Michael Wermuth Remembers 5 Years of Articles

Michael Wermuth - Well, 2014 is a great year for Muppet anniversaries, whether there’s official celebrations or not. It is the 60th anniversary of The Junior Morning Show (thus the 60th anniversary of Jim Henson’s television career), 45th anniversary of Sesame Street, 35th anniversary of The Muppet Movie, 30th anniversary of The Muppets Take Manhattan and Muppet Babies, 25th anniversary of The Jim Henson Hour, and the 15th anniversary of Muppets From Space and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland.

But most importantly, this is the five-year anniversary of the start of The Muppet Mindset, a website you are probably viewing right now. For the past five years, many Muppet fans have been allowed to write articles relating to Muppets, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, and other works from Jim Henson and get them published on a great website (without having to start their own websites), and of this website’s many contributors, I am one of them. And today I thought I’d take a look back on some of the articles I have written.

Top Ten Sesame Street Songs Not on Any Album Lists
My first article to be published here was my first of two lists of my top ten favorite Sesame Street songs that have not been released on any album. It was partially inspired by a few online lists I’ve seen listing the top ten (or whatever) most underrated Sesame Street songs. I included a mix of songs that I truly am surprised have not been released as well as some favorites that are more-or-less favorites because of the characters who sang the songs. Unfortunately, these songs remain unreleased.

Top Ten Sesame Street Inserts Not Released on Video
Like the above list, I made two separate top ten lists of inserts that have never been released on home video. I had this idea at the time of the “songs not released on any albums” list, but since a 40th anniversary DVD was coming out, I decided to wait until after that was released to make this list. These lists include a lot of childhood favorites of mine that had not been released on video. Only two inserts from either list have been released on a physical DVD (“Outrageous Makeover” on Best of Sesame Street Spoofs! and “Chariots of Fur” on Old School Volume 3). If there are plans for a 45th anniversary set, these segments would be most welcomed.

41 Favorite Sesame Street Inserts
This article came when the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street was ending and the 41st season was beginning, and felt I had to celebrate somehow, so I compiled a list of 41 of my all-time favorite segments. With the 45th anniversary coming up, I kinda wish I didn’t do a top 41 segments list so I could celebrate with a top 45 inserts list. Then again, this doesn’t mean that you readers can’t make such a list.

Top 40 Muppet Show Songs and Segments
It took a little longer for me to even consider making a massive list of my all-time favorite segments from The Muppet Show. And at first I had trouble deciding on whether I wanted to list my top 40, top 50 (I could have included ten segments per season), or whatever, before settling on just 40. This list ended up being a four-part list, but was originally written as one, before adding some info and opinions written about each entry. I do regret not including any male guest stars (some segments I’d have liked to have included include Joel Grey’s “Wilkomen”, Alice Cooper’s”School’s Out”, and Roger Miller’s “Hat”), which I don’t think I realized until it was too late.

In Search of Missing Muppets
This was an article I wrote about certain characters who had not been used (in puppet form) in at least ten years. And since this list was compiled, many characters listed have been seen again, including Lips, Uncle Deadley, Marvin Suggs and the Muppaphone, Annie Sue, and both Nigels. Could my list have influenced the return of many of these characters? Naaahhh...

Muppetology 101: Advanced Property Ownership
I often think about the Muppet sale to Disney in 2004, and who owns what, and since this year is the ten-year anniversary of Disney’s purchase of the characters, I thought it’d be a good time to do an article on who owns what. When I wrote this article, I mentioned that I was unsure of who actually owned the rights to the Sam and Friends characters (well, besides Kermit), having for years assumed Henson still owned those characters, only to be surprised that they got a section in The Muppets Character Encyclopedia.

Top Five Good and Bad Things lists
This year I started making a few lists where I write five things I like about a certain production followed by five things I don’t like (or don’t like as much). The idea came to me one day when I was thinking about making a top ten list and started thinking about what I liked and disliked about certain productions. And maybe Tough Pigs’ “two things” articles subliminally inspired me as well.

Weekly Muppet Wednesdays
After Ryan decided to let other contributors write Weekly Muppet Wednesday articles, I was the first guest contributor to do so (my first being on my favorite obscure character, Lips). I’ve done articles on various characters, from major characters like Statler and Waldorf, Beaker, and Grover to more lesser-known characters like Bruno the Trashman, Zondra, and Baskerville the Hound. I was the first to do an article on a creature shop character, Baby Sinclair. For some characters I wrote articles on, such as Cookie Monster and Grover, Ryan had helped contribute as much as I did, and although I already thought those articles were great, his editing and contributions made those articles a lot better.

