It’s time to play the music! It’s time to light the lights! It’s time to kiss some frogs with Lara and Julia tonight! … Wait, what?
Let’s back up a minute.
In the late afternoon of a lazy day back in September 2013, I was minding my own business (probably trying to download the latest episode of Breaking Bad, let’s be honest) when I received a message from my dear friend, Lara Frazier. The message looked a little something like this:
“We should do a Muppet podcast together.”
Artwork by Dave Hulteen.
Now, Lara and I have been pals for quite some time; brought together by our love of all things Henson. We got to know each other initially through the magnificence that is Tumblr (where she runs Muppet Mayhem and I run Never Too Old to Love Muppets), and eventually our friendship grew over on the ToughPigs forum. We had talked about collaborating on a Muppet project in the past, but this was the first time one of us ever presented the other with a concrete idea. So of course I jumped at the occasion.
The first couple of days were a whirlwind of frenzied excitement. We decided on the name Frog Kissin’ for our podcast, which was taken from the song Robin sings on The Muppet Show. We got all of our social media networks set up, asked the talented Dave Hulteen to draw us an awesome logo, and even conversed with Joe and Ryan about being directly affiliated with ToughPigs. Yessir, we were off to a great start… that is, until suddenly several months had passed and we had yet to record a single episode. Whoops.
To be fair, I’ve been traveling around New Zealand since last July, and little known fact: New Zealand has crummy WiFi, no matter where you are on either island. Then both Lara and I got full time jobs (ugh, being adults). We knew we still wanted to make this podcast a reality, but finding time to finagle recording sessions in always fell through for us.
Then, at long last, we recorded our first episode on March 8th (or 9th, here in New Zealand), and we’ve been going strong ever since.
But, y’see, the main motive behind my agreement to do this podcast wasn’t just cause of my love of Muppets. It had just as much to do with my strong feelings about the, erm, how shall we say, lack of prominent women in the Muppet community.
Look, don’t get me wrong. I love all the male Muppet performers. I love all the male directors, writers, songwriters, and producers of the productions. I love all the males that run the Muppet fan sites and are important to the fandom as a whole. That being said, it’s always been something in the back of my mind, that small little irk that my favorite fandom on this planet sort of lacked in the female department. Of course there are amazing female performers, but when was the last time you saw one get a prominent role in a Muppet production? Not to mention there’s never been a female director or writer for any of the Muppet films, and (with the exception of some Tumblrs) just about all the fan sites are headed by dudes.
Okay, okay, I’m getting a bit ranty, and for fear of people harping about my “feminist views” (excuse me while I roll my eyes), I’ll stop myself. Would I go back and replace any of the dudes who directed, wrote, or performed for the Muppet productions in the past? Nope, because I love all the outcome of all those productions (except you, Wizard of Oz). Am I hoping we get more ladies working on Muppet productions in the future? You bet your sweet Studebaker I am.
But, besides being headed by two fine ladies, that’s not what this podcast’s about. Not really. Sure, in our first episode we did address the lack of female representation, but if anything, this podcast is just two friends shooting the breeze about Muppets, Muppets, and more Muppets. We geek out over Gonzo’s argyle apparel. We fan girl about the performers and creative team(s). We discuss upcoming events/films/shows. We scrutinize productions and praise songs. We inform and advertise. We rant and get off topic. Honestly, it’s just us having a whole lot of fun.
So far Lara and I have got four episodes under our belts, three of which can be found online.
1. Episode One: Ladies in the Muppet Fandom
2. Episode Two: Gonzo, Gonzo, and more Gonzo
3. Episode Three: Muppets Most Wanted
((Parental Muppet fans, be warned. This podcast might not be completely appropriate for little ones. We try to keep it clean most of the time, but some vulgar language slips in here and there and on more than one occasion adult topics are mentioned. As a whole we’re pretty PG, but yeah, proceed with caution.))
ToughPigs’ Joe Hennes and Muppet Mindset’s Ryan Dosier: Obligatory photo I stole off of Facebook.
You can find our episodes on PodOmatic and YouTube (we also have a SoundCloud, but need to upgrade it). We are hoping to eventually get the podcast up on iTunes for the convenience of pretty much everyone.
You can also find our latest episodes by clicking on the brand new “Podcast” icon at the top of the left sidebar here on ToughPigs!
Make sure to listen in for this week’s episode on Friday when we bring on ToughPigs’ Joe Hennes and The Muppet Mindset’s Ryan Dosier as our first ever guests to talk about their time at the Muppets Most Wanted premiere in LA.
Don’t forget to follow Frog Kissin’ on Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook for updates and alerts on new episodes!
Click here to kiss some frogs over on the ToughPigs forum!
by Julia Gaskill
