of their height. And in trying to play the correct age, they sometimes come off as slower than they ought to be.

Out of the Frogtown Jubilee Jug Band, only the intentionally dimwitted Wendell Porcupine is spared this fate, in part because performer Robb Sapp so fully captures the character and voice created by Dave Goelz. Still, they all do admirable jobs, and their performances, especially Reichard’s, ring emotionally true if a little physically and vocally awkward.

And finally, even though it is, by definition, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, the show at the Goodspeed Opera House belonged to understudy Lisa Howard as Alice Otter, a role usually played by Cass Morgan (Howard usually performs Gretchen Fox). If Reichard’s Emmet runs a bit on the older side, Howard’s Alice is a more youthful creation than Frank Oz and Marilyn Sokol’s original, artfully melding the character’s maturity with an impish playfulness on display in numbers like “Ain’t No Hole in the Washtub.” Howard inhabits the role completely and is especially heartbreaking in “When the River Meets the Sea” (arguably the best song in Paul William’s score), in which she sings, in her lilting soprano, of birth fulfilling itself in death, invoking the truest meaning of Christmas.:

Like a baby when it is sleeping
In its loving mother's arms
What a newborn baby dreams is a mystery
But his life will find a purpose
And in time he'll understand
When the river meets the sea

Word on the street is that Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas may return as a perennial Christmas performance, with the hope of expanding nationally. If the production at the Goodspeed Opera House is any indication, it’s poised to be a classic. Let’s just hope its creators trust the story of Emmet and Alice Otter to tell itself, unencumbered by the modern trappings that threatened to drag down the first incarnation of this beautiful tale.

Our thanks to Peter for his review. Click here to discuss the Emmet Otter musical on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: Christmas, guest bloggers, Jim Henson Company, other Muppet/Henson shows, review

Sid the Science Kid is a new children's show about the son of Bill Nye the Science Guy. No, that's not true. The show is about an inquisitive little boy who is rarely found without his toy microphone, and who wants to know "everything about everything." It's produced by the Jim Henson Company using the Henson Digital Performance System (which is a magical spell that turns puppetry into computer animation), and it premiered on on PBS last month. I sat down to watch the first four episodes to see if I learned anything about anything.

So, what's the first episode about? When I was a kid, I was really into dinosaurs, so maybe it's about dinosaurs. Oh, or germs. Those are cool. Or maybe something about fire? Kids love setting stuff on fire! We open on Sid in his room, and he tells us that today's show is about... charts!

Huh. Okay, I guess it's useful for kids to learn about charts. Sid wants to know, "Why do we need charts?" Of course, it would take a kid to ask a question like that, because to a grown-up it's very obvious why we need charts. We need them because... well, it's... when you use the Pythagorean... um... Well, I know why we need charts, but I'm not going to say anything so I don't spoil this episode for anyone.

Now Sid's mom calls him downstairs for Breakfast Time, and we meet Sid's family. I read a review somewhere that mentioned Sid's parents being multi-ethnic. I don't think I would have even noticed otherwise, but it seems to be true. That's pretty cool, and it ensures that the character will be easily identifiable for kids with one yellow parent and one orange parent. Is it weird that I think Sid's mom is a little bit hot? Actually, forget I said that.

Speaking of Sid, there's something about him that reminds me of the comedian Patton Oswalt. Is it his voice? (Sid is voiced and digitally puppeteered by Drew Massey.) Is it his pleasantly round face? I'm not sure, but I like to think they'd get along. Oswalt could make jokes about food while Sid asked about the preservatives in his Fruity Pebbles.























Sid learns more about charts at breakfast, but he still remembers to eat. I'm guessing they'll make sure to show Sid eating a healthy breakfast in every episode, at least until they decide to do a show in which Sid asks the question, "What will happen to me if I eat this 4-month-old burrito I found in the back of the refrigerator for breakfast?" Then his Mom drives him to school, and he sings a song as he finds his friends on the playground. The animation here is pretty great -- they're all moving like real kids, and there are camera moves and everything. I don't understand exactly how digital puppetry works (maybe that's a question for Dan the Computer Animation Expert Man), but I'm guessing this sequence involved some full-body motion capture.

