Every day the world begins again

This was a question on the Tough Pigs forum but I thought my reply was pretty funny, so I decided to post it here too. 

(Note: I would never personally harm Steve Whitmire. Nor would I laugh while he coward in fear behind Dave Goelz.)

In my Wizard of Oz…

WEEK 1
I will have Jewel Staite as Dorothy. Queen Latifa can still play auntie Em if Louise Gold is unavailable (not puppeteering though). Uncle Henry will be played by Jeffery Tambor. (Because I gotta keep him in.)

Quentin Taratino will appear as the Wizard’s doorman with the following memorable line: “Who’s ringin’ that mother****in’ bell?!” (Hey, they bleeped out Dr. Phil VanNueter in a episode of Muppets Tonight. And it could not have been funnier. They also silently bleeped out a blooper of Dave as Waldorf saying “Ow my ass” or something like that. Anyway, why am I explaining myself?!)

Rizzo will be Toto. Bill Barretta will get disappointed with casting and therefore the casting would be momentarily rearranged having Johnny Fiama as the Wizard. This is very short lived.

WEEK 12
Steve Whitmire becomes over worked and takes a week vacation. Eric Jacobson finishes all Piggy’s scenes, also requesting a week vacation. Filming screeches to a halt. Crew gets vacation until director feels like coming back from her vacation.

WEEK 20
Filming resumes. Toto is played by Pepe and scenes are reshot. Crew takes another break to re-evaluate why they signed up for this in the first place. Director struggles to decide who to please with the casting of the Wizard: Hard core muppet fans like herself, or mainstream casual audience, thus thrusting the Muppets back into the super stardom spotlight they deserve.

WEEK 33
On set director is seen on the phone entirely too much making ridiculous bargains as if she were Radar from M*A*S*H. Muppeteers mutter quietly among themselves. Steve speaks a tad too loudly one day and director overhears words like “crazy,” “caffeine dependant,” “bags under eyes,” and “rehab.” Steve is not seen for four days and after return sticks close to Dave Goelz, often hiding behind him as the director approaches, making for a very funny, yet sad sight.

WEEK 45
Filming wraps with the exception of the Wizard scenes. Ricky Boyd grows tense.

WEEK 52
Director finally agrees to shoot Wizard scenes. Brian Henson is cast as The Wizard. Scenes are wrapped in four days. Brian is absent for two. Director fumes. Steve goes missing for three hours. Dave find him hiding under the sink in his trailer.

WEEK 52 and 1/2
Brian returns to the set, sporting a black eye and stitches in his eyebrow. Bill receives medical bill for Brian’s stitches. When questioned, Bill replies with “had it coming smug pansy (muttermutter) Johnny Fiama (mutter) stupid monkey.”

WEEK 53
Author realizes this post is getting out of hand.

WEEK 77
Film premiere! Audiences are slightly confused and hard core fans delight in the return of Frank Oz as the Wizard.

WEEK 77 and 2 1/2 hours
Hard core fans TP directors’ house upon discovering Frank Oz was digitalized into the movie. Star Wars action figures are burned on director’s front porch in symbolic effigies.

sweetmadameblue:

I think it’s a little strange that my little cousin River, whom I was babysitting today, asked completely on his own if we could watch “Fraggle Rock”. I got him and his older brother Cliff into watching it several months ago, but whenever I expressed interest in watching it when I was over, they would say “Nah, let’s watch ‘Avatar’!” (The show not the movie/s.)

River also asked to watch “Labyrinth” while we were finishing up “The Secret of Nimh.” (Which Paul Williams wrote the theme for.)

Cliff was at camp, so the house was remarkably calm. River wanted to eat lunch, then go outside for bubbles… and back inside because of mosquito, finish lunch, and finally “Oh! Fraggle Rock! Please?”

He’s four and can’t read just yet, so every episode I clicked down on the Netflix menu he exclaimed “I want that one! That’s a good one.”

I ignored him, went right for the episode where Mokey joins the Minstrels. 

He glanced at the TV while the theme bounced along. He pulled out the “Cars” legos, which I would end up building, but he could hand me the pieces I showed him and take the credit when everything was finished.

Cantus’ flute began and River’s head whipped around. I didn’t say anything, but I felt proud and like I had done some good in the world just by convincing the boys “This is a good show, I promise you’ll like it!” sometime last year. River finally looked away when the song was over, but the legos never had his full attention when there were singing Fraggles on the screen.

We didn’t actually watch any Gobo heavy episodes. The second episode was where Marjory is moved and it changes her. I didn’t pay particular attention to it either. But I don’t regret not having done so. I baby sit him tomorrow and we’ll watch some more “Fraggle Rock”. I’ll find a good Gobo-centric one… or three. 

River is nearly the same age I was when Jim Henson died. I doubt that Jerry’s characters will be on the cover of TIME, honestly, but it’s a strange feeling to know that River won’t know Jerry in the present tense. Maybe he’ll latch on to the Muppets like me and my brother did and he’ll know performers by name and be blogging about them in twenty years. And maybe he won’t. I sincerely doubt he’ll remember that we watch “Fraggle Rock” in the days surrounding Jerry’s death and that he asked me, not the other way around, twenty years from now. 

I don’t remember Jim Henson dying. I knew he was gone, I think. I remember watching “The Jim Henson Hour” and thinking how amazing Jim was, how friendly and how great getting a hug would be from him. And how awesome that white lion was. 

Death usually brings awareness and appreciation. Either to someone’s work, or life in general. A lot of people say that the dead deserved to know, while they were still living, how much they were loved. We’re lucky, us fans, because I’m sure Jerry knew. We don’t have to worry about that. I think we’ll see a lot of The Count in the coming days, and i hope we can appreciate that a lot of people will discover, even if it’s only for a 3 minute news blurb, the man that we all knew was there the whole time, just below frame.

My favorite tiny memory of Jerry is a personal one. I never got to meet him but I did direct message him on Twitter when I discovered he had one. I asked him a question and he answered, though he didn’t know the info I was looking for. I thanked him anyway. 

“You’re welcome, sunshine.” He replied. Jerry Nelson called me “sunshine”. And no, I will never stop telling people that. Not for as long as I live.

Jerry was a fantastic and moving performer, a terrific singer and someone that I will never, ever forget. He was the best smokey voiced ex-beatnik and the sweetest six year old frog. From all wise and all knowing pile of trash to a Fraggle who thought he was pretty wise and really cunning, and was usually kicked down a peg by the end of the episode… but boy did he have some groovy hats.

But most of all, best of all, Jerry Nelson was cooler than you. And that was awesome.

I’ve always been nutty for the muppets, even through middle school and stuff when it “wasn’t cool” though I was never really outward with it like I have been since 2001. I introduced the Muppets to my brand new BFF (who had barely watched SS as a kid) and that kicked it into high gear. Hell, we watched MCC every weekend for three months straight.

I did a paper on TMS for junior year. I even looked at the Puppetry College of Connecticut (who had such Muppet almuns as Tim Lagasse). Unfortunately I listened to my dad and did community college instead which I’ve just floundered in and out of for about ten years now…

One of my favorite “muppet memories” was Nickelodeon’s SUNDAY NIGHT MUPPETS! And one particular night they were going to show the “Secret of the Muppets” episode of the Jim Henson Hour. It aired at 9pm. My bedtime was at 8:30, or 8… I was 12. Mom taped it.

Pretty much anything me and my bro adored to death was something she had taped. So most of our old movies were on recorded VHSes nothing actually bought. Thus like no one else knowing about programs our childhood is built on. I kinda like that though. My bro is 31 and we still reference stuff from Muppets or the 1984 CBS mini series “Alice Through the Looking Glass” which Aaron recently called “the only Alice in Wonderland that matters”.

Where was I? Right. So mom taped it, but I HAD to watch it THAT NIGHT! I set my alarm for 2am and snuck out of my room to watch it… and fell in love with Steve. That voice, that SINGING, that face, that adorable Bean Bunny. My wee heart went all aflutter and I went to bed a happy girl.

“…Yeah and a lot cuter too!”

I disagree, Bean.

That episode is probably one of the reasons I post so much of the Muppeteers, if you notice. Practically all of my saved Muppet pictures or the scans and screen caps I take myself are of the puppeteers. 

Of course I adore the characters, but I love the people under them even more.

I own every Muppet DVD there is to own. (I even have two different copies of MCC because the 50th anniversary edition didn’t have the interview from the first DVD.)

I still have the Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson (I was five when it happened. I’m old.) and 30 Years of the Muppets. Mom taped those for us. We still have the VHS tapes even though we never use the VHS player anymore. I still prefer our recorded The Muppet Movie to the DVD because when Doc Hopper tried to buy Kermit’s likeness the TVs behind him all had a certain blue-ish look because of the weird colorization from a worn down tape. 

I used to draw Jim and the Muppet gang on the dividers in my notebooks in grade school. (And Julia can attest to my “art skillz”. That’s pretty much how they looked back then too.)

I’m not sure where I’m going with this entry. Sorry, Julia.

I suppose the Muppets mean as much to me as anyone else that loves them with a special kind of nerdy tenacity. We check Muppet Wiki for random knowledge, we hunt down vintage items on Ebay and in thrift stores, we blare Fraggle Rock music in our car proudly and sing along, we buy cake with green icing on Steve and Jim’s birthday.

And maybe we think that the fact Jim and Steve shared the same birth day is no coincidence because Kermit is that important. Jason Segel said it before, but it’s true and there’s not much of a better way to put it: The world needs Muppets. We need the magical suspension of disbelief. We need the urge and desire to be silly. We need to experience joy and humor without cynicism. We need to relate to being different and being accepted and knowing that even if it’s not easy, it’s okay to be who you are. The Muppets give us all that and more.

This entry kinda got away from me. Well…

I’m a Muppet nerd. And I love every damn second of it.