65 Days Until "The Muppets"!

Lucas Ervin - Hey guys, I’m back... how about “The Pig With the Froggy Tattoo”? Pretty sweet huh? Now, onto this week’s sketches... The closing numbers have always been a major highlight of each episode of The Muppet Show, and there have been so many wonderful songs that have been done, I figured I’d take this week to select what I would consider the seven best closing numbers.

65.   Andy Williams - I think this one is really enjoyable because of the simplicity of the number. It’s just Andy and Kermit, sitting on stools and singing a medley of Andy’s hits, with a few new lines thrown in to include Kermit. What most people enjoy about this number, though, is that Kermit is sitting on a stool with no Jim in sight. What they did is take a mirror and bisected it between two of the legs so that it would look like a complete stool, so when you see Kermit sitting and singing, it looks real. Plus it almost looks like Andy is breaking the fourth wall when asking Kermit how he’s able to sit on the stool; “I knew toads could... surely you’ve heard of toadstools.”

64.   Lola Falana - In this episode, we find out Gonzo has been offered a movie deal in Bombay, India (which is a reference to The Muppet Movie) and this will be his last show. However, after finding out that the movie deal was for Gonzo The Mediocre, he rushes back to Kermit, begging for his old job again. After a brief interaction with Gonzo’s replacement, Trevor the Gross, Kermit gives him his old job back, with Gonzo adding, “I wouldn’t want to be anyplace else.” We couldn’t agree more. Here’s Lola Falana, backstage with Gonzo and the other Muppets, singing that lovely song, “United We Stand.”

63.   Paul Williams - I’m sure we all recognize this special guest star. He’s written songs for several Muppet productions, made a couple cameo appearances, and is one of the few guest stars who are almost the same height as the Muppets themselves. He’s been an important figure in Muppet history, and his most famous song, “The Rainbow Connection” will be sung yet again in The Muppets when it’s released in November. Here he is during the first season of the show, beside Rowlf at the piano, singing one of the most beautiful closing numbers in the show’s history, “Sad Song.”

62.   Linda Ronstadt - Miss Piggy always gets jealous when a female guest star shows up, but she really went over the line when Linda Ronstadt came on during the fifth season. Kermit, wearing a white suit, is really excited to meet the foxy singer until Piggy locks Kermit in a crate full of fungus. Sadly, Kermit and Linda don’t get to talk until the closing number, where they both express how they’re both happy to be together performing on the show, even if it’s just for a little while. With Rowlf once again on the piano, Kermit and Linda, as well as a chorus of other Muppets, sing “When I Grow Too Old To Dream.” And man, can this woman belt out a tune.

61.   Marty Feldman - When this British comedic actor came on to host, they spent the evening telling the Arabian Nights, and the final story told was Ali Bubu and the 3 Thieves. There was supposed to be 40 thieves, but Kermit didn’t have the budget for it... When Fozzie Bear finds out that the thieves get cooked in hot oil just before the closing number he runs out and starts to sing, “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight.” After each verse, he hollers “Open Sesame,” and brings forth a bunch of characters from Sesame Street, including Ernie, Bert, Grover, and Cookie Monster, and they start singing their famous theme song. It’s also great seeing Cookie Monster here because he bears a striking resemblance to Marty...

60.   Ethel Merman - One of the greatest episodes of the first season was when that famous singer and Broadway star Ethel Merman came on. She had a fantastic voice and brought to us many famous show tune hits that were performed a lot during The Muppet Show’s five year run. As Fozzie is moping around backstage about a sour deal with his manager, Ethel reminds him that it shouldn’t matter because he’s doing what he loves to do. With that, she starts in on the uplifting and beautiful song, “There’s No Business Like Show Business.”

59.   Harry Belefonte - And finally, a guest star whose closing number still resonates with Muppet fans all around the world, and was even sung once again at Jim Henson’s memorial service... Harry tells the story about how he came to write the song, and how there are very few differences between us if you take the time to understand one another. It’s a very spiritual number with a powerful message for everyone. If we had more people like Jim Henson and Harry Belefonte, it wouldn’t really be that difficult to “Turn The World Around.”

