News Update: March 8, 2013

NEWS UPDATE: March 8, 2013
Late Tuesday night news came out that Disney would be using its expert cross-promotional techniques on the Muppets once again. Access Hollywood reported that the Muppets will apepar on Disney Channel's hit show Good Luck Charlie on April 28th. According to the official synopsis for the episode, "The Duncan Family decides to build their dream house after the family home is devastated by termites. Everyone, with the exception of Charlie (played by Mia Talerico), is excited at the prospect of a new and larger home. However, Teddy (Bridgit Mendler) has a change of heart after a dream in which Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and Animal convince her that the old family home is really the house of her dreams." It sounds like it could be a fun appearance for Kermit and the gang.

While on the set of Good Luck Charlie, Access Hollywood talked to Miss Piggy about her appearance on the show and filming The Muppets... Again. The interview is fantastic and Eric Jacobson continues to be perfect as Piggy. My favorite part of the interview comes when Piggy refers to Ricky Gervais and Tina Fey as "background actors." Spectacular. Watch the video below!

Our good friends over at ToughPigs.com have all the news on the kids' portion of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Why do we care? Because Sesame Street is going to play a big part in the festival this year. Head over to ToughPigs for the entire Sesame-related schedule, which includes panels featuring Maria and Murray Monster and their friends/same people Sonia Manzano and Joey Mazzarino, which are sure to be exciting. So if you're headed to TIFF, be sure to check them out! If not, be sure to check out the great video with Murray and Maria below!

It's been awhile since Fraggle Rock saw a DVD release, but the fine folks over at TVShowsonDVD.com have some great news for those who missed out on the series on DVD the first time around. Series sets will be released on DVD periodically throughout the year (Season 1 on March 12; Season 2 on April 16; Season 3 on May 14; and Season 4--tentaively--on June 18). Perhaps most exciting is the 30th Anniversary Collection, also released on May 14th, which comes with all four seasons on DVD, a Red Fraggle plush keychain, the complete Animated Series, and a new Fraggle graphic novel. The cost is reasonable for two complete series, and the new box art is pretty great (see right). No word if new bonus features will be included... but the world can hope.

In other odd Fraggle news, the Jim Henson Company seems to be bringing their long in development children's TV series, Doozers, to television. An official video preview for the show was released on YouTube by our friends at Muppet Newsflash. I'm not sure how I feel about the video... it seems pretty confusing so far, but hopefully it will be much less confusing when it finally airs sometime in 2013. Enjoy the video below!



Finally, in hugely exciting and momentous (for many reasons) news: Sesame Street's YouTube Channel yesterday became the first ever non-profit organization to reach over 1 billion views! They promised to celebrate with a top-secret video, which they released yesterday. It stars Count von Count, performed for the first time since Jerry Nelson passed away. The Count is performed here by the amazing Matt Vogel, who does a nearly flawless job. The characterization, movement, and excitement is perfect. The voice is nearly uncanny. There are moments where Matt emulates Jerry's voice so perfectly, he could fool anyone. I am so thrilled and proud of Matt for this video and for taking over Count von Count. No one could do better. Watch the wonderful video below!









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

Great Muppet Couples: A Photo Essay

Happy February, Muppet fans! Today we welcome in the month of the year that we most associate with romance with pictures of some Great Muppet Couples, as well as some human couples from Muppet productions! Enjoy.

Count von Count and the Countess, Sesame Street

Bobo the Bear and Cindy Crawford, Muppets Tonight

Earl and Fran Sinclair, Dinosaurs

Gary and Mary, The Muppets

 Gordon and Susan (with son Miles), Sesame Street

Pa and Ma Gorg, Fraggle Rock

Maria and Luis, Sesame Street

 Oscar the Grouch and Grungetta, Sesame Street

Wayne and Wanda, The Muppet Show and The Muppets

 Floyd Pepper and Janice, The Muppet Show and the Muppet movies

Gonzo the Great and Camilla the Chicken, The Muppet Show and the Muppet movies

Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, The Muppet Show and the Muppet movies

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

Muppetology 101: Relationship Paradigms of the Muppet World

Ryan Dosier - It's that time again! Time for everyone's favorite class (which is unfortunately not worth any credit): Muppetology 101. Today we had planned to discuss Jerry Nelson's characters from The Muppet Show and their recasts, but then we realized that today is February 14th, Valentines Day. So, instead, we're taking a look at some of the greatest (and strangest) couples from the world of the Muppets. We're hitting everywhere from The Muppet Show to Sesame Street to Fraggle Rock... so try and keep up!

• Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy
• First appeared as a couple in The Muppet Show Season 1: Episode 101 (1976)
• The most famous and well known romantic couple in the world of the Muppets is, obviously, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. Many questions about the true definition and nature of their relationship linger due to various comments made by both parties. One thing is certain, Miss Piggy loves Kermit more than almost anything--and when she loves, she goes whole hog. In her first appearance on The Muppet Show, singing in the Muppet Glee Club, Piggy's love for Kermit shown through as she broke from the group to practically pummel him with adoration. From then on Kermit and Piggy were something more than co-workers. They transcended the "will they/won't they" dynamic by having a "will he/have they" effect instead due to Kermit's reluctance to accept her advances. These advances and confusions continued for almost a decade through two feature films, finally climaxing in the biggest confusing moment of all in The Muppets Take Manhattan when the film ended with a wedding between Kermit and Piggy. Whether this was a wedding between the characters playing off-canon in the movie or Kermit and Miss Piggy's actual personas is still a major debate and dividing point among Muppet fans. Are they married? Are they in a committed relationship? Is it just professional (as Kermit says, "I'm a professional and she thinks we're in a relationship.")? Will we ever really know? Nope. Probably not. But for over 35 years this relationship has been a driving and defining point for the Muppets--one that is not likely to go away anytime soon.

• Gonzo and Camilla
• First appeared as a couple in The Muppet Show Season 3: Episode 318 (1978)
• The weirdest of relationships features the weirdest of Muppets. Gonzo the Great and Camilla the Chicken are two star-crossed lovers, somehow bonded by... who knows what. First seen together in Season 3 of The Muppet Show, Gonzo's fetish for fowl first developed as a throw away joke in Season 2, in which he mentioned that a chicken had nice legs. This spiraled into the development of Camilla, a semi-steady chicken girlfriend for the weirdo. Camilla and Gonzo were seen together romantically in The Muppet Movie and The Muppets Take Manhattan and throughout The Muppet Show. Like any relationship, however, theirs is not without confusion. Dave Goelz used to say that Gonzo couldn't tell the chickens he was with apart, so he assumed they were all Camilla (a joke played out in The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years). But more romantic fans like to think that Gonzo is faithful to Camilla and she is the same chicken (most) every time--including her role in The Muppets in 2011 as Gonzo's faithful secretary. Gonzo and Camilla have been romantically entangled for over 30 years.

• Floyd Pepper and Janice
• First appeared as a couple in The Muppet Show Season 2 (1977)
• Floyd and Janice and probably the hippest couple featured here. Janice has been implied as Floyd's main squeeze since roughly Season 2 of The Muppet Show (not-so-coincidentally when Richard Hunt took over Janice). They were first romantic in The Muppet Movie when Floyd calls Janice "momma" and "my woman;" he rushed to her defense and told the others not to yell at her in The Muppets Take Manhattan, and the two of them presented Muppet Music together in The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years. After Richard Hunt's death, Janice was barely seen so opportunities for Floyd and Janice to be seen together were slim. Now that she has been recast to David Rudman, perhaps we'll see more interaction between the two.

• Gordon and Susan
• First appeared as a couple in Sesame Street Season 1: Episode 0001 (1969)
• The first couple to be seen together in the Muppet universe was the wonderful pairing of Gordon (Matt Robinson, Hal Miller, currently Roscoe Orman) and Susan (Dr. Loretta Long) on Sesame Street. From the very first test pilots for the show, Gordon and Susan were shown as a married and loving couple. Gordon is a science teacher and Susan is a nurse, proving that a couple doesn't have to be a working husband and a stay-at-home wife. In Season 17, the two made Sesame Street and television history by adopting a child, Miles, who would continue to grow up as a character on the show. Susan and Gordon are still married and together on Sesame Street, even though Susan doesn't appear nearly as much as she used to. But one thing is certain, after 43 years of marriage onscreen, it's impossible and unthinkable for this duo to part ways any time soon.

• Luis and Maria
• First appeared as a couple in Sesame Street Season 19: Episode 2404 (1988)
• Perhaps the most important and revolutionary coupling of all is Luis (Emilio Delgado) and Maria (Sonia Manzanno) on Sesame Street. For many seasons in the early years of Sesame Street, Maria was in an implied relationship with David (Northern Calloway). However, in the show's 19th season, it was decided that Maria and Luis would become a pair. The first fell in love in Episode 2404, even kissing each other in the Fix-It Shop at the end of the episode. In Episode 2455 that same season Maria and Luis get engaged (after prodding from Big Bird, Oscar, Elmo, and Telly). Finally, in Episode 2485, history was made as a preschool television show showed two people getting married. It was a truly major event in both the life of Sesame Street and children's television as a whole. It didn't talk down to children... it was real with them. Maria and Luis love each other, they share everything, they always want to be together, so Maria and Luis got married. They remain together as a couple, with a daughter, Gabriella (whose birth on the show provided another revolutionary episode in Season 20), and have for over 20 years.

• Pa and Ma Gorg
• First appeared as a couple in Fraggle Rock Season 1: Episode 102 (1984) 
• Dysfunctional? Perhaps. Slightly crazy? Yeah, that's true. But in love? You'd better believe it. Pa and Ma Gorg, the King and Queen of the Universe, respectively,are able to survive almost anything in their relationship--especially the antics of their bumbling son Junior. The first time they appeared in an episode of Fraggle Rock was the second episode of the show, "Wembley and the Gorgs," in which Ma captures Wembley and Pa treats him as an adoring subject. Since then they have been loving, arguing, and singing together. They've also been canoodling by Kissing Rock and a certain pond... but we shouldn't talk about that. They celebrated their 513th wedding anniversary in Season 4 (1987) by singing the ballad "I Give to Thee." By that logic, Ma and Pa Gorg have currently been together for 538 wonderful years. I wonder what sort of theme that anniversary has.

So there you have it, students! The most popular and loving relationships in the Muppet world. Hey, if you can find a pig or a frog or a chicken or a whatever or a Gorg that loves you for who you are... I say go for it. Happy Valentines Day, all! See you next week!

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com