What Does Your Favorite Muppet Say About You?

By Matthew Kelly

From http://geekscape.net/

There's a lot that the world can learn from the Muppets. I've always loved Jim Henson (evidence) and his muppet friends, since I was a child watching Muppet Babies and Muppet Show reruns. But the "messages" of the Muppets was never as clear to me then as it's been since moving to Los Angeles, home of The Jim Henson Company.

This weekend marked what would have been Jim Henson's 75th Birthday. To honor that I present:

WHAT YOUR FAVORITE MUPPET SAYS ABOUT YOU!*

Now obviously there are hundreds of Muppets out there. I'm going to focus on what I consider to be the key elements of the show's success. Specifically Muppets from the ORIGINAL TV series. My apologies if yours aren't represented and please make a case for them in the comments below. Now let's get started:

FOZZIE BEAR

I have a theory that even if he's not your favorite Muppet, everyone is a little bit Fozzie. Let's look at who Fozzie is as a Muppet. He's a stand-up comedian. But he's also not a very good comedian. Fozzie takes his criticism to heart, but it never stops him from going back on stage and doing it all over again. I've heard it frequently said by comedians that stand up is nothing more than trying to get strangers to like you. This is the world of Fozzie Bear. Fozzie just wants to be liked. Fozzie is a loyal friend, but at the end of the day he can always use more friends. Like I said, I think deep down, we're all a little bit like Fozzie Bear. However, if Fozzie Bear is YOUR favorite Muppet, it means you have a great heart, you're compassionate about your friendships and you just want to be loved.

THE GREAT GONZO

The Great Gonzo, much like Fozzie, is a performer who typically fails more than he succeeds. Gonzo is the definition of the misunderstood artist. While none of us will understand the art of "eating a tire" per say, every artist out there understands Gonzo. Fozzie Bear wants to reach the masses and be understood while Gonzo just needs to get his "art" out of him and then be understood. Gonzo is the hipster, the real hipster, not the one that's developed such a social back-lash over the past few years. In the Muppet Movie, Gonzo sings the song "I'm Going To Go Back There Someday". The song has become a favorite among the art crowd for its interesting look at life, belonging and friendships. With bizarre lyrics like "There's not a word yet, for old friends who just met" it's easy to see why it's so beloved. Who among us hasn't had a friendship like that, where meeting someone new feels like you've known each other your entire lives. If your favorite Muppet is Gonzo, you are probably an artist in the truest sense. You most likely adore the avant garde and want to be taken seriously for what you do regardless of how outrageous it may seem.

ROWLF THE DOG

Almost everyone I've ever met who loves Rowlf is a musician. So why Rowlf the Dog over say Dr. Teeth or Floyd Pepper? Well, the fact is that Rowlf is the original cool Muppet. Pre-dating most of the Muppets, Rowlf was a celebrity in the early 60's as the Jazzy pianist pooch. Musicians, while they enjoy the insane "let's crank it up to 11" attitude of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, relate to Rowlf the Dog's more laid back style. It's talent, but confident and not in your face talent. People who like Rowlf also tend to be relatively humble people. If Rowlf is your favorite muppet then you are a talented musician, but humble and laid back regardless. You just want to play music, and don't care if it's in a seedy bar or a packed arena, just so long as the songs have got bite.

ANIMAL

On the other side of the musical spectrum is Animal. Rowlf was a laidback humble musician with talent. Animal is a tornado of sounds. He rocks out and doesn't care if there are a million people listening or one... just as long as it's loud. If the most famous member of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem is your favorite Muppet then you might be a punk rocker. You definitely don't care about how the world sees you, you just care that it does.

SAM THE EAGLE

Every single friend I've had who loves Sam the Eagle have all been Republicans. It's easy to take that statement as me politically bashing someone, but I'm not. If anything it's a compliment. I think Republicans tend to have a decent sense of humor about themselves (although it's the ones that don't who get the most attention). Most people find humor in how over the top Sam the Eagle is. As far as conservative political parody, Sam was the original Stephen Colbert. We all want a general level of "decency" and a "return to morals" but Sam the Eagle is legitimately disgusted by almost anything, declaring it "wrong", "un-American" and referring to others as simply "weirdos". Sam the Eagle is that bit of us who aspire to hold ourselves to a higher ideal than the rest, even when it's plain to everyone that we're usually falling a bit short.

