News Update: October 6, 2012

NEWS UPDATE: October 6, 2012

Our friend Elmo continued to make the talk show round this week to promote "Elmo: The Musical" on Sesame Street Season 43. He stopped by Today on NBC on Tuesday to hang out with Al Roker and friends and just be hysterically goofy. Check out the video below and witness Elmo cracking everyone up with his Gangnam Style dancing, ravenous cookie eating, and eye makeup.



In other Sesame Street Season 43 news, one of Sesame's fantastic spoofs from this season made the rounds on entertainment websites this week. "Birdwalk Empire," a parody of the Emmy-nominated Boardwalk Empire, is that video and you can watch it below! It really does live up to the hype, because it's hilarious... and features Frank Oz as a random chicken. How can you NOT watch it?

As we mentioned last week, the Muppets will be appearing on Cee Lo Green's new Christmas album, CeeLo's Magic Moment, available on October 30th. The Muppets will appear on the track "All I Need is Love" and you can preview a minute and a half of the track right this very minute on iTunes! Based on the preview, this song is pretty fantastic. It's a lot of fun, uses some classic "Mahna Mahna" background tracks, and the Muppets sound great. We get to hear Kermit, Gonzo, Fozzie, and Miss Piggy in the preview, but I have a feeling we'll hear a lot more of them once we can hear the whole song!

Last week we also posted the entirety of the Muppets at the "Just For Laughs" Comedy Gala. Unfortunately, the full video has been taken down, presumably for good. But thankfully, our good friends at Muppet Musings have recovered one of my favorite parts of the show: The Muppets Salute Canada, led by Sam Eagle and a whole bunch of hilariously false facts. Enjoy the video!

Finally, as you've probably heard, in the first Presidential Debate on Wednesday night, Republican nominee Mitt Romney said these exact words, "I'm gonna stop the subsidy to PBS. I like PBS. I love Big Bird." This one comment led to a firestorm of support for Big Bird, a wave of anger at Mitt Romney, and generated thousands and thousands of tweets. For the best, full coverage of this incident, I dictate to our good friends at ToughPigs.com, who have rounded up everything you need to know about this thing. Personally, I'm glad Big Bird is getting exposure... but now he and Sesame Street are being used as obnoxious political jabs by both parties, which is frustrating. Mostly, like Sesame Workshop, I'm just glad everyone can agree that we all love Big Bird regardless of party. I will always stand on the side that supports Big Bird and Sesame Street, because Big Bird and Sesame Street have supported the children of America and the world for 43 years.

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

Full Muppets Just For Laughs Gala and Sesame Old School: Vol. 3 Features!

Something amazing happened today. The entirety of the Muppets performance at the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal last month is now online. ALL OF IT. There's no more introduction needed, really. Watch, laugh, and love it. It's fantastic.

EDIT: (October 1st) The video has been removed... it's not really surprising, but unfortunate and pretty annoying. If we can find it again, we'll post it again!

In other news, the folks at TVShowsonDVD.com have revealed the cover art and bonus features for the upcoming, hugely exciting, long-overdue Sesame Street: Old School, Volume 3 (1979-1984) DVD set! The set will be out on November 6th, so check out the cover art and bonus features below!

• Includes 5 full-length classic Sesame Street episodes:
  1. Sesame Street Goes to Puerto Rico
  2. Big Bird's First day of School
  3. Big Bird and the Birdwatchers
  4. Big Bird Goes to Camp Echo Rock
  5. Snuffy and Gordon run the NYC Marathon
  
  
• Plus a jam-packed 110 minutes of bonus material and extra clips
  • Never-before-seen behind-the-scenes footage
  • Sesame Street's most beloved and requested clip, "Goodbye-Mr. Hooper"
  • Exclusive interview with Caroll Spinney (Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch)
  • A special on-screen storybook of Oscar's How To Be a Grouch, with a sneak peek at Caroll performing Oscar!
  • Audio commentary on the Puerto Rico episode by Sonia Manzano
  • Bonus booklet bursting with extra info and special cast memories!

News Update: August 2, 2012

NEWS UPDATE: August 2, 2012

Over on her website, "Good in a Room," friend of the blog Stephanie Palmer has written a wonderful article about Jim Henson's classic pitch reel for The Muppet Show. It takes a look at how the awesome pitch reel is structured and examines it as a whole. I love it! But before you read it, why not watch said awesome pitch reel again?