Future Articles
So what do I have in store for the future? Well, before the year ends I’d like to do at least one more Muppet Retro Review and at least one more Weekly Muppet Wednesday. In October, I’d like to do a list of Muppet moments that scared me as a child. For the holiday season, I’d like to do a “Top Five Good and Bad Things About...” article on a Christmas production. I’d like to do something to tie in to the 45th anniversary of Sesame Street and the upcoming 60th anniversary of the Muppets. And then there’s a lot of article ideas that I’ve had for years that I still haven’t done. Lots of characters I’d like to write about for Weekly Muppet Wednesdays, plenty of productions to review for Muppet Retro Reviews, a few topics for Muppetology 101, and as it was jokingly mentioned in my section of the websites “About Us” page I have actually considered making a grocery list (right now I know the site needs more cookies, radishes, and birdseed milkshakes).

But here’s to 5 years, and hopefully another 5 years (at which I’ll probably say “here’s to ten years and hopefully another ten years”).





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

Weekly Muppet Wednesdays: Dog

DOG

Performed by...
Brian Henson

First appearance...
The Storyteller Episode 101: "Hans, My Hedgehog" (1987)

Most-Recent Appearance:
The Jim Henson Hour Episode 110: "Secrets of the Muppets" (1992)

Best known role...
The Storyteller's canine companion

WHO IS DOG?

Dog is the dog (obviously) from The Storyteller, and is generally the only character who listens to The Storyteller's stories in person. Dog generally provides wisecracks and asides to the more serious storytelling. Like The Storyteller, he is rarely part of the actual story. In the first episode, "Hans, My Hedgehog," Dog as well as Stroyteller have roles as waiters in the story, and in "Sapsorrow," he appears to be among Sapsorrow's animal companions, and at one point confirms she's telling the truth when Sapsorrow tells her father that she wasn't taking the ring like her sisters had said. At the beginning of "The Soldier and Death," Dog wants to eat the biscuits that The Storyteller needs for his story, prompting Dog to let him tell the story (because the sooner the story ends, the sooner he can eat them). Although The Storyteller was replaced with a different actor for The Storyteller: Greek Myths, Dog reprised his role as the dog.

Outside of The Storyteller franchise, Dog was interviewed by Rowlf for Muppet Magazine, where he talked about how he met the Storyteller and revealed that although he lives with the Storyteller, he is not the characters (or anybody's) pet. Dog also made a few appearances (outside of The StoryTeller second half) on The Jim Henson Hour. In episode 103, he appears in Jim Henson's intro in place of the Lion. In "Secrets of the Muppets," he appears at the Creature Shop, where he reveals himself to be a member of the Organization of Muppet Dogs (and also reveals that there is an Organization of Muppet Dogs).

WHY DOES THE STORYTELLER NEED DOG?
The Storyteller needs Dog to provide some comic relief, to have SOMEBODY there to listen to his stories, and because the Dog is just plain awesome a character.

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

5 Good and Bad Things About MuppeTelevision

Michael Wermuth - Well, it’s been awhile since my last “5 good and bad things about…” article, so here’s one about the MuppeTelevision segments of The Jim Henson Hour. I really like The Jim Henson Hour, and feel like the MuppeTelevision segments are the best parts, but there’s still some things that I don’t like much, so I’ll list five good things and then five bad things.

5 Good Things:

1.   The new characters
For the most part, the various new characters on this show are great. Digit and Leon are the best of the new characters, and I most strongly wish they would have returned for later productions. Vicki, Waldo, and Lindbergh are also great characters, though I can live without them returning (technically I can also live without Digit and Leon returning). Zhondra, Ubu, and Chip all have great designs and it’s a shame that they were limited to just two episodes (though at least Zhondra and Chip did continue to make background appearances after the show ended). Flash and Beard have great designs as well and it’s a shame the show didn’t last long enough for their personalities to be developed much. And of course, there’s Bean Bunny (who technically debuted in Tale of the Bunny Picnic) and Clifford, the two who would continue to be main characters after the show ended. While they are great characters, I do like them less than most of the characters mentioned above. Many of the characters have really cool designs, but a lot of them also seem like they’d look out of place at the Muppet theater setting.