STATLER AND WALDORF

Statler and Waldorf are probably the most beloved Muppet show characters. Sometimes simply referred to as "the old men in the balcony", they are the ultimate representation of the hecklers and critics in the world. They claim to hate everything about the Muppets but yet show up episode after episode. They are a statement on most of critical culture. I myself find myself bitching about horror movie remakes, yet I see every single one that comes out. If you watch the Muppet Show strictly for Staler and Waldorf's commentary then you need to stop reading this article and go get a job as a critic. But chances are you'd rather just sit on youtube, reddit or any other forum and throw insults at anyone that opens their mouth for even a second. There's a good chance Jonathan London's favorite Muppets are these two.

MISS PIGGY

Miss Piggy is the Diva of the Muppets. She's Elizabeth Taylor, Divine, Madonna and Lady Gaga all rolled in one. Every element of her life is based around Glamor or at least portraying the idea of glamor. I tend to find a lot of Actresses love Miss Piggy. This makes sense. While Piggy loves the spotlight, she's also a driven person. She has her goals in mind, whether it's being the star of the show or simply married to her Kermie. If anything gets in her way she transforms into a ball of karate chopping rage. While Piggy always needs to make an entrance, she also needs to find her Kermie. If you adore Piggy over all other muppets then you are a driven person, but you're still a bit of a Diva. You get what you want by any means necessary and when you enter a room, everybody knows it. Specifically if the room you're entering is the kitchen.

SCOOTER

If you're a fan of Scooter, there's a good chance you were in stage crew in high school. Perhaps now you work as a PA or a camera man and love it. Scooter is a behind the scenes guy and loves every second. Scooter doesn't want to be in the spotlight but he does like being involved. Scooter's like being part of the group, but never the leader. If Scooter is the muppet for you, then you dig being behind the scenes. You want to be part of the production, but definitely not the star of the show. You also may have a sister that you haven't heard from in decades.

KERMIT THE FROG

And here he is, the most recognized character of all the Muppets: Kermit T Frog, the host of the Muppet Show and the leader of this whole crazy gang. Kermit represents the most sane person in an insane world. He's never "completely" sane, but he's still got it together enough to manage the group. People who love Kermit typically are the "event planners". They're the writers and directors. They tend to be the glue that holds groups of friends together.

The Final Curtain

Every circle of friends I think tends to have all of these characteristics. The comedian, the artist, the moral one, the diva, the relaxed person, the critic and the leaders, it's even possible for one person to be multiple. Depending on who I'm hanging out with, I can be Kermit or Fozzie or Gonzo or even Statler and Waldorf.

Anyone who's read my blog for the last month knows that while I'm having fun living in Los Angeles, I want to eventually move back to Pennsylvania.

My laptop's wallpaper is a slideshow of photographs of my friends and I back in PA. It was while staring at my wallpaper that I got the inspiration to write this entry. People are always shocked and confused about my desire to return to a small town in PA instead of staying in Tinsel Town. They're equally confused by my lack of a desire to be a celebrity or even more than moderately famous. I wish I could explain it; but whenever I try to I can only quote Kermit the Frog near the end of The Muppet Movie:

I've got a dream too. But it's about singing and dancing and making people happy. That's the kind of dream that gets better the more people you share it with. And, well, I've found a whole bunch of friends who have the same dream. And, well, it kind of makes us like a family.

Back home, I have a family waiting for me. They're waiting to sing and dance and make people happy together. I can't wait to sing and dance with them again. It's not success that's important, it's who you've got to share it with.

So who is my favorite Muppet? I do want to be loved like Fozzie, but aren't we all a little bit of Fozzie? There are times where I feel misunderstood like Gonzo, but again, who doesn't? For me, I don't think it's shocking that my favorite Muppet is Kermit. And although it's not always easy being green, at least I've got a cast of characters I can call my own.

* - This blog entry, while I stand behind what it says about your favorite Muppet please remember it’s also written by a comedian (to use the term VERY loosely). Please don’t leave comments about how I was wrong with your favorite Muppet. It’s comedy, for god’s sake.

Today in Muppet History: It's the 35th anniversary of The Muppet Show!

From: http://emmytvlegends.org/


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From its first broadcast in 1976 to its 1981 finale, The Muppet Show was groundbreaking television. A syndicated variety show starring a troupe of puppets, it became more popular than anyone but its creator, Jim Henson, could have imagined. During its five seasons of inspired insanity, it was broadcast in more than 100 countries.

About This Show

from the Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Television

The wonderful children's show Sesame Street, also starring Henson's Muppets, had been broadcast since late 1969. For Henson, its success was a mixed blessing, as network executives began to see the Muppets strictly as children's entertainment.

The Muppet Show proved Henson's innovative puppets could appeal equally to children and adults. Its setting, Muppet Theater, allowed on-stage sketches and songs as well as backstage antics. Except for Kermit the Frog, a Sesame Street favorite, The Muppet Show featured an entirely new cast of Muppets: Fozzie Bear, the lovably inept comic and Kermit's second banana; Miss Piggy, a glamorous, Rubenesque starlet and Kermit's would-be love interest; Gonzo the Great, a buzzard-like creature with a chicken fetish; Rowlf, the imperturbable piano-playing dog; Statler and Waldorf, two geriatric hecklers; The Electric Mayhem, the ultra- cool house band; and Scooter, hired as Kermit's gofer because his uncle owned the theater. The show also featured countless other Muppets, from a 12-inch rat named Rizzo to a seven-foot monster named Sweetums.

But Kermit was undeniably the glue that held these lunatics together. As producer/host of Muppet Theater, Kermit had the considerable task of keeping guests and Muppets happy, fending off Miss Piggy's advances, bolstering Fozzie's confidence after another joke falls flat, and tolerating Gonzo's bizarre stunts. As performed by Henson Kermit is the lone sane creature in the asylum, the viewers' bridge to world of The Muppet Show, a small, green Everyman (Everyfrog) just trying to do his job in the midst of gleeful craziness.

The partnership between Henson and Frank Oz produced such puppet pairs as Miss Piggy and Kermit, Sesame Street's Ernie and Bert, and Kermit and Fozzie Bear. The two also teamed up for the Swedish Chef, a Muppet with Henson's voice and Oz's hands, with hilarious results. Oz's nasal boom was a perfect counterpoint to Henson's gentle voice, and the two performers complemented each other well. Other Muppet Show puppeteers include Richard Hunt (Sweetums, Scooter, Statler, Beaker), Dave Goelz (Gonzo, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew), Jerry Nelson (Floyd Pepper, Lew Zealand) and Steve Whitmire (Rizzo the Rat).

Both backstage and on-stage, lunacy ruled at Muppet Theater. Memorable sketches included pig Vikings pillaging towns while singing the Village People's In the Navy; one creature devouring another while singing I've Got You Under My Skin; and the great ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev in a pas de deux with a human-sized lady pig.

Often, the guest stars were the perfect catalyst for Muppet nuttiness. The frequently star-struck Miss Piggy swoons at guest Christopher Reeve's every move; in another episode, she locks Kermit in a trunk because guest Linda Ronstadt showed too much interest in the little green host. Guest Gene Kelly thought he had been invited just to watch the show; he stays backstage chatting with the rats until Kermit finally convinces him to do Singing in the Rain on a near-perfect replica of the film's street set. Victor Borge and Rowlf the Dog play a piano duet. Diva Beverly Sills gives Gonzo a lesson in the fine art of balancing a spoon on one's nose.

During the first season, writes Christopher Finch in his book Jim Henson: The Works, guest stars were mostly personal friends of Henson or his manager, Bernie Brillstein. But by the third season, popular performers were practically lining up to appear with the beloved puppets. The Muppet Show's guest roster reads like a "Who's Who" of late-1970s performers, most notably Roger Moore, John Cleese, Harry Belafonte, Dizzy Gillespie, Lynn Redgrave, Diana Ross, Alice Cooper, Julie Andrews, George Burns, Joel Grey, Steve Martin, Ruth Buzzi, both Candice and Edgar Bergen.

The Muppets' TV history starts long before Sesame Street. From 1955 to 1961, Henson's Sam and Friends, a five-minute live show, aired twice nightly on WRC-TV, Washington, D.C. Sam and Friends afforded Kermit's debut; it also featured several Muppets that didn't make the cut for The Muppet Show. In 1961 the Muppets began making regular guest appearances on NBC's Today. The following year, Rowlf made his debut in a Purina dog food commercial; in 1963, the affable canine began regular appearances on The Jimmy Dean Show. The Muppets also made regular appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show from 1966 to 1971. In 1975, the year Henson formed an agreement with Lord Lew Grade to produce 24 episodes of The Muppet Show, he also created an entirely new set of Muppets who were featured on Saturday Night Live in its first season.

