History of the muppets, March 17, talk by Jane Henson
Philip Jeremy Moyer
Hello, Everebody!
I just realized that not many people got to see the talk that Jane Henson
gave last week at the University of Maryland- College Park. Well, for
those of who wern't able to attend, here's what I remember about it.
The presentation was a combination of slide show and film clips. It traced
the history of the muppets, all the way from the beginning at UM to a few
years before today.
To whoever's doing the FAQ and Muppography out there, feel free to use
this info!
It began with a few slides of Sam and Friends, and then we saw two clips:
One was of Kermit singing "i'm accustomed to your face" while yorick is
sitting next to him, who then proceeds to nibble on kermit as the song
ends.
The other clip was of the "visual thinking" clip, where kermit is having
images appear above him as he speaks. Harry comes along, and shows that
he's much better at this stuff, and proceeds to demonstrate this. However,
he still has a problem doing jazzy scat music, since to erase it, he has
to repeat it backwards, and by the time he finishes a part, he's forgotten
how it goes! Eventually, the screen is filled with messy stuff, with
kermit yelling, "Help!"
Then we saw two commercials that Jim had did:
One was a La Choy chow mein commercial, with jim inside a giant dragon
muppet, much in the style of big bird. He encounters a mother and child,
who are trying to decide what to have for dinner. The "la Choy dragon"
extolls the virtues of bying his chow main, while accidentially knocking
over cans and boxes with his long tail and his hands. One of the virtues
he is extolling is "It's freshly cooked in dragon fire!", upon which he
readily demonstrates on some chow mein nearby, while also igniting a
nearby sign. A cashier comes with a fire extinguisher to put it out. As
the dragon leaves, he says, "And remember, you heard it from the La Choy
Dragon!" And as he turns the aisle, his long tail knocks over a tall
pyramid of cans.
The other commercial was an Eskay "hot spots" ad (for little hot dogs).
While the announcer is talking about the hot dogs, kermit and harry are
next to her, dancing in time to some music. At the appropriate times,
kermit and harry sing "es-kay!", "hot-spots!", and "yum-yum!" in time with
the music. This proceeds for some time, until the announcer says "eskay"
instaid of kermit and harry. The two stop the music, and explain to the
announcer that _they_ are the ones who say "eskay!", etc. The music starts
up again and they proceed. However, by the end of the commercial, they
become so wrapped up in their singing that they just continue on and on
and on...
After this, we learned at about this time, Frank Oz and Jerry Jhul had
joined the company, and that soon after, Jerry stopped performing and
started to do the writing for their sketches.
We learned that the first appearance of Cookie Monster was in an IBM
commercial about productivity, where he ate a computer. He had teeth then,
but when Sesame started, his teeth was removed and his fur was dyed blue,
and he has pretty much stayed the same since (although I haven't seen him
snacking on any PC's or Mac's lately).
After the commercial bits, we also learned that the Hensons and company
moved to Hollywood, and there they had various appearences on variety
shows (Jimmy Dean, Ed Sullivan, among others) We got to see some of the
clips from those too.
Jimmy Dean Clip:
Rowlf is the resident comedian on Jimmy Dean, and opens with a quick dance
act. He then talks and jokes with Dean for a while, and then He and Dean
do an "old Song and Dance" song. (This entire clip was about 5 minutes
long, so I don't remember it all)
Ed Sullivan Clips:
Clip one: This had a rubber hose guy dancing to some music. As he dances,
a little version of him comes along and tries to dance with him, but fails
to get in step. The big guy stomps on him twice, and zings him off the
stage, typewriter style. This happens several times, until the little guy
comes back and finally gets in step. The two dance together until the end,
where the little guy raises one foot, and blows the other guy away.
Clip two: This one had lots of blue guys with green pom-pom feet and
orange horn noses dancing in time to music. It's sorta hard to describe.
(note: both the above clips can be found in the "Muppet Memories" video,
in a slightly more polished form)
Clip three: This one had a little pre-prairie dawn-type character, who is
going on and on about how beautiful everything is today. A big monster
comes along, and to make her unhappy, causes it to start raining. The
little girl is unfazed, and says the rain is beautiful because it makes
the plants grow, etc, etc. The monster stops the rain, since it has no
effect on her demeanor, and follows her as she walks to a flower in a pot,
which is also "beautiful". The monster eats the flower. The girl reacts to
this, saying that this was a mean thing to do. She says that the monster
is very mean, and he's probably the meanest thing of all. The monster is
proud of this, but then the girl says "In fact, you're so mean that you're
beautiful!" The monster was not expecing this! As the girl goes on on how
"beautifully nasty" the monster is, the monster shrinks, until he's
smaller than the girl. The girl takes out a flyswatter, swats him into
oblivion, and says "Of course, you can always talk a problem down to your
size!" and leaves.
Clip four: This one starred Kermit the Frog in a tux about to play a
piano. He reads on the music stand "Music hath charms to soothe the savage
beast." Kermit begins to play the piano, and as he does so, a spider type
creature hops onto the piano. Kermit panics, and starts playing madly. He
notices that the creature reacts to the music, and soon is playing a tap
routine, with the creature dancing along. The creature jumps off at the
end of the song. Kermit relaxes. But then another creature, similar to the
first but larger, jumps onto the piano. Kermit starts playing again,
faster this time, and the monster soon leaves. Kermit relaxes again, and
this time a _really large_ moster, like the other two, jumps onto the
piano. Kermit plays the music almost at triple time, and the monster soon
dances and jumps off. Kermit stops playing, bows to the audience, and as
he does so, the piano sprouts eyes and teeth, and eats kermit.
We also saw a clip from another show (I forgot the name), where a monster
(the monster clip three above, in drag) chased a proto-gonzo around the
studio.
We then entered the sesame street years, and we saw "Rubber Duckie"
(original) and "Do the Rubber Duck" (reggaie version with a lot of
dancing), as well as an _early_ Muppet NewsFlash.
The muppet newsflash involved a rescue of Rapunzel by the prince (who
bears a close resemblance to Guy Smiley). The prince yells and yells to
have her let down her hair, but she can't hear because the hair is
blocking her ears. Eventually, she does let down her hair, and it is long,
but it doen't seem to be attached, as the bald Rapunzel can attest. The
prince, not knowing what to do next, decides to leave, be he can't find
his horse. The bit ends with the prince calling for his horse, and Kermit
asking "are we still live?"
After that was the Muppet show years (I don't exactly remember the clips),
and then the movies, where we saw "Can You Picture That" from _The Muppet
Movie_, and "Rat Scat" and "Together Again" from _The Muppets Take
Manhattan_. All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening!
Later on, I might have a report of some stuff from some of the things that
happened inside the puppet workshop, and what happened at the final
presentation on saturday, but that's only if I don't have other things to
do.
Peace!
--
---------------------------Qapla'------------------------------
Philip Moyer pmo...@wam.umd.edu
"To boldly go where no one has gone before!"-Capt. J. L. Picard
"Roads? Where we're going we don't NEED roads!"-Dr. E. L. Brown
"Someday we'll find it, the Rainbow Connection, The Lovers,
The Dreamers, and Me."-Kermit The Frog
---------"If it can be dreamed, It can be done."- ReRob--------
Paul Thrasher
: Distribution: world
:
: Hello, Everebody!
:
: I just realized that not many people got to see the talk that Jane Henson
: gave last week at the University of Maryland- College Park. Well, for
: those of who wern't able to attend, here's what I remember about it.
:
: Ed Sullivan Clips:
:
: Clip one: This had a rubber hose guy dancing to some music. As he dances,
"Java", Al Hirt
: a little version of him comes along and tries to dance with him, but fails
: stage, typewriter style. This happens several times, until the little guy
: comes back and finally gets in step. The two dance together until the end,
: where the little guy raises one foot, and blows the other guy away.
:
: comes along, and to make her unhappy, causes it to start raining. The
: little girl is unfazed, and says the rain is beautiful because it makes
: the plants grow, etc, etc. The monster stops the rain, since it has no
: effect on her demeanor, and follows her as she walks to a flower in a pot,
: which is also "beautiful". The monster eats the flower. The girl reacts to
: this, saying that this was a mean thing to do. She says that the monster
: is very mean, and he's probably the meanest thing of all. The monster is
: proud of this, but then the girl says "In fact, you're so mean that you're
: beautiful!" The monster was not expecing this! As the girl goes on on how
: "beautifully nasty" the monster is, the monster shrinks, until he's
: smaller than the girl. The girl takes out a flyswatter, swats him into
: oblivion, and says "Of course, you can always talk a problem down to your
: size!" and leaves.
Reprised on "The Muppet Show" with Madelyn Kahn (-5 spelling) and Sweetums, or
some such large monster. She golfed the miniature monster with her umbrella.
:
:
: --
: ---------------------------Qapla'------------------------------
: Philip Moyer pmo...@wam.umd.edu
: "To boldly go where no one has gone before!"-Capt. J. L. Picard
: "Roads? Where we're going we don't NEED roads!"-Dr. E. L. Brown
: "Someday we'll find it, the Rainbow Connection, The Lovers,
: The Dreamers, and Me."-Kermit The Frog
: ---------"If it can be dreamed, It can be done."- ReRob--------
Thanks for the report.
Paul Thrasher
pthr...@hpbs202.boi.hp.com
My ideas alone, HP bought the good ones.