Category: Muppets
‘Thriller’ to be preserved in US film registry
WASHINGTON ñ Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video, with that unforgettable graveyard dance, will rest among the nation’s treasures in the world’s largest archive of film, TV and sound recordings.
The 1983 music video directed by John Landis, though still the subject of lawsuits over profits, was one of 25 films to be inducted Wednesday for preservation in the 2009 National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
It’s the first music video named to the registry. It had been considered in past years, but following Jackson’s death, the time was right, said Steve Leggett, coordinator of the National Film Preservation Board.
“Because of the way the recording industry is evolving and changing, we thought it would be good to go back to the development of an earlier seismic shift, which was the development of the music video,” he said.
Joining the King of Pop in the 2009 class will be the Muppets from 1979’s “The Muppet Movie” ó the first time on the big screen for Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy ó and the 1957 sci-fi classic “The Incredible Shrinking Man,” among other titles.
The library works with film archives and movie studios to ensure original copies are kept safe. It also acquires a copy for preservation in its own vaults among millions of other recordings at the Packard Campus of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in the hills near Culpeper, Va.
“By preserving the nation’s films, we safeguard a significant element of our cultural patrimony and history,” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington.
Congress established the registry in 1989, which now totals 525 films. They are selected not as the “best” American films but instead for their enduring importance to U.S. culture.
The library selects films that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant after reviewing hundreds of titles nominated by the public and consulting with the National Film Preservation Board.
In “The Muppet Movie,” Kermit leads his fellow TV characters on a road trip to Hollywood where they meet Steve Martin, Mel Brooks and other actors with the magic of creators Jim Henson and Frank Oz.
Other notable titles include “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968), directed by Sergio Leone, representing the “spaghetti western” genre that helped propel such rising stars as Clint Eastwood. The list also includes Bette Davis’ Oscar-winning performance in “Jezebel” from 1938.
The oldest film inducted was “Little Nemo” from 1911, a mix of live action and animation adapted from Winsor McCay’s comic strip “Little Nemo in Slumberland.” The film, highly advanced for its time, influenced future animators, including Walt Disney.
Regardless of ongoing legal disputes over rights to Jackson’s “Thriller,” the library holds a copy submitted in 1984 for copyright purposes and will seek to acquire another for preservation.
I will always love them!!
Muppets take the web: ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ viral video leads online push
NEW YORK – Much like the Muppets took Manhattan, they have taken the web.
Since debuting last week, the Muppet parody of the classic music video of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” has been viewed more than 8.6 million times on YouTube. It’s an exceptional hit for the first video posted on a new YouTube channel by the Muppets Studio, the Walt Disney Company subsidiary formed in 2004 after the Jim Henson Company sold the franchise.
A Twitter feed has also been launched. (It’s mostly promotional; Kermit isn’t blogging.) And a Facebook page has been started.
Muppets Studio general manager Lylle Breier said the online push for the Muppets was designed to help reboot the franchise and quickly get new content to fans.
“When the Muppets came into real popularity was the ’70s. What was popular in the ’70s? Variety shows – that’s what ‘The Muppet Show’ was,” said Breier. “What’s the Web? It’s a giant variety show. That’s why the Muppets fit so perfectly. Parody has always been at the heart of what the Muppets do.”
Breier said the Muppets singing “Bohemian Rhapsody” had long been an idea on the back burner, but the project only recently came together.
In it, just about every famous Muppet character makes a cameo: Gonzo and his chickens appear in silhouette; Ralph plays piano; Beaker supplies his normal “meep-meep-meep-meep”; Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem rock out.
Animal bangs on the drums and gets to channel Freddie Mercury, singing “Mama!” He repeats it instead of singing the full, child-unfriendly line “Mama just killed a man/ Put a gun against his head/ Pulled my trigger/ Now he’s dead.”
It’s not the Muppets first foray into online video. Several videos were released last year, most notably including Beaker singing “Ode to Joy.” More than seven million have since watched Beaker’s rendition.
Breier says more web videos are on the way. A version of “Carol of the Bells” will be released for Christmas, and a handful of other videos will follow in 2010.