2.   The “Fitness” episode
One of the best MuppeTelevision episodes, and the only one I’m singling out as one of five good things. This one has the best balance of new and old characters, with a heavy use of characters from The Muppet Show (it helps that this is one of only two episodes Richard Hunt performed in). Smokey Robinson’s two numbers are great, it’s interesting to see Link Hogthrob have his own control room plot, and there’s just so much to like about this one. I feel the shows ratings might have been better if this was the first episode.

3.   The Muppet Central set
The computer animated set for Muppet Central was awesome. I just like seeing all those monitors, with video footage of the Muppets (most of which were shot just to be used on monitors in the background). Yeah, some fans may say that the set was a distraction, or that these scenes were limited due to a non-physical set, but I like it.

4.   The Closing numbers
Almost all of the closing numbers are among the shows best numbers. From “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” to “Sweet Vacation” to “Jump (For My Love)”, the closing numbers are exciting ways to end each episode. Many of these numbers feature the majority of the main cast and often cut away to characters and sets from earlier in the episodes, something that had kind of become a tradition in Muppet productions since The Muppets Go to the Movies.

5.   Fozzie’s few appearances
Fozzie only made two appearances in MuppeTelevision (and one in the second half-hour special Miss Piggy’s Hollywood), but they are both among the shows highlights. Fozzie was hilarious taking over for Willard Scott on Today and starring in a ghost story.

5 Bad Things:

1.   The first two episodes are weak
I feel like the first two broadcast episodes–“Outer Space” and “Oceans”–were poor choices for episodes to start with. “Outer Space” is still a good episode (“Oceans” is my least-favorite of the series), but the first two episodes mainly focus on Kermit, Digit, and to a lesser extent Lindbergh and Waldo, with the rest of the cast limited to one-scene appearances (in addition to coming back for the first closing number). In fact, the first episode barely even has any sketches starring any of the intended main characters (Bean Bunny starred in one, and the whole cast did the closing number, if that counts). The other episodes showcase more of the main cast better. Interestingly, the first two broadcast episodes are among the last ones in production order.

2.   Hardly any of Jerry Nelson’s characters were there
While it’s understandable that Frank Oz and Richard Hunt’s characters had limited screen time on this show due to Frank Oz’s directing career and Richard Hunt working on Ghost of Faffner Hall, it’s a wonder that hardly any of Jerry Nelson’s classic characters were there (I think Lew Zealand and Camilla were the only ones to show up outside of being on video monitors). And Jerry Nelson only had one new recurring character, Beard, who wasn’t really used that much. Pretty much all of Jerry Nelson’s other roles were as one-shot characters, so it’s not like he couldn’t have performed Floyd, Robin, and other classic characters.

3.   Nothing goes wrong (is that a bad thing?)
On The Muppet Show and Muppets Tonight (and other productions where the Muppets put on a show), something often goes wrong in sketches and production numbers. But on this show, all the acts go as planned (as far as the viewer knows). I guess the closest to something going wrong is when Fozzie accidentally locks Willard Scott in a vault and takes over as the Today show weather man. Now, this “bad thing” isn’t really that bad, but it is a little odd that Kermit has suddenly found so many acts that don’t go wrong on-camera.

4.   Segments with humans who are not guest stars
Unlike The Muppet Show, nearly every episode features sketches with live actors who are not the guest star And many of these segments are not very good. While there are a handful of segments with humans that are great (like the storytime segment from “Power”,  the ghost story with Fozzie in “Videotape”, and the Gorilla Television segments), most segments that prominently feature humans not played by guest stars (including the Bootsy and Brad segments, the farmer segment from “Fitness”, and the segment from “Food” where a stock boy explains where food comes from) are very weak and in some cases too weird. Would they have been better if they just used guest stars or Muppet characters in their places? The world may never know.

5.   The guest stars don’t appear in the studio
The guest stars never appear in the control room with the Muppets. Any “backstage” interaction between the Muppets and guest stars required the guests to appear on monitors when they interacted. In most cases it’s rather awkward (there are exceptions, like with Smokey Robinson and Buster Poindexter). I don’t really understand why the guests couldn’t have been inside the control rooms... Other shows had the guest stars on raised platforms. Couldn’t they have just used a high platform with the blue screen sets?





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

Weekly Muppet Wednesdays: Professor Hastings

Written by Michael Wermuth.

