News Update: September 20, 2011

 NEWS UPDATE:   SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

Promotion for The Muppets is ramping up very quickly, so expect to see Muppets everywhere (except in your closet, unfortunately). First up, Kermit recently filmed a commercial for the celebrity-heavy ad campaign of Wonderful Pistachios. You can check out Kermit's cute TV spot (that you'll surely be seeing all the time on while watching your shows) right here:



On October 2nd, Miss Piggy will be returning to Disney Channel on their extremely popular sketch comedy show So Random! (think SNL for 14 year olds). Piggy will be playing herself as the big, celebrity guest star for the show who everyone on the show attempts to appeal to. You can see the promo for the episode here:



And in extremely random Muppet appearance news, the Muppets will be appearing on the wrestling program WWE Raw on October 31st to promote the movie. The official WWE website provides this little bit of information on the upcoming appearance, "What will happen when Kermit the Frog meets The Viper? Will the Divas make Miss Piggy flip with jealousy? Will Beaker be confused for Sheamus? On Halloween, it's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights, because the Muppets are about to get Raw!" I don't really know what any of that means, but this has the potential to be a very fun and funny appearance!

The Museum of Moving Image in New York City, which is currently playing host to the wonderful Jim Henson's Fantastic World exhibit, is having a fun celebration for Jim's birthday on September 24th. Here is a breakdown of what's occurring on the 24th, for more information visit the museum's website:

• At 1:00 p.m. in the Main Theater, attend the special program “Muppet Music Moments,” with special introductions by Craig Shemin, President of The Jim Henson Legacy, and Bonnie Erickson, Executive Director of The Jim Henson Legacy and designer of Miss Piggy, along with special guest speaker Larry Grossman, music consultant for The Muppet Show. This special 77-minute compilation features performances by Harry Belafonte, Elton John, Linda Ronstadt, and other Muppet Show guest stars, in a wide range of musical genres—classic music numbers interpreted as only the Muppets can. Tickets are free with Museum admission and will be distributed first-come, first-served. Museum members may reserve advance tickets. (This compilation program will also be presented on Sunday, September 25, at 1:00 p.m. with Larry Grossman in person).
• Receive a custom-designed commemorative cookie featuring Kermit the Frog’s signature foot prints (as long as supplies last). These artisanal cookies were produced especially for the Museum by Bonne Fete Baking, Inc. and You Cake, Inc., two Queens-based small businesses that operate at the Entrepreneur Space, a partnership of the Queens Economic Development Corporation and Mi kitchen es su kitchen.
• Watch a special episode of The Muppet Show in which the cast celebrates Kermit the Frog’s birthday. The 22-minute program will screen continuously in the Museum’s Fox Amphitheater in the Education Center and is included with Museum admission.
• Write a personal message and sign your name in a commemorative journal that will be given to The Jim Henson Legacy for their archives.

Our good friends over at WeLoveFine T-shirts are hosting another official Muppet T-shirt design contest and they want YOUR art! The Grand Prize winner wins $3,000, with prizes for first and second place as well. The winning design will also get printed on a shirt and sold at WeLoveFine. It's really exciting to think of the prospect of another amazing Muppet t-shirt after our friend James Carroll's shirt was printed. Submission deadline is October 2nd before 11:59 PM and voting for the designs opens up on October 14 until November 4, with winners being announced on November 11. And, just between you and me, most of the designs submitted so far pretty much suck (thankfully not all--see right), so to all you extremely talented Muppet fan artists who we know and love... get to it!

Speaking of t-shirts and awesome artists, our friend and staff member James Carroll's gorgeous and insanely awesome "Muppetational Mosaic" design is now being printed on all sorts of things (unfortunately not your chest) at the Threadless-sponsored Society 6. Via the site, you can order Art Prints, Canvas Prints, iPhone Cases, Laptop and iPad Skins, and iPhone and iPod Skins. It's awesome, and some of the proceeds do go to James, whose artwork makes our website so gorgeous (the header). Buy something! (You know, if you can.)

