News Update: May 13, 2011

NEWS UPDATE: May 13, 2011

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, Cookie Monster participated in The Huffington Post's Social Interview series as fans submitted the ravenous blue creature questions. Well, you asked and Cookie Monster answered in the form of a video three days ago on HuffintonPost.com. It's a lot of fun and, as always, Cookie is the answer to all our questions. What more could you need?



Speaking of Cookie Monster... he also recently made the rounds at the AOL studios (coincidentally the parent company of The Huffington Post) (okay, maybe not so coincidentally) as part of their "You've Got..." instructional video series. In his video, Cookie Monster shows viewers the proper way to devour a cookie, and we're surely all much wiser for the experience. Enjoy.



As you all know, Kermit was on-hand (pun totally intended) at Disneyland this past Saturday for the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides to interview celebrities. The Muppets Studio posted its official video of the event on YouTube but E! Online, who Kermit was apparently reporting for, has a video of the frog at the premiere as well. Check it out!

Within Henson lore is a story of a magnificent mural of hundreds of Muppet characters gathered together in a single theater from all Henson projects. Bits and pieces of it have been seen before in the background of pictures, but never before has the full mural been showcased... until now. Jeff Christiansen, who had the awesome opportunity to tour The Jim Henson Company lot in Los Angeles took loads of awesome pictures of the mural in all its glory, which can be seen on his Flickr account. But that's not enough, because our good friends at ToughPigs have Photoshopped together the pictures to create a complete look at the incredible piece of art. See for yourself here.

The latest confirmation in the world of cameos for The Muppets is star of The Office (and husband of other cameo star, Emily Blunt), John Krasinski, as confirmed in an interview on Collider.com. Krasinski has awesome comic timing and he seems like he would be a good fit for working with the Muppets. In the interview he states that he might be playing himself, but he's not sure, and he can't say which Muppets he worked with. But... he's in the movie, so there.

Awhile back, Jim Henson's Red Book posted an entry from Jim's diary that stated, "5/2/1971 Kermit reviews 11 Frog books for NY Times Book Review." There was no archivist information provided, however, but friend of the blog Ariel Winter wasn't satisfied with that as she dug up her old copy of these very book reviews and retyped them and collected links to all of the books reviewed on a list on Amazon. Kermit's comments are fun and charming, so be sure to check them out!

It's that time of the year again... time for the Daytime Emmy Awards! Announcements were made this week of the nominations and, as always, Sesame Street cleaned up big time with 16 nominations. This includes all four spots for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series for Kevin Clash (Elmo), Caroll Spinney (Big Bird and Oscar), Leslie Carrara-Rudolph (Abby Cadabby), and Eric Jacobson (Grover). You can see the entire list of all the nominees here, but we took the liberty of breaking down Sesame's 16 nominations for you below:

• Outstanding Pre-School Children's Series
• Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series
• Kevin Clash
• Caroll Spinney
• Leslie Carrara-Rudolph
• Eric Jacobson
• Outstanding Direction in Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design
  Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design/Styling
• Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series
• Outstanding Achievement in Lighting Direction
• Outstanding Achievement in Multiple Camera Editing
• Outstanding Original Song - Children's and Animation
• "What I Am"
• "I Wonder"
• "Rakhi Road"
• Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing - Live Action and Animation
• Outstanding Achievement in Technical Direction/Electronic Camera/Video Control
• Outstanding Writing in a Children's Series

Congratulations to all of our friends at Sesame Street for their once-again amazing achievements and nominations!

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier

Weekly Website Wednesday: Jim's Red Book

Today's article is not the start of another Wednesday series... I just wanted to add in the cute, alliterative title. That is all.

Jim Henson's Red Book Review

Michael Wermuth, Jr. - On September 24, 2010 (Jim Henson’s birthday), The Jim Henson Company added a new website, Jim Henson’s Red Book, containing excerpts from, well, Jim Henson’s red book, Henson’s personal journal. As noted at the top of the page, every day from 1965 until 1988 Jim Henson wrote one-sentence journal entries on what he did that day, and excerpts from the book get reprinted on the website. Now, this may not be too interesting to many, unless you just like knowing dates of events (and even then, Muppet Wiki has many dates posted already). Interest may be even lower if it’s not about a specific production. But many (not all) entries have additional historical information, written by archivist (note from Ryan: and good friend of The Muppet Mindset) Karen Falk. And the historic information is a real treasure.

In case you don’t know, I’m a pretty hardcore Muppet fan. I know the names of all the important characters, and the names of many minor characters you may not be aware of. But pretty much all of the historic information entries include info that even I had never previously known, and not just the kind of info I might not have cared about.

Before the Red Book website started, I didn’t know that Twill and Harrison from the “Muppets String Quartet” sketch (from The Ed Sullivan Show) had names, or that said segment was a remake of one done years earlier, or that Mahna Mahna was called “Harry” in that script. I didn’t know that Jim Henson’s Sesame Street film where kids play in the sand was titled “Body Parts vs. Heavy Equipment.” I also didn’t know what the musicians from the “Come Together” number looked like (they’re basically Beatles caricatures with the same attire as Mahna Mahna)--and these are just some of the many, many things one can learn from Jim's Red Book.

The historical information indeed provides great information, pictures, and often links to video clips uploaded to YouTube by The Jim Henson Company (just recently Jim Henson’s “Wizard of Id” pilot was uploaded). Almost every time an entry is on a variety show appearance there is plenty of detailed behind-the-scenes info and pictures. There are some great behind-the-scenes articles on scenes from The Great Muppet Caper (I am particularly fond of the article on the parachute sequence).

Although it says the red book started in 1965, there have been a few entries that pre-date 1965, such as when Jane Henson got hired in 1955 and the last broadcast of Sam and Friends in 1961. Although the book ended in 1988, I’m hoping for some kind of entry on The Jim Henson Hour. I’m hoping to eventually see entries on the making of all of Jim Henson’s Sesame Street films (especially the “baker films”), the various direct-to-video productions of the 1980s, and something related to Follow That Bird. Only time will tell.

If you don’t follow the website you really, really should. It is a treasure for Muppet fans and a great history lesson every single day.

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier