Minor Muppetz' TMS outline: Andy Kaufman

minor muppetz

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this outline takes place during the fifth season.

cold opening/ lobby
(kermit enters the lobby)
Pops: who are you?
kermit: uh, pops, you know me.
Pops: I do?
Kermit: I am your boss. (pops makes a blank stare). the host of this show. (pops still stares blankly). the one who signs your paycheck. (pops is still clueless)
(andy kaufman walks in)
Pops: hey, i know you, you're andy kaufman!
Kermit: (who didn't see andy kaufman come in) uh, no, I am not. i am kermit the frog.
Andy kaufman: yes, but i am.
(kermit shockingly notices andy, and gives a "what the hey...?" expression into the camera)

Introduction
kermit has a feeling that tonigths show will be more unusual than usual.

opening number: downtown
Miss Piggy sings on a city street set, and in the corus is joined by sweetums, Thog, Doglion, and Timmy dancing in the background. passer-bys include boppity, pink frackle, louis kazagger, geri and the atrics, rizzo and some rats, gaffer, annie sue pig, some random pigs and penguins, the female singers, and mildred.

balcony
statler: I wouldn't mind going downtown.
waldorf: why?
statler: because it is farther away from here.

Introduction
kermit introduces Andy Kaufman, and for no reason at all falls down the trap door.

Sketch
Andy Kaufman is playing a foreigner who is making a salad with the swedish chef. they put engine fluids into the salad. the salad grows into a live camel.

wings
Gonzo cheers for more.

Muppet labs
Bunsen invents Muppet labs hair dye. he tries it on beaker, whose hair turns into bright tye dye colors.

Backstage
Scooter tells kermit that there is a man who wants to be a guest star. kermit meets the man, Tony Cliffton (who in real life is andy kauffman). Kermit considers letting him do an act next week, but Tony says that either he be tonights guets star or no deal. Tony says that the show will bomb from now on, and on cue Crazy harry blows up Tony.

U.K. Spot
beauregard plays harmonica on stage. miss piggy runs on stage madly because she tried the muppet labs hair tonic and now her hair is rainbow colors. beauregard tells her that she should complain to kermit, not beauregard.

backstage
Miss piggy complaisn to kermit because her hair has changed into freaky colors, and she has a sketch to do. kermit telsl her to complain to bunsen and Beaker, because bunsen invented the stuff.

Muppet Sports
Tonights sport is lady wrestling. Andy wrestles Big mama. Scooter is the refferee. Louis provides commentary and announces that Big mama ate Andy, which disqualifies her from winning (we don't actually see her eating andy kaufman. we only see his leg gettign swallowed by big mama).

balcony
waldorf wants some pancakes, and pancakes get thrown up to the balcony.

Lobby
As Pops sleeps, Miss Piggy complains to Bunsen and Beaker, and karate chops both. Link and dr. Strangepork tell miss piggy that Pigs In Space has to be canceled because their hair changed colors too (links hair is now purple, strangeporks hair is green). Bunsen says that he has poured all of the hair tonic down the drain, except for one bottle that he cannot find.

backstage
Andy complaisn to kermit about Tony Clifton not being allowed to guest star alongside Andy Kaufman, and angrily decides not to do the closing number. he takes a bottle of a liquid found on the desk (which turns out to be the lost bottle of hair tonic) and drinks it.

Closing Number: i've grown accoustomed to your face
annie sue pig sings to a faceless muppet, who is holding a face (that is not part of a body). halfway through the performance, Andy Kauffman crashes the show by lip-syncing to the mighty mouse theme (and he now has a long moldy purple and orange toungue). a few rainbow-colored frogs and rats join in the lip-syncing (they were in the sewer that the drain that bunsen poured the hair tonic into leads to).

Good Night
sam tells Andy that he is truly a weirdo, and Miss piggys hair is back to normal. other muppets (besides kermit) who join andy include a few muppaphones, a tye-dyed gonzo, and Pops.
 

Gorgon Heap

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Wow, trippy. Figures Gonzo would like Andy, and I like the use of Tony Clifton and the hair dye running gag.

I had an idea for an Andy Kaufman outline, tho I doubt I'll ever do it. I guess no one will mind me telling what my idea was. Basically, it would have a very Andy Kaufman type of plot with a big joke on the audience (sorta), in which it's revealed that Andy is not a real person, but is in fact a puppet, and in the backstage sequences we get to know his (Muppet) performer. I don't remember how that was supposed to end- I think we end up finding out that Andy is puppeteering is puppeteer. I think that would've been a plotline that Andy would've liked.

On a side note, did you know that Andy DID work with the Muppets once? He did one of his last appearances as Tony Clifton in "The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show", which also starred John Ritter. Why neither of them ever did TMS is a mystery to me- maybe they both wanted to but were at the back of the line and didn't get to the front before the show ended. After all, by Season Two or Three there was an actual waiting list to get on TMS.

David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole
 

minor muppetz

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Gorgon Heap said:
On a side note, did you know that Andy DID work with the Muppets once? He did one of his last appearances as Tony Clifton in "The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show", which also starred John Ritter.
yes, I knew that. In fact, I have seen a documentary on Andy kauffman which included a clip from The Fantsastic Miss Piggy Show, but unfortunately none of the muppets were in that clip. :mad:
 

Gorgon Heap

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Incidentally, what do you think of my Kaufman plotline idea?

David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole
 

minor muppetz

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Gorgon Heap said:
Incidentally, what do you think of my Kaufman plotline idea?

David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole
I think it is cool.

:cool:

One thing that Andy kaufman and the muppets both have in common: they both got their start by lip-syncing to records. Also, Andy Kauffmans television debut was on the very first episode of Saturday Night Live, which also featured the muppets.

:big_grin:
 

minor muppetz

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Gorgon Heap said:
On a side note, did you know that Andy DID work with the Muppets once? He did one of his last appearances as Tony Clifton in "The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show", which also starred John Ritter. Why neither of them ever did TMS is a mystery to me- maybe they both wanted to but were at the back of the line and didn't get to the front before the show ended. After all, by Season Two or Three there was an actual waiting list to get on TMS.
If there was a waiting list, then i wonder if any of the celebrities who appeared in The Muppet Movie, The Muppets Go Hollywood, The great Muppet caper, The Muppets Go To The Movies, or Miss Piggys Hollywood (or any other production) who didn't appear on The Muppet Show were on the waiting list? Richard phryor, who appeared in TMM, was scheduled to be on the show but canceled at the last minute (he was replaced by Chris Langham, since there wasn't any time to find another replacement).

I don't think Taxi would have caused a scheduling conflict with Andy Kauffman. One of his demands was that he wouldn't have t appear in every episode of taxi, so he could have found time to be on The Muppet Show during a week of taping for one of the episodes that he didn't appear in.
 
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