PROFESSOR HASTINGS

Performed by...
Frank Oz

First appearance...
Sesame Street Season 1 (1969)

Most recent appearance...
Sesame Street Season 2 (1971)

Best known role...
Boring, old professor

WHO IS PROFESSOR HASTINGS?

Professor Hastings is an old professor who gave lectures that were so boring that even he fell asleep while he was giving them.  For example, if his lecture was on feelings, groups of happy, sad, and angry Muppets would walk by while he was sleeping (and they would somehow wake him up, allowing him to move on). Many of his lectures were introduced by Kermit the Frog, who sometimes had to help with the lectures, such as showing parts of the body. A running gag would be for Professor Hastings to ask, “are you aware that you are a frog?” Some topics Professor Hastings discussed included the letters Y and U, the number 2, and how two trucks are different and the same.

One of Professor Hastings’ first appearances was in a performance of “Spinning Wheel”, in which he honks a horn. In this early appearance, he looks a little different from how he would later look. He had reddish-brown hair, giving him more resemblance to Mr. Johnson. Later on, his hair would be white. Perhaps he’s one of the few Muppets to actually age.

Professor Hastings once appeared as a contestant on Guy Smiley’s game show “What’s My Part?”, in which he kept falling asleep and mistakenly thinking he was supposed to give a lecture. In fact, he ended up winning by accident – the mystery guest was a foot, and his foot happened to fall asleep.

Unfortunately, Professor Hastings was taken off the show for being too dull. Although he was dropped pretty early, he was more popular in European countries, where his material continues to be shown, and has appeared in quite a bit of European merchandise (sometimes mistaken for Mr. Johnson, though).

WHY DOES SESAME STREET NEED PROFESSOR HASTINGS?
Well, Sesame Street is an educational show, and a good educational show needs somebody to give lectures and… educate and… Teach such subjects as… Zzzzzzzzzz…

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

How To... Be a Salesman

Michael Wermuth - So you want to be a salesman? Well, here’s how a salesman must act. Oh, but there are at least three types of salesmen (and only three represented in this article)… Which type would you want to be the most?

Type 1: The Door-To-Door Salesman

As a door-to-door salesman, you get to go to people’s houses and sell things. Be sure to wear a good suit, even if you otherwise don’t wear clothes. The first thing you should do is knock on the door and provide your client with a fairly polite greeting. Some people don’t like having salesmen at their house and will try to quickly slam the door on you, but one way to keep the door open is to push your body to the door as soon as possible, preventing it from being slammed. You could also block the door with a body part. Most people use their foot, but some use their nose. I must warn you about this method, though: It hurts!

But suppose your customer doesn’t have the thing that your item is for? What if you’re selling earmuffs and your customer doesn’t have ears, or you’re selling nose warmers but he has no nose? Then just give your customer a set of ears or a nose! But then what if he DOES have what goes with what you’re selling, but no way to keep it up – let’s say you’re selling sunglasses and your customer has eyes but can’t wear them because he doesn’t have the ears or nose to hold the sunglasses on his face? Sell him sunglasses with ears and nose attached!

Type 2: The Street Salesman

To be a street salesman, you get to be out on the street. You must dress in a trench coat and fedora, and talk in a soft, whispery voice. If your potential customer repeats what you say, just “SHH!” him. And you should always be prepared to give a reason for your customer to buy what you’re selling. If you’re selling an empty box, tell him why he needs an empty box. Explain that it’s better than a box of yucky worms. Explain that an empty box will be useful in catching jellybeans if it rains them. If you want to sell a letter of the alphabet, tell him to look at that letter if he’s wondering what letter a word starts with – for example, if you’re selling a U, tell him to look at the U if your customer is up all night wondering what letter the word “up” starts with. And try to be flexible: If your letter is made from a rope attached to poles, it’ll be easy to change your letter if your customer wants a different one. A U-shaped rope can easily be changed into a V or a W. And if you’re selling invisible ice cream cones, sell different flavors, and try to make it clear if you don’t accept invisible money.

Type 3: The Pitch Man

The pitch man makes sales pitches, particularly for successful variety shows. To make a proper sales pitch, you must start out mild mannered and talk at a normal pace, but soon get carried away and talk at a faster speed. This is in contrast to the street salesman, where you must talk loudly and be more excited. Mention all the benefits of what’s being sold here, and wildly exaggerate whatever results you think will happen.

Disclaimer: The Muppet Mindset shall not be held responsible for body injuries from stopping customers from slamming their doors, and do not encourage scamming customers, selling illegally-acquired letters, numbers, or other products. The Muppet Mindset is also not responsible for customers not buying your products. Sell at your own risk.






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

Muppet Retro Reviews: Sesame Street Sing-Along

Michael Wermuth - Sing-Along is a Sesame Street video themed around songs. The linking footage involves the cast having a sing-along on the roof of 123 Sesame Street. Bob even goes so far as to bring a piano to play. While the sing-along is going on, Biff and Sully are also on the roof, fixing a TV antennae. They fix it early on, but then they keep breaking a TV set, having to fix and re-fix it. The scenes with them testing out the TV allows for transitions to the inserts, though not all segments begin on the TV.

This video focuses more on the linking plot than on segments, however. But for the most part, the linking material is good, and much of it is great. Most of the songs are traditional kids songs, like “The Alphabet Song” and “Old McDonald.” At one point, Big Bird wants to sing a song that Granny Bird had taught him, “Cheer Up,” but Bob (on the piano) doesn’t know that song. Fortunately, Sully does know the song, and gets a chance to play the piano while Big Bird leads the others in the song. And for the big finale, the cast sings a show stopping rendition of “What’s the Name of That Song?” which begins on the roof but soon leads to other parts of the street, with special appearances by Luis and Susan, Oscar the Grouch, the Honkers, and the Two-Headed Monster.

This video only has five inserts from the show, but they are all good choices. The inserts are “Sing After Me” with Madeline Kahn and Grover, “Sing” with Olivia and Linda, “We All Sing with the Same Voice,” “Rubber Duckie” with Ernie, and “Doin’ the Pigeon” with Bert. Most of these segments start when Biff turns the TV on, but one notable exception comes before “Rubber Duckie,” when Ernie can be heard from down in his apartment, saying he has a song but can’t come up to sing it because he’s in the bath tub. Although it’s just a vocal role, this introduction makes this one of the few Sesame Street videos to feature involvement from Jim Henson in the linking footage.

All five of the inserts on this video would go on to appear in later video releases as well. In fact, each of them has been included in one of the three volumes of Sesame Street: Old School. But even if you have all of those segments on other videos, Sing-Along is still worth it for the linking footage, especially the Biff and Sully material and the finale.

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

Weekly Muppet Wednesdays: Mean Mama

Written by Michael Wermuth.

MEAN MAMA

Performed by...
Various

First appearance...
The Muppet Show Episode 201: Don Knotts (1977)

Most recent appearance...
Dog City TV Series (circa 1994)

Best known role...
Large, mean looking monster

Also known as...
Big Mama

WHO IS MEAN MAMA?
Mean Mama is a large brown monster with a big mouth. She got her name from her first appearance, in a sketch with Don Knotts on The Muppet Show called "Beast of the Week," in which she was the mother of the featured beast. Having been locked in a cage, Mean Mama manages to break out and save her child (who was never seen again after that sketch).

Mean Mama was often seen in sketches with other monsters, rarely being the sole focus of a scene. Notable moments include her opening each section of "Ugly Song," playing a starving monster in an animal shelter sketch with Dom DeLuise, eating John Cleese's agent, and playing a hungry alien in a "Pigs in Space" sketch, where she ended up eating Miss Piggy.

Although she's called Mean Mama, she usually looks more masculine, and in her few speaking appearances had a gruff masculine voice. Although big, Mean Mama was not a full-body monster... At first. But late in the second season, she was rebuilt as a full-body character, though the regular puppet version would still make occasional appearances afterwards. The full-body version would usually look more feminine, often dressed with feminine eyelashes and dresses.

Mean Mama has made only a few appearances since The Muppet Show ended. She would go on to appear in Here Comes the Puppets and in episodes of Ghost of Faffner Hall and Dog City. According to The Muppets Character Encyclopedia, Mean Mama is currently retired but is willing to step in if the young monsters don't have what it takes.

WHY DO THE MUPPETS NEED MEAN MAMA?
Well, the Muppets need monsters, as many as they can get. Mean Mama is the only one to have functioned as both a regular-sized puppet and a full-body walk-around, as well as being one of the few female Muppets (even if she usually looks male). Her large mouth allows her to be one of those Muppet monsters who can eat on-screen.