Sid's friends are Gerald (a goofball who, in real life, would be prescribed methylphenidate), Gabriella (who wears a skirt AND jeans, a bold fashion statement), and May, who's a bit spacey. The characterization doesn't go very deep, but they all represent types you would probably encounter in preschool. I know my preschool had a Gerald. Come to think of it, though, I'm not sure they're in preschool. It could conceivably be kindergarten. In the four episodes I watched, I don't think they ever said how old Sid is. Also, why are there only four children in Sid's class? Is it an extremely exclusive private school, or just a sparsely populated area? More importantly, who cares?

So then it's "Rug Time," which means time for class to start, with Sid's teacher Susie. It seems awfully informal that they just call their teacher "Susie" -- not even a "Ms." -- but whatever. And they talk about charts. What else? After watching four episodes, I noticed that Sid seems to dictate every day's curriculum. Wait a minute, what kind of school is this? Does Susie ever even bother coming up with a lesson plan, or does she just wait to see what Sid wants to talk about? Then she takes all the kids to the "Super Fab Lab" and has them scribble something to do with charts in their science notebooks.

After that, it's playtime, which means it's time for "Good Laughternoon." Now, kids under the age of 8 have never heard of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in. (Heck, most kids under the age of 42 have never heard of Laugh-in.) So they won't realize that Good Laughternoon is an homage/ripoff of one of that show's famous bits, as Sid and friends open multi-colored, multi-shaped doors on their playscape and tell... well, they're not real jokes, exactly. Henson keeps promoting Sid as a "comedy show" for kids, but this kind of stuff makes it seem more like a comedy show by kids. Here are some examples from the four episodes I watched:


Okay, so maybe that last one is a little bit funny. But you see what I mean. Sure, these sound like jokes made up by children, so it's accurate enough. But it indicates that this will not be one of those kids' shows that parents will look forward to watching with their kids. On the other hand, there also plenty of adult characters who talk more or less like adults, and the show's obnoxious, so parents won't run away screaming from it either. So I guess that's okay. But the fact that Sid often has to click the laugh track button on his toy microphone to let us know something is supposed to be a joke is telling.

Where was I? I guess I kinda blew all my critque in that last paragraph. Oh, right: Soon it's Time for Susie to Sing, and she takes Sid's microphone and whips out a catchy pop song about the day's subject; in this case, charts. In the episode about magnifying small things, she sings a song about magnifying glasses, and in the estimation show she sings about estimating. So

I take back what I said about Susie earlier -- Despite letting a little boy decide what the lesson for the day will be, she apparently goes to the trouble of memorizing an endlesss number songs that pertain to the subject he might choose on any given day. She has no idea what the class might be talking about from day to day, but she apparently has a song prepared for every occasion. Now that's dedication.

After school, Sid is picked up by his Grandma, who happens to be the show's best character. She asks Sid about what he learned in school, and she chuckles to herself a lot, as any self-respecting nutty old lady would. And when Sid explains his chore chart reward system, she pointedly explains that when she was Sid's age she was expected to do chores without any kind of reward. I like Grandma. I want a Grandma spinoff.

After dinner with his family, Sid returns to his room, where he comes up with today's Super Duper Ooper Schmooper Big Idea. (You may or may not recall that when this series was first announced as being in development, it was called What's the Big Idea?) Today's idea: A really big chart. Yep, that's a big idea all right.

And that's the show. If nothing else, it's impressive that they filled 30 minutes with nothing but charts. When Elmo talks about feet or bathtubs or clothes or whatever, he only does 15 minutes.

And yeah, I watched the other three episodes, and I was going to describe them in detail here, but I think you get the idea. Every episode seems to follow the same basic format, with some variation: Sid's intro, then Breakfast Time, then Looking for Friends (with a minute and 35 seconds of recycled animation every show!), Rug Time, Super Fab Lab, Playtime, Susie sings, Grandma, family time, and the Super Gooper Hooper Pooper Big Idea.

Oh, and each episode begins with Sid asking a question that presents the theme. Basically, he's the Carrie Bradshaw of budding scientists. "How do roly polys move?" "How many seashells are in my jar?" "How can I use my ruler to measure a whale?" "How do you know if you're good in bed?" Hmm... I think one of those might actually be from Sex and the City, but I have no idea which one.

So it's not a groundbreaking show, but it has a very specific goal -- to get kids interested in the idea of science as something you do, rather than something you read about -- and I think it'll hit that goal. And yes, I learned something: In the second episode, Sid's dad reveals that roly polys (aka "doodle bugs") are crustaceans, not insects. I don't think I knew that.