Finally, Disney has given the official website for The Muppets, TheMuppets.com, a complete makeover and Disney website overhaul. On the site, you'll find Characters (descriptions/pages for Kermit and Piggy, with others coming soon), About the Movie (The Story, The Cast, The Crew [coming soon]), Video Clips (just trailers for now, but more probably coming soon), a picture Gallery, Products (currently only selling The Green Album, but Movies, Toys, Books, Apparel, Beauty, Designer Apparel, Kitchen, Electronics, and Sationary coming soon), Games (Coming Soon), and Downloads (Coming Soon). There currently isn't too much to see on the site, aside from a few cool new pictures if you know where to look, but there is certainly a ton coming very soon as promotion heats up. Keep an eye on the movie site and on The Muppet Mindset for whatever might come from Disney!

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

News Update: September 5, 2011

NEWS UPDATE: September 5, 2011

The historic (and Disney-owned) El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, on Hollywood Boulevard, where many scenes from The Muppets were filmed earlier this year, is hosting a special event this November through January to welcome the arrival of the first theatrical Muppet movie in 12 years. The event is being billed as The Most Sensational Muppet Party and takes place at The El Capitan and the adjacent Disney Soda Fountain and Studio Store. From November 23rd to January 5th, families can join The El Capitan for finger sandwiches, fruit salad, cupcake decorating, and "Wocka Wocka Wocka" fun for everyone. In addition, every guest receives a commemorative photo and and a special gift. The El Capitan is also stating that there will be a Holiday Sing-a-Long with Kermit and Miss Piggy LIVE on stage before every movie. If you're in the Los Angeles/Hollywood area, this sounds like an event you can't pass up! For more information, check out The El Capitan online.

As you all know, last week Animal and Miss Piggy appeared on The Tonight Show with OK Go. Unfortunately, in an egregious error we never posted a link to the video. Thankfully, our good friends over at ToughPigs did all the hard work for us so all we have to do is mention their name and show off the video. So... thanks for that.



Our good friends at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia are having an amazing auction to benefit the center and all the good it does to spread the magic of puppetry throughout the world. This is a fantastic cause that I whole-heartedly support, especially when they offer spectacular auction items such as the gorgeous Palisades Toys Jim Henson action figure signed by puppet designer Bonnie Erickson. This also includes a candid shot of Jim, Bonnie, and the Jim Henson Muppet, also signed by Bonnie. It's a wonderful piece, and you should bid on it!

Finally, the chronicles of our friend James Carroll, designer of our awesome main page header, and the Threadless Muppet contest have come to an oh-so-satisfying conclusion. His gorgeous and explosive "Muppetational Mosaic" t-shirt is now available for sale online! For 48 hours only, you can buy the fantastic t-shirt for just $10.00. So... go buy two or seven while they're cheap and while they're awesome. Well... I guess they'll always be awesome. But still. Buy one. And wear it. Everywhere. How often can you own a t-shirt with Thog, George the Janitor, and Angus McGonagle on it? Never, that's how.

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

The Muppets and OK Go on The Tonight Show Tomorrow

TV ALERT: THE MUPPETS AND OK GO ON THE TONIGHT SHOW

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31st

Tomorrow night on NBC, the Muppets and the band OK Go will be performing the band's cover of "The Muppet Show Theme Song" from Muppets: The Green Album on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The show airs at 11:35/10:35 central time in the United States, but be sure to check your local listings anyway. 

It seems fairly impossible for OK Go and the Muppets to recreate their hugely popular and expansive music video on live television, but it will be incredibly interesting to see what they do with it, which Muppets show up to sing along, and how awesome it is sure to be. Make sure you tune in for this exciting Muppet appearance... and, just because it's too awesome not to see again, watch the Muppets and OK Go's collaborative music video below!

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

Elmo Stays Up Late with Jimmy Fallon

I just love it when Muppets make talk show appearances. Especially Muppets that I love (even though that's all of them)--even more especially when Muppets that I love appear on talk shows that I love. This was very much the case last night when Elmo appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Mr. Fallon is not afraid to showcase his immense Muppet love, and that was certainly apparent last night when he and Elmo basically just goofed around.

Check out the AWESOME appearance for yourself in the two video clips below from the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon website:





Also on the show last night was perennial Muppet favorite Whoopi Goldberg, who got to see her old friend Elmo again backstage. So... to conclude this post, I present this awesome picture:

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier

News Update: February 18, 2011

NEWS UPDATE: February 18, 2011

As we reported earlier this week, Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Telly appeared on Bravo's Top Chef on Wednesday night to judge a cookie making contest. (With no tongues? No way.) The whole episode has yet to surface online--which is fine, because the Sesame Street monsters only appeared in he first half of the show--but there is a great behind-the-scenes segment on Hulu, which you can see below!



Speaking of Elmo, our good friends on the team of Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey and Muppet Mindset correspondent Chase Beecher have informed us that the film will be screening at another film festival! This time at the SXSW (South By Southwest) Festival in Austin, Texas. No word yet on if Elmo or Kevin Clash will be in attendance, but you can find all the information about screening times and locations at SXSW's website and BeingElmo.com.

More exciting news from the world of Sesame comes in the form of a brand new Sesame Street video game, via our friends at ToughPigs.com, being produced for XBox 360 and compatible with its Kinect accessory. The game is tentatively titled "Once Upon a Monster" and features Elmo and Cookie Monster in a Where the Wild Things Are like world. The Kinect allows you to play games using your whole body, so the game is designed to improve youngster's motor skills and reaction times. The game will be available this fall and we'll keep you posted as new information surfaces!

Last Sunday, a group of fantastic Jim Henson Company puppets appeared on the Grammys with Cee Lo Green and Gwyneth Paltrow performing Cee Lo's hit "(Forget) You." In case you missed our coverage of it on Valentine's Day, here's another look at the wonderful appearance!



While we're on the subject of The Jim Henson Company, exciting news has surfaced about their partnering with Guillermo Del Toro in producing a new film based on the Pinocchio story. Apparently the Henson Company is designing puppets for the film. Once again, our good friends at ToughPigs have the scoop and some exclusive, awesome looking images for us to ogle.

You didn't think we'd be done with The Jim Henson Company that quickly, did you? Good. Because Jim Henson's Fantastic World opened this past Saturday in Peoria, Illinois and will run through May 21st. And, apparently, Jane Henson will be appearing in person on February 24th! Check out all the information about the exhibit at this local newspaper's website. Also... let us know if you'll be going to see Jane Henson on the 24th, because we think our own Ryan Dosier will be there!

In our grand tradition in mentioning ToughPigs far too many times in our News Updates, we've got another ToughPigs link in the form of their fantastic coverage of ToyFair 2011. They've got tons of pictures of upcoming Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock merchandise and a video of Elmo and Cookie Monster in person at ToyFair! How cool is that? Also... before you freak out, there isn't any new Muppet merchandise presented, and we're fairly certain that this is because Disney is holding off on a big marketing push for the Muppets until ComicCon in the summer where they can showcase merchandise closer to the film's release date. But we don't really know anything for sure, so please don't quote us on that, because, really, we know nothing and we just like to talk.

But, hands down the most exciting news of the week, in my humble opinion, is the thrilling announcement that The Muppets will be preceded in theaters by a brand new Toy Story short film! The Muppets and Pixar have always had a great respect and homage paying thing with each other--in fact, Disney even put The Muppets script through the Pixar brain trust--so this is pretty much the perfect partnership. I've hardly met any Muppet fans that aren't also Toy Story fans... so this is basically the best possible situation! I for one am extremely excited for this hugely awesome pairing. Kudos, Mouse House! Gotta love that synergy.

And, finally, I have to be unprofessional for a minute and make a shout out to Sean, my best friend in the world, who said he'd actually get around to checking out my website if I made a shout out to him in a post (I know how it sounds, but he really is a good friend). So... there it is and I've probably completely lost my credibility as a professional blogger (what professional--I don't get paid) by doing this... but hey, I've got to get him to see it somehow. Oh, and so I don't get in trouble... I'll also shout out to Peter, Hannjoo, Tiffany, Sam, and Mickey too.

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier

Why Fraggle Rock is Even Better as an Adult

TV ALERT: Tonight, Tuesday, February 8, the PBS program Pioneers of Television will feature a spotlight on children's television pioneers--including Jim Henson. It's unknown how much of the episode will focus on Jim, but it's still bound to be a great television experience for Muppet fans! Check your local PBS station listings for time.