During The Muppet Show's heyday in 1979, The Muppet Movie was released in the United States, beginning the Muppets' transition from TV to film. Three more movies featured The Muppet Show cast: The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppets Take Manhattan and The Muppets' Christmas Carol. A fourth, The Muppets' Treasure Island, was released in February, 1996. Henson also produced several other TV shows featuring the Muppets after The Muppet Show ended: Fraggle Rock, focusing on an underground community of fun-loving Fraggles, hardworking Doozers and odious Gorgs; The Storyteller, which aired only in England; Muppet Babies, a children's cartoon featuring baby versions of The Muppet Show's cast; and several other short- lived productions.

On 16 May 1990, Jim Henson died suddenly after a short illness. He was 54. Jim Henson Productions is a family business, however, and son Brian Henson was named president soon afterward. He directed The Muppets' Christmas Carol, the first Muppet film made after Henson's death, with Whitmire performing Kermit. In the fall of 1995, 14 years after Henson ended The Muppet Show to move into films, Brian Henson's The New Muppet Show will begin airing on ABC. With thirteen episodes ordered, the show will be set in a fictitious TV station and will feature the same mix of guest stars, music and backstage silliness. Kermit, Gonzo, Animal and other favorites will be included; but Oz's characters, including Miss Piggy and Fozzie, were expected to have reduced roles, as Oz has established a career as a film director.

-Julie Prince



PUPPETEERS

Jim Henson
Frank Oz
Richard Hunt
Dave Goelz
Jerry Nelson
Erin Ozker (1976-1977)
Louise Gold (1979-1981)
Kathryn Muller (1980-1981)
Steve Whitmire (1980-1981)

THE MUPPET CHARACTERS

Kermit the Frog (Henson)
Miss Piggy (Oz)
Zoot (Goelz)
Fozzie Bear (Oz)
Gonzo (Goelz)
Sweetums (Hunt)
Sam the Eagle (Oz)
The Swedish Chef (Henson & Oz)
Dr. Teeth (Henson) & the Electric MayhEm
Floyd (Nelson)
Animal (Oz)
Capt. Link Heartthrob (Henson)
Dr. Strangepork (Nelson)
Wayne & Wanda (1976-1977)
Rowlf (Henson)
Dr. Bunsen Honeydew (Goelz)
Statler & Waldorf (Hunt & Henson)
Scooter (Hunt)
Beauregard (Goelz) (1980-1981)
Pops (Nelson) (1980-1981)
Lew Zealand (Nelson) (1980-1981)
Janice (Hunt)
Rizzo the Rat (Whitmire) (1980-1981)

MUSICAL DIRECTOR
Jack Parnell

PRODUCERS Jim Henson, Jon Stone, Jack Burns

FURTHER READING

Culhane, John. "Unforgettable Jim Henson." Reader's Digest (Pleasantville, New York), November 1990.

Finch, Christopher. Of Muppets & Men: The Making of The Muppet Show. New York: Alfred A. Knopf: 1981.

_______________. Jim Henson: The Works: The Art, the Magic, the Imagination. New York: Random House, 1993.

Henson, Jim. The Sesame Street Dictionary: Featuring Jim Henson's Sesame Street Muppets. New York: Random House, 1980.

"Jim Henson: Miss Piggy Went to Market and $150 Million Came Home (interview)." American Film (Washington, D.C.), November 1989.

THE MUPPETS - Full Trailer 2011

Watch a new trailer for The Muppets: 'The Fuzzy Pack'

From: http://www.myspace.com/


The Muppets: The Fuzzy Pack

Trailer Park Movies | Myspace Video

'The Muppets' continues the trailer absurdity with 'The Fuzzy Pack' an action/comedy followup to 'Green With Envy,' the romcom tinged trailer of earlier this week. This one features bogus press quotes and your first look at a couple of the celebrity cameos you can expect to see this November, namely, Wanda Sykes and Danny Trejo!

The Muppets' hits theaters November 23, 2011. Synopsis: When Walter, the world's biggest Muppet fan, and friends Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) discover the nefarious plan of oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to raze the Muppet Theater, they help Kermit reunite the Muppets to stage The Greatest Muppet Telethon Ever and raise the $10 million needed to save the theater.

Muppeteer Frank Oz Unveils Hidden Henson Art

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A Tribute to Jim Henson

By Ben

From: http://media.gunaxin.com/tribute-jim-henson/58588

It was 20 years ago today when one of the most inspirational, educational, muppetational men of all time died, the one and only Jim Henson. We here are Gunaxin are huge fans of Henson, especially the Muppets, and if there were a Mount Rushmore meant only for creative people, you better believe that his hippie face would be up there. So without further delay, here is our tribute to Jim Henson.

Henson Tribute Videos

Jim Henson Statue

This statue is located at Henson’s alma matter, the University of Maryland at College Park.

Gunaxin’s Muppet Tributes

A Tribute to the Swedish Chef Bork! Bork Bork!

A Tribute to Beaker Meeeee Meeeeee Meeeeee!

A Tribute to Animal Woman! Woman!

A Tribute to Statler and Waldorf Here’s to our favorite hecklers.

A Tribute to The Dark Crystal’s Chamberlain To the most annoying, whining full-bodied Muppet.

More Muppet Videos

• Get Drunk and Watch: Classic Muppet Show
• Get Drunk and Watch: Classic Sesame Street
• Ten Amazing Performances from The Muppet Show
• Ten Amazing Performances from Sesame Street

Own the Muppets

Buy Kermit, Gonzo and Animal!

In this economy, there’s no better way to cheer yourself up than to own these guys.

Dress like a Muppet!

---

Jim, it’s been 20 years since you left us, and dammit, we’re still mourning your loss as if it just happened. We’ll end this tribute with a song.

It's Time to Meet the Muppets, Again

By Matt Zoller Seitz on 12/15/2009
From: http://www.ifc.com/

"Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody," The Jim Henson Company, 2009

"Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody" debuted on the Muppets' newly inaugurated YouTube channel just three weeks ago. But nearly ten million views later, it already feels like a signpost that we'll look back on fondly -- a goofy capper to a rotten decade, a bridge to whatever lies ahead, and perhaps a future time capsule, a reminder of what it felt like to be alive at this strange time. It's a pop culture upper in a league with two classic bubblegum chart-toppers that heralded the shift from '60s darkness to '70s hedonism: John Lennon's "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" and the Captain & Tennille's cover of "Love Will Keep Us Together."

There's no world-shattering depth to those songs, just a straightforward reassurance that even though times are tough, as long as we're capable of having fun, things aren't quite as bad as they seem. "Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody" and the other offerings on the Muppets' YouTube channel are likewise (deliberately) simple and upbeat -- little rainbows, like the one arcing through the broken soundstage roof at the end of "The Muppet Movie" (1979).

"Ode to Joy" split-screens multiple incarnations of the jumpy dolt Beaker as he vocalizes the most famous section of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Beaker's boss, Dr. Bunson Honeydew, returns in "Muppet Labs Experiment 5T832: Ghost Hunt," turning Beaker loose in a haunted house and yammering obliviously while Beaker shrieks at bats, spiders and apparitions. "Cårven Der Pümpkîn" brings back the Swedish chef, who's nearly outsmarted by a couple of gourds. "Skateboarding Dog Gets Served!" spoofs "stupid pet tricks" clips, teaming motor-mouthed rodent scammer Rizzo with Rowlf the Dog, who nearly injures himself doing a dangerous stunt that doesn't get captured on tape because the hungry Rizzo is busy shooting a guy eating a slice of pizza. ("We should go put it on web," Rowlf gasps at the end. "The term is online," Rizzo corrects him.)

Each sketch ends with Statler and Waldorf, the grumpy old men who lobbed insults from the balcony on "The Muppet Show," grousing about the video you just watched, or the internet in general. ("When I was a kid they hadn't invented the web," Statler declares after the skateboarding video. "When you were a kid, they hadn't invented the wheel!" Waldorf replies.) Sam the Eagle fronts a rousing a cappella rendition of "Stars and Stripes Forever"; Gonzo conducts a chorus of chickens clucking Johann Strauss' "Blue Danube Waltz" in "Classical Chicken" and Beaker, the Swedish Chef and Animal sing "Habanera" from Bizet's "Carmen."

The publication of this first batch of videos isn't just an auspicious occasion for Muppet fans; it might mark the exact moment when the characters really, truly, finally came back, and reclaimed their rightful place at the center of American popular culture.