65 Days Until The Muppets!!

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com

The Many Faces of Non-Muppets

Good Moorning to you my friends and fellow Moopet fans. It is I, the British Corespoondent, once again reporting to you live (mostly) from an undisclosed location that looks a little like the inside of a suitcase tagged and sent on a plane from Reno to the Paris Backlot to catch my new favorite touring tribute band playing live on the next leg of their world tour. If oonly I could figure out what act they are suppoosed to be a tribute to... I noticed that the Janooce one looks a little like a female Mike Jagger, but other than that it is hard to tell who they are supposed to be. I am sure I have seen something similar somewhere in the past...but cannot for the life of me pin it doown.

Speaking of tributes, I see that your regular host, Ryan, is attending a tribute to the great Jim Henson at D23 this weekend at the Disney Legends event. He poosted on twitter that Brian and Lisa Henson are supposed to be appearing, and that everyone is wearing Kermit Crown hats (whatever those may be?). Luckily while he is away updating us via his twitter account (loocated here) I am free to poost whatever I should so fancy on here!

So, I see that soome of you are a little skeptical of my big fandoom leap from Muppets to Moopets (how funny that they have similar names...weird) perhaps because you woonder how I can be a fan of a tribute band when I could have the real thing (if only I could figure oout what the real thing is...), so I wanted to show you that oover the years there have been plenty of amazing (and semi-amazing, and doown-right-terrible) tributes, even to the fuzzy, furry guys that this site was originally created for (The Muppets, I mean, not the fans or Ryan's cat).

One example of a Muppet Tribute is the effortlessly superb rendition of Mahna Mahna by the band known mostly for its baking inspired name. I heard that even Marie Antoinette was something of a fan of this band as she is famously recorded in history as saying, "Let them listen to Cake."

A similarly epic tribute can be attributed to the KC Girls who performed Mahna Mahna for the Youtube Millions to much aplomb. (It can be seen here). I feel they really have it down to a fine art and my favorite thing about this video (if I can pick a favorite!) must be the girl in green waiting throughout the entire skit, just to pick up the phone. We should pay tribute to such a tribute!

Another tribute was performed by Jason Mraz (America's answer to James Blunt) with this sweet meloodious version of the Rainbow Connection. (He also sang it with Paul Williams, which can be seen here.)

This actually awesome indie rock band provide a unique twist to the oopening music of Muppet Treasure Island. I had this as my ring tone at one stage, but once scared a bus load of oold people when it went off whilst I was doing independent research into the DNA left in chewing gum under bus seats.

Of course who can forget when The Commodores released a tribute track to that morning scene in Muppets From Space (some 22 years previous to the moovie's release).

Below is a true tribute from a true Muppet Fan (the kind of fan who not oonly writes fan-fiction in his spare time, he also pleads with Disney, negotiates a contract, persuades his friends to produce and direct, pulls in all his celebrity friends as cameos and then releases a movie on the big screen starring our beloved Muppets! Just 95 days to go for you lucky Americans, while we Internatioonals have to wait for AGES.)

And finally, it brings us to a track off of The Green Album, an album entirely devoted to Tributing the Muppets (and the occasional Otter). Its Andrew Bird with Being Green!

So you see...my leap from Muppets to Moopets is not so drastic as it may seem. After all, it follows a strong tradition of tributes to great musical moments!

If only I could figure out which musical moments the Moopets are actually referencing...

Is the name "Miss Poogy" some kind of hint?

(Images pinched from Moopet Wiki)

News Update: June 18, 2011

With all the Muppet movie excitement that has been sweeping all around us these past few days, we have missed out on some fun, cool news items from other branches of Muppet fandom. Let's get caught up some, shall we? And, of course, this News Update ends with even more news about The Muppets.

Those lucky ToughPigs, Joe Hennes and Ryan Roe, have been posting videos from their oh-so-awesome visit to the set of Sesame Street. First, they talked to Emilio Delgado and Roscoe Orman, then it was Carmen Oshbar, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, Rosita, and Abby Cadabby, and now they got to talk to Steve Whitmire, Eric Jacobson, and Matt Vogel. If I didn't like them (and this video) so much, I'd hate them (and plus they managed to mention The Muppet Mindset... so all is forgiven). Check it out!



The D23 Expo will be held once again this year in Anaheim, California on August 19-21. A tradition for Disney for years has been inducting new members into its distinguished Disney Legends Awards, honoring individuals who have contributed quite a bit to the Disney stable. 2009's honorees included Betty White and Tony Anselmo, voice of Donald Duck. The honorees at this year's expo include Regis Philbin, the voices of Disney Princesses, the original Zorro, and none other than Jim Henson. It is unknown who will be on-hand (that's a joke, son) to accept the award for Jim, but I'll be sure to let you know, because I've officially decided that I will be attending and live-blogging from the D23 Expo this year! So... yeah, there's that to look forward to.

Late this past Wednesday night I got a text from Lisa the Intern saying, "Paul Williams on Jimmy Fallon NOW! Watch!" Unfortunately, I was with four friends in the middle of a movie that I don't remember, so I couldn't watch. However, thanks to the magic of Hulu, Paul Williams' appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon is now online for all of us to see. Here's the video of Paul closing the show performing "Rainbow Connection" with The Roots.



A week ago, Sesame Street posted a preview of a brand new sketch from Season 42 on their YouTube page called SpiderMonster, The Musical and somehow we missed that too. It's hysterical and charming and features a (semi) cameo by Bono. We have received confirmation that the performers in this sketch are indeed Jerry Nelson as Mr. Johnson/Fat Blue and Frank Oz as Grover. How awesome is that?



Rolling Stone magazine is reporting that the band Scissor Sisters have been tapped to score the music for the Fraggle Rock feature film, but then quickly edited the article with a quote from The Jim Henson Company saying no deal has been made with the band, but they are in talks with Scissor Sisters and others. This is odd for many reasons, since we have no idea who even owns distribution/production rights for the film (we've heard through the grapevine that The Weinstein Company is out). So... take this article as you will. Could be vastly old, unreported news from when the film was still maybe happening, or it could be something else entirely. In other words... we have no idea.

In "movies that are actually happening" news, ComingSoon.net has posted a fantastic new article, "It's Time to Light the Lights!: On Set with The Muppets" chronicling their visit to the set of The Muppets. They get to talk with Jason Segel, Amy Adams, and producers Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman. It's a really well-written, heartfelt article that also provides us with some information we didn't know.

Remember that robot seen driving the car in the full length trailer? Well, apparently his name is 80's Robot, "'80s Robot looks exactly like a larger scale version of any generic sci-fi toy you would have seen on your local drug store toy aisle back in the early '80s. Unlike most Muppets, '80s Robot appeared to be almost 100% plastic. Not the traditional felt and cloth we associate with Muppets. To that end, it is probably incorrect to label '80s Robot a Muppet at all. What we do know is that '80s Robot is Kermit's driver... as it is him in the driver's seat of the Rolls for the scene. This was later confirmed on set by Debbie McClellan, Disney's creative director for the Muppets (and again confirmed in the new trailer)."

And the burly looking pig we've been wondering about since the first teaser trailer? That's Miss Poogy. According to the article, "Poogy is the anti-Piggy. A ruddy, rough-looking pig adorned in leather and chains, Poogy addressed the others while sharpening a knife in her left hand. She was obviously getting the crew mixed up in something bad, telling them not to 'worry about it' and expressing surprise that they'd never 'done this before.'"

We can't even go two days without more movie news--and I'm not complaining! Be sure to read the whole article because it's a real treat with some fun pictures included as well!

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com