News Update: March 11, 2011

NEWS UPDATE: March 10, 2011

Parks and Recreation's Rashida Jones, one of the human leads of the upcoming The Muppets movie, talked to MTV's Movies Blog about the picture and her involvement. She called the experience "...surreal and awesome and really fun." (Duh.) Jones also mentioned her special involvement with Kermit in the movie, saying that she even requested for him to be off-camera with her, treating him like a real person on and off camera. (You mean he's not a real person?) But what really excites this Muppet fan is this paragraph: "They have successfully addressed the fact that [the Muppets have] kind of been gone a while and the fact that this generation doesn't really know who they are...I think they did a great job of balancing what was and what should and will be." If that isn't a fantastic endorsement for the movie, I don't know what is!

Roger Langridge's final arc of The Muppet Show Comic Book, "Four Seasons," has been tossed around with release dates since Christmas time with very little in the way of actual updates on the likelihood of seeing the arc released. Well, unfortunately, our good friends over at ToughPigs have a reluctant and disappointing answer. It's all very complicated and annoying, but the main point is that at this time there are no plans to release the arc. The best way to possibly see this arc released is to send a bunch of tweets to Disney Comics on Twitter (@DisneyComics), telling them how much we'd love to see this final arc of this fantastic book released.

Remember a few weeks ago when Neil Patrick Harris interviewed Brian Henson at the San Francisco SketchFest? Well, photos of said event have finally surfaced over on the Henson Alternative Wiki. There are some incredible pictures of both Brian and NPH fooling around with some Henson puppets and they both appear to be having a fantastic time. (Once again, duh.) This once again makes me wish I could have been there for this awesome event!

Friend of the blog and fun guy Cory Edwards has an incredible charity auction going on now on his blog. He is auctioning off a signed copy of the Fraggle Rock Complete Series set, autographed by Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, and Karen Prell, along with their Fraggle characters including Boober Fraggle, Wembley Fraggle, Red Fraggle, World's Oldest Fraggle, Large Marvin, and more! If I had the money I would most certainly bid on this incredible collector's item... so I really hope a caring Muppet fans gets this great piece to add to his or her collection!

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier

Neil Patrick Harris, Whoopi Goldberg Answer Phones for "The Muppets"

You thought all of the cameo rumors and name-dropping for The Muppets was about over, didn't you Muppet fans? Well, you were wrong--and so was I! But I'm quite glad I am, because this latest batch of name-dropped celebs is (for the most part) quite awesome.

Yesterday, TVGuide.com posted a small article with some input from Modern Family's Rico Rodriguez who simply couldn't contain his excitement about appearing "as himself" in The Muppets. We're all thankful for that, as he dropped the names of four other celebrities who will join him in playing themselves and answering phones at The Muppet Telethon that takes place in the movie. These celebrities include...

Neil Patrick Harris - One of the most outspoken celebrity Muppet fans (maybe second only to Jason Segel), it was starting to look like NPH wouldn't be getting a cameo in this movie--even though he and Segel work together on How I Met Your Mother. But it looks like everyone's favorite shoe fairy from Sesame Street will be appearing in The Muppets. Whether he's simply manning a phone or if he gets a scene to himself, we're ridiculously excited to have him on board! 

Whoopi Goldberg - Whose contract apparently includes a clause that states, "I will appear in every Muppet project I possibly can," was also included in Rico's comments. Whoopi has appeared on Sesame Street, Muppets Tonight, It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, and Letters to Santa so adding yet another Muppet appearance to her resume shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. I'm more than okay with her repeat appearances... because Whoopi is wonderful!

Selena Gomez - The only celebrity announcement we're not too thrilled about... Gomez stars in Disney Channel's Wizards of Waverly Place and worked on the second Studio DC: Almost Live. Hopefully she'll just make a very brief, silent cameo answer phones... but if not, there are a lot more Disney Channel "stars" that would be a lot worse to have in The Muppets.

