Posts made in September, 2015
The Muppets 1.02: “Hostile Makeover”
Romance for Piggy and Groban.
The Muppets‘ second outing, “Hostile Makeover,” is possibly even funnier than its first, and that’s saying something, as I found the premiere one of the most laugh-out-loud, jam-packed-with-hilarity Muppet productions in years, with more great jokes per minute than some entire post-Jim projects. Co-creators Bill Prady and Bob Kushell, along with their team, really understand writing economy, taking full advantage of every single millisecond of screentime they have so that even though, thanks to commercial break inflation, they have fewer minutes per episode than The Muppet Show had, they manage to make the Muppet world and stories they conjure up feel every bit as fleshed-out and lived-in as the classic from which this show sprung. This episode has two subplots going besides its main story–none of which feels like it gets short shrift–and still has time to weave in
Read MoreMore Sam and Friends
And now we continue our journey through Jim Henson’s first Muppet show, Sam and Friends, with the remaining episodes I was able to gain access to.
“C’est Si Bon”
“C’est Si Bon”
Another lip-synced song sketch, this time with a lead singer–a crazy-haired Muppet dubbed Moldy Hay–singing a French call-and-response song, with him taking the main parts,
Read MoreSam and Friends
Jim and Jane and Sam and Friends
For those of you who might not have heard of Sam and Friends, Jim Henson’s very first Muppet TV show, I gave a bit of background for it the other day on my post on Jim’s early years, but, to recap, it was an enormously popular local Maryland show that originally ran daily on weeknights for 5 minutes between the 11 PM evening news and The Tonight Show.
The length of the show, as well as the time slot, changed over the course of its 6 years but it remains fascinating today not only because the relatively few remaining fragments of footage we have allow us a glimpse at the early years of the Muppets as well as their evolution, but also because, as old and crackly as that footage may
Read MoreCat and Mouse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTjsl_qnIsQ
Some time around 1960, shortly after marrying Jane, Jim Henson got a Bolex 16 mm movie camera, which had a side release button and allowed him to immerse himself in artistic pursuits other than puppetry, including the short animated film above, which he referred to as an “animated painting”.
Read MoreWilkins and Wontkins Ads
Wilkins and Wontkins
In 1957, as I explained yesterday, Jim and his partner, Jane, were approached by the Wilkins Coffee Co., a local brand in Maryland, to produce humorous commercials for them, and Jim responded with a series of ads that is pretty jaw-dropping even today. For the ads, Jim created two new Muppets: the skinny, tall, cheerful Wilkins, and the squat, short, perpetually unpleasant Wontkins, the basic gist being that Wilkins loves Wilkins coffee–he WILL drink it!–and Wontkins doesn’t–he WON’T drink it–but Wilkins won’t let that slide and so instead inflicts numerous, increasingly imaginative tortures on Wontkins for daring to refuse a cup of the precious caffeinated liquid gold.
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