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Sam and Friends Bookminor muppetz
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I thought I would start a thread about unneccessary muppets. It is fun for there to be a lot of muppets, even if a lot are unneccessary, and a lot of the unneccessary muppets are cool, but some also seem pointless. Some people here seem to dislike unneccessary characters. However, I say that nearly every unneccessary character from The Muppet Show is cool. Unneccessary characters from later productions seem more pointless and bland. They basically take time away from older characters that could be used instead. Yes, there are a lot of unneccessary characters from The Muppet Show that we'd rather see than newer unneccessary characters. Most of these characters from The Muppet Show look cooler, and I'd give those characters some slack because The Muppet Show is what made the Muppets really famous. Sure, various generic animals who look the same and don't have much distinct personality do take time away from better, more specific characters, and you could say this about the variosu monsters (most look significantly different, but few have distinctive personalities). I also like the various full-body characters who don't talk, and the various characters whose only purpose is to show them dancing in front of a black background so their performers can wear all black and be hidden easier. And I really like Lips, Lobbock Lou and his Jugghuggers (The Gogolala Jubilee Jugband didn't really need to be replaced, especially since this jugband didn't do too much more than the first one), Gaffer, Quongo, Trumpet Girl, and others.
But it's the later unneccessary characters who I don't care much for. Some of my least favorites include:
Rusty: I think that's his name. The boy from Muppet Time who often hung out with Do Rei Me Monster, and who was Scary Mary's brother. It seems like the writers/ designers/ puppet builders just wanted to use Scooter, who wasn't being used at all due to his performers death. Rusty looked so much like Scooter, with similar hair and glasses (though unlike Scooter, Rusty's eyes were seperate from his glasses).
Muppets Tonight Band: A replacement for The Electric Mayhem. Probably because Henson wasn't using them much at the time, due to the deaths of a few performers, which would make sense for this band, except that the band members didn't do much that The Electric Mayhem didn't do in The Muppet Christmas Carol or Muppet Treasure isladn. They only served as a back-up band, they never had any musical numbers of their own, they haardly appeaered backstage, I think only one was ever refferred to by name, and they hardly ever spoke. If this is all they were meant to do, then why not just use the Electric Mayhem for such small roles, and save the expense of building new puppets (I assume that they were specifically-made, and not made from Whatnots). At least Solid Foam (The Jim Henson Hour band) did more, with most of it's members regularly appearing in the controll room and interracting with non-members, with the drummer being the main exception (seems like she was unneccessary, but who knows if she was actually named or if she would have become more major if JHH wasn't cancled).
Pigs in Space: Deep Dish Nine cast: the pigs from this Pigs in Space update were just plain boring. Craniac was cool, but this cast should have done more outside of the sketches. Only three episodes had Deep Dish Nine sketches, so I don't know if the writers figured early on that it was unpopular, or what.
Mr. Poodelpants: Lew Zeeland could have probably been used instead.
David Hogsohog: It seems obvious that the writers wanted soembody who was similar to Link Hogthrob. Of course, considering the name parody, I wodner if Link would have been used instead if Jim Hensonw as still alive or if Link was given a new performer.
Eugene: The tuba player who made a cameo in It's a Verry Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, and was even given a line. I think he was made from a whatnot, but it's sad that a new orchestra member was created while Lips and Trumpet Girl were not even there (and I think the orchestra also had a different conductor, as opposed to Nigel). If Miss Piggy needed to fall inside a big horn instrument, why not just have her fall into Zoots saxaphone (unless Dave Goelz wanted to give the line away, leading to the creation of a new character just so Zoot wouldn't talk).
Of course, some later unneccessary characters are cool. I like Zippety Zap, thoguh it seems like he was filling in for Floyd (Leon could have also had his role, and his personality also seemed similar to Clifford's non-hosting personality). There were also a lot of characters who seemed to be unneccessary repalcements for characters who were seen regularly (or semi-regularly) on Muppets Tonight, such as Bobo (seemed like across-replaceemnt for Fozzie and Rowlf), Spamela hamderson (could be seen as a repalcement for Miss Piggy, or possibly Annie Sue Pig), Dr. Phil van Neuter (Bunsen was there regualrly, so he wasn't really needed), and to a lesser extent Mulch (Beaker was there), but these characters are very cool, and I am glad that they were created.
But it's the later unneccessary characters who I don't care much for. Some of my least favorites include:
Rusty: I think that's his name. The boy from Muppet Time who often hung out with Do Rei Me Monster, and who was Scary Mary's brother. It seems like the writers/ designers/ puppet builders just wanted to use Scooter, who wasn't being used at all due to his performers death. Rusty looked so much like Scooter, with similar hair and glasses (though unlike Scooter, Rusty's eyes were seperate from his glasses).
Muppets Tonight Band: A replacement for The Electric Mayhem. Probably because Henson wasn't using them much at the time, due to the deaths of a few performers, which would make sense for this band, except that the band members didn't do much that The Electric Mayhem didn't do in The Muppet Christmas Carol or Muppet Treasure isladn. They only served as a back-up band, they never had any musical numbers of their own, they haardly appeaered backstage, I think only one was ever refferred to by name, and they hardly ever spoke. If this is all they were meant to do, then why not just use the Electric Mayhem for such small roles, and save the expense of building new puppets (I assume that they were specifically-made, and not made from Whatnots). At least Solid Foam (The Jim Henson Hour band) did more, with most of it's members regularly appearing in the controll room and interracting with non-members, with the drummer being the main exception (seems like she was unneccessary, but who knows if she was actually named or if she would have become more major if JHH wasn't cancled).
Pigs in Space: Deep Dish Nine cast: the pigs from this Pigs in Space update were just plain boring. Craniac was cool, but this cast should have done more outside of the sketches. Only three episodes had Deep Dish Nine sketches, so I don't know if the writers figured early on that it was unpopular, or what.
Mr. Poodelpants: Lew Zeeland could have probably been used instead.
David Hogsohog: It seems obvious that the writers wanted soembody who was similar to Link Hogthrob. Of course, considering the name parody, I wodner if Link would have been used instead if Jim Hensonw as still alive or if Link was given a new performer.
Eugene: The tuba player who made a cameo in It's a Verry Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, and was even given a line. I think he was made from a whatnot, but it's sad that a new orchestra member was created while Lips and Trumpet Girl were not even there (and I think the orchestra also had a different conductor, as opposed to Nigel). If Miss Piggy needed to fall inside a big horn instrument, why not just have her fall into Zoots saxaphone (unless Dave Goelz wanted to give the line away, leading to the creation of a new character just so Zoot wouldn't talk).
Of course, some later unneccessary characters are cool. I like Zippety Zap, thoguh it seems like he was filling in for Floyd (Leon could have also had his role, and his personality also seemed similar to Clifford's non-hosting personality). There were also a lot of characters who seemed to be unneccessary repalcements for characters who were seen regularly (or semi-regularly) on Muppets Tonight, such as Bobo (seemed like across-replaceemnt for Fozzie and Rowlf), Spamela hamderson (could be seen as a repalcement for Miss Piggy, or possibly Annie Sue Pig), Dr. Phil van Neuter (Bunsen was there regualrly, so he wasn't really needed), and to a lesser extent Mulch (Beaker was there), but these characters are very cool, and I am glad that they were created.