James Carville - And the award for most out-of-left-field cameo appearance goes to... James Carville! Carville is a political commentator, teacher, attorney, and, apparently, actor. Carville is well known for leaning to the Liberal side of the political spectrum, so perhaps he and Sam Eagle will have a battle of wits? Or maybe he and Statler can have a look alike contest instead...

Well, those are all of the celebrities name-dropped by Rico Rodriguez... I've been told that The Muppets officially wraps tomorrow, so what do you think the odds of getting even more celebrity rumors are? Based on current trends... I'd say they're fairly likely.

Thanks to our good friends at ToughPigs.com for finding the TVGuide.com article!








The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier

News Update: January 27, 2011

NEWS UPDATE: January 27, 2011

This past Sunday in San Francisco, Brian Henson sat down to be interviewed by awesome person and Muppet fan Neil Patrick Harris. The contents of this interview are still mostly unknown but The Jim Henson Company did showcase a great picture of Brian and NPH from the event (see right). If any of our great readers were at this event, email Ryan Dosier at ryguy102390@gmail.com--we'd love to talk to you about writing something about the event!

Another cameo has been confirmed for The Muppets in the form of Modern Family's "Manny Delgado," Rico Rodriguez. The young actor tweeted last Saturday saying, "My childhood is coming alive right now. I'm filming with the muppets for their new movie! It's pretty epic!" I don't know if you've seen Modern Family or the work of Rico Rodriguez... but he's absolutely perfect for a Muppet movie. This is quite a bit of cameos... so check out The Muppet Mindset tomorrow for our attempt to name all of the cameos appearing in the film (that we know of).

Speaking of The Muppets, Examiner.com has posted an incredible video of the filming that went down at The El Capitan Theater last week. The video includes such great moments as Chris Cooper yelling at the Muppets, the Muppets goofing around, Fozzie slapping Kermit around, and much, much more. It really is incredible and you should definitely check it out.

Extremely sad news this week as we report the loss of Sesame Street show writer, song writer, and composer Tony Geiss (1924-2011). Geiss worked on Sesame Street for years and his credits are almost innumerable as you can see on his Muppet Wiki page. Geiss was the conceptual mind behind the Honkers and Abby Cadabby. He wrote the first Sesame Street movie Follow That Bird and some favorite Sesame songs including "Elmo's Song," "I'm Proud to Be a Cow," "That's What Friends are For," and, my personal favorite, "Sing After Me." Thankfully, Geiss's legacy will live on forever with his wonderful songs, writing, and memories.



After that... how about a cheer up? Check out this magnificent video of Kevin Clash and Elmo making a pregnant woman's day at the Sundance Film Festival during a Q&A after a screening of Being Elmo.



And, to conclude, today we're celebrating the 500th post here on The Muppet Mindset! Yes, after 500 posts we're still here--and even more amazingly, you're still here. We're so, so thankful to all of you for being so supportive of us through all 500 of these posts. The support and love you show us is nothing short of incredible! So, to celebrate, watch as I present a gorgeous piece of artwork heinously edited by yours truly!

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier

Sesame Street Saturdays: Sesame Street Orders a Pink Martini

Hot news out of Los Angeles this week as we've just been told that seven Sesame Street cast members, Emilio Delgado, Bob McGrath, Roscoe Orman, Alan Muraoka, Sonia Manzano, Loretta Long, and Allison Bartlett-O'Reilly, will all be performing a medley of Sesame Street songs with the band Pink Martini. The shows will take place at The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California on September 10th, 11th, and 12th. In addition to the medley, the cast will also be joining the band and The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra for the grand fireworks finale to close the show. It's sure to be an amazing time and affordable tickets are still available, so if you live near Los Angeles you have virtually no excuse not to be there!

And now, a little treat to perk you up on this lovely September Saturday (as if Bob's face in the above picture didn't already do that)... Elmo Interviews Neil Patrick Harris:



Have a great weekend, everybody!










The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier