The Christmas Special Day 19: A Muppet Family Christmas (1987)

Directors: Peter Harris & Eric Till

Writer: Jerry Juhl

Cast: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Richard Hunt, Kathryn Mullen, Jerry Nelson, Karen Prell, Steve Whitmire, David Rudman, Caroll Spinney, Gerry Parkes

Plot: Kermit the Frog (Jim Henson) and many of the Muppets are off to spend Christmas at Fozzie Bear’s mother’s house (Fozzie and Ma Bear performed by Frank Oz and Jerry Nelson, respectively). They arrive to find that Ma is about to leave, having planned on taking a vacation to Florida for the holidays. Doc (Gerry Parkes) and his dog Sprocket (Steve Whitmire) are renting the house for a quiet holiday. When the Muppets arrive Ma decides to call off her vacation, and Doc finds himself surrounded by strange creatures. (Perplexed, he asks Sprocket if the Muppets are like the “Fraggles” his dog often reports encountering back home.) As everyone settles in, Kermit gets a call from Miss Piggy (Oz again), who is finishing up a photo shoot and plans to join them later. A Turkey (Whitmire again) arrives at the door, having been invited by the Swedish Chef (Henson), and the poultry-loving Gonzo (Dave Goelz) tries to convince him that a turkey at Christmas is more likely to be the main course than a guest. As more Muppets arrive, the farmhouse begins to descend into chaos: the Turkey tells Chef that Sprocket is the turkey, Fozzie Bear attempts to start up a new comedy routine with a Snowman (Richard Hunt), and the Turkey starts to hit on Gonzo’s girlfriend, Camilla. Scooter (Hunt) cheers everyone up with some home movies of the gang as babies, and just before Gonzo and the turkey come to blows, a group of carolers arrive: the Muppets’ friends from Sesame Street. They come in, Bert and Ernie (Oz and Henson) engage Doc in small talk about the letter B, and Christmas Eve.

Chef gets the Turkey into the kitchen and begins sizing him up for the pan, but the Turkey deflects his attention by pointing out the most delectable dish of all: Big Bird (Caroll Spinney). The news reports a terrible storm approaching, and Kermit begins to worry about Miss Piggy, who still hasn’t arrived. The different groups begin bonding, with Janice (Hunt) and Cookie Monster (Oz) “sharing” a plate of treats, drawing Animal (Oz)’s admiration, Oscar the Grouch (Spinney) offering to share his trash can with Rizzo the Rat (Whitmire), and Bert and Ernie leading the Sesame Street gang in a performance of “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Kermit gets a call from Piggy and tries to convince her to stay off the road during the storm. The pigheaded (rimshot) Muppet doesn’t listen, though, and tries to hail a taxi. The Chef summons Big Bird into the kitchen, planning to prepare him for dinner, but is touched when Big Bird – feeling sorry for him spending Christmas so far away from his home in Sweden – gives him a present of chocolate covered birdseed. When Doc sees Kermit staring out into the snow again, he offers to head out and look for Piggy. As Kermit waits, his nephew Robin (Nelson) summons him to the cellar, where he’s found what he believes to be a Fraggle hole. The two frogs wind up in the subterranean world of Fraggle Rock, where the Fraggles are in the midst of their own midwinter celebration, in which Mokey (Kathryn Mullen) is giving Boober (Goelz) a yellow pebble – which has been a present from Fraggle to Fraggle 37 times. Boober gives the pebble to Robin. As the Frogs return to the farmhouse, Doc arrives on a dogsled wearing a Mountie uniform – all things Miss Piggy just happened to have for him when he found her in the snow. After all, Miss Piggy knows how to make an entrance.

With everyone finally safe and warm in the farmhouse (which is now so tight on space Gonzo and Animal have to sleep on hangers on the wall), Ma Bear officially welcomes everyone to her home and Rowlf the Dog leads the extended Muppet family in their annual Carol Sing. The music summons the Fraggles into the farmhouse, and they join in. Gifts are exchanged – Kermit gives Piggy a mink, and Robin passes the Fraggle Pebble on to Grover – and in the kitchen, Jim Henson himself watches on and smiles… then recruits Sprocket to help him wash the dishes.

Thoughts: We finally get to Jim Henson’s most famous family of characters, the Muppet Show Muppets, making the Henson company’s final entry in our countdown. This special hits on several levels. First of all, it’s full of fantastic Christmas music – in and of itself, that’s enough to make it worth watching. We get a lot of traditionals in the Carol Sing at the end, as well as plenty of other songs throughout. There’s also a song plucked from Fraggle Rock – the joyful “Pass it on” – and the show caps off with a slightly modified version of “Together at Christmas” from The Christmas Toy.