They even get into a few more complicated lessons, like the concept of "non-standard measurements," which is impressive. I have to wonder if the target audience will understand it all, but I'm sure they've done their research. And hey, getting kids excited about science can't be a bad thing.

Unless they blow themselves up. That would be bad.

Click here to comment on this article, to talk about Sid the Science Kid, and to measure some whales, all on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: Jim Henson Company, other Muppet/Henson shows, review

Do you like cop shows? Do you like apes? Do you like puppets? Well, of course you like puppets, you're reading a Muppet fan site. But if you like those other things too, you may be interested to know of the existence of SUDS, the upcoming web series from Henson Alternative. SUDS, by the way, stands for Simian Undercover Detective Squad, which pretty much tells you all you need to know about the premise.

The series will be premiering on Film.com in 2008, and they've put up a teaser trailer to whet our appetite for talking primates. If you also count "wacky sound effects" as something you like, you're gonna love this:




Personally, I've found Henson Alternative's offerings thus far to be pretty flawed, but this one shows promise... after all, if Bear on Patrol worked, why not apes incognito?

Click here to talk about SUDS on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: Henson Alternative, internet, other Muppet/Henson shows

This week saw the debut of a brand-new project from the Jim Henson Company entitled Tinseltown. Tinseltown is a comedy series about a gay couple trying to get by in Hollywood , one of whom is a pig and the other of whom is a bull, both of whom are puppets. Bobby Vegan (the pig) is performed by Bill Barretta and Samson Knight (the bull) is performed by Brian Henson.

The show debuted last Friday as part of the gay-themed Logo cable network's "Alien Boot Camp" programming block. ("Alien Boot Camp" sounds like an Japanese cartoon series, doesn't it? Probably something about robotic pandas fighting skeletons in a submarine.) But if you missed it, you can watch it yourself right now, on the internet, by visiting the Alien Boot Camp website.

But should you watch it? Well, that depends... Do you find the following things funny: Puppets in bondage gear, 13-year-old children drinking beer, jokes about pigs having intimate relations with midgets? If so, this is the show for you. If not, you might want to stay away. Basically, it's a puppet show for people who believe comedy never needs to aim any higher than Comedy Central's Drawn Together, that a puppet uttering obscenities automatically constitutes "edgy" humor.

Tinseltown is a production of the Henson Company's new division, Henson Alternative, which focuses on adult-targeted projects. For short they're calling it ha!, the same abbreviation Jim Henson used back when his company was called Henson Associates. In those days, it was a pretty sure thing that anyone watching a ha! production would frequently make noises that sounded like the company's name, but sadly, that's much less likely with this newest venture. They try so very hard to be "adult" and "edgy"... in fact, they try too hard in their misguided attempt to reach the mature audience. I'm not saying they shouldn't produce stuff intended for that audience, but if they're going to try, it should be good stuff, or we'll all left wishing for an alternative to Henson Alternative.

The plot concerns Bobby, a struggling actor, skipping out on an audition arranged for him by Samson, his manager, so he can go shopping with Lena, a human woman who is Bobby's friend and Samson's ex-wife. Or... she's Samson's friend and Bobby's ex-wife. I don't remember, but it doesn't really matter, because she doesn't have a personality to speak of and all she really gets to do is get drunk. I realize this is only the first episode, so it could get better from here, but... look, I mean, one of the funniest jokes in the whole thing is that Samson & Bobby's foster son is named "Foster." I'm amazed there wasn't a line about Samson feeling "horny."

I have no idea if there are any other episodes forthcoming, or if this was just a one-time, tryout kind of thing or what, but I honestly can't say I'm glad I spent those 10 minutes (plus, like, 38 more minutes waiting for the freaking video to buffer...) watching Tinseltown.

Oh well... maybe the next gay-pig-and-bull-in-Hollywood show that comes along will be better.

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Labels: Henson Alternative, other Muppet/Henson shows, review

Panwapa. It sounds tasty, doesn't it? Well, you can't eat it. But the good news is that it's a new Sesame Workshop venture and it has Muppets in it! Panwapa (the name comes from a word that means "Here on this earth" in the Tshiluba language) is designed for kids aged four to seven, and its goal is to encourage "global citizenship" and a general awareness of the big ol' world out there. That's a pretty tall order, but if anyone can do it, Sesame Workshop can.

