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The Breakup – One Man’s Opinion.

On Tuesday August 4th 2015, the entertainment world was shocked when this tweet hit from Kermit the Frog:

Here is the official statement from @RealMissPiggy and myself regarding our relationship: pic.twitter.com/uHCSsokqWR

— Kermit the Frog (@KermitTheFrog) August 4, 2015

Most of the tweets and responses were of shock and consultation (read FrogFan76’s tweet and Facebook posts from that time to get an idea of the hyperbole). I however had a different approach to the news. My initial and continuing thoughts are “So What?”.

To understand, you need to see the Muppets and the Kermit/Piggy relationship the way I see it. Stay with me to the end of the article to understand.

First of all, I believe this is just promotion for the upcoming ABC television show The Muppets. (make sure to have the period). As we saw in the “sizzle reel” that was the pitch for the ABC executives, Kermit and Piggy were on the outs and Kermit had moved on with another pig named Denise (Head of Marketing). Miss Piggy has also moved as well (persuing Topher Grace).

The whole rocky relationship began in the first episode of The Muppet Show (in which the Muppet Glee Club sang “Temptation”). Over the years couple has been more out than in. But let’s look into this even further.

Up Late with Miss Piggy is the show-within-the-show where Miss Piggy is a talk show host. The Muppets is the behind-the-scenes of that show, in which Kermit is dating Denise, and which is all fake to begin with. Similar to The Office, where everything we see is portrayed by actors. Kermit and Piggy are acting, playing a version of themselves, just like we have seen in the 2011 film also called The Muppets (don’t get me started on this). They are puppeteered actors. The Muppets haven’t been apart forever; remember, they just did a television special Letters to Santa just a couple of years earlier.

So already, there is confusion. Kermit and Piggy announced as themselves, not their characters, that the breakup is real. Yet there is another issue that drives this. The issue is that (get ready, I’m about to blow someone’s mind with this) they are puppets that are not real!

If Steve Whitmire and Eric Jacobson weren’t the brilliant actors that they are (taking up for the even more brilliant Jim Henson and Frank Oz) this wouldn’t ever have been believed. As they stated recently at San Diego Comic Con and again at Disney’s D23 Expo, the characters all live in a box (without air holes!) waiting for the puppeteers to put them on and bring them to life. We also heard at D23 Expo how this isn’t the first time that the pair were planned to split. The Muppet writers have talked about breaking them up ever since Jim Henson’s death.

I believe that movies and tv specials were not the best plan to have them break up, as those don’t have the same built-in continuity that a TV show does. This new show is the best idea for moving the characters forward. However, I believe that this “breakup” is only temporary as it’s been shown that as many times that Kermit has been frustrated and “broken up” with Piggy during the years, that he is extremely jealous when he sees her in any romantic relationship that doesn’t involve him.

So, to sum up: characters in a show, portrayed by actors (playing a version of themselves) portrayed by Eric Jacobson (a male who is married) and Steve Whitmire (another male who is married) are making news by breaking up? Who cares!

August 18, 2015
Show #259 – August 16, 2015

The Muppets and their Performers at the 2015 D23 Expo.

This week I’m proud to present the audio from “The Magic Behind the Muppets”, the premier Muppet presentation from Disney’s D23 Expo held in Anaheim, CA. This audio is barely over 48 hours old at this point, and the presentation was a humongous success for the Muppets at the Expo. Both performers and puppets were onstage, and a few lucky fans even got into the act, getting to perform puppet characters alongside Steve Whitmire and Kermit the Frog! (more…)

August 16, 2015
Show #258 – August 9, 2015

Sesame Place’s Neighborhood Birthday Party Parade Logo

Sesame Place, the Sesame Street themed park in Langhorne, PA, is celebrating its 35th anniversary this summer. But they don’t like to use the word “anniversary.” Instead, they call it their birthday celebration! (Kids understand a birthday a lot easier than an anniversary.) This is one incredible theme park, themed perfectly to the TV show, and in perfect recognition to the Sesame Street of both yesterday and today. (more…)

