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jeremyactor
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Hello all,
If you look further on in this forum you'll see that Orlando is the current host of The Fantastic World of Jim Henson, and is host to a number of special events surrounding that event. Tonight, they hosted Muppets 101 - a History of The Muppets, showing some rare clips (depending on your definition of rare) from Sam and Friends, Muppet Valentine Special, Sex and Violence, the 10 and 30 second promo shots for the Muppet Show, and some muppet sketches just for fun. In attendance were Craig Shemin, Heather Henson, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Kathy Mullen, and Michael Frith.
A few important things discussed or revealed tonight:
1) Frank Oz and Jerry Nelson both performed on Season 40 of Sesame Street - doing a new Grover/Waiter sketch, and Frank doing a "Mad Men" parody on the new season, creating a completely new character.
2) I asked Craig Shemin if there would ever be another MuppetFest, he said the Jim Henson Legacy is trying to get Disney to host a special event - whether it be at Walt Disney World or Disneyland, much like their ESPN or Star Wars weekends. Many of us know that Muppetfest 2 was tentatively planned for New York, but was scrapped due to the company changing hands, and looking to get things situated before a new venture was undertaken (and of course, the company has since changed hands again.) Tomorrow there's a special event for Annual Passholders only at WDW that will act as a good barometer for how these things are received (BTW - the event tomorrow is booked to capacity, they even added extra sessions of the presentation). By the way - Craig is an awesome guy. He's very quick witted and very gracious and friendly. Not to say that the other people weren't (Kathy looked at a quote from the It's not Easy Being Green book attributed to Mokey and said "Did I actually say that?" Funny!) , but I spent more time with Craig than the other folks.
3) While peforming Kira from the inside of a land-strider, Kathy Mullen fell down and got hurt. (She's fine.)
4) One my favorite specials of all time is Muppet Family Christmas. I think Danny Horn from Tough Pigs made the point best - Sesame Characters are owned by Sesame Workshop, Fraggles are owned by Henson, and Muppets are owned by Disney. It seems like a bad divorce - you get custody of these children, etc etc. I asked how well the companies work together - can Kermit appear on Sesame, etc etc. Craig (I think partly appeasing the Disney people in the audience) said everyone communicates very well, and while it is very challenging, the Jim Henson Legacy works extremely hard to point out that even though we may never see Kermit introduce Emmet Otter again - it's stll Jim's work and we should appreciate the peice overall rather than nitpick at the things that aren't there anymore. But overall he says everyone plays nice.
In whole, the event was a success. A sell out crowd, a wonderful turnout of extra people (Heather was the only announced attendee), and everyone who attended tonight was extremely gracious to the fans who had autograph, photo requests and questions. I'm in Muppet Heaven!
Jeremy
If you look further on in this forum you'll see that Orlando is the current host of The Fantastic World of Jim Henson, and is host to a number of special events surrounding that event. Tonight, they hosted Muppets 101 - a History of The Muppets, showing some rare clips (depending on your definition of rare) from Sam and Friends, Muppet Valentine Special, Sex and Violence, the 10 and 30 second promo shots for the Muppet Show, and some muppet sketches just for fun. In attendance were Craig Shemin, Heather Henson, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Kathy Mullen, and Michael Frith.
A few important things discussed or revealed tonight:
1) Frank Oz and Jerry Nelson both performed on Season 40 of Sesame Street - doing a new Grover/Waiter sketch, and Frank doing a "Mad Men" parody on the new season, creating a completely new character.
2) I asked Craig Shemin if there would ever be another MuppetFest, he said the Jim Henson Legacy is trying to get Disney to host a special event - whether it be at Walt Disney World or Disneyland, much like their ESPN or Star Wars weekends. Many of us know that Muppetfest 2 was tentatively planned for New York, but was scrapped due to the company changing hands, and looking to get things situated before a new venture was undertaken (and of course, the company has since changed hands again.) Tomorrow there's a special event for Annual Passholders only at WDW that will act as a good barometer for how these things are received (BTW - the event tomorrow is booked to capacity, they even added extra sessions of the presentation). By the way - Craig is an awesome guy. He's very quick witted and very gracious and friendly. Not to say that the other people weren't (Kathy looked at a quote from the It's not Easy Being Green book attributed to Mokey and said "Did I actually say that?" Funny!) , but I spent more time with Craig than the other folks.
3) While peforming Kira from the inside of a land-strider, Kathy Mullen fell down and got hurt. (She's fine.)
4) One my favorite specials of all time is Muppet Family Christmas. I think Danny Horn from Tough Pigs made the point best - Sesame Characters are owned by Sesame Workshop, Fraggles are owned by Henson, and Muppets are owned by Disney. It seems like a bad divorce - you get custody of these children, etc etc. I asked how well the companies work together - can Kermit appear on Sesame, etc etc. Craig (I think partly appeasing the Disney people in the audience) said everyone communicates very well, and while it is very challenging, the Jim Henson Legacy works extremely hard to point out that even though we may never see Kermit introduce Emmet Otter again - it's stll Jim's work and we should appreciate the peice overall rather than nitpick at the things that aren't there anymore. But overall he says everyone plays nice.
In whole, the event was a success. A sell out crowd, a wonderful turnout of extra people (Heather was the only announced attendee), and everyone who attended tonight was extremely gracious to the fans who had autograph, photo requests and questions. I'm in Muppet Heaven!
Jeremy
