Comic Con Street

San Diego Comic Con was held over the weekend, and as we noted in our News Updates, Sesame Street and The Jim Henson Company both held panels at the world's biggest fan convention. Updates on the Henson panel are still coming in, but the Sesame Street panels were a major success.

Our friends at Nerdist.com have a great recap of the main Sesame Street panel, which featured Eric Jacobson and Grover, Joey Mazzarino and Murray, David Rudman and Cookie Monster, and Carol-Lynn Parente (and hosted by Nerdist's own Chris Hardwick).

The first panel held for Sesame Street was a conversation with the Muppet performers and Muppets, hosted by the amazing Zachary Levi. Lucky for us non-Comic Con attendees, NerdHQ filmed the entire panel for us. It's half an hour long, and 100% delightful. I highly, highly recommend watching it. Joey Mazzarino and Murray steals the show.



Earlier that day, Sesame Street took to Vine to show off Bert's new cosplay costume. Is he Bertman? Batbert? The world may never know.



Then, Murray presented a special edition of "Word on the Street."



And finally, Cookie Monster found his favorite Comic Con costume.



Sesame Street also shared a lot on Instragram from the photo shoot available with Grover, Murray, and Cookie Monster later in the day. Check out some of the great photos below!



Chris Hardwick with his furry friends.



The Nerdist panel.



Zachary Levi with the gang.



Bertman scales the building.



Chris Hardwick with Grover.



Our friend Gina Selim with Bert!



We'll be back with more Comic Con coverage as it comes down the pipeline!





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

News Update: July 18, 2014

JULY 18, 2014

Since we didn't do a News Update last week, we missed out on sharing the video of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy on PBS's A Capitol Fourth, which aired live on 4th of July. The performance, which saw Kermit and Piggy singing "This Land is Your Land" and Kermit performing "Rainbow Connection," was positively delightful. Steve Whitmire's enthusiasm with Kermit during both songs is infectious and wonderful. Also Tom Bergeron, Fozzie, and Animal are there, and great as ever. (Special thanks to our friend Chris Stulz for making and sharing the video.)

Archaia Comics are heading back down to Fraggle Rock with a new series of Fraggle stories. The series will be written by Kate Leth and illustrated by Jake Myler. The book is titled Fraggle Rock: Journey to the Everspring and according to Nerdist it will feature the beloved Fraggles we know as well as some new characters. Journey to the Everspring is divided into four parts, with the first issue released on October 8th. Here's hoping Archaia can capture the excellence of their first Fraggle Rock series once again!

The San Diego Comic Con is coming up next weekend, and Sesame Street is heading out for a panel! The panel is on Sunday, July 27 at 10:15am in Room 6A. The impeccable, huge Muppet fan Chris Hardwick (Nerdist) will be moderating the panel, which includes Muppet performers Eric Jacobson, Joey Mazzarino (also head writer and director), and David Rudman, as well as executive producer Carol-Lynn Parente. During the panel, they'll debut a new Season 45 episode called "Numeric Con," a parody of Comic Con itself. They'll also be premiering a new segment of the fantastic "Cookie's Crumpy Pictures" series called "Star S'mores." Color me happy (and fuzzy, and blue).

The Jim Henson Company is also going to Comic Con with a panel of their own, titled "The Jim Henson Company: Upcoming Comics with Archaia," so there will clearly be a lot of discussion of Fraggle Rock, Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, and The Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow comic books. The panel will be held July 25th at 6:00pm in Room 32AB. Panelists for the Henson Company include Jeff Stokely (illustrator for The Storyteller: Witches), Jake Myler (illustrator for Fraggle Rock), Ian Herring (colorist for Tale of Sand), and Shane-Michael Vidaurri (writer and illustrator for The Storyteller: Witches). Special thanks to ToughPigs for this info!

Once again, the rumor that the Muppets are heading to Broadway with a brand new original musical has resurfaced. This time, The New York Post is reporting on it. Nothing new comes to light in this article, and really it adds nothing more to the table that we haven't known for awhile now, but it's nice to see it still being talked about.