August 10, 2015
Review: The Muppets Nearly Die in the Woods

The Muppets Go Camping, by Jocelyn Stevenson

Hello everyone, this is Joshua Gillespie, aka “JG TheMuppetMan” as some like to call me, and I hope you’re all having a wonderful Summer. I can’t believe we’re already this far into the year. Now while you could be outside burning up, sweating, feeling awful and all that fun stuff, why not stay indoors and read a book about our favorite characters enjoying the great outdoors?…or at least trying to. Today I’ll be looking at the book The Muppets Go Camping from 1981, written by Jocelyn Stevenson, who would later go on to write for Fraggle Rock. This book was also released 2 years before they went camping with John Denver. So how does their first endeavor in the wilderness turn out?

The Story

Kermit the Frog is relaxing in his pad when he notices a note from Robin. He’s gone out into the woods to earn a Frog Scouts badge for “Frog-in-the-Wilds” and he’ll be back tomorrow. The next day Kermit tells Fozzie and says he wouldn’t mind spending a night outdoors. However, Fozzie gets the wrong idea from the note. In his mind, Robin is IN DANGER! He could freeze or possibly get attacked by bears…because irony. And it’s up to Kermit and Fozzie to go protect him.

But before they can leave, Gonzo, Sweetums, Floyd, Animal and even Miss Piggy show up ready to help. So the search is on for Robin, and they try to find a place to set up camp. They try a swamp (Gonzo’s idea), a tree (Animal’s idea), and finally they decide to stop in a ditch. Then it’s time to find some food. Fozzie looks for berries, so he can make a cheap BEAR pun, and Gonzo goes fishing. They end up with shoe-and-berry stew (a delicacy in Milwaukee). After eating they go out searching for Robin in the dark. They find his hat, a match, and some footprints. They follow them, leading them to a cave, a spooky house then finally back to the campsite where they find Robin, who has set the fire and gathered fish and mushrooms. In the end Robin was able to take care of himself and earns TWO Frog Scout badges. The Frog-in-the-Wilds badge and also “For Helping Campers in Trouble.”

So, what did I enjoy about The Muppets Go Camping?

The Positives

The illustrations. This book is fantastic from a visual standpoint. The background art is wonderful, has an overall watercolor style which I dig and all of the Muppets look great. These expressions are outstanding and perfectly replicate the puppets. A lot of times in books (or early Disney VHS artwork) characters are depicted with wrong coloring but here it’s all correct.

Bruce McNally was even able to sneak in a couple cameos such as Beauregard and this dragonfly from The Muppets Go Camping. Also, there’s this creature holding onto butterfly wings.

Gonzo. Gonzo is my favorite Muppet. He does a lot in this book and it’s nice to see him get some love, especially since he barely gets any these days. (Hoping the new show fixes that)

And unfortunately, that’s about it for positive things.

The Negatives

It feels too cramped. It’s nice to have all of these Muppets along for the ride, but it also means most of them don’t get any attention. Floyd Pepper does more in this book than Miss Piggy. There’s something wrong with that. Speaking of Piggy, she does practically nothing. I was expecting her to complain and be the bossy pig we all know and love, but instead we get ONE line that feels “in-character”, when she says “If helpless little Robin can camp without food, so can we. So why doesn’t somebody just run down to the store.”

Kermit. Okay, now I’m asking for trouble. Here’s the thing: outside of the cover, Kermit is shown smiling on THREE of the pages. The rest of the time he’s either irritated or sad. Kermit is supposed to be our source for positivity but instead with each page he’s regretting this more and more.

It just isn’t funny. There are a few jokes that made me laugh such as Fozzie freaking out about Robin, but overall (and maybe this is because I’m an adult now) the book isn’t funny. If anything it’s depressing; look at some of these drawings.

Instead of being the fun-loving Muppets we know, they’re terrified and sad. It’s not as much The Muppets Go Camping as it is The Muppets Nearly Die in the Woods. The cover is even more misleading. If only we could have had the happy book it makes us believe it’ll be.

