That Announcer said:
Wow, Play-Along Videos. I'd kill to see one of these films, particularly "You're As Funny As Fozzie Bear!". I've never been able to secure a copy here, not even at my giant video store or flea market.
yeah, I know how you feel. There used to be a video store in my town that had five of the six videos in that collection (the only one they didn't have was neat Stuff, and for some reason I never got around to renting the Mother Goose Stories one) as well as four of the muppet show compilation videos from 1985 (the muppet revue, rock music with the muppets, muppet weird stuff and muppet moments). this video store closed in 1996, and I haven't seen any of these videos at any other video store (or at any flea markets). I hope that Disney releases these on DVD someday (assuming that disney has the rights, and not lorimar, who released the play-along videos. I think Disney probably owns the muppet compilation videos, since they were released by playhouse video in the u.s. and by virgin video in the u.k..... unless those video companies are owned by the same company).
You can see what the video covers looked like in the collectibles guide at Muppet Central. with the exception of mother goose storeis, all of the videocovers had a muppet and a kid on the cover, and it wasn't always a recognizable muppet. only three of these videos had well-known muppets on the cover: kermit was on the cover of "you're a cartoonist", rowlf was on the cover of "sing-along, dance-along, do-along", and of course fozzie was on the cover of "you're as funny as fozzie bear", while a generic rabbit was on the cover of "peek-a-boo", p.j. (a little boy who appeared in most of these videos) appeared on the cover of "neat stuff", and of course mother goose was on the cover of "mother goose stories".
most of these videos featured two new muppets, P.J. and kai-lee. p.j. was performed by kevin clash, and sounded like elmo. I don't know who performed kai-lee (i think it was either camille bonora or fran brill, but i would like to knwo for sure), but i seem to remember her sounding like either prarie dawn, zoe or goldilocks. P.J. was an active little boy while kai-lee was more like prarie dawn, and I think they should have appeared in more productions. they would have fit in perfectly in the muppets at walt disney world, since kids like theme parks.
Kermit also wasn't the main focus of these. although he was on the cover of the "cartoonist" video, he only appeared in two scenes: at the beginning and in a later scene where he shows how to draw animals. In the fozzie bear video, he introduced fozzies acts. in "sing-along, dance-along, do-along" he only made a brief cameo appearance (probably because rowlf hosted the video). he didn't even appear in "peek-a-boo", (and neither did p.j. or kai-lee), and I have a feeling that he wasn't in "mother goose stories", and according to the cast list in the Neat Stuff section of the complete henson database, he wasn't even in that program, even though I read that Jim Henson appeared on-screen in that video.
One cool thing about this collection was that Luncheon Counter Monster appeared in most of these videos, despite the lack of major characters (miss piggy and gonzo only made cameos in the cartoonist video, and I don't think scooter appeared in any of them). If you have seen the Muppet Sing-Along video "it's not easy being green", there is a clip from sing along, dance along, do along, from the song "in a cabin in the woods". the opening sequence from that video also includes a few clips from this collection: the openign begins with a clip from sing/dance/do-along (rowlf playing the piano to a group of kids), and a clip from hey, you're as funny as fozzie bear (with fozzie, p.j. and kai-lee) is also in the opening.
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