News Update: June 27, 2014

JUNE 27, 2014

This week, the annual Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony was held and, of course, Sesame Street won quite a few of them! In fact, Sesame was tied for the most trophies won this year! Below are the awards they won. Our huge congratulations to everyone at Sesame Street on their fantastic and much-deserved wins.

• Outstanding Preschool Series
• Outstanding Writing in a Children's Series
• Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series
• Outstanding Achievement in Multiple Camera Editing
• Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing - Live Action 
• Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing - Live Action

D23, the official Disney fan club, posted a great article all about Rowlf the Dog last Thursday and somehow we missed it until this week. The article covers quite a few fun facts about Rowlf, and gives lots of credit to Jim Henson, The Jimmy Dean Show, and lots more. It's really a wonderful look at Muppet history, which is always exciting to see from Disney. It's also quite nice to see Rowlf get some more love.

Remember a few months ago when those awesome photos of Ricky Gervais, Constantine, and Matt Vogel started making the rounds? Well, Brad Trent, the hugely talented photographer who shot the photos, recently posted some behind the scenes shots from the awesome photo shoot. Check out the full article for all of them, but below are five our favorites from the post.

Earlier this week, Ryan Dosier (hey, that's me!) held an impromptu live-tweet of a few episodes of Season 1 of The Muppet Show on The Muppet Mindset's Twitter account (@MuppetMindset). It was a lot of fun and a lot of people seemed to enjoy it, so we're going to do it again--and invite you to join us! On Monday, June 30 at 7:30pm Central Time/5:30pm PST, I'll be watching The Muppet Show Episodes 201 and 202 (the first two episodes of Season 2) and live tweeting from @MuppetMindset. Join us in the watching, join us in the tweeting, join us in the fun! We hope to see you then, Muppet fans!

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

News Update: June 21, 2013

NEWS UPDATE: June 21, 2013
This week Disney Mobile released a brand new iPhone application called "My Muppets Show" which features a virtual Muppet Show with unlockable characters and props. Unfortunately, and immensely frustratingly, the app is currently only available in Australia. The Facebook fan page for the app suggests that it will be released wider soon... so cross your fingers, Muppet fans. Thanks to our friend Zac Parker, we have some exclusive screenshots from the app, so check them out below!

As we reported last weekend, the 40th Daytime Emmy Awards were held and Sesame Street won a lot of shiny statues. But a meaningful piece of news came after viewers had time to upload the ceremony to YouTube, including the In Memoriam segment, which featured both Sesame Street director/writer Emily Squires but also Muppeteer Jerry Nelson. Watch the video below for the full segment (which starts at 3:10).



I don't know if we've mentioned it on the site before... but our friend Brian Jay Jones is in the finishing stages of his new, all-encompassing book Jim Henson: The Biography, which will be released on Jim's birthday, September 24th. The book already has a lot of buzz around the internet including a newly released blurb from none other than Frank Oz, who had this to say about the book: "I worked with Jim for over thirty years.  He was one of my closest friends. And yet I found out things about him in Jim Henson that were new to me.  Brian Jay Jones has captured the layers of Jim’s genius and humanity as well as the flaws that made Jim, like all of us, so delightfully imperfect. Jim needed this book to be written. I thank Brian for giving Jim life again. This book has captured the spirit of Jim Henson." You can pre-order the book on Amazon now, and check out the awesome cover art to the right!

Finally, we now have confirmation that The Muppet Movie Original Soundtrack will be re-released in conjunction with the film on Blu-ray on August 13th by Walt Disney Records. Still no cover art or track information (though we can probably guess the latter with some accuracy). However, you can pre-order the soundtrack on Amazon.com and check out the announcement from our friends at StitchKingdom.com for some more information about the re-release.

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

Sesame Street Sweeps Daytime Emmys Again

The winners of the 40th Daytime Emmy Awards were announced yesterday and, as usual, Sesame Street took the awards by storm, winning seven new gold statues to add to their already massive collection. Deadline has the list of all of this year's winners, but you can check out the seven awards that Sesame Street won below!

Outstanding Pre-School Children's Series
Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series - Kevin Clash as Elmo
Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series - Kevin Clash, Matt Vogel, Joey Mazzarino, Ken Diego
Outstanding Achievement in Main Title and Graphic Design
Outstanding Achievement in Multiple Camera Editing
Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing (Live Action)
Outstanding Writing in a Children's Series

Incredibly, even after his resignation from the show, Kevin Clash still won another Emmy for Outstanding Performer for his role as Elmo. And unsurprisingly, Sesame Street swept the big categories for Children's Series: Directing, Writing, Editing, and overall series.