Overall

At the end of the day, this is a book for kids. It doesn’t need a deep storyline, or even good structure. I could see myself as a kid enjoying it just for the pictures. There are a lot of problems though; it’s cramped and feels rushed. I think it would have been fun to show the parallels throughout the day, like Robin collecting food with ease while the grownups have so much trouble with it. It’s also not a happy book. Most of the time the Muppets are sad or scared. While it does nothing offensive (it’s not like they start trying to kill each other), there are much better Muppet books which I plan to review in the future. But as for The Muppets Go Camping, unless you collect Muppet books, this one can be skipped. Show your kids Rocky Mountain Holiday instead.

August 6, 2015
Show #257 – August 2, 2015

Kermit, Piggy, and Eric Jacobson at Comic Con 2015.

The Muppets are gearing up for their new TV show (in fact the first day of shooting was this past Friday, July 31), and a big part of that is telling everybody in the world about it! The did just that at San Diego Comic Con this July, at a panel talk featuring producers and performers, and the Muppets themselves. (more…)

August 2, 2015
Sesame Place’s 35th Birthday Ceremony and Celebration

SESAME PLACE CAKE CREATED BY NICHOLE’S CUSTOM CAKES

Yesterday was the 35^th birthday of Sesame Place. At Sesame Place they never call it an “anniversary.” It makes sense, when we think of anniversaries we think of adult things like commemorating the anniversary of a wedding or a historic event from the past. Kids don’t always know much about anniversaries, but everyone knows about birthdays!

Sesame Place has been celebrating this milestone throughout the season and recently held a cake decorating contest at the park. Yesterday the winning cake, created by Nichole’s Custom Cakes, was on display for all to see.

At 10:15am, Sesame Place President Bob Caruso took the stage to kick off the ceremony. Mr. Caruso has worked at the park since 1980 and talked about the monumental changes the park has made. Caruso gestured to the costumed characters who were meeting with children in areas near the stage and pointed out “when we opened we were missing a few people. We were missing the characters.” He said, “But as time went on we added the character shows, we added water attractions, we added Vapor Trail the rollercoaster, we added the Spooktacular (Sesame Place’s month long Halloween event) and most recently we added A Very Furry Christmas.”

REP. FERRY (LEFT) AND SESAME PLACE PRESIDENT BOB CARUSO HOLD THE OFFICIAL PROCLAMATION.
PHOTO COURTESY OF JEFF DAVIS

Caruso then introduced Frank Ferry, Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and mentioned that Frank was a team member in his youth.

Rep. Ferry pointed out the logo on his white polo shirt and joked that “it’s not often that in my official capacity that I get to wear an Oscar the Grouch shirt.” He explained that the shirt was from when he worked in 1996, during the opening of Slimey’s Chutes, and after 20 years he was happy that it “still fits.”

Rep. Ferry read the official proclamation from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives (which did use the word “anniversary”.) The proclamation acknowledged the rather humble beginning the park had and talked of its expansion over the years as well as Sesame Place’s contributions “to the enrichment and enjoyment of countless citizens.”

Bob Caruso then introduced some of his “favorite furry friends” which brought upon loud applause and cheers from the crowd.

Park performer PJ Schweizer took the stage with Cookie Monster, Elmo, Zoe, and Abby Cadabby. The group did a set of musical numbers starting with “Can You Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street.”

On a day where morning temperatures were already in the high 90s, it only seemed fitting that the second song was Elmo’s rendition of the summertime favorite “Hot Hot Hot” as the other characters danced along.

ELMO SING’S “HOT HOT HOT”.

The musical numbers concluded with everyone singing “Happy Birthday” and then streamers shot over the crowd.

The sunny morning eventually gave way to sporadic (but heavy) rainfall, which thankfully was down to a light drizzle during the Neighborhood Birthday Party Parade.

In the back of the park Snuffy’s Slides, a tall pair of tube slides, celebrated its 35^th birthday. Unbeknownst to most of the guests is the only “play element” from opening day to stick around for all of the past 35 years.

SNUFFY’S SLIDES, THE LAST REMAINING OPENING DAY ATTRACTION.

Everyone that walked through the gates for the morning celebration was given a paper party hat and party blower and everyone left the celebration with a smile on their face. Sesame Place’s 35^th Birthday Party was certainly one to remember.