The commonly accepted narrative of the Muppets holds that they lost something when Henson died in 1990 of pneumonia -- and that the films and TV projects that followed were good-natured but doomed attempts to recapture the magic (a quest further hampered by the absence of Henson's actual voice, which gave life to Kermit and other central characters). All true. But it's also worth arguing that the Muppets started to drift away from the wellspring of their inspiration as early as the 1980s, when Henson fell in love with long-form storytelling and put sketch comedy on the back burner.

Henson's creations have been around for over four decades, starting out as guest performers (creatures?) on talk and variety series. They found a home on PBS' "Sesame Street" in 1969, broke away to form their own syndicated series, "The Muppet Show" (1976-81), then migrated to theatrical films, starting with 1979's "The Muppet Movie." There were more movies, plus television spinoffs (including the animated series "Muppet Babies," 1984-1991) and periodic attempts to revive the variety show (1989's short-lived "The Jim Henson Hour" and "Muppets Tonight," which ran from 1996-98 on ABC and then the Disney Channel).

But with hindsight, it becomes clear that Muppets were at the peak of their powers from the mid-'70s through the early '80s, when the original variety series, set in a big old theater, was still cranking out new episodes -- offering a mix of music, slapstick and goofy banter modeled on the American vaudeville and English music hall traditions. They were creatures of TV -- specifically grab bag TV, a format descended from vaudeville and the golden age of radio. Grab bag TV encompassed everything from live action music/comedy/variety to talk shows and children's programs such as "Sesame Street."

Henson's creations might have represented the last organic link to that type of entertainment, which was on its way out when "The Muppet Show" debuted. When Kermit interacted on "The Muppet Show" with Ethel Merman, or when master ventriloquist Edgar Bergen made a brief cameo in "The Muppet Movie," one could sense the love and respect in every frame; the Muppets (especially Kermit, Henson's alter ego) were acolytes paying tribute to their aesthetic grandparents. The troupe worked in the old showbiz vein, getting in and getting out in the time it took to set up a premise and work it to its logical (or illogical) conclusion. (An early, classic example is a sketch from a 1967 installment of "The Ed Sullivan Show" in which an intelligent computer explains its purpose to Cookie Monster, who's mainly interested in eating it. The sketch's meticulous build to a literally explosive finale is a marvel of comic architecture on par with the last few minutes of Laurel and Hardy's destruction derby "Big Business.")

"The Muppet Movie," Henson Associates, 1979

Whether the stars of a given Muppet TV sketch were Bert and Ernie and Oscar the Grouch or Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and Rowlf the Dog, the characters were nearly always at their best in small doses. The gag-a-minute format meant that you never had time to tire of any one character, or fixate too long on the fact that a particular sketch wasn't working. Except for "The Muppet Movie," which of all the films came closest to capturing the relaxed, anything-for-a-laugh approach that defined the original variety series (Kermit: "That's a myth! A myth!" Carol Kane: "Yeth?"), the features felt a tad forced and unfocused.

That's because the Muppets were being asked to do something that didn't come naturally to them -- blend into a story and carry its meanings forward. Henson's characters were beloved because of who they were -- because of their personalities and tics and obsessions -- not because of what was happening to them and how nobly they held up under misfortune. They were clowns that owed more to Milton Berle and Jack Benny than Charlie Chaplin. That automatically made the Muppet films -- even when they were firing on all cylinders -- seem to lack a certain, ineffable something. (I'm excluding such Henson projects as "The Dark Crystal" and "Labyrinth" from the hypothesis, since they didn't involve signature Muppet creations, but stand-alone creatures fabricated in Henson's shop.)

In this sense, the Muppets had a key quality in common with the Looney Tunes animated characters. Like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd, Kermit and company were always themselves first; the laughs nearly always came from watching the characters try and fail to suppress their essential natures when circumstances required it.

Think of how Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny keep confirming their Elmer and Bugs-ness in "What's Opera, Doc?" They're trying to subordinate their signature traits (Elmer's lisp, Bugs' penchant for drag) to serve the majesty of Richard Wagner, and of course they can't. The sight of Bugs and Elmer striving to be "operatic" (note Bugs' dutiful deep breaths between sung lines, and Elmer's demonic scowl and ramrod posture as he calls down hurricanes, typhoons and smog) isn't just endearing. It adds another conceptual layer to director Chuck Jones' parody and makes the whole thing unexpectedly touching, even stirring. The characters' performances are heroically committed even though they're more enthusiastic than skillful, and that combination of aspects makes the whole thing sublime.

