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Sam and Friends Bookminor muppetz
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I recently posted a thread on whether Jim Henson and CBS might have given this show more ofa chance if either the show was completely live aciton or completely animated, and watching this, I think it could have succeeded if given a chance (though you could say that about almost any short-lived show).
It makes me wonder if The Muppets: ACelebration of 30 Years had any special material with these monsters taped but cut before the broadcast. After all, characters from all of Henson's other major shows by 1985 had their own scenes in the new footage (even the Sama nd Friends Muppets), yet the monsters only appear in clips highlighting the series, and in the audience. They don't introduce any clips, or appear with the main Muppets, though the closing song does have a close-up shot of them.
That was a newer show, and the special was probably taped before the shows debut (but broadcast months after). So they could have done something. Tug Monster appears in the title logo. However, I don't know whetehr Camille Bonora or David Rudman performed in the special (they aren't credited).
I wondered if the penguins who performed with the Electric Mayhem in that special were meant to eb the penguin musicians from this special, and I'll have to watch the special again to check, but I noticed that the show's penguins look a bit different from the average Muppet penguin. They look smaler and younger (though one has a bit of white hair, so the leader could be old). Some look slightly distinctive (one has sunglasses).
I have some interesting observations.
It makes me wonder if The Muppets: ACelebration of 30 Years had any special material with these monsters taped but cut before the broadcast. After all, characters from all of Henson's other major shows by 1985 had their own scenes in the new footage (even the Sama nd Friends Muppets), yet the monsters only appear in clips highlighting the series, and in the audience. They don't introduce any clips, or appear with the main Muppets, though the closing song does have a close-up shot of them.
That was a newer show, and the special was probably taped before the shows debut (but broadcast months after). So they could have done something. Tug Monster appears in the title logo. However, I don't know whetehr Camille Bonora or David Rudman performed in the special (they aren't credited).
I wondered if the penguins who performed with the Electric Mayhem in that special were meant to eb the penguin musicians from this special, and I'll have to watch the special again to check, but I noticed that the show's penguins look a bit different from the average Muppet penguin. They look smaler and younger (though one has a bit of white hair, so the leader could be old). Some look slightly distinctive (one has sunglasses).
I have some interesting observations.
- It seems like the show takes place in a house instead of the Muppet theater. And the penguins broke into the basement thinking that would get their foot in the door. I wodner how they expected to find work by breaking into the basement of a house, unless they knew that the Muppets were somehow associated with the house (could it have been the basement of the Muppet boarding house, later seen in Muppets From Space?).
- I've read a quote from writer Scott Shaw that the program was only broadcast on the TV's upstairs in the house, but the show doens't show any sign of it being broadcast. I guess that might have been shown in later episodes, and perhaps the scene in the opening with The Electric Mayhem was meant to imply that. I guess we might never know that, unless somebody who has the other episodes either uploads them on you tube or trades them, or Disney decides to release them on DVD (or have them broadcast on The Disney Channel), or somebody who worked on the show reveals info somewhere, like an interview or message board post.
- The Muppet Wiki page for the animated Beaker says that Beaker was able to smile on the show. I haven't checked to see who wrote that piece of information, but Beaker doens't appear in animated form in the first episode (though he's illustarted on a block in the background). Since the first episode is the only one in fan circulation (at least for now), I wodner how this is known. I couldn't tell if Beaker smiled on that block, and he didn't seem to smile on the animation cell that I've seen online, though Beaker did sometimes smile on Muppet Babies.
- On you tube, it seems like the person who uploaded the show cut part of the closing (I think the voice credit part). Weird.
- I never thought about whetehr the show would still have a "Go bye-bye" tag after the credits in the Muppets, Babies, and Monsters format. Of course, I expected two seperate closing credits, including one after Mupet Babies ended. I wonder if a Little Muppet Monsters closing, without the Muppet Babies references, was ever produced.
- I wonder if the show was structured (which we could know if we knew more about the other episodes). I don't know if Pigs in Space, Muppet Sports Shorts, and Kermit, Private Eye were the only segmnets but I think that Muppet Sports Shorts could have alternated with other types of segmnets, like Muppet Labs and Swedish Chef cartoons. A Veterinarian's Hospital cartoon would have also been good. I see "Kermit, P.I." as perhaps the segment where the biggest amound of known Mupets were aniamted in. The first epsidoe only shows Kermit, Fozzie, and Piggy, but Kermit and Fozzie could have helped solve crimes for other characters as well (this could be where Bunsne and Beaker were used. After all, detectives could have their own scientists).
- The first episode didn't feature much interraction between the monsters and the established Mupets. Scooter sent them downstairs, and the others appeared in their own segmnets (Gonzo and Fozzie suddenly appeared on TV, while Kermit suddenly appeared to write a Kermit, P.I. story). But I guess that they did eventualy interract. I think the clip montage in the 30th anniversary special showed Kermit talkign to one of the monsters, and the epsiode lsit on the Muppet Wiki page mentioned titled with Gonzo and Foo-Foo's names (I assume that all titles had to do with the live action plots). Then again, I don't know the source of the episodes (okay, accoridng to the talk page they're from a TV epsidoe guide site, but then what's that source's source?).
- I wonder if Animal was the only character to appear in Mupet Sports Shorts. There are a lot of different characters who would have fit right in these segments, including Fozzie, Gonzo, Link, Beauregard, Sweetums, and Beaker.
- The show did have it's own theme song, yet the monsters thought they needed one. The song they come up with is different from the theme, and I doubt thate very epsidoe would begin with it after the theme. Bu their "On TV" song is really good. It's been stuck in my head all day. It reminds me of the title song from In Search of Dr. Seuss (I wonder if they ahve the same writer).
- I guess it's safe to assume that all/ most segments with Kermit, Fozzie, and Gonzo were tapped on the same day, as they don't see to interract with the monster,s and their segments are pretty much seperate from them. Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and Dave Goelz were most likely busy with other projects (Jim on many, Frank directing something, and Dave probably busy with Fraggle Rock). After all, they don't apear to perform any other character sin the first episode (and I don't recognize the vocies of any of the penguins or rats).
- I don't know where this was taped, but my guess is New York. Most of the performers were on Sesame Street at the time, though I don't know when Camille Bonora started on Sesame Street. I've read that Richard Hunt focused on Sesame Street more than Fraggle Rock, and he did perform a main character on this show.
- When the TV (or whatever machine it was) showed Gonzo hosting a program, I wonder how they knew that they could do their own show. Tug suddenly appeared on television shortly afterwards, but where they aware of there beign a camera in the basement?
- I thought I'd read that they were sent to the basement for driving the other Mupets crazy, but it seems like Scooter was just getting them out of the way so he could clean a mess that they made.
- Before Kermit, P.I., Kermit mentiosn Muppet City. I wonder if thatw as just a ficitonal universe he thought up, or if it was part of Hensonville, or vice versa (in Muppets From Space, Kermit read a newspaper called The Hensonville News Observer). And could Muppet City be located arounf Muppet Land (of the Tales from Muppetand specials)?
- The monsters wondered who they could get to perform a theme song, and they hire the penguins because there wasn't any other band around. I wonder if they'd ever considered having The Electric Mayhem perform the theme (unless maybe they were on tour at the time).
