Damn my analytical mind, damn it all to heck! (Muppet Show)

Cafe Society
1

i just picked up the Muppet Show season 1 DVD, and i find that instead of watching it for the sheer enjoyment of it, i end up analyzing every skit, rangong from the simple (well, there’s Jim Henson voicing another character, oh, there’s Frank Oz voicing another character), to the more complex, figuring out how some of the more complex puppetry (shadow puppetry, rod puppets, rear projection), like the “dancing slinkies” skit

why can’t i just suspend disbelief and enjoy, do i have to analyze every skit to see how it’s done?

2

Iunno about you, but I’ve been enjoying watching the Muppet Show (and my newly-acquired Fraggle Rock Season One set) even while I pick apart the technical aspects.

When I first saw all this stuff, I knew the muppets were puppet-type things, but it never occurred to me to wonder how things worked. I remember asking my dad once about the wires I sometimes saw attached to Gobo Fraggle’s wrists; he tried to explain that that’s how the puppeteer moved his hands, but it never really sank in.

Now, I’m seeing all the little things. Like the huge advances in technique between Muppet Show season one and Fraggle Rock, or the ways they move multiple muppets in a small area, or how they carefully choose camera angles, or how few voices there really are, or hey look you can see the top of the head of the guy playing Dr. Teeth’s hands.

It doesn’t ruin my enjoyment at all, it’s just another aspect of the show to enjoy. Is it bugging you, or just cluttering up your mind while you’re trying to just enjoy the show?

3

Moderator Harrumphs: A discussion about the Muppet Show itself is just fine for this forum. A discussion about your personality quirks, MacTech, belongs elsewhere. Right?

4

Well, it could go either way, but i think it’d be more fun as a Muppet Show discussion, so lets keep it in Cafe Society, and if a mod wouldn’t mind renaming the thread, that’d be fine

<Animal>
RENAME THREAD, RENAME THREAD!!
Muppet Show Season 1 discussion!
</Animal>

yet for all my analysis of the show, i still like it, and for some reason, i accept Sweetums as “real”…

if i had to pare it down to my fave Muppets…
Animal
Sweetums
Uncle Deadly
Dr. Bunsen Honeydew
Beaker
any of the “creepy” muppets

i was actually kinda’ dissapointed that Beaker hasn’t shown up yet (i’m on Disc 3 in the set, maybe Beaker was introduced in S2?

out of all the shows so far, i liked

Disc 1;
Juliet Prowse
Connie Stevens
Rita Moreno
Jim Nabors

Disc 2;
Paul Williams
Harvey Korman
Peter Ustinov

Disc 3;
Sandy Duncan (thanks to Family Guy, i really notice her “creepy” eye, thanks a lot, Seth McFarlane, now i can’t help not noticing the creepy eye…)
Candace Bergen (she has either aged really well, or really badly, she looked almost like she did in “Murphy Brown”)
Vincent Price

Disc 4; still watching it
Twiggy (at first i thought it was the “weird guy” from Laverne and Shirley, then i realized that was “Squiggy”, another big difference is squiggy’s a man, Twiggy’s a woman…)

5

Beaker was indeed introduced in the second season.

[quote=MacTech]
yet for all my analysis of the show, i still like it, and for some reason, i accept Sweetums as “real”…[/MacTech]

I consider all of the Muppets real people. I know they’re just puppets, but they have such colorful and varied personalities, they are real as far as I’m concerned. I often refer to cartoon characters as if they were real people, real actors. The same thing with Muppets. It’s the whole Santa Claus thing- he may not exist, but if you believe in him, he’s real. The Mickey Mouse in Disneyland may just be a man in a costume, but we treat him as if he’s the “real” Mickey Mouse. Kermit may just be a piece of green felt, but in Jim Henson’s hands (hand?), he’s a real, talking frog who runs a TV show.

Re: the Candice Bergen episode: Each episode of The Muppet Show has a “plot” which threads it together. In this case, it’s a mysterious “banana sketch” which we never actually hear. Everyone except for Kermit has heard of this famous routine, and go into hysterics whenever they hear it. 25 years later, we have the hit film The Aristocrats, in which various comedians tell their version of a dirty joke well-known in comedian circles. Maybe the banana sketch is the Muppet world’s version of the aristocrats joke?

6

David Lander is Squiggy’s real name. Twiggy was a supermodel.

7

I got that set last week. I was amazed at how bright and clear the video was (well, compared to my 15 year old taped-off-TNT VHS tapes).

I was also surprised how clunky the original pilot, “Sex and Violence”, was. The elements that made the show great were almost there, but it definitely needed Kermit as the host.

I can’t wait for seasons 2-5.

8

Just watching the DVD’s again, this time with the production notes turned on, one of the amusing pieces of trivia was that “upstaging” was the M.O. on TMS, every puppeteer tried to one-up the other…

which manifested in many amusing ways, such as in the Swedish Chef skits, Jim Henson performed the Chef’s head and supplied the voice, while Frank Oz performed the Chef’s hands, and with “Upstaging” the M.O. on the show, it wasn’t unusual for the Swedish Chef to be upstaged by his own hands, that’s why ol’ Swedie was always tossing things around in the intro, Frank Oz was trying to upstage Jim Henson…

9

And he’s the announcer in A League of Their Own.