The show will debut on PBS Kids Sprout (which is available as a digital cable channel and video on-demand) in a few months, and there's already an official website and an episode available for free download on the iTunes music store: Just go to the iTunes store and search for "Panwapa"... and then a few days later, you'll get a receipt showing that you paid $0.00 for it. (Just don't be a wiseguy and ask for a refund.) It just so happens that I am a child aged four to seven, so I decided to check out what Panwapa has to offer.

Mashed Potatoes

We're living in a glorious golden age of free, legal video downloads, aren't we? For absolutely no cost, you get no less than 48 minutes worth of brand-new content. Such a thing never existed until the internet age! Um, unless you count broadcast television, which has been around for 126 years now.

But wait... is this show called Panwapa or Panwapa Island? The bouncy theme song (which mostly consists of a guy singing the word "hello" in about 20 different languages -- original lyrics by the Lonely Planet Tourist's Phrasebook, apparently) talks about "Panwapa Island," but the title screen just says Panwapa, so that's what I'm going to call it. If you have a problem with that, I encourage you to write a letter to your Congressperson.

The show has a whole new cast of Muppet characters, most performed by veteran Sesame Street Muppeteers, so there's a comforting feeling of familiarity even though this is not actually a Sesame thing. It's like if you cooked up some homemade mashed potatoes from your beloved grandmother's old recipe, eating them would make you would feel all warm and happy like you were at your Grandma's house even though you weren't. I guess what I'm trying to say is, Panwapa is mashed potatoes.

Monsters Are Scary... or Are They?

As the episode begins, Azibo the monster (performed by Kevin Clash) is very excited because he's just arrived at his new home on Panwapa Island. We later learn that Panwapa Island doesn't have a permanent location -- it floats all over the globe, which is pretty cool. I picture it drifting around the ocean, bouncing between South America and Africa like the square in an epic game of Pong.

The first person Aizbo meets on the island is Koko the penguin (performed by Leslie Carrera), which makes sense. If there's one thing the Muppets have taught us, it's that penguins are perfectly comfortable in any climate. Ah, but Koko has never seen a monster before, so at the sight of Azibo she becomes black and white and FREAKED OUT all over. Koko runs aways screaming.

Azibo next attempts to introduce himself to Bill the bug, who is also terrified, and Tungar the tiger, who immediately drenches him with pepper spray. Okay, that last part's not true, but Tungar flees in terror just like the others.

You know, I get that this whole story depends on the fact that the Panwapans are afraid of Azibo the first time they see him, but it's kind of hard to accept because he's such a cute, fuzzy, friendly thing. I like his lime-sherbet fur and the way the little hairs sway when he moves his head. I'm not afraid of him; I want a plush toy of him to put on my mantel (just as soon as I get a fireplace). On the other hand, I think I'd be mighty frightened if I ran into a tiger or a giant talking bug , but maybe I'm thinking too much. Maybe.

Listen to the Owl

Fortunately, that's when Athena the owl shows up, and she explains what's going on just as Azibo is ready to say, Stop the island, I want to get off. Athena tells Azibo, "They've never seen a monster before, and what you don't know can scare you." Ah, now I get it. And it makes sense... I don't know anything about trigonometry, and it scares the crap out of me.

Athena encourages Azibo to try again to make friends with everyone. She gives him a pep talk. "Show me some monster pride -- puff out your chest, lift up your head, pound on your chest, hop on one foot! Perfectly prideful!" Then she convinces him that "Just because you're a little different doesn't mean you can't be friends." Athena is a feathered fortune cookie. Say... isn't it a stereotype that owls are wise? Doesn't that kind of go against the whole non-judgmental mission of this show? Ah, forget it -- I don't think anyone gives a hoot about offending owls anyway.

Azibo tries again to be friendly, and this time it works! So there you have it, kids -- if the other boys and girls on the playground won't play with you, just keep asking until you wear them down. They will become your friends and will by no means make you eat paste. So then everyone sings "We Can All Get Along," which I assume is an original composition. There are other songs later in the show, and they all have similar themes about tolerance and community spirit.

The message of "People can get along even if they're different" is a good one. It's one that Muppets taught us 20 years ago on Fraggle Rock, and it's been used on Bear in the Big Blue House and Sesame Street. But apparently it hasn't sunk in yet, because we still need Muppets to remind us. Maybe this time we'll learn.

We Come From France

After this, Azibo shows everyone his "Panwapa card" and then Athena shows us hers (Her favorite animal is a cat. Shouldn't it be, like, live mice?). The cool thing is that you can make your own Panwapa card on the website. Here's my Panwapa Kid with his own customized Panwapa coat-of-arms. I'm interested in cats and tacos! Do you like my hat?


And then there's a filmed segment with two little girls from France telling us about their trip around the world. Nothing says "entertainment" like looking at some strangers' vacation pictures. But this seems to be the structure of the show... You get a story about the Muppet characters, and then you get a segment about some real kids from various countries. It's sort of like if Sesame Street were half Global Grover, half street scenes, and no counting to eleven.

I've only talked about the first ten minutes so far. The rest of the show follows the same pattern, but I'll let you discover it on your own (for free!). I haven't told you about the Panwapans enountering snow, or playing in a public domain song cover band, or Azibo naming a nonexistent new nation after himself... heck, I haven't even mentioned the three other characters... they're SHEEP!

After watching the free episode of Panwapa I felt like running out and making friends with everyone in the whole wide world, even if they speak a different language or have different traditions or wear T-shirts with really stupid slogans. I guess my only real criticism was that it could be funnier... It just didn't give me as many hearty, well-earned chuckles as the average episode of Sesame Street.

I don't know exactly how they're planning to present this show on TV -- they could just as easily run it in fifteen minute bursts or in a compilation of segments like the iTunes download -- but I'm guessing not a lot of people are going to see this show on Kids Sprout, which probably has a lot fewer subscribers than, say, the Sumo Wrestlers' Macaroni Art Shopping Network. But I hope they get the chance to keep up the good work and maybe expand the world of the show a bit. And then they can get around to making that Azibo doll for my mantel.

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Labels: other Muppet/Henson shows, Sesame Workshop

Last week, we broke the news in half on The Adventures of Bert and Ernie, a new 5-minute program featuring Sesame Street’s resident odd couple transformed into clay. And if you haven’t read it, do yourself a favor and skip down the page for a read or else my feelings will be severely hurt.

“But,” you say, “how much does Sesame Workshop really get out of one 5-minute program that will only be aired overseas?” First off, let me giggle at your use of the word “but.” Secondly, that’s a very intelligent question. Pat yourself on the back, kiddo. It turns out that The Adventures of Bert and Ernie (TAoBaE) is just the first in a small series of short-form programs being sold to networks around the world. And when there’s a series, there’s gotta be a second to follow that first.

The next short-form show from Sesame is aptly named Twiddlebugs, featuring (you guessed it) Twiddlebugs! The critters that live in Ernie’s window box will be exploring their world through naïve eyes and a slow speech pattern. But, like TAoBaE, the Twiddlebug family won’t be appearing in their familiar puppet forms. Instead, they’ll infest the 21^st century in CGI form. 52 3-minute episodes are currently being produced and the show hasn’t yet been picked up by any networks. It will most likely begin to air in September, 2008.

As wacky as it seems, this is far from the first time the Twiddlebugs will be seen computer animated. CGI Twiddlebugs first appeared in 2002 in Sesame Street 4-D Movie Magic, an attraction at Universal Studios: Japan. They only appear once at the beginning and once at the end, and none of them speak. This is also the first time anyone had seen them fly. Who needs The Fam-il-y Car anyway?

The Twiddlebug family made their CGI debut in 2006 on Sesame Street. In the sketch, the ‘bugs attempt to take a family portrait, although they can’t seem to figure out why there’s always someone missing (SPOILER: it’s a cookbook! I mean, it’s the photographer!). Unfortunately, we’re never given an answer to the real question: Where did they get such a small camera?

An educated Muppet fan might guess that the above sketch was created as a test to see how audiences would respond to the new Twiddlebug look. I for one was pleasantly surprised. Although it lacks a certain je ne sais quoi that only the puppet versions could offer, they still maintain the same goofiness and smallness the original provided.

So, what do these new programs mean for Sesame Street? For starters, creating new shows through a new medium frees up the puppeteers and puppet makers to focus on the Street, rather than having to split up their time. The new programs will also be aired separately from Sesame Street, which will hopefully bring new viewers to the show and sell more stuff, keeping the show on for a long, long time.

And while the Twiddlebugs are in the CGI future, Bert and Ernie are off exploring their Silly Putty imagination, Grover is traveling the globe, Cookie Monster and Prairie Dawn are eating/trying not to eat the Letter of the Day, The Count is counting the Number of the Day, Big Bird and the Two-Headed Monster are lost on their Journey to Ernie, Elmo is talking to fish in Elmo’s World, and Oscar is busy reading his fan fic to Slimey, I think that just leaves Alan, Baby Bear, and Meryl Sheep to mind the Street.

Totally worth it.

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Labels: other Muppet/Henson shows, Sesame Street

It’s been a long-lasting art form. A little bit of mud, a little bit of paint, a camera and a whole lot of patience and you’ve got yourself a claymation cartoon. From Gumby to Davey and Goliath, from Wallace and Gromit to The California Raisins, everyone’s favorite characters end up embodied in clay-form eventually. Ok, maybe not every single one of your favorite characters, but we’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Those Pixar guys are making it look easy.

Starting later this year, millions of Sesame Street viewers will be treated to new versions of Bert and Ernie. They’ll be popping right out of the screen in The Adventures of Bert and Ernie, a new 5-minute program in which the duo will appear as moving sculptures as they travel the world through their imaginations.

So now you’ve heard the good news. Are you ready for the bad? Do you want to sit down for this? Maybe have a cup of hot cocoa?

The Adventures of Bert and Ernie will not be available in the United States. It will be shown in Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, Denmark, Spain, The Netherlands, Israel, Norway, Sweden, and parts of Asia as a separate program (meaning, not during their regular local Sesame Street). Two seasons are being produced as we speak, 26 5-minute episodes in each. Thats four hours and 20 minutes worth of stop motion comedy.

Now, you may ask yourself, “Why am I talking to myself?” And you may then ask yourself, “Why aren’t these being shown in America, the greatest country of them all?” Good question, me. With the ever-lasting possibility that the Republicans-that-be might cut funding to Public Broadcasting, Sesame Workshop needs to find more ways to create funds outside of merchandising and Viewers Like You. One of these ways is to produce a new program and sell it to other networks. It’s unknown to us if they tried to sell it in the United States, but if they did, and if it didn’t sell, then they’re sure to make a buck or two overseas.

No word yet on where Clay Bert and Clay Ernie might be going with their imaginations, but now that they’re animated, the limits are possibilityless. No wait, scratch that, reverse it. They may travel to the far reaches of Egypt. Or perhaps they’ll pretend to be knights who fight dragons. Or maybe they’ll want to live on the moon! (But somehow I doubt it)

My selfish hope for this program is that one day, several years from now, production will end on The Adventures of Bert and Ernie and it will cease to air on foreign networks. Then, with all of these episodes collecting dust, Sesame Workshop will slap them in new episodes of Sesame Street right between Roman Numeral Of The Day and Elmo’s Subconscious.

Though it might be better if Sesame Workshop just kept making money so Sesame Street stays on the air forever and ever. Yeah, I like that idea too.

Labels: other Muppet/Henson shows, Sesame Street

Wishbone, Skrumpy, and Raisins. If the Jim Henson Company has anything to say about it, these three will soon become household names as familiar as SpongeBob, Dora, and Hugh Laurie.

They're Skrumps, and they're part of a big new franchise Henson is launching. Based on characters created by artist John Chandler, the Skrumps are a colorful bunch of critters from Skrumpland (where else?), and they're brought to life with the Henson Digital Performance Studio, which allows puppeteers to perform computer generated characters in real-time.

Plans are under way to feature the Skrumps in their own TV series, books, comics... who knows, maybe even customized checks! We'll see if any of that stuff ever materializes, but for now, Yahoo! Kids has a rockin' new music video called "Dance Without Feet," by the Skrump band, Grumblebelly. It's a fun, silly song, which may not become a hit, but is certainly better than anything by Fergie. And if you love watching video blogs by abstract fictional characters, you're in luck, because they got those too.

Also, the latest podcast over at Henson.com has some behind-the-scenes info, although it doesn't explain why all the Skrumps are naked.

Labels: Jim Henson Company, other Muppet/Henson shows