The purpose of the sudden Muppet expansion is partly promotional. The Muppets have also recently made appearances on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” and at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Last year’s holiday special, “A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa” has recently been released on DVD and will air again Friday on NBC.
What is more important, a new, much-anticipated theatrical film is in the works. Jason Segel (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall”) and his writing partner Nicholas Stoller have been writing a new Muppets film expected to return the franchise to its more acclaimed past.
“It’s all part of a plan for new creative content with online, television, a new theatrical movie,” said Breier. “We’re bringing the Muppets back.”
‘Sesame Street’ is 40 but young at heart
Ah, Sesame Street. Big Bird. Bert and Ernie. Grover. The Cookie Monster. The good old days.
The street is still hot. It celebrates its 40th year in 2009 with its largest audience: 8 million viewers on 350 stations in 120 countries.
Not wanting to be left out of the fun, hundreds of celebrities have visited TV’s most famous boulevard over the years. Sarah Jessica Parker appeared to discuss the art of sighing, first lady Laura Bush stopped by to read, and Robin Williams waxed eloquent on the wonders of feet.
Now a book, the first out of the gate to mark the anniversary, is arriving in stores. Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street (Viking, 384 pp, $27.95) is by Michael Davis, a former columnist for TV Guide who spent many happy hours wandering Sesame Street with his children.
“It touched me in a very profound way,” Davis says.
Davis spent five years reporting and writing the story of the longest-running children’s show in TV history, which was the brainchild of Jim Henson, the late Muppets creator, and entrepreneur Joan Ganz Cooney. Davis refers to the show as “a confluence of genius” and dubs Henson “wondrously human.”
Sesame Street began on Nov. 10, 1969, as an educational children’s show and evolved into a sophisticated program that combined education and entertainment.
Carol-Lynn Parente, Sesame Street’s executive producer, has been with the show 20 years and sees the magic firsthand.
“There are times that some of what makes this work is mysterious even to us,” Parente says. “But the essence of what has made us as successful as we’ve been is our ability to evolve. The life of a preschooler today is much different than it was in 1969.”
Davis believes the show will go on forever. “They still approach each season as an experiment. As long as they do that, they will grow and change as children grow and change and the culture grows and changes.”
Some 40th-anniversary highlights scheduled in 2009:
ï A panel discussion Jan. 30 featuring the show’s contributors at William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J.
ï Another book, Sesame Street: A Celebration of Forty Years of Life on the Street, by Louise Gikow (Black Dog & Leventhal, fall).
ï A Sesame Street: 40th Anniversary two-disc DVD (November release).
I wanna Go!!!
Muppets return home to DC in Smithsonian exhibit
WASHINGTON – Bert and Ernie are paying a special visit to the city that helped give birth to the “Sesame Street” gang.
But don’t expect to see the popular puppets strolling around Washington. Their fame and age (they’re sensitive to light) make too much exposure a security risk. Instead, they will be making their home, at least temporarily, in the underground International Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution as part of the exhibit “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World.”
Visitors to the show, which opens Saturday and continues through Oct. 5, will find the Muppets under special lighting, behind glass and closely guarded.
“We consider every single thing in here to be precious,” said project director Deborah Macanic. Technically speaking, they’re all antiques.
It’s a homecoming for Muppets such as Kermit, the piano-playing dog Rowlf and others that first achieved stardom on Washington-area television shows and commercials ó long before the success of “The Muppet Show” and “Sesame Street.” Muppets creator Jim Henson grew up in nearby Hyattsville, Md., and attended the University of Maryland, where his creative approach began to take shape.
“We’re showing how he went from drawing to a cartoon to a puppet to a moving image,” Macanic said, explaining the exhibit’s themes of visual thinking, storytelling and character development.
Through more than 100 original drawings, cartoons and story boards and about 14 famous Muppets, the exhibit traces Henson’s career as a puppeteer and filmmaker until his death in 1990.
Henson got his television start in 1954, creating a TV show, “Sam and Friends,” for Washington’s NBC station while still in college. Kermit the Frog’s character began developing from this show and later became a superstar.
