My brother and future sister-in-law gave me the first season of The Muppet Show for Christmas. I have long thought that Jim Henson and Company were a brilliant bunch of people, and talented. They invented the muppet, a combination puppet-marionette, and they acted, danced, and sang as those muppets. They wrote pun after pun after pun for The Muppet Show, as well as for The Muppet Movie, which includes my favorite joke of all time:
Kermit The Frog: At the fork in the road, bear left.
Fozzie The Bear: Right, frog.
The last time I saw Labyrinth I was impressed all over again that JH & Co. pulled that movie off without CGI. Think of the scene in which Sarah winds up with the orange creatures who toss their heads back and forth like basketballs. As difficult as writing CGI programs must be, while filming this scene the Muppeteers had to wear all black and be lintbrushed every few minutes - filming against a black cloth, not a green screen, and with film cameras, not video, let alone digital.
It turns out that Jim Henson's first TV project, Sam and Friends, premiered in 1955. How can Kermit be 50 years old? I always thought they debuted on Sesame Street, which premiered the same year I did, but Jim Henson Productions has produced some fascinating work in the last fifty years (besides muppets continuing to appear on Sesame Street). If you haven't seen MirrorMask, you should. Lots of CGI there, but a definite muppet-y feel to it - and you should especially see it if you like Cirque du Soleil shows.
The only bad thing about the Muppets is that I have never been able to take Yoda seriously. He sounds like Gonzo!
The most sensational
Inspirational
Celebrational
Muppetational
This is what we call The Muppet Show!
Inspirational
Celebrational
Muppetational
This is what we call The Muppet Show!
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