About the author: Guy Hutchinson is an avid theme park fan and the co-author of the book “Sesame Place” which chronicles the history of the park in text and photos. You can purchase your copy of “Sesame Place” at www.SesamePlaceBook.com

July 31, 2015
Major Questions About ABC’s “The Muppets”

As I write this, The Muppets ABC trailer (the pitch reel they showed to the execs) has been on YouTube for about 24 hours. So naturally, most of the known world has seen it. Maybe you have too. Every fan I’ve talked to – all 6 of them – thought it was on-pitch for a Muppet TV return, found it very funny, and wanted to see more.

There are already some well-written reviews for it, especially this one at ToughPigs, where Joe Hennes dissects the good and the not-so-good (although it’s admittedly hard to nitpick at this point). In fact there are so many articles reviewing it that I’m not going to write one.

The Muppets teaser reel, which is what I’m calling this video, did a thorough job of getting us ready to see what their lives are like behind-the-scenes. It puts them in a light we haven’t seen before, showing us something more “real.” It’s still wacky, witty, and entertaining, but in a way we aren’t used to. I really liked it, but it did leave me with a few questions, which I hope will be answered as time goes on.

Kermit has a girlfriend…and it’s not Miss Piggy? Let’s all take a second for that to sink in. Kermit the Frog famously rebuffed Miss Piggy’s romantic advances – then married her once or twice (which he’s debated the legitimacy of) – and now has moved on. Moved on?…okay. Kermit is officially dating another pig (“I have a type,” he says). Her name is Denise, she’s performed by Julianne Buescher, and according to the Muppet Wiki she’s going to be rebuilt to look less generic for the rest of the episodes (Where do they get their information? Those guys know everything!). Denise is a marketing executive at the network, which makes me wonder about Kermit. Pigs are his type, granted, but Denise didn’t seem to do much in this mini-episode. And Kermit never struck me as going for the quiet, demure, “stable” type. It made me think that maybe Denise isn’t going to be around long. I could see Denise being a device used to make Piggy jealous, and eventually “mysteriously disappearing”, allowing Piggy to close in on the frog again. After all, I don’t believe for a second that Piggy has, or ever will, move on from Kermit.

But either way, Kermit is unquestionably into pigs, and with the appearance of Denise, I have to wonder if there have been more pigs. Does this confirm my theory that Kermit and Annie Sue Pig had a side thing? I also have a developing theory that pigs are the root of everything for the Muppet Show Muppets, but more on that later.

Why are the Muppets so dependent on Miss Piggy? Do they really need her this much? The teaser reel has Miss Piggy starting out as being unavailable to be part of the Muppets’ new TV show, because she’s working on another TV show. Or movie. Or whatever. Her unavailability is a major roadblock to the Muppets moving forward on their own. We’ve been here before. In A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, Piggy walked out because she’d been hired to play a “major” TV role. Remember that? The difference was, that time she turned out to be only an extra, and this time she really does seem to have a big part. Both then and now, the Muppets seem immobilized by Piggy’s absence.

This Muppet fan remembers when times were different. Do you recall back on The Muppet Show, when Piggy was going to leave the show? In that situation the show was definitely going to go on, even though they were sad about her leaving (and sang a hilarious song about it). Why have things become different in recent years? Does Kermit absolutely need Miss Piggy to make the Muppets work? Does this fragile house of cards topple at the loss of, well, one very hefty card? It’s feasible to say that the Muppets don’t necessarily need Piggy, they need everyone. If one of them, be it Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie, Scooter (they could probably do without Scooter), left then they wouldn’t be the Muppets. They don’t just need Piggy, they all need each other. Awww.

Is Animal taking speech classes? I see him speak more and more as time goes on,and in my opinion he’s funnier when he’s more “primitive”. He’s a simple character, as Frank Oz succinctly describes him. He’s driven by 3 things: drums, food, and women. When he gets outside the boundaries of those things (like volunteering to pose for tasteful nudes), he loses the core element of his nature, and becomes something besides what he’s known for. I get it, he’s been around for decades and he needs to evolve a little bit. Maybe. Does he really? I’m not sure I’m interested in Animal’s intellectual journey. I want to watch him scream and play drums. And chase women.

