5 Hours of 40 Years

I wish all my friends were more like Sesame Street, because Sesame Street has been celebrating its own birthday by giving us a ton of great presents. One of these, which I just finished consuming, is the two-disc DVD set 40 Years of Sunny Days.

Every season of the show is represented with at least one segment on this set, which pretty much guarantees you'll see some stuff you've known all your life, some stuff you've seen a time or two before, and at least one thing you've never seen.

For example, I had never seen the very first appearance of Telly Monster, in his initial incarnation as "the television monster." That's here, and it's almost worth the price of the DVD just to see it. That voice! Those swirling eyes! Boy, Telly's come a long way.

Then there's an appearance from the Fonz, and Bob and Linda performing "Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood" with an elevator operator, and some clips from the Hawaii episodes. (My goodness, but Mr. Hooper was hairy!) Oh, and Batman shows up at some point. It's a pretty comprehensive selection that goes way beyond the obvious.

The disc covering the first 20 seasons is a bit longer than the one covering seasons 21-40, and I'm guessing nobody's going to have a problem with that, as it's the old stuff that most people buying a Sesame retrospective DVD are looking for. So you got your Teeny Little Super Guy and your "Put Down the Duckie," and it all looks really fantastic, but there's plenty of great stuff from recent years, too. Mr. Noodle... Destiny's Child's cover of "I Got a New Way to Walk" with Zoe, Elmo, and Grover... season 40's groovealicious "Dance" iPod commercial parody... and "Can't Say the Alphabet Enough" by Gabi, Maria, and Gina, which I happen to love.

The extras are delightful too. There's a pretty healthy dose of "Behind the Street" footage that shows the cast and crew working on the show, and most of these focus on scenes that are included on the discs. As some folks on the Tough Pigs forum have noted, it seems like few people outside our little world of Muppet geeks would really be interested in a lot of this stuff, but that just proves that the Sesame people know we're out there and they want us to be entertained. (Hi, Sesame people! Thanks for the cool DVDs!)

My one and only fan-geek complaint is that I wish some of the clips were longer. I'm mostly talking about the street scenes... We get a few minutes of Snuffy being revealed to the grown-ups, and Gabriella's birth, and the hurricane, and so on, but it sure would have been nice to see a little bit more. It seems like we get an impression of what the episodes are about, and then it moves on to the next clip just as things are getting good.

My favorite part of the Snuffy story is when Phil Donahue comes in and hugs everyone, but that's not included. My favorite part of the baby Gabriella story is when Oscar sadistically withholds the news of the new baby from everyone, but that's not included either.

But that doesn't prevent this from being a dynamite DVD set. If you don't already have it, I suggest adding it to your Christmas wish list. If you do already have it, I suggest buying it for all your friends and family for Christmas. If they ever watched Sesame Street, chances are they'll dig it, and they'll thank you for getting "Ladybug Picnic" stuck in their heads.



Click here to talk about the 40th anniversary DVD on the Tough Pigs forum!

ToughPigsRyan@yahoo.com

Happy Thanksgiving from ToughPigs!

What are you most thankful for this year?? Are you thankful for all the great stuff we've gotten through Sesame Street's 40th anniversary celebration? Or the Muppets' amazing new Bohemian Rhapsody video? Or perhaps Sarah Palin's new book? Whatever it is, we at ToughPigs wish you a happy Turkey Day.

If you're reading this early in the morning, don't forget that the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (which airs on NBC from 9am until noon in all time zones) will feature the entire Sesame Street gang, Kermit and Abby Cadabby floats, and the less-floaty Kermit the Frog singing "I Believe" with Tiffany Thornton. I was lucky enough to see the balloon inflation on Thanksgiving Eve, so here's a sneak peek at what you'll be seeing on Thanksgiving morning.

And even though they don't have Thanksgiving in Australia, ToughPigs' own Peter Savieri drew this fantastic image to share with everyone.
Click here to stuff the proverbial turkey on the ToughPigs forum!

joe.toughpigs@gmail.com

Review: Muppet Peter Pan #3

Boom! Kids' Muppet Peter Pan #3 by Grace Randolph and Amy Mebberson flies into comic book stores tomorrow, Wednesday, November 25th, and in a development that should surprise no one, it is a good comic book.

