Besides, everyone knows that Skeeter was really one of Scooter’s multiple personalities. His psyche fractured from all those “special play times” in the downstairs dressing room with his uncle who owned the theater…
*the above post brought to you by jayjay enterprises: “Making beloved characters incredibly skeevy since 2001”.
Skutir, er, Scooter was the coolest muppet. He would walk around with a clipboard and say it was two minutes until showtime. He got his job because his uncle owned the theater.
Not sure what you mean by “regular performers” – but I’m assuming you mean the performers from the Muppet Show days up through the 80s. In any case, the performers for A Very Merry Muppet Christmas ARE the regular performers.
Steve Whitmire’s main two characters in the special were Rizzo and Kermit. He’s been performing Rizzo for 25 years, and Kermit for about 14 years. That’s about as regular as you can get.
Dave Goelz’s main characters are Gonzo, Dr. Honeydew, and Waldorf. Gonzo and Dr. Honeydew are characters he originated in the 70s, and Waldorf has been his since Jim Henson’s death (beginning with A Muppet Christmas Carol).
Brian Henson DID take over for Scooter and Janice – who were originally Richard Hunt’s characters. That was a new thing. His voice is different from Richard’s, so the characters sound different. And they’ll inevitably change a bit as a result … but I’ll address that later.
John Henson has done Sweetums since Richard Hunt’s death, and returned to the role in this production, so no new blood there.
Bill Barretta’s main characters in the special were Pepe, Dr. Teeth, Rowlf, the Swedish Chef, Johnny Fiama, Bobo, and Lew Zealand. Pepe, Johnny, and Bobo are characters he originated several years ago on Muppets Tonight, so he is definitely their regular performer. He’s done the Swedish Chef for a few years now, though very rarely.
Rowlf, Dr. Teeth, and Lew Zealand are special cases. There really was talk of retiring Rowlf as a SPEAKING character, since he is, arguably, the original Muppet – having been the first to make it big on the Jimmy Dean show. Thankfully, Rowlf has been brought back to life in the hands of Bill Barretta – a Muppeteer with a great sense of humor and delivery, and a passable Rowlf voice. Since the Rowlf voice and the Dr. Teeth voice are essentially identical, it made sense to give him both. They HAVE been tried with other puppeteers, but for now, Bill Barretta IS the regular performer for those two characters. I’m not sure what was up with Lew Zealand. Jerry Nelson has done that character since the Muppet Show days, and he was involved in the Muppet Christmas movie, so I’m not sure why he didn’t do him.
Speaking of Jerry, he did voice his characters of Robin the Frog, Statler, and Pops the Doorman. I don’t think he did the puppetry for them, though, but I’m not sure of that. He is in his late sixties, though – so if the man wants to take a break, for heaven’s sake, let’s give it to him.
That leaves the big heartbreaker – Frank Oz. Frank is busy directing these days. He still has a good relationship with the Henson company, from what I hear, but isn’t all that interested in giving his time to puppeteer, or even to record voices. (In my opinion, that’s better – if you’re not going to puppeteer, don’t give a voice either – it takes away from the performances to have them dubbed later – you don’t get the realism of the on-set performance and interplay between the performers if you have to worry about sticking to lines so that they can be dubbed later.) Anyway, Frank’s characters have been officially turned over to other performers. Most of them (including most of his Sesame Street characters) have been inherited by Eric Jacobson – and he’s been personally trained by Frank. His voice is an incredibly close match, and he’s a great puppeteer as well. In the Muppet special (and all recent Muppet activity), Eric has performed Miss Piggy, Fozzie, and Animal – and on Sesame Street, he does Bert and Grover. (I believe David Rudman has taken over Cookie Monster.)
So – what am I saying? I’m really not trying to be snarky by saying that these ARE the regular performers. Are the voices different? Yes. Has Kermit changed since Steve took over the character from Jim? Yes. But that’s the way of things.
Some people compare the process of finding a new “voice” for a Muppet to finding a new “voice” for, say, Bugs Bunny. It’s very different, though – because an animated character is created by one voice actor and a number of animators. A puppet character (under ideal circumstances), on the other hand, is created by ONE performer – voice, movement, and “Attitude”.
The Muppets are characters – ALMOST like people – and just as human actors change and mature over time, so have these characters. In some cases, it’s been the result of their having changed hands (so to speak), but even characters that have had the same performer (Gonzo, for example) have changed an incredible amount over the years. Look at and listen to Gonzo from his early days on the Muppet show and you’ll find that Dave Goelz has a completely different character on his hands these days.
So – Jim, Frank, Jerry, Richard, Steve – these were the old guard. They’re beloved and revered.
But Steve, Dave, Eric, Bill, Brian, and sometimes Jerry – these are the current guardians of these characters.
I’m a little worried about the Disney deal – looks as though they outright sold the characters to Disney. But I’m confident that the characters – AND the performers – are strong enough to keep these characters alive through this, as well.
Here’s hoping Disney knows a good thing when they see it.
I saw Steve Whitmire’s name (who I am perfectly satisfied with as Kermit, though he does lack some of Jim’s sbility to go loose and silly sometimes), Bill Baretta’s name, and Dave Goelz’s name in the credits. Aside from them and Brian Henson, I didn’t recognise the rest of the names as the usual performers. (Jerry Nelson’s name wasn’t there, I don’t think, though I will need to check my DVD)
But I see your point. This is the changing of the guard, which I gather has been gradually occurring for the past decade.
Still a shame. The Muppets have lost a huge amount of their spark since Jim’s death. They need a huge reboot somehow.
By the way, I reckon they should do a “Muppet Robin Hood” movie. It’d rock.
Aren’t they planning on doing a “Muppet Phantom Of The Opera” or something? Or was that just another of my own wacky ideas?
Speaking of Disney and Muppets, who else is a huge fan of Muppets 3D? Great story and great effects; if Disney can maintian that kind of quality I anxiously await what they will do with the Muppets.
I am not holding out hopes that Disney will do this well. I’m going to go watch my Muppet Show DVDs and relive the glory of my very early childhood, plus getting the jokes I didn’t get as a four-year-old. And I’ll pretend that Jim never died and that Disney wouldn’t dream of buying up the Muppets.
I can dream, can’t I?