Will Constantine be in this show? I’d love to see that. Walter, the second-newest Muppet character, is poised to play a major part in the Muppets of today. He fits right into the family. But what about Constantine? How does a villain who’s been foiled in a movie and thrown in a gulag become a part of a weekly TV show that doesn’t even take place in Russia? If Constantine does become a part of this show, what would he do? He would still be evil, of course. Maybe he’d be a network executive. Or if he wanted to get into acting, he could co-villainate some melodramatic scenes with Uncle Deadly. Maybe he could be a soap opera actor on ABC. Not on the Muppet show, I mean in real life. I’d DVR that every day.

Where does the Electric Mayhem live? Whether in a church, a hotel, or in bus lockers, it seems like the band has always co-habitated out of necessity. Since we get to see Muppet houses/apartments, do we get to see where the Mayhem lives? Do they finally have their own separate places? I’d have a hard time believing that, because they all seem so inept on their own. Honestly, can you see Animal keeping up with the rent? Or even Zoot? Or Janice? She’s a free spirit and it’s her life, you know, so if she wants to live on a beach and…Moving on, what would Dr. Teeth’s house look like? That would probably be exciting. Lots of sparkle and glitter.

Also, what about the singing food? Do we get to see them away from the limelight too? See what I did there?…limelight.

There are endless questions one could ask (Do we care about the Muppets keeping with continuity? I doubt it.), but instead I think I’ll just wait to see what happens in September, when the show premieres on the 22nd.

What am I saying…of course I’ll have more questions before then! I’m just too lazy to type them right now.

I’m more interested in what you think. What are your big questions about this big, bold new show?

July 27, 2015
Show #256 – July 12, 2015

Tim Dale and Joseph Foy join me this week to discuss their new book “Jim Henson and Philosophy: Imagination and the Magic of Mayhem.” We dive deep into discussions of all of Jim Henson’s properties, including the Muppets, Labyrinth, Sesame Street, and everything else. They wrote such a great book, they already want to do a second one, and we all had such a great time, that I can’t wait to have them on again! (more…)

July 11, 2015
Show #255 – July 5, 2015

The Muppet Newsflash Podcast (which is sort a running joke between JD Hansel and I) makes an admirable effort this week. Meaning, JD and I make Muppet podcast magic once again as we bring everyone up to date on what’s happening in the Muppet world. Lots of news, some great Frank Oz clips, and even more links to check out! (more…)

July 6, 2015
Why a Sesame Street TV Network is Good for Fans

The “classic” cast of Sesame Street.

In a recent WSJ interview, Sesame Workshop CEO Jeffrey D. Dunn admitted that Sesame has been eclipsed by other competitors who have chosen to expand from a collection of shows into a full-fledged network (Disney, Nickelodeon, etc.). “The advantage you have as a network is substantial,” Dunn said. “You can control your air time. We are a show. We don’t control our air time. We’re not a network.”

After 46 years, the argument can certainly be made that the time has come for Sesame Workshop to grow from a TV show into a full-fledged TV network. Not to simplify the scope of what they do today; the Sesame Street program is distributed to countries around the world, and is packaged in countless ways to reach wildly different cultures, each of which educate their young in specific ways. The impact of Sesame Street is felt worldwide.

Still, Sesame Street is one show amidst an ever-increasing number of alternatives for parents (and children). Digital distribution models via set-top boxes, Smart TV software, and tablet viewing offers parents limitless options for their children’s viewing. It’s more important than ever for Sesame Workshop to establish themselves as the major player in this new entertainment distribution model.

Needless to say, it would be difficult for anyone’s programming schedule to grow from 1 hour daily into 24. You’d have to have mountains of content to handle an expansion of that magnitude. Forget about 24 hours, there are 168 hours in a week. Roughly 672 hours in a month. 8,760 hours in a year. How do you fill all of that time? It can’t be done with only one TV show, even Sesame Street. Surprisingly though, Sesame Street can fill roughly half of that. In its first 45 years, Sesame Street’s programming totals 4,385 hours. Season 46 airs this fall.

What if Sesame Street did become a network? What would that mean for Sesame Workshop as an entertainment company, to suddenly have an exponentially larger window to present educational experiences to youngsters? There are pros and cons to the idea, but Sesame is already leaning that direction with their newly-launched digital streaming service Sesame Street Go. It’s hard to deny that “someday, little children, someday soon”, Sesame Street might grow from a TV show to an entire network.

If that does happen, here are just a few things that could be a huge win for we their loyal fans:

The original “Television” Telly Monster.

Sesame Street is the best educational children’s show on TV. Given that unbiased assessment, it stands to reason that any new shows they create also have the potential to be head and shoulders above many other children’s shows. The educational research they put into everything they do is sound, and the production values are spectacular. No one can question the integrity behind everything Sesame Workshop does. They’ve also created characters and songs that we’ve loved for decades. Not only are they educationally sound, but they’re very, very good at creating musical earworms and visual eyeworms (is that a word? Because it is now.).

The money is in the channel. In today’s digital environment, we can instantly watch nearly anything we want, anytime, anywhere. That’s wonderful for audiences, but terrifying for studios. It’s very tough to be a successful content producer right now. Every TV show is in competition with every other show, not just in one time slot, but in every second of every day. It’s impossibly hard and honestly I wouldn’t want to do it. And that isn’t limited to only television, obviously. Every YouTube video (even Sesame Street’s YouTube channel), every song, every blog post has a high probability of being gone from sight as soon as it’s published – an atom of hydrogen in a molecule of water in a drop of rain landing in the middle of a bottomless ocean. It’s even more difficult to make serious money from content production. YouTubers, musicians, and the like make a few dollars at a time, and YouTube and iTunes at the same time make millions. This happens in music, television, movies, and everywhere else in entertainment. You don’t want to be the content provider (“the show”) right now. The real money is in owning the channel of distribution. Sesame Workshop is a non-profit, but they are still a business, one run by very smart people. Becoming a network is the smart move.

They could do anything in 24 hours. Having a full day’s worth of time to fill on a TV channel would give them the opportunity to create many different kinds of programs. Plus, they could take advantage of different time slots, something they’ve never considered before. In different hours of the day, they could show different programs. Who’s up at midnight watching the Sesame Channel? Not my 3-year old, for sure, but I’m awake, and maybe I’d enjoy watching their older, classic Sesame episodes…which for some reason they don’t feel are “right” for today’s children. But that’s a different discussion.

It’s all about the Bird.

I want them to. Not to make this about me, but I think it would be great if they became a cable channel and I could watch them anytime I wanted. Granted I can do that now, on Netflix and the like, but there’s something appealing about the thought of flipping to their channel and watching whatever Sesame show is on, not having to choose it ahead of time. Didn’t Apple just have a lot to say about “human-curated content”? It’s the element of surprise. Our brains like that. Sesame Street is all about brains.

Also, at this point I see no problem with them becoming a cable channel (other than the fact that cable providers are awful monopolies, but that’s also another discussion). There was a time when it made sense to broadcast on the public airwaves and be as accessible as possible because no one had cable, and their target audience was quite poor. That was then, this is now. Almost everybody has cable, a smartphone, or computer, or one or some combination of those. Large segments of the population (the U.S. population, at least) wouldn’t be shut out if Sesame Workshop had a cable channel.

There are a hundred more reasons that a Sesame Street network would be good for fans. A network allows for more broadcast time, more time to fill means more shows, more shows means more talented people being hired, more talent and more shows means more new characters, and more characters and shows means more memorable Sesame moments in the future (that become the classic moments our kids will look back on later, just like we do today). Also, at this point everybody else has done it. It’s time for Sesame Street to take the next step forward.

Sesame wasn’t the first TV show to feature puppets, but they quickly became the best at it. They won’t be the first network to spring from a TV production (hello Disney!), but because it’s Sesame Workshop, it would very likely be different – and better – than the rest.

June 30, 2015