Congratulations to Sesame Street and all of our friends at Sesame Workshop on their massive wins! Keep sweepin' those clouds away!

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

Sesame Street Wins SEVEN Daytime Emmy Awards!

It seems like every year the folks at Sesame Street continue to blow away the Emmy voters. This year, they were nominated for a whopping 16 Daytime Emmy Awards and yesterday the winners for the 39th Annual Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards were announced. Sesame Street brought home seven Creative Arts Emmy wins this year! Below is a list of Sesame Street's wins:

• Outstanding Pre-School Children’s Series was awarded to Executive Producer Carol-Lynn Parente, Co-Executive Producer Kevin Clash, Senior Producer Tim Carter, Coordinating Producer April Coleman, Producer Ben Lehmann, Producer Melissa Dino and Line Producer Stephanie Longardo.
• Outstanding Writing in a Children’s Series was awarded to Head Writer Joey Mazzarino and writers Molly Boylan, Annie Evans, Christine Ferraro, Luis Santeiro, Belinda Ward, Emily Kingsley and John Weidman.
• Outstanding Directing in a Children’s Series was awarded to Directors Joey Mazzarino, Kevin Clash, Nadine Zylstra, Ken Diego, Scott Preston and Matt Vogel.
• Outstanding Achievement in Multiple Camera Editing was awarded to Tim Carter, Supervising Editor Todd James and Editors Jesse Averna and John Tierney.
• Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Live Action was awarded to Supervising Sound Editors Chris Prinzivalli, Michael Barrett and Michael Croiter, Music Editor Jorge Muelle, Sound Editor Chris Sassano and Sound Effects Editor Dick Maitland.
• Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing – Live Action was awarded to Production Mixer Chris Prinzivalli and Re-Recording Mixers Michael Croiter, Michael Barrett and Dick Maitland.
• Outstanding Achievement in Technical Direction/Electronic Camera/Video Control was awarded to Technical Director Tom Guadarrama, Senior Video Director James Meek and Camera Operator’s Frankie Biondo, Jerry Cancel and Shaun Harkins.

Our sincere congratulations to everyone at Sesame Street and Sesame Workshop for their huge wins! Special congratulations to our friends Kevin Clash and Matt Vogel for their honors for directing and producing. The results of the rest of Sesame Street's nominations will be announced on June 23rd... so look out for that!

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

News Update: July 9, 2010

NEWS UPDATE: July 9, 2010

It was announced this morning that the Sesame Workshop special, "When Families Grieve" was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. The special that starred Katie Couric and Elmo, which showed families some coping mechanisms for dealing with the loss of a loved one, was nominated for Outstanding Nonfiction Children's Program. Its only competition is Nick News with Linda Ellerbee, so there is a good chance that Sesame Workshop will be bringing home yet another shiny statue to put on the mantle.

If you're planning to attend the San Diego Comic Con this year, be sure to stop by Archaia Comics' booth. According to Comic Book Resources, Archaia will be hosting five panels at this year's convention, one of which, on Sunday, July 25th, is dedicated to their work with The Jim Henson Company. The panel is scheduled to discuss the Fraggle Rock comic series, what's next for Archaia's partnership with Henson, and upcoming work with the worlds of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. Guests on the panel include some of the Fraggle Rock Comic Book team (including editor Tim Beedle) and Brian Froud, who worked with Jim Henson to develop The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. So if you're in the San Diego area and plan to attend Comic Con 2010, be sure to stop by Archaia's presentation!

Renowned Disney sculptor and artist Jim Shore is taking on The Muppets! The artist has sculpted stone resin figures of Animal, Statler and Waldorf, Fozzie, Miss Piggy, and Kermit, on sale now. The figures cost $40  each ($50 for Statler and Waldorf), plus shipping, and seem to be great quality and look pretty darn good too.

A new set of Vinylmation Disney pins is now available at the Disney Parks. The set includes Vinylmation pins of Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Statler, Waldorf, Bunsen, and Beaker, and a mystery pin that can be either Bean Bunny, Sweetums, Rowlf, Rizzo, or The Swedish Chef. These pins are not only a lot cheaper than buying the Vinylmation figures, but they're also a lot easier to find.