Henson and company managed a similar brand of casual sorcery each week on the original "Muppet Show." Think of guest star Rita Moreno trying to croon a subdued, sultry version of "Fever" while in the background, Animal can't resist beating his drums to death. Moreno tries to convince Animal to relax and serve the song, but he can't not be Animal. The sketch ends with Moreno mooshing the drummer's fuzzy head between two cymbals. ("Wadda woman!" Animal cries.)

The irrepressible vividness of the Muppets' and Looney Tunes characters' personas rarely suited the needs of feature-length fictional narratives, which ask performers (whether real or virtual) to merge with the story and become someone else. That might be why most Looney Tunes "features" (quotes intentional) are just compilations of pre-existing short films plus substandard linking material; they're less real movies than apologies for not being able to deliver a real movie -- tacit admissions that the characters don't really work in anything but a short format.

And it surely explains why the first dedicated attempt at a full-length, stand-alone feature involving the Looney Tunes characters, 1996's "Space Jam," feels so obscenely wrong. We're supposed to accept that Bugs, Daffy and company fear for their lives and for the safety of the universe -- an intrusion of dramatic tension that works at cross-purposes with the characters' "Relax, It's Just Showbiz" attitude. (Worse still is the idea that Bugs Bunny, trickster extraordinaire, would need Michael Jordan's help with anything.)

The only Looney Tunes feature that worked, really worked, was Joe Dante's "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" (2003), a Dada-esque exercise in cliché-teasing, fourth-wall-breaking insanity that let the characters be themselves (times ten) and used plot the way Bertolt Brecht used it -- as a means of calling attention to the conventions and purposes of storytelling itself (like the bit in "The Muppet Movie" where Kermit and Fozzie bring Dr. Teeth and his orchestra up to speed on their adventures thus far by handing him the screenplay). Dante, God bless him, grasped a simple fact about his inherited characters that Henson's successors (and even Henson himself) seemed to inclined to reject: requiring Kermit or Miss Piggy or Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck to serve material, any material, snuffs out the source of their appeal.

Muppet features that ignore this truth (which is to say, most of them) consign themselves to being forgettable diversions. "A Muppet Christmas Carol" (1992), for instance, only comes to life when Michael Caine's Scrooge is being spooked by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future -- original, spectacular creations, none played by the Muppet troupe's stars, who are shunted off to the margins of the story. Dickens' familiar characters shackle the Muppets' charisma. Gonzo narrates, Kermit plays Bob Cratchit and Miss Piggy, who at the very least should have been cast as the Ghost of Christmas Future and empowered to karate-chop some sense into Scrooge, plays Cratchit's wife. That's as inconceivable as casting Angelina Jolie as a sexless martyr. (Oops, I forgot -- Jolie already did that to herself.)

The only post-"Muppet Movie" feature with real spark is the 2005 TV special "The Muppets' Wizard of Oz," which leans heavily on the viewer's fondness for L. Frank Baum while also flaunting a what-the-heck, let's-try-it attitude towards shtick, the likes of which hasn't been seen since Henson's heyday. Miss Piggy finally gets a role she can sink her snout into -- four roles, actually: the Witches of the North, South, East and West. She's always Miss Piggy, swollen-headed diva, and she gives her career-best performance as the Witch of the West, who screams through the sky on a jet-propelled motorcycle while wearing a studded leather biker mama outfit (with eye-patch!).

"Ode To Joy," The Jim Henson Company, 2009

Some of the other stars are cast in parts that either comment on their familiar personas (brainy Kermit as the Scarecrow, meek Fozzie as the Cowardly Lion) or brazenly ignore them. The funniest of the newer characters, Pepe the King Prawn, plays Toto -- which is to say he plays Pepe the King Prawn, strolling through Oz in a hipster jacket while spewing Latin-accented malapropisms. (The movie reaches a surreal peak when Pepe turns to the camera and deadpans, "Those of you who have 'Dark Side of the Moon,' press play now.")

The Muppets' reinvention as an online phenomenon is an encouraging development because it reconnects the troupe with the basic sources of Henson's magic: the strength of the Muppets' personalities, and the notion of performance as a journey in itself, as bold and edifying as any narrative. At its best, the original "Muppet Show" was conceptual comedy with training wheels, owing as much to Brecht, Ernie Kovacs and Salvador Dalí as it did to any variety series (or children's program) being made at that time. There were always two shows going on: the one that the theater audience saw onstage, and the behind-the-scenes insanity, with Kermit's stage manager kissing the posterior of that week's guest star while managing the egos of his repertory troupe.

It was Showbiz 101 for tots (and tots-at-heart). Ben Vereen singing "Pure Imagination", Julie Andrews performing "The Lonely Goatherd" and the "talented but frightening" Alice Cooper blowing the doors off the theater with "School's Out" served as examples of true professionalism -- a benign contrast to the personal silliness that usually prevented the show's regulars from achieving greatness: Miss Piggy's vanity, Gonzo's clueless desire to impress, Fozzie's incompetence. And let's not forget wild-card developments such as Waldorf trying to court guest star Valerie Curtin with a potted jungle vine that eventually takes over the theater.

The Muppet Channel is still a fledgling enterprise, but what's there suggests that the people running it really, truly get it. The videos are about the length of a "Muppet Show" sketch, and they manage the tricky feat of succeeding as stand-alone goofs (i.e., as endlessly re-playable YouTube videos) while being true to the characters, showcasing them not just as performers but as individuals. (In "Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody," Animal spaces out during his solo, repeating "Mama?" over and over -- a bit that reacquaints us with Animal's mouth-breathing stupidity while deftly excising the least kid-friendly part of the song's lyrics.)

The new shorts exist to re-start the Muppets as a cash cow for their parent company, Disney, while cross-promoting Disney's other media properties (including Queen, whose greatest hits have just been repackaged on CD for the umpteenth time). But there's enough integrity in the first batch of videos to suggest that the Muppets will be Muppets first, properties second. The YouTube clips kid the clichés of the still-young viral video format just as "The Muppet Show" kidded the conventions of vaudeville, variety series and backstage melodrama. (The Rizzo-Rowlf skateboarding clip is shot with a wobbly handheld camera, just like a real skateboarding video.)

They also find new media equivalents for some of the most beloved bits from the old variety show. At the end of "Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody," and throughout "Ode to Joy" and "Classical Chicken," the screen splits into boxes to showcase each participant in the song's multi-part harmony; the mosaic tile effect evokes the rows of creatures stacked on top of each other at the end of the "Muppet Show" credits. Statler and Waldorf's post-video gripes poke fun at how the Internet has turned the whole planet into Comic Book Guys, stampeding online after each new pop culture experience to dub it The Worst Ever. Watching the Muppets' YouTube channel is like attending a reunion comprised only of people you really wanted to see again, and discovering, to your relief, that they've aged beautifully, and are even more charming than you remembered.

[Additional photos: Edgar Bergen in "The Muppet Movie," Associated Film Distribution, 1979; Rita Moreno on "The Muppet Show," The Jim Henson Company, 1976; "The Muppet Christmas Carol," Buena Vista Pictures, 19992]

Brian Henson Teases Fraggle Rock and Dark Crystal

By Dave Gonzales on August 06, 2009

Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets left the reigns of his company in the hands of his kids, Lisa and Brian Henson. The Jim Henson Company has been teasing us with sparse details about a Fraggle Rock movie AND it's been over a year of talk surround a sequel to 1982's puppet fantasy flick The Dark Crystal. After months of circling these projects on the PR front, avoiding specific details about production, is Brian Henson ready to spill the beans on either of these Muppet movies? Sort of. "Fraggle Rock" is "still in very active development. Very active development. That has a very strong script," Henson told MTV, "It'll have a strong musical component...It'll be expanded to an older audience. 'Fraggle Rock' [the TV show] was presented... for a pretty exclusively children's audience. The feature film does expand it to be more accessible to a wider audience." Is this going to be indie bands writing songs for the Fraggles? Is there some serious premise the script contributes? Will we no longer save our worries for another day? As for Dark Crystal: "We have a 'Dark Crystal' sequel, called 'The Power of the Dark Crystal.' It has a very strong script." Ok, a title...I'm less enthusiastic about that. Even if the script is locked down at this point, the title just means we'll have to program another tag into our database, one that could easily be changed any time during production. Anything of more substance for us, Brian? "Both of those projects... are very close to going into pre-production. They're both really ready to go. [The studio is] just [in the process of] putting together the final finance pieces and the final distribution pieces." Very good. Really ready to go. I see the emphasis, I just want some real word! Is The Power of the Dark Crystal akin to Rise of the Skeksis? Are Gobo and Mokey coming to a theater near us or will there be new Fraggles to follow? What gives?