The exhibit features one of the earliest sketches of Kermit, and a 1970s version of the puppet sits front and center to greet visitors near the entrance of the International Gallery, which is part of the Smithsonian’s Ripley Center.
Kermit was originally conceived as a more abstract reptile character with less defined features. The original puppet was made in 1955 from an old turquoise coat with eyes made from a pingpong ball. Kermit continued to evolve from there to a frog in the 1960s.
“Then Kermit just kind of took over and became the news (reporter) guy with the hat and the trench coat and all that he was by the time he got to Sesame Street,” Macanic said.
The skinny, green frog became the most enduring Muppet character, in part because Jim Henson considered Kermit to be his alter-ego.
Henson’s personality shines through other characters as well, such as the furry, hippie Mahna Mahna who sings scat to a jazz song with two backup singers called the Snowths. The skit debuted in 1969 on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” with Henson performing the gruff voice of Mahna Mahna.
A few days before the exhibit’s opening, the three singers emerged from a wooden storage crate ó all in need of a little primping. Josette Cole and Viki Possoff, Smithsonian exhibit registrars, carefully fluffed the pink Snowth puppets and twisted an arm to match a dance pose from a photograph.
“There’s a whole technique to it,” Cole said. “You use a dog brush, for one, and you don’t pull it through the hair because you’ll pull it off. You sort of have to pat it in place.”
Bert and Ernie were unpacked after the Snowths, apparently needing some extra rest after their last public appearance in June in Louisiana.
Museum workers are becoming experts in Muppet care as the exhibit makes a three-year tour. After the show in Washington, the Muppets will travel to Atlanta, Orlando, Fla., and five other cities through early 2011. The Smithsonian’s experts escort their Muppet treasures by tractor-trailer, tending to them at each stop.
The exhibit anchors a Muppet-themed summer of events at the Smithsonian and elsewhere in the Washington area. Through much of July and August, the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Md., will host the film series “Muppets, Music and Magic: Jim Henson’s Legacy” as a tribute to Henson’s work. There will also be programs on puppetry and free Podcast tours.
The only thing missing from the Muppet festival may be the elegant Miss Piggy, who aggressively flirted with Kermit. Miss Piggy will show up in film only, but her puppet isn’t available. Apparently, the materials used to create Miss Piggy weren’t as sturdy for travel as Kermit’s, said Karen Falk, an archivist with The Jim Henson Co. who curated the exhibit.
“As you might expect,” said Falk, “she’s more sensitive.”
I love that bird!!
He’s Big Bird: Caroll Spinney loves every feather
NEW YORK – On the street, Caroll Spinney is a 74-year-old of modest proportions. On the job, transformed into Big Bird, he stands 8 feet 2 inches tall and is 6 years old.
Being Big Bird is sweaty, physical work. But Spinney, who has worked on Sesame Street for nearly four decades playing both Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, has no wish to be anywhere else.
“I can’t imagine willingly walking away from Big Bird and Oscar,” he said.
Spinney’s workday transformation begins with a pair of orange furry jeans encircled in hot pink ridges. Next, manhole-size pink webbed feet made of foam ó built around a pair of Hush Puppies loafers. Between takes, he protects them from his kindergarten co-stars with custom-made purple slippers.
The crew straps a television monitor to his chest. Wearing drugstore reading glasses, Spinney will watch the monitor while inside the top half of the costume to see how Big Bird appears on camera. Otherwise, he’s blind inside the bird.
To play the role, “you have to not be claustrophobic,” he said. “You have to be willing to walk, not seeing anything in front of you.”
Spinney tops off his ensemble with the familiar 25-pound top half of Big Bird, a combination of costume and puppet. He works Big Bird’s mouth with his hand and the eyes with a coat hanger attached to his pinky finger.
The set is kept so cold for his scenes that the crew sometimes wears hats and jackets. For Spinney, who called out from his perch on the stoop of 123 Sesame Place that he could no longer feel his hands, the relationship between man and bird is worth it.