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

Ten Odd Things About The Muppet Movie

Michael Wermuth - The Muppet Movie is a great film, but there’s a lot in the movie that I find odd--even if it is just "approximately how it happened." Here’s ten of those odd things:

1.   The Muppets just drop everything to go to Hollywood.
As Kermit meets more and more Muppets, they tend to invite just anybody (who’s a Muppet) on their journey to Hollywood. And they all seem ready to go right away. Wouldn’t they have jobs or plans? They just seem to drop everything and join a bunch of characters they’ve just met.

2.   After one meeting the Muppets act like they’ve always been close friends.
This movie tells the story of how Kermit met the other Muppets, and yet once they’ve had their introduction scenes, they all seem to know each other well, as if they had always been friends.

3.   Sweetums’ introduction scene.
The whole introduction to Sweetums is rather awkward. They never actually introduce him by name. And then there’s him bringing the price down due to swatting a fly... Did he hit that fly on purpose or by accident? Did he do it because Mad Man Mooney apparently mistreats him, or because he likes those particular customers who he doesn’t know well? And although he gets the Muppets a deal on a car, why does Kermit invite him to come with them? They didn’t really interact much in that scene, and at that point they don’t even know his actual name.

4.   Mad Man Mooney’s twelve dollar trade-in seems to treat both cars as one.
Mad Man Mooney provides a 12-dollar trade-in for their old vehicles, and when Sweetums brings the price down from $1195 to $11.95, Gonzo points out that he owes them a nickel. But they were trading in two cars (Fozzie’s Studebaker and Gonzo’s plumbing car). Mooney owed them 12 dollars and a nickel!

5.   Doc Hopper seems to know where Kermit is headed.
Isn’t it odd that Doc Hopper knows where Kermit is headed? He sees Kermit and Fozzie dancing on-stage at the El Sleezo from outside, and instead of going in to talk with Kermit and make a deal, he runs out to set up TVs to play his commercials. I could see that maybe being the only way out of that place, but then he gets ahead and knows they’ll see the billboard with Kermit’s face, and they know what restaurant Kermit and Piggy will go to for their date. Kermit never even tells Doc Hopper that he’s going to Hollywood. Does Doc just have a copy of the screenplay or something?

6.   We don’t know why the secretary won’t let Kermit in.
Kermit saw the ad in the paper that a Hollywood studio was giving open auditions to frogs, but when he shows up, the secretary won’t let them in. The paper only said there’d be auditions for frogs, so it makes sense that the others would have to wait in the lobby, but why won’t she at least let Kermit in? I know that one early draft of the script has the secretary mention that the frog auditions were canceled. They should have left that line in.

7.   The movie the Muppets make in the finale seems to have a limited crew.
When the Muppets start on their movie, it seems like the entire crew consists of the characters who traveled to Hollywood in the movie, as well as Crazy Harry as technician and Robin, who doesn’t really do anything notable (I know that an early script had a running gag where Robin kept randomly popping up with the main characters). Shouldn’t they have had more Muppets working on the set (perhaps all those characters in the final shot were there but we didn’t see them until then)? It would have been great to have seen more Muppets working on it, to have seen Beauregard moving the sets, The Swedish Chef and Gladys doing catering, Sam the Eagle and Link Hogthrob studying lines.

8.  How does Max explain knowing that Kermit will meet with Doc Hopper for a showdown?
Max goes behind Doc Hopper’s back (I assume) to warn Kermit about the frog killer, and Kermit tells Max to tell Doc that he’ll meet him at an old ghost town. So how did Max tell Doc Hopper this without informing him that he was trying to warn Kermit?

9.   Fozzie seemingly doesn’t stop his car when Gonzo and Camilla enter.
When Gonzo and Camilla’s car crashes on top of Fozzie’s, Gonzo then gets in. We see a wide shot of the car in motion and hear sound effects of Gonzo getting in before a cut to Gonzo and Camilla in the car as if they’d just gotten in. Shouldn’t Fozzie have stopped the car before they got in (though Gonzo would probably prefer to climb in while it’s driving)? And I didn’t think the Studebaker had an open-roof. Did Gonzo and Camilla climb through the side windows?

10.   Kermit thinks they’ll need bears just because they’re auditioning frogs.
The ad clearly only says that they’re auditioning frogs wanting to become rich and famous. So when he meets Fozzie and invites him to come along, Kermit assumes that if they’re auditioning frogs than they must need bears, too. And that’s based on what? Frogs and bears don’t really go together, and aside from Kermit and Fozzie there aren’t really any other frog-and-bear duos.

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