This one picks up right where we left off last issue, with all the characters spread out over Neverswamp. Peter Pan/Kermit introduces John/Scooter and Michael/Bean to the Lost Boys, Captain Gonzo is hunting for Peter, and Wendy/Janice is trying to figure out where the heck she is.

I won't tell you who the Lost Boys are, though you can probably guess by now. I've been wondering how writer Grace Randolph would choose to depict the Indians from the Peter Pan story in this adaptation, and her solution is delightful. The Electric Mayhem shows up as "the Hippen Grovee tribe," who welcome Janice into their fold. If you're a Mayhem fan, you should like this issue... They get the first 10 pages of the story! [Note: A reliable source at Boom! Kids has informed me that artist Amy Mebberson was largely responsible for conceptualizing the Hippen Groovee characters, among her many other creative contributions to the book]


There's some really interesting stuff with the Peter Pan & Wendy dynamic in this issue, with Wendy coming to realize that maybe a boy who never grows up might not be the most responsible person ever.


It's a bit startling to see Kermit and Janice getting mad at each other, but it's surprisingly compelling, and adds another dimension to the storytelling on top of just being a silly spoof. And as you can see, Mebberson's art continues to convey the characters' emotions nicely without ever doing anything so cartoony that they don't look like the puppets. And just look at that beautiful Piggy on cover B up there... zowie.

And then the whole thing ends with a cliffhanger even more urgent than last month's, involving the lovely Piggytink and a really mean pirate rat. To be continued!


Click here to yell at Kermit on the Tough Pigs forum!

ToughPigsRyan@yahoo.com

YouTubian Rhapsody

The next Muppet internet sensation just hit the web! Check out all your favorite Muppets (yeah, all of them) in their rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody!


I know what you're thinking, that song sounds familiar. That's because Johnny and Sal sang it in 2005 at the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon. I mean, that obscure video was way more popular than Wayne's World, right? Here it is again for posterity.


Click here to do the fandango on the ToughPigs forum!

joe.toughpigs@gmail.com

The Muppets Take Brooklyn

On Saturday, November 21, The Brooklyn Public Library hosted a day of Sesame Street events. (Did you miss it? It's not like we didn't warn you!) Thankfully for us (and our lawyers), everything that Sesame Workshop advertised came true. There was music and art and puppets and panels, and we were there firsthand to see it and give you the full report. You can thank us later.

The day began just like any other, with a concert by Bob McGrath (what, he doesn't come to your house to sing you awake every morning??). While wearing one of Bill Cosby's sweaters, Bob sang a few songs, which asked if we were happy (and if we were aware of the fact then we should clap our hands), about letters of the alphabet, funky dinosaurs, and he even sang a few Christmas tunes. (Before Thanksgiving? Too soon, Bob!) Sadly, Bob did not break out into "Sir Duke" like we'd hoped. Throughout the show, Bob was interacting with the kids in the front row, which was too adorable for words. Especially when a mother sat her baby on the stage next to Bob for a photo op, and the baby broke into tears of sheer horror. Who knew that Bob had it in him to actually scare someone?

After the show, we had a few hours to check out the exhibit in the library. The front cases held photo puppets, original scripts and sheet music, claymation Bert and Ernie, the Teeny Little Super Guy, an invitation to Maria and Luis' wedding, an Emmy, and of course, lots and lots of photos. It's always impressive to see this much Muppet stuff in one room, and moreso to see it all be given the museum treatment it deserves. Behind these cases was a set of framed art, with original art from Sesame Street storybooks (including one from our favorite, "The Together Book"). It's easy to forget that Sesame Street has published so many books. I'll bet they could fill the entire library with illustrations by guys like Joe Mathieu, Michael J. Smollin, and Jack Davis.

One thing on my checklist that we weren't getting done was to get one of the new Elmo library cards. The advertisements said that they were for "new accounts", but I figured it couldn't hurt to try. When I asked, the librarian told me that they were "for kids." As if that's ever stopped me! But when I pressed further, she told me that I could request one, but only if I wanted to deprive some other child of getting his or her own Elmo library card. Needless to say, Elmo does not grace the cover of my card. Curse you, librarian guilt!
The main attraction for the day was the panel discussion, moderated by Louise Gikow, and featuring Chris Cerf, Executive Producer Carol-Lynn Parente, puppet builder Rollie Krewson, Bob McGrath, and Fran Brill. (Sesame Workshop CEO Gary Knell delivered the introduction, and he revealed that Iftah Ya Simsim, the Kuwaiti Sesame Street, is back in production.) After the customary how-did-you-get-started questions (Bob was big in Japan! Fran cold-called Jim Henson for an audition!), Louise Gikow did a great job at keeping the conversation moving and interesting to both the casual fans and the seasoned vets.

One of the most interesting bits to me was the inclusion of Rollie Krewson, who doesn't normally get to sit on panels like this. Krewson talked about getting her start as Henson's first intern (the first puppet she ever built: a baby Koozebanian, or "Koozie-pup", with the help of Dave Goelz). Another interesting tidbit she gave is that she prefers to sculpt characters before building, rather than sketch them out like other puppet builders. I for one would love to see some of the early sculpts for familiar characters. Yet another tidbit: Krewson's daughter came up with the idea to put sparkles in Zoe's hair (or is that fur?).

Chris Cerf, who lost his voice the day before, spoke briefly about working at Random House ("It helps when your father owns the company"), being in the army with Jeff Moss, and attending Harvard with Joe Raposo. He said that he got his start writing songs on Sesame Street because he "knew rock and roll", which is how his first song, "Count It Higher", came into fruition.

Bob McGrath talked about having trouble in his first year of Sesame Street because he couldn't figure out who his character was supposed to be. Jon Stone gave him the direction to "be himself", because kids can tell in an instant when an adult is faking it. Fran Brill spoke about the creation of Prairie Dawn, and how she started as "sweet, innocent and docile," but soon became a "neurotic perfectionist." According to Brill, the difference between Prairie Dawn and Zoe is that "Prairie would never go near a puddle, while Zoe would jump right in."

A few short tidbits from the panel: Fran Brill is 5'4", and sometimes has to wear 7" platform shoes, but she has never fallen. While performing a live-hand puppet, Frank Oz would sometimes rest his left hand over the right to keep the second puppeteer from over-gesticulating. Chris Cerf once wrote a sketch after receiving a letter from the Dairy Goat Association, in which a dairy goat apologized for a previous cartoon featuring a goat eating a sneaker (of course, it ended with a non-dairy goat asking, "are you going to eat those sneakers?"). The puppeteers and writers love Zoe's pet rock, Rocco, but they felt that he made Zoe "a little too bossy" (thankfully for all you Rocco fans, he'll be back in season 41). The Mr. Snuffleupagus costume weighs 115 lbs. While Paul Simon was on set in between takes, he walked past Oscars can, and Oscar popped out and said "Boy, you are short!". Paul Simon was not amused (Caroll Spinney said, "I don't know why I did that! I love Paul Simon!").

The highlight of the panel was an impromptu concert with Chris Cerf and Bob McGrath. Unfortunately, Cerf's voice was almost completely lost at this point in the night, so it's better in theory than in practice. But that doesn't stop these guys from being living legends, so enjoy this video of Chris and Bob singing a few famous Sesame tunes!

A million thanks go out to the great folks at Sesame Workshop and the Brooklyn Public Library for organizing this event. It was a lot of fun, we learned a lot, and we were thrilled to see so many people attend and show some love for Sesame Street.

If you'd like to see the exhibit, it will be on display at the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza until February 21, 2010.
Click here to be denied a library card on the ToughPigs forum!

joe.toughpigs@gmail.com

Halloween Parade 2009: Super Grover Bonus!

Did you catch the annual ToughPigs Halloween Parade earlier this week? You'd better check it out! It's a pretty big deal.

ToughPigs' own Scott Hanson, who is also an administrator on the Muppet Wiki, has been collecting pictures of people dressed as Super Grover (hey, we all need hobbies!), and he was generous enough to share the pictures with us. And damn but is it a great collection!

So now, presenting the further adventures of everybody's favorite superhero, the man who is faster than lightning, stronger than steel, smarter than a speeding bullet... it's (people dressed as) Super Grover!






























Special thanks to Scott Hanson for providing these amazing pictures!

Click here to take flight on the ToughPigs forum!

joe.toughpigs@gmail.com