It’s also impressive just how many different stories the special manages to juggle. Kermit and Piggy’s story is ostensibly the A-plot, but it doesn’t really have much more screen time than the Chef’s attempts at dinner, Gonzo’s rivalry with the turkey, Fozzie’s new act, Ma’s effort to find room for everybody, or the introduction of the Fraggles to the rest of the family. All of these things could command a larger chunk if they eliminated the other stories, but it would be a real loss to do so.

It’s also worth noting that most of the stories are pretty original – no retreads of Dickens or Capra or O’Henry, even though Henson has turned to that well before. It’s interesting to note, though, that of the four specials we’ve watched from the Henson company, all four have dealt with gift-giving and self-sacrifice on a fairly significant level. Food for thought.

But the thing that makes this legendary for fans of the Henson company is because this is the only time the casts of all three major Henson families came together on-screen. We saw the Muppet Show and Sesame Street characters interact on several occasions in the past, but throwing in the Fraggles (at the height of their popularity when this special was made) makes it… well, extra-special. There’s even a small bit with the Muppet Babies, when Scooter shows the home movies, allowing us to see them as puppets for only the second time. (Their debut was in the feature film The Muppets Take Manhattan – for their own show, they were animated.) Unfortunately, due to rights issues with the music used in that scene, most of it was cut from the special’s DVD release. There are actually several scenes removed or abbreviated for this reason, so a complete version has never made it to DVD. Even worse, because of the fracturing of the Jim Henson company, in which the Muppet Show characters were sold to Disney and the Sesame Street characters given to the Children’s Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop), the three families are now all owned by three different companies. Because of this, the DVD has been out of print for years, and can only be obtained used. Good luck – I managed to snag it when it was new and I’ve been watching the same disc for ten years, and it’s now extremely hard to come by. (Although you can find the whole thing on YouTube, and it’s worth it.)

Jim Henson was one of those creators that comes along once in a generation. While he wasn’t the sole force behind the creation of the Muppets, and probably gets too much credit for Sesame Street in some circles, the fact that he was the epicenter of so many different creative movements in his too-short time on this planet is nothing short of astonishing. The fact that so many people continue to use his creations to tell new and wonderful stories 20 years after his death is astonishing. He made something magical and lasting, and this special is one of the few places you can see the scope of his talent all at once, all together, as it should be. That, in and of itself, is a Christmas miracle of a kind.

Don’t forget, The Christmas Special is the third Reel to Reel movie study. The first, Mutants, Monsters and Madmen, is now available as a $2.99 eBook in the Amazon Kindle store and Smashwords.com bookstore. And you can find links to all of my novels, collections, and short stories, in their assorted print, eBook and audio forms, at the Now Available page!

An open letter to Disney and Muppet Studios

To the powers that be at the Walt Disney Company and Muppet Studios:

I’d like to tell you about my niece, Maggie. Maggie is 19 months old and completely in love with the Muppets. She can recognize Kermit on the spine of a DVD from a wall of over 500 cases. She carries her Walter doll everywhere she goes. She is not yet speaking in complete sentences, but she will sing along with “Mahna Mahna.” Her current record for watching The Muppets is four times in one day, and it would have been higher had her parents not carefully snuck in some of the other DVDs when she wasn’t paying attention.

Although the most recent film, The Muppets, is her favorite, Maggie has gleefully consumed every Muppet movie and television special currently available on DVD, as well as the first three seasons of The Muppet Show. When she sees me, her Uncle Blake, working on my computer, she gives me pleading eyes until I hoist her onto my lap and start finding clips of Kermit, Gonzo and the others on YouTube. The number crunchers at Google probably find it rather unusual that a 34-year-old man can spend upwards of an hour watching the same clips over and over and over and over and over again.

We’re trying to branch out. We’ve started sneaking episodes of Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock into the rotation, and although Maggie enjoys these programs as well, her heart belongs to the Muppet Show Muppets.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful. I’m a Muppet fan from as far back as I can remember, and if Maggie is going to be obsessed with something, I’m glad it’s the Muppets instead of some of the truly insipid shows that are on the air for the preschool set right now. (I’m not going to name any names, but I’m sure you can think of a few.)

The thing is, we’re running out of stuff. Oh sure, Maggie is perfectly happy watching the same Muppet movie over and over (and over and over) again, time after time, but for myself, her grandparents, and especially her parents, we’re really starting to crave new material.

Which brings me to the point of this letter. Please. For the love of God. Get the next Muppet movie made as fast as you can.

And while we’re waiting, why not release the last two seasons of The Muppet Show on DVD to help tide us over? And for that matter, the 22 episodes of Muppets Tonight? (I’d ask for Muppet Babies too, but I understand the legal hurdles involved with clearing all of the short film clips that program included that make such a DVD highly improbable.) I would have happily purchased these DVDs to add to my personal collection even before Maggie was born. Now, they’re practically a necessity.

We need — desperately — more Muppet product. And you, my friends, are our only hope.

In closing, let me just introduce you to the little girl you’ll be disappointing if you don’t produce these DVDs as quickly as possible:

Seriously. How can you say no to that face?