OT: Lots of new info on the Muppet Show Season sets!

[John Pannozzi]

From http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=3148

Fact or Fiction: The Muppet Show DVD season sets

Season 1 is slated for release by the end of 2005

By Greg James
March 20, 2005

...After talking with several insiders about the DVD sets, some information has been collected and gathered. Please remember that until there is an official announcement from Disney, anything listed can potentially change...(but) The Muppet Show - The Complete First Season should be in stores by the end of the year.

The video is reported to be transferred from their original British (PAL) tapes,...will be unedited and will contain the UK skits. This goes to show how Disney is trying to create a collection of the episodes like never seen before.

Although at this point, the inclusion of the original season 1 opening sequence is still undetermined. Apparently there are strong arguments for including the original openings, and also powerful reasons for not including them. The answer of which it will be has flip-flopped back and forth throughout the set's production and the final outcome is not available at this time.

...Many fans wondered if these season sets would include any of the show's pilots or specials. The answer to this is yes. Disney does plan on including several of the historic Muppet Show pilots and specials.

...Many Henson employees, performers, and fans have been interviewed on film for bonus material. These include: Craig Shemin, Jerry Juhl, Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz, Carroll Spinney, and Michael Frith - just to name a few. It is not definite how these interviews will be used, but it probably means there will be a great collection of information on these sets.

One feature that has been confirmed is trivia and other factual information. This will expose all kinds of things about the show, the characters, the skits and songs, and much more (even the die-hard Muppet Show fans will learn something). The information, facts, and trivia for the sets was provided and created with the help of Michael Dixon (webmaster of Kermitage.com), Craig Shemin, Dave Goelz and Jerry Juhl. The information was gathered and provided by people who really know the Muppet Show inside and out, and really shows the dedication of Disney to produce quality sets.

Disney has stated that they want to make the best possible sets and it seems like they are...An official announcement of the season 1 DVD features, release date, retail price, and more should be released by The Muppet Holding Company and Disney Home Entertainment later this year...

[Jon Cooke]

I'm really looking forward to this! I don't see why they can't just include both versions of the openings. I'd really like to see those original Season 1 openings (where Kermit sings a little verse about tonight's guest star and Fozzie attempts to tell a joke).


-Jon

[GeorgeC]

It could be a rights' issue.

After all, we're talking US versus British so there could be a certain amount of money involved in acquiring the British version titles.

Of course, it's kind of silly for Disney to balk at the amount of money to do these sets. I mean, they're ONLY a MULTIBILLION DOLLAR corporation after all! :rolleyes:


Seriously, whatever they spend on getting that footage, they'll more than make up for it in the sales of this boxset. There are still enough Boomers and Gen X people that like the original Muppet Show that WILL buy this set for Disney to make a nice profit.

It's just silly that they're still talking about this issue at this point. Just buy the stupid footage, license it already Disney and get it over with!

[grundle]

Yeah, this really is great news.

I watched most of the Muppet Show episodes during the orignal airing. I've hardly seen any of them in syndication since, so it's been a very long time.

Even though this is a live action show, it has a lot of the same kind of spirit, energy, and humor of classic cartoons.

In fact, if I may go off topic on this already off topic thread, has anyone here besides me seen the 1991 live action movie "Drop Dead Fred?" It has a lot of the same kind of rebellious anarchy. One of the characters, desite being live action, does a lot of the kinds of things that cartoon characters do - his face gets flattened and distored out of shape during an injury, only to return to normal soon afterwards. And whenever someone sneezes, he flies all around the room and bounces off the walls. I love this movie. Has anyone here besdies me seen it? It's on DVD.

[Chow Hound]

In fact, if I may go off topic on this already off topic thread, has anyone here besides me seen the 1991 live action movie "Drop Dead Fred?" It has a lot of the same kind of rebellious anarchy. One of the characters, desite being live action, does a lot of the kinds of things that cartoon characters do - his face gets flattened and distored out of shape during an injury, only to return to normal soon afterwards. And whenever someone sneezes, he flies all around the room and bounces off the walls. I love this movie. Has anyone here besdies me seen it? It's on DVD.
I've seen it, but don't remember much about it.

[grundle]

I'm glad someone else here has seen Drop Dead Fred.

Well basically, on the surface, it's a very funny slapstick comedy with a lot of humorous scenes.

At a deeper level, it's a very serious pschological drama.

Elizabeth (Phoebe Cates) has just been dumped by her husband (Tim Matheson, yes, the Jonny Quest guy), had her car and purse stolen, and been fired from her job - all during her lunch hour. So she moves back into her mother Polly's (Marsha Mason) house.

Elizabeth goes into her closet where her childhood toys are. She opens up her jack-in-the-box, and out pops Drop Dead Fred (Rik Mayall), her imaginary friend whom she hasn't seen since she was 5 years old.

Elizabeth is very quiet and docile. While her mother and husband are very controlling and psychologically manipulative of her, Elizabeth has never stood up for herself. She is very timid and shy.

So Drop Dead Fred represents the rebellious part of her personality. Drop Dead Fred is the only person who ever stood up for Elizabeth.

For example, after Elizabeth moves back into her mother's house, her mother points at the living room rug. The room has been sectioned off with rope and a sign. The mother says, "Don't go in there. I just had the carpet cleaned." So after Drop Dred Fred makes his first appearance in the middle of the night, he goes outside, gets some dog poop, brings it into the house, and smears it all over the carpet. When the mother wakes up the next morning and comes downstairs and sees the mess on the rug, Elizabeth blames the mess on Drop Dead Fred.

The mother eventually takes the daughther to a psychiatrist who specializes in treating the "imaginary friend syndrome." The waiting room is full of children and their imaginary friends. Each child can only see his own imaginary friend. But all the imaginary friends can see each other, and they have a reunion of sorts. There's "Velcro Head," "Braggy," "Go To H--- Herman," and "Namby Pamby."

Over the course of the movie, Drop Dead Fred teaches Elizabeth to stand up to her tormentors, and to take control of her life. And then when Elizabeth no longer needs Drop Dead Fred, he disappears from her life, and goes on to help someone else who needs him. But even though Elizabeth can no longer see him, she is still able to detect his presence by the path of destrcution that he has left behind.

The movie may have been marketed somewhat to children, but it's really more for adults, because of all the pschyological stuff. In fact, it's rated PG-13 because of a few references to adult situations and a few instances of language.

The movie also has several flashback's to Elizabeth's childhood, where she is played by actress Ashley Peldon.

As an adult, Elizabeth's best friend is Janie (Carrie Fisher, yes, Princess Leia).

The movie has many hilariously funny scenes. The movie is also very emotionally touching and moving.

And it's a great movie for any adult who never forgot what it's like to be a child.

[Mac]

Honestly, Drop Dead Fred is one of my favourite films. " 'I'll eat her head' 'and I'll eat the rest of her' 'and then we'll poo her out all over the table!' " How could anyone NOT like that film?! It's also got great music and the opening titles are animated.

Getting back on topic though, these muppet DVDs sound great. I've always loved the muppets and it'll be great to own the original T.V series. There should be a lot of stuff that I've never seen or not seen in years.

[grundle]

That's right. The opening credit sequence of "Drop Dead Fred" is animated - in crayon!

I don't recall ever having seen that particular medium in any other commercial release.

The two chartacters in this screen capture are looking at the result of a third character who was just excecuted via guillotine. I doubt this would ever get past the censors at Cartoon Network, but since the actual movie is not a cartoon, Cartoon Network doesn't matter in this case:

http://www.shillpages.com/movies/dropdeadfred1991dvd.gif