In the most incredibly vague and confusing news of the week, The CW television network showed up at the Television Critic's Association on Monday to show off its crop of television shows for this coming season. The president of The CW, Mark Pedowitz made a very staggering promise that Muppet fans should scratch their heads about, saying, "'I can promise another Muppets special this holiday season,' said Pedowitz, acknowledging that last holiday's special [a rerun of Letters to Santa] did well in the ratings for the network." What does this mean? Who honestly knows. Does it mean a new Muppet Christmas special this holiday season on The CW? Highly unlikely. It is August, said special would have to air in December--four months from now. While that isn't an impossible time frame, it is highly unlikely. Mostly likely Pedowitz was talking about another Muppet special rerun on his network... but, again, that's just speculation on our part. I would be thrilled to see a new special, but I just don't see that happening. I guess we'll find out!

Everyone loves Frank Oz. It's really hard not to love the man who brought such wonderful life to Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Grover, Cookie Monster, Bert, Animal, Yoda, and a host of others. But it's no secret that Frank doesn't work for the Muppets anymore, nor does he seem to want to. In a recent red carpet interview, Frank was asked about his opinion on The Muppets, the new movie. Here, watch the video:

So there you go, Frank Oz's thoughts on The Muppets. I'm just glad he's glad other people enjoyed it. At least now we know he wants them to keep going! (He just doesn't want them to be so darn cute.) (Says the man who directed the film that introduced the Muppet Babies.) A Montreal Tourism company has posted a wonderful video recapping the show that the Muppets performed at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival a week ago. It features tons of great video footage of the show, plus some great stand up comedy from the comedians who participated in the show along with our furry friends. Enjoy!








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

More Muppets Just For Laughs Pictures/Video Surface!

A few days ago, we posted some awesome, hi-resolution pictures of the Muppet performance at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal this past Thursday. Well, today we have even more pictures of the show that give us some insight to what actually went on. Taken by a friend of the blog who wishes to remain anonymous, the pictures were taken from high in the balcony, but give a great scope of the show. Check out all of the incredible Muppeteers working their butts off for this! Amazing!

Also, after the pictures, we've discovered two videos from the show, including the finale performance of "Rainbow Connection" featuring tons of Muppets! The second video was posted by a Canadian fan who got to go backstage after the show and wisely took a video camera. Make sure you stay through the video until the end to see Walter being hilarious!

Our friends at ToughPigs.com have also posted an all-encompassing, handy recap article of the show. It should tell you all you need to know about what went on when Kermit and company took Canada!

We've also been told that the entire show was filmed professionally (thank goodness), but will likely only air in Canada. We haven't heard when or if there's a chance it will be shown outside Canada, but if you have a Canadian friend with TV recording ability, now would probably be a good time to get in touch with them for a copy of this (and then get in touch with me to get me a copy). Anyway... enjoy the pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

The Muppets Rock Montreal

Thursday night in Montreal, Canada, the Muppets performed their own gala as part of the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival. No one represents comedy better than the Muppets, so this was a hugely exciting event. Check out The Montreal Gazette's audience review of the show to find out how awesome it was. One of our Muppeteer friends was so excited about how great the show went, that he emailed us to tell us a little bit about it, saying, "We performed two shows last night at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal. We all had an AMAZING time as the Muppets performed an uber-rare live Muppet Show style show in front of 3,000 screaming fans--with the Muppeteers often in full-view of the audience. The performance will eventually air on TV (only in Canada? I don't  know...) Of course, on TV all you'll see is the Muppets and not us. However, we got a group curtain call as ourselves (with puppets on our hands) to a stellar standing ovation. The Canadian crew and writers could not have been nicer or more professional."

With the help of Muppet Wiki and The Montreal Gazette we've gathered a collection of photos from the evening. They all make the show seem absolutely incredible. Beauregard? Scooter? Walter? Muppet Labs? Floyd? Fozzie stand up? Incredible! Plus, check out the Muppeteer curtain call, the first picture below. Congratulations to everyone involved on what sounded like two absolutely incredible shows! 

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