He remembers a visit to Georgia Tech in 1972, when the costume was “ravaged” by ROTC students. When he found Big Bird, one of the eyes was hanging off, its mechanism ruined.
“When I saw him lying in the dirt, it was like seeing your child dead on the floor,” Spinney said. “I went into shock.”
Spinney got his start on Sesame Street during its first season in 1969, after Muppets founder Jim Henson saw him perform at a puppeteer’s convention.
Henson chose him as Big Bird after Frank Oz, who helped develop Bert, Grover and Cookie Monster, swore off costume puppets following a stint in commercials as the La Choy Dragon, which was equipped with an in-costume flame-thrower.
Spinney met his wife, Debra, at Sesame Workshop, and has three grown children and four grandchildren. He’s one of a handful of original cast members still on the show; the only other original puppeteer still working full time is Jerry Nelson, who plays The Count.
“One of the things I really enjoy about Sesame Street is that years go by and I’m still the same age,” Spinney said. “I’d love to be 70 again, 60 and 50 and 40.”
After all these years, Sesame Street remains seasonless. There are crunchy autumn leaves at the foot of the stoop of 123 Sesame Place, because the set looks flat without them, but the garden around the corner is in full summer bloom. Since no brands are allowed on the show, the shelves of Hooper’s Store are stocked with Sesame-ized magazines, like “City Monsters: Puffy Furry Fun for All Ages!” and “Stacking Stones.”
“We deal with a lot of life’s realities on Sesame Street, but not everything,” Spinney said. “No one worries about him (Big Bird) sleeping all alone on the street.”
While the show takes place in a magical mirror New York, the set is at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, where decidedly grittier fare such as “Fort Apache-The Bronx” was also filmed.
On the last day of filming this spring, the Big Bird head was wheeled upright on a dolly as Spinney sat on the stoop. “Bird on the move!” shouted senior muppet wrangler Michelle Hickey as she pushed it up a ramp.
She pulled the bird off the dolly and put a hand in Big Bird’s slack mouth as Spinney, sitting on the stoop, held up his right arm to put it on. As Big Bird’s face came to life, another puppeteer, hiding behind a pile of books, acted as Spinney’s right-hand man, working Big Bird’s right arm as well as a monofilament controlling the left arm.
A question came from the crew: “How’s the kid placement?” It was fine.
“And the count is to Big Bird,” the floor manager said. The scene began with Big Bird asking two children whether they’d like to hear a story.
When Big Bird and Oscar appear in the same scene, Spinney pre-records Oscar’s voice, then act the scene as Big Bird while someone else puppeteers Oscar.
Spinney says he modeled Oscar on the Bronx taxi driver who drove him to the old Muppet Mansion the first day he played the character, greeting him with a gruff, “Where to, Mac?” In Spinney’s mind, Oscar is 43.
When the Big Bird costume is not in use, it’s stored in a crate about 10 feet high. A muppet wrangler smooths Big Bird’s feathers when they get ruffled and hand-glues replacements if they get crunched.
The feathers arrive from supplier American Plume & Fancy Feather Co. in New York’s garment district on boas, dyed two colors of yellow. The muppet wranglers grade them, A through D. Only A and B-plus feathers are applied to Big Bird’s head and neck.
“I’m still using the head we started with,” Spinney said. “He’s had face lifts.” He estimates Big Bird has been through four bodies. Oscar still has his original eyebrows.
A muppet wrangler also travels with Big Bird when he’s on the road. The body of the costume is shipped in two crates; the head travels in a separate box.
“My worst fear is that we take off and I would see the boxes lying on the tarmac,” Hickey said.
After seven years of working with Spinney, Hickey described him as having “the heart of Big Bird and a teeny bit of Oscar.”
Elizabeth Fernandez, 20, started working at Sesame Street as an intern in the research department and is now an assistant talent coordinator, working with the children who appear on the show, while she finishes college at night.
“People here are so encouraging about going to school, getting your master’s degree,” she said. “There’s room to move up; a lot of people started as interns.”
“It really is Sesame Street.”