If there's one thing I love, it's Fraggle Rock. If there's two things I love, it's Fraggle Rock and pizza. New contributor Hilarie Mukavitz has written a brand new article about one of these things--bet you'll never guess which! We talk a lot about Fraggles around here... but we hardly ever get down to brass tax and talk about why the show is so great--and we almost never talk about why those Muppet fans who haven't seen the show definitely should. Fortunately for us, Hilarie's article covers both of those bases. But enough rambling from me... read on!

Why Fraggle Rock Is Even Better As an Adult


Hilarie Mukavitz - Revisiting a show you loved in your childhood can be dangerous.  I've noticed 3 things tend to happen:

1. The show doesn't hold up at ALL and you wonder what you were thinking.

2. The show doesn't hold up well....but you still have a great deal affection for it because you liked it in your childhood.

3. The show DOES hold up, and you can appreciate it in ways you couldn't in your childhood.

Fortunately for me, Fraggle Rock definitely fell into the 3rd category.  I was 5 when Fraggle Rock first aired on HBO.  Monday used to be my favorite day of the week because that was when it was on.  Re-watching the show in my 30's, I've been blown away at how well-crafted the show is.  Here's a few examples:

No Villains, Just Misunderstandings
Very rarely will you see an actual villain in a Fraggle Rock episode.  In episode 106 "The Preachification of Convincing John" Mokey's cause of the week is to convince the Fraggles not to eat the Doozer's constructions anymore. What Mokey doesn't realize is she's pretty much messing with the ecosystem of Fraggle Rock. When Fraggles don't eat the Doozer's constructions, the Doozers nearly need to move elsewhere so they can keep building, otherwise they will die. In other words, the cause of the conflict is Mokey... not because she is malicious, but because she didn't have all the information. I didn't really appreciate this at the time, but this is much more sophisticated writing than to just have some two dimensional villain of the week come in to cause the conflict.

Nothing Is More Important Than Music
On the Season 1 DVD extras, Jerry Juhl talks about how when they were looking for music for the series, initially they were inundated with your classic cutesy children's music. Then he heard the demo for the Phil Balsam and Dennis Lee song "Follow Me." He knew that was the right feel for the show.

The lyrics have a simplicity, without dumbing down or being cutesy. "Every sunrise shows me more and more, so much to explore, come and follow me." Balsam and Lee had an amazing output of songs in their 5 seasons on Fraggle Rock. There was a wide range of musical styles from folk to blues to New Orleans jazz. The lyrics are so solid, a lot of the songs could easily be performed in their own right.

Gobo Has a Crisis of Faith
Episode 301 "The Bells of Fraggle Rock" explores the different holidays that happen around the Winter Solstice. The Fraggle version is the Festival of the Bells. Every year at that time, the rock would "slow down" and the Fraggles would ring their bells to wake up the Great Bell in the heart of the rock. Gobo goes on a quest of sorts because he has doubts over whether the Great Bell actually exists. I'm sure as a child I just thought "Oh, it's a Fraggle Christmas episode." However as an adult I thought "Holy cow! Gobo's having a crisis of faith! ON A CHILDREN'S SHOW!" Somehow I can't imagine a theme with that sort of depth happening on most other children's shows of the era. "Papa Smurf?  I don't smurf in the smurf anymore!"

Red Keeps Up With the Boys
Like many other little girls, Red was my favorite Fraggle. I was used to female characters that tended to be girly girls, princesses, or more of a side character. Red Fraggle was a definite first. What I loved about Red was she was right in the thick of things. She not only could keep up with Gobo, sometimes she'd win the competition. She was also way more like a lot of the girls around me. These days when I see Red I smile because she's so much like my sister and my niece.

The World Peace Message
Initially I was startled when I found out the main concept behind Fraggle Rock was to promote world peace.  It was similar to the feeling I had when I found out the Narnia stories were actually about Christianity. "Wait... I just thought it was a great story... oooooh yeaaaaaaah!" You see the three interconnected, and frequently clashing cultures of the Gorgs, the Fraggles, and the Doozers. All sorts of heavy issues like war and the environment were tackled, without being preachy.  It still was an entertaining children's show.

If you haven't already, I'd highly recommend checking out Fraggle Rock no matter what your age.  Like all of the best of Henson's work, there is something in it for everyone.

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier