Rare Muppet Clip

Jim Henson and Frank Oz on the set of an Orson Wells TV pilot.

Orson Welles was well-known as a Muppet fan. He famously appears in a cameo at the end of The Muppet Movie and was once quoted saying "Sesame Street is the greatest thing that ever happened to television." I had no idea though that Jim Henson and Frank Oz were Orson Welles' quests on a TV pilot he shot in 1979. Of course, after some quick Googling I discovered that the good folks over at Muppet Wiki already knew that (they know everything about Muppets).

Video via The Muppetcast and We Love You So.

Beaker Wins!

Everyone's favourite hapless Muppet lab assistant has won a Webby Award.

Beaker won! The Muppets' Ode To Joy has won a Webby (see previous post) for People's Choice: Best Music Video!

Bunsen Honeydew must be so proud.

Vote Beaker

Beaker deserves a break. Help him win a Webby!

As previously reported, The Muppets' Ode To Joy with Beaker has been nominated for a Webby Award. It took a day or two for the Muppet/puppetry web to really pick-up on this, but now the campaigning has begun! All of the Muppet YouTube accounts have been updated with an official "Vote Beaker" video.

As the video says, Beaker never wins...but now you can help change that. You can vote for Ode to Joy in the Webby Awards here.

Via Tough Pigs.

Muppet Resident Evil

Jim Hensons Resident Evil 5 (warning: link contains minor puppet-related gore!) is clever little Muppet/video game mashup on IGN. Expect to see more videos like this featuring puppets from FAO's Schwartz's Muppet Whatnot Workshop.

Via Puppeteers Unite.

Great Muppet Movie Ever Script Reviews

Details about The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever have hit the web.

News about Jason Segal's planned Muppet Movie has been hitting the `net this week. I'm told that the working title for the film is The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever and AICN has (spoiler alert) posted the first review of the new Muppet Movie's script. For those who don't want to read too many details of the film's plot, visit Tough Pigs for a spoiler free review of the script.

Sesame Street Explains the Madoff Scandal

Ernie and Cookie Monster explain what a Ponzi Scheme is with a little help from The Jimmy Kimmel Show.

Last week Jimmy Kimmel ran a hilarious segment that remixed clips from Sesame Street so Ernie and Cookie Monster could explain the Bernie Madoff Ponzi Scheme. I wonder, does this mean that the YouTube Muppet Mashup phenomenon has officially gone mainstream?

Via Guy Kawasaki.

Elmo Meets Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais meets Elmo and (of course) hilarity ensues.

This has been circulating around the web for awhile now (I shared it on Twitter earlier in the week)...outtakes from a shoot Ricky Gervais recently did for a guest appearance on Sesame Street. Gervais hits the ground running with Elmo, musing about being the only one on the Sesame set and pondering why Elmo wears pajamas at night but naked during the day. Off-screen you can briefly hear Sesame Street director Lisa Simon (at least I think it's Lisa's voice), who doesn't even attempt to rein these two in because obviously the Muppet and the Englishman are in charge.

Surprising (albeit frequently told) Muppet Origins

CNN's Mental Floss retells the oft-heard origins of your favourite Muppets.

I wasn't going to post Surprising stories behind 20 Muppet characters from CNN's Mental Floss blog because I'd already seen it on several other sites, but people keep sending it to me (and seem to be tickled by it) so here it is. Serious Muppet fans have probably read all this before, but it's still nice to see Kermit and co. getting coverage on CNN.

Special thanks to everybody who sent this in!

Sesame Street Panel at William Patterson University

Sesame Street at 40: A Night of Celebration and Discovery with the Legendary Cast was held last Friday at at William Paterson University in New Jersey.

As I type this I'm bedridden with what's probably pneumonia, so I don't know how much I'll be updating the blog this week. Something that I did want to take a moment to share though was ToughPigs' two-part coverage of last Friday's special Sesame Street panel at William Patterson University (click for part one and part two). In addition to Friday evening's panel, there was also a special one for teachers held earlier in the day and Steve Swanson provides coverage in this week's installment of the Muppetcast.

Muppets and other Puppets at the Orlando History Centre

If you live in Central Florida or plan to visit sometime in the next few months, be sure to pay a visit to the Orlando History Centre, which is hosting a bunch of fantastic puppetry between now and then end of April. It all kicks off next week with the grand opening of Jim Henson’s Fantastic World with Heather Henson next Thursday, followed by Look Both Ways, a special behind-the-scenes presentation by Jane Henson exploring the creation of the Muppets (this, alas, is already sold out).

There's lots more planned for the coming months, including:

• Muppets, Music & Magic: Jim Henson’s Legacy - A remounting of the original program that ran at the Brooklyn Academy of Music several years ago
• The Dark Crystal Redux: Klakk smaithh Skwee Kreh - A exhibit of 12 works by photographer John Lawrence Jones that attempt to capture the world of the Dark Crystal (March 14 - May 10).
• Muppets 101 - Heather Henson hosts a special screening of rare Muppet material that includes early TV appearances, commercials, and guest spots on The Dick Cavett Show.
  
• Puppetry in Central Florida - An exhibit that explores the history of puppetry in Central Florida (March 14 - May 10).
  
• Family puppetry workshops (selected weekends, February - April)

Many of these events require advanced registration and are likely to sell out. Visit www.thehistorycenter.org for more information and reservations.

Michael Davis on ToughPigs

Street Gang author Michael Davis (left) with puppeteer Caroll Spinney.

Tough Pigs has posted part one of a two part interview with Street Gang author Michael Davis (see previous post). If you have an interest in Sesame Street and haven't read Street Gang yet, I really have to recommend picking up a copy. It's a great read and available to order on Amazon.com.

This Friday, Michael is moderating a special panel discussion at William Patterson University celebrating the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street. The panel is scheduled to include Frank Oz, Kevin Clash, Caroll Spinney, Sonia Manzano, Bob McGrath, Marty Robinson, Fran Brill, and David Rudman so if you're in or near New York or New Jersey this week don't miss it.

2/2/09 Update: Part-two of Tough Pigs' interview with Michael is now available.

Sesame on Scrubs

Elmo and bunch of other Sesame Street Muppets make a special appearance on Scrubs tomorrow night.

Sesame Street is coming to Scrubs.

A special episode of the ABC sitcom featuring guest appearances by Sesame Street's Muppets airs tomorrow night, January 27th. According to ABC, the plot of the episode revolves around Scrubs' J.D. "learning the hard way that not even Elmo and his friends from Sesame Street can teach the gift of compassion to those who don't care to learn."

The Muppet Newsflash has a set of promotional images of the Sesame Muppets on the Scrubs set. And if you're a fan of Scrubs (or even just Sesame Street) , don't miss Zach Braff goofing around with Elmo on YouTube.

Scrubs airs in most markets in Canada and the U.S. at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. Central Time); check your local listings.

Learning from Ernie and Bert

You can learn a lot about puppetry watching classic Ernie and Bert videos.

Last week Tom pointed to a classic Sesame Street segment as an example of what to do with a puppet when you have no lines. As he points out, pay close attention to the puppets' eye line, the positioning of their heads and how their emotions are communicated to the audience through their body language.

Honestly, if you want to study great puppetry you can't do much better than watching the old Ernie and Bert sketches with Jim Henson and Frank Oz. Most of them are available to watch online at SesameStreet.org and they are phenomenal resource for anyone wanting to learn or improve their puppetry.

Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street

Street Gang, a comprehensive new history of Sesame Street written by Michael Davis was released just a few days ago. I haven't had a chance to read it just yet, but Joe Hennes has posted a Street Gang review on Tough Pigs. If you'd like to sample the book for yourself, you can read a special web-exclusive chapter of the book online.

Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street is available to order now from Amazon.com.

"Letters To Santa" Airs Tomorrow Night

The new Muppet special, A Muppet Christmas: Letters To Santa airs on NBC in the United States Wednesday night.

Just a quick reminder that A Muppet Christmas: Letters To Santa (see previous post) airs tomorrow night on NBC in the U.S. The special is getting one final publicity push on daytime TV Wednesday with Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy guesting on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet and Pepe the Prawn appearing as a featured guest on The Bonnie Hunt Show (check your local listings for show times and channels).

Via The Muppet Newsflash.

Letters To Santa

In case you haven't heard, The Muppets have a new holiday special coming to TV next week called A Muppet Christmas: Letters To Santa (see previous post). So far, the early reviews of Letters to Santa have been good and NBC has been heavily promoting the special; their efforts include a new Muppet viral video called Glad All Over.

A Muppet Christmas: Letters To Santa airs on NBC in the U.S. next Wednesday, December 17th at 8:00 p.m.

Sunday Night Puppet Omnibus

I didn't have time to blog much last week (sorry!). but be sure to check out all of these links, there's been some great stuff going on all over:

• Escape Pod Films - a team that includes Jeremy Westphal of Puppet Rapist (see previous post) - made a funny little short called Get on the Winning Team.
• Chances are you've already seen the video, but how awesome is that Cartoon Network used their Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Float (populated by a bunch of puppet characters, natch) to stage the ultimate rickroll at last week's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
• Speaking of which, Kermit the Frog performed in the parade too and earlier this month the Muppets took over the Today Show.
• Ryopets is a new puppet podcast from Mexico en Espansol.
• Thin Edge Puppets (Gordon Darrall and Josh Lyon) contributed puppets and puppetry to Canadian "Nerdgrass" band The Gertrudes' new music video Blackbird and the Cedar.
• Finally, it's important to remember that not everybody likes puppets (via Puppet Buzz).

Big Bird: Caroll Spinney loves every feather

The Seattle Times profiled puppeteer Carroll Spinney earlier this year.

This was published back in June, but I only discovered it this week and I wanted to share - a nice profile of Big Bird/Oscar the Grouch puppeteer Caroll Spinney by the Seattle Times.

Oh, and in case you in missed it, here's the Sesame Street float from this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Pot Cookie Monster

Everybody's favourite snack-loving Muppet gets spoofed in Pot Cookie Monster.

I imagine the good folks at Sesame Workshop aren't too thrilled about it, but Pot Cookie Monster is a pitch-perfect send-up of Sesame Street from College Humour. I know I sometimes give videos that use swearing and/or drugs as their central premise a hard time here, but what I think puts this in a different category is that it's a funny premise (after all, the only way you're going to experience talking letters, numbers and monsters on your street is during some kind of drug-induced hallucination) and it's well written and well executed, which is not surprising since the puppets were built and performed by James Wojtal.

Dave Goelz and Steve Whitmire at the Atlanta History Centre

Dave Goelz and Steve Whitmire take questions with Gonzo and Kermit at the Atlanta History Centre.

The touring exhibition Jim Henson's Fantastic World is at the Atlanta History Centre until January 18th. In conjunction with the exhibit, earlier this month the Centre presented Muppets, Music, & Magic: Jim Henson's Legacy. Puppeteers Dave Goelz and Steve Whitmire appeared at the intimate screening of rare Muppet clips, Muppet Show sketches and fantasy films The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth and took questions from Muppet fans. Atlanta animator Steve Vitale was there and has posted pictures, video and details in his blog.

Special thanks to Paul for sending this in!