Weinsteins roll with ‘Fraggle Rock’
The Weinstein Co. is reviving Jim Henson series ‘Fraggle Rock’ as a live-action musical pic.
The Weinstein Co. will turn the Jim Henson series “Fraggle Rock” into a live-action musical feature.
Cory Edwards, who directed the animated “Hoodwinked!” for TWC, will helm the picture and write the screenplay. The Jim Henson Co. will produce and TWC will distribute.
Just like the series, the film will be populated by a mix of human characters and Fraggle Rock puppets. TWC co-chair Harvey Weinstein, who has been steering his company more aggressively into the family film arena, made the marriage with Lisa Henson, who runs JHC with her co-CEO brother, Brian Henson.
Ahmet Zappa will be exec producer with Brian Inerfeld.
Pic will take the core characters Gobo, Wembley, Mokey, Boober and Red outside of their home in Fraggle Rock, where they interact with humans, which they think are aliens. The show premiered on HBO in 1983, ran five seasons and was broadcast in more than 80 countries. It posted strong sales recently when the first three seasons were released on DVD.
The deal furthers the relationship between TWC and the “Hoodwinked!” creative team. Edwards is reteaming with “Hoodwinked!” co-writer Tony Leech on the animated alien adventure “Escape From Planet Earth,” on which Leech is making his directing debut.
Edwards is separately developing a live-action feature adaptation of Cedar Fair’s Halloween Haunt franchise, designed to be shot in 3-D by Kerner Optical and produced by Davis Entertainment, Dave Phillips and Tracey Edmonds. That pic is looking for a backer.
“One of our main priorities when we first launched the Weinstein Company was to feature a broad range of family-friendly franchises like ‘Fraggle Rock,’ ” Weinstein said.
A Jim Henson Biopic Planned
Empire Film Group, Inc. has acquired the motion picture production and distribution rights to “Henson”, an original screenplay by Robert D. Slane that chronicles the life and achievements of Muppets creator, Jim Henson.
According to Marketwire, “Henson” covers the life of puppeteer, filmmaker and entertainment mogul Jim Henson, from his early fascination with television as a teenager, through his spectacular career and life achievements.
Empire anticipates hiring a major director, such as Penny Marshall, and hopes to attract notable star cast in key roles. Shooting is slated to begin late this Summer with a $30 million budget.
May 20th…sweet!!
The Muppet Show Season 3 arrives May 20
It’s time to play the music. It’s time to light the lights. It’s time to mark your calendars!
Buena Vista Home Entertainment has just announced the release of the highly anticipated “The Muppet Show: Season Three” DVD box set. The four-disc “special edition” set will include all 24 episodes from the third season of “The Muppet Show” along with an impressive collection of bonus features. The fully-loaded DVD box set of the complete third season is planned to hit store shelves on May 20, 2008. That’s less than 117 days away.
Below is a full list of the DVD features which include the classic 1968 documentary “The Muppets on Puppets” (hosted by Jim Henson and Rowlf the Dog), plus a new documentary entitled “The Making of The Muppets”. Disney has also released an early glimpse at the cover art for the set, featuring the face of Fozzie Bear. Like the first two seasons, the set will feature collectible fuzzy packaging.
Episode Listing:
ï Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge
ï Leo Sayer
ï Roy Clark
ï Gilda Radner
ï Pearl Bailey
ï Jean Stapleton
ï Alice Cooper
ï Loretta Lynn
ï Liberace
ï Marisa Berenson
ï Raquel Welch
ï James Coco
ï Helen Reddy
ï Harry Belafonte
ï Lesley Ann Warren
ï Danny Kaye
ï Spike Milligan
ï Leslie Uggams
ï Elke Sommer
ï Sylvester Stallone
ï Roger Miller
ï Roy Rogers & Dale Evans
ï Lynn Redgrave
ï Cheryl Ladd
Bonus Features:
ï “The Making of The Muppets” documentary
ï “The Muppets on Puppets” vintage documentary
ï …and much more!
Retail Specifications:
ï 4-disc DVD collection
ï $39.99 suggested retail price, pre-order here for $27.99
ï Release date: May 20, 2008