News Update: December 20, 2012

NEWS UPDATE: December 20, 2012
Last night the Muppets appeared on WWE's Tribute to the Troops special on the USA Network. It was a two-hour long special, so I can't blame you at all if you didn't want to sit through it for what added up to a little over ten minutes of Muppet content. Luckily for you, the internet is awesome and all of the clips of the Muppets on the special are online now and you can watch them right here! (Note: The second video is especially bizarre.)









And now, here is a special message/reminder from our friend Josh Hankemeier...

December 21, 2012 is tomorrow. For us Muppet fans, this is the time to find a bell and participate once again in the annual ringing of the bells at 9:00pm central time on December 21st. If you are a newbie to this tradition, check out this post about it for further details. All you need is a bell (or something that jingles or rings) and an accurate clock. Since this tradition is inspired by "The Bells of Fraggle Rock," you can also celebrate by watching the episode. If you start the episode at precisely 8:38pm (or 22 minutes to the hour in your time zone), the Fraggles will ring their bells right on the stroke of the hour and you'll ring your bell too.

So, find a bell! If you don't have a bell, use something that rings or jingles. Everyone has keys or loose change. If it rings, it works. In 2010, I told someone about this tradition, and even though he's not with us anymore, I thought it would be nice to share what he wrote to me: "I will be joining all the other bell ringers this December 21st. Thanks for the info. First I've heard of it but happy to make it part of our tradition." -- Jerry Nelson For those of you who will be watching "The Bells of Fraggle Rock" this year, think of that quote as you watch Gobo ring his bell.

Finally, in huge news on the next Muppet movie... news: Ricky Gervias has been confirmed as the human lead character in the next movie. Many articles are reporting that Gervais' role will be on the same level as Jason Segel's Gary in The Muppets. Gervais confirmed the news that he would be in the movie with a tweet...

This is very exciting, because it means the casting process for the next movie is coming to an end. We've heard many times before that there is also a femme fatale character in the movie that has yet to be cast. That actress, whoever it will be, will join Ricky Gervais as the lead and Ty Burrell as an interpol inspector. With filming beginning in less than a month, we're sure to hear more casting details very soon.

For those of you who are completely perturbed by the choice of Gervais (I'll argue his case at some point later on the site), I submit the video below as evidence of how wonderful he is with Muppets:








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