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

News Update: October 10, 2013

NEWS UPDATE: October 10, 2013

Cookie Monster is coming to New York ComicCon! That's right, David Rudman is bringing the voracious monster to the booth of our friends at WeLoveFine T-Shirts on Saturday, October 12th at New York ComicCon. There will be two photo ops/signings with David and Cookie Monster at 11am and 2pm on Saturday, October 12th. WeLoveFine's booth is #1836. WeLoveFine will also have a NYCC Exclusive Cookie Monster t-shirt, which you can see at right. If you're a Muppet fan going to New York ComicCon, this cannot be missed!

Speaking of New York ComicCon--which is this weekend, by the way--there are tons of Muppety things going on. Our friends at ToughPigs have the definitive list, but we'll provide a quick recap. On Thursday from 2:30-3:00 in Room 1A17 there will be a panel about creatively energizing students featuring our friends Bonnie Erickson, Noel MacNeal, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, and Louis Henry Mitchell. On Friday from 1:45-2:15 in Family Room 1B02, Noel MacNeal will be hosting a workshop on how puppets are made. On Friday from 4:30-5:30 in Family Room 1B02, Louis Henry Mitchell is hosting a Sesame Street drawing workshop. On Saturday from 12:00-1:00 in Room 1A06 is the Comics For Everyone panel which features Joey Mazzarino and a rumored Sesame friend. On Sunday from 4:15-5:00 in Family Room 1B02 will be Leslie and Lolly Make Stuff Up starring our friend Leslie Carrara-Rudolph and the awesome Lolly Lardpop.

As if that weren't enough, our awesome (and awesomely lucky) friends Joe Hennes and Ryan Roe over at ToughPigs are moderating and hosting their very own ComicCon Panel! Their panel, ToughPigs Presents Jim Henson: The Biography is on Friday at 7:45pm in Room A101 and will feature Bonnie Erickson, Karen Falk, Fran Brill, and Brian Jay Jones. This is bound to be the most informative, most fantastically Muppety panel at ComicCon, so don't miss it if you're there!

This Thursday, October 10th our friend Brian Jay Jones, author of the New York Times Best Seller Jim Henson: The Biography will be the featured guest on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to promote and discuss the book. This is huge, out of this world promotion for the book so be sure to set your DVRs or your eyeballs to catch Brian's appearance! If you miss it, don't worry, we'll have a link to the video as soon as we can.

Some more big news this week from the world of Sesame Street International, as Cookie Monster and Elmo have been officially announced to be starring in the new Sesame Workshop/CBeebies show The Furchester, which will debut on British television station CBeebies in fall 2014. No word yet on if Cookie Monster and Elmo will get new performers for this show (as they do with most international efforts), though I doubt it since most Brits are probably familiar with their classic voices. For more info, check out the BBC's press release for the series.

We end this week with sad news. Last week it was reported that master Muppet engineer Faz Fazakas had passed away at age 95. Faz was a brilliant craftsman best known for creating the engineering breakthroughs that allowed Kermit to ride a bike, Emmet and Ma Otter to row a boat, and allowed the Doozers to exist and work so brilliantly. Faz's influence on the technology of making the Muppets move in realistic ways without the assistance of visible hands or wires was truly extraordinary. He will be missed. The Jim Henson Company set up a wonderful tribute page on Facebook with many rare photos and videos of Faz and his work.

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

News Update: July 12, 2013

NEWS UPDATE: July 12, 2013

San Diego Comic Con is coming to rock the bay-area next weekend starting on Saturday, July 20th. Comic Con is a hub for all things geek culture, so of course there will have to be some Muppet presence there. Last year, Super Grover 2.0 and Eric Jacobson appeared, and this year our friends at ToughPigs.com have been great enough to gather all the relevant Muppet panels and events in one convenient place! Check out their post and find out what Muppet-related fun you can see (or what you'll miss) at San Diego Comic Con this year!

Speaking of Eric Jacobson, he recently sat down for an excellent interview with CNN to showcase the movement of Sesame Street puppets--from penguins to Anything Muppet kings. The video below features tons of puppets, Eric being awesome, a cameo from Matt Vogel, and some delightful Grover ad-libs. This is not to be missed!



A week ago, Acme Archives and Dark Ink Art released the outstanding and beautiful "Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem" prints from our good friend and James Carroll. The print was released in three stellar variants--and would you believe that all three variants are still available? Yup, you can still get the standard green, "Rock Star Red," and "Purple Haze" prints for just $60 each. What are you waiting for?! Get to rockin', man!

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

Super Grover 2.0 Goes ComicCon

It's a slow week, and a fairly news-less weekend, so we here at The Muppet Mindset are struggling to bring you a well-deserved update. So... just enjoy these pictures of Super Grover 2.0 and Eric Jacobson meeting fans (and Spider-Man) at ComicCon a few days ago! Hopefully some video of these meet and greets will surface soon as well.

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

News Update: October 14, 2010

NEWS UPDATE: October 14, 2010

Our friends over at TVShowsOnDVD.com have announced that a special, 15-DVD set of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson will be released on October 26th. The contents of the set were announced and among such unknowns as Robin Williams, Chevy Chase, Alice Cooper, Jerry Seinfeld, and Betty White are Jim Henson and The Muppets. Yes, Jim's first appearance on The Tonight Show from 1965 will be included on the set. The appearance features Jim performing a drunk Muppet (Dr. Phil van Neuter?) singing "Let Me In" and the classic Kermit "Inchworm" sketch. ToughPigs has a link to a YouTube video with the clips, so you don't have to spend the $119.99 to buy the whole set... but you should still consider it--I know I am!

Speaking of the RoughFigs (yes, I'm running out of goofy names for them), Ryan Roe and Joe Hennes (who I may or may not be feuding with) went to New York Comic Con 2010 last weekend and brought back an awesome recap of all the Muppety stuff they found. They even met friends of the blog Amy Mebberson, Jesse Blaze Snider, and James Silvani (pictured at right)--they also met Caroll Spinney (darn them). Apparently there's going to be some video interviews with these folks sometime soon, so let's nag them about that!

Muppet Sherlock Holmes #2 was released yesterday and ToughPigs (welcome to the ToughPigs Muppet Mindset News Update, everybody!) has a fantastic five-page preview. Look for our review on Monday!

And, finally, have you seen Grover's latest viral web sensation? If not, then you obviously don't know how to smell like a monster--a crucial thing to know if you're going to work the cute and cuddly angle. Check out the funniest Sesame video you'll see all year!



 Now... if you'll excuse me, I must be off. I've got two tickets to that thing I love.

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier

News Update: July 29, 2010

NEWS UPDATE: July 29, 2010

Yesterday it was confirmed that Miss Piggy and Pepe will be appearing on the Desperate Housewives: The Complete Sixth Season - The All-Mighty Edition (that's really the name) DVD set, available September 21. Surely we'll see Miss Piggy reeking havoc on Wisteria Lane and Pepe ogling quite a bit (and with housewives that desperate, maybe he won't get shut down), unfortunately we'll have to buy the DVD set to see this. Oh, well, new Muppet stuff is good stuff. Now where's The Muppet Show Season 4 on DVD?

Just a reminder that this Tuesday, August 3rd, Lionsgate will be releasing Henson's Place, the 1984 Jim Henson documentary on DVD. Be sure to pick up your copy of this sure-to-be fantastic DVD of an incredibly rare television special!

This past weekend, ComicCon was held in San Diego, California and the Muppets were represented quite well throughout the Con. Check out some of the highlights below...

• Amy Mebberson, Roger Langridge, James Silvani, and others were present for a Muppet Comics panel and comic drawing/signing. Mebberson drew Miss Piggy as Lady Gaga for a fan. Langridge drew numerous sketches as well.
• Karen Prell and Red Fraggle also appeared live at ComicCon, leading an audience in a sing-along and performing a few times. Red was also interviewed by SFX.
• Hallmark announced their next Muppet ornament for Christmas 2011: Beaker singing his hit "Ode to Joy."
• The Jim Henson Company announced that Cartoon Network will be airing shorts starring Henson puppets called Hot Dog TV, beginning with "Fiendish Footlong" on August 2 and 6:58 PM.
• Archaia Comics and The Jim Henson Company announced that they will be producing "A Tale of Sand," an unproduced script by Jim Henson, into a comic book.
• eFX Collectibles had the Kermit and Rizzo photo-puppet prototypes on display. Still no word on when, or if, these will be released.
• A Muppet fan made a "Dearth Nadir" (Gonzo as Darth Vader) puppet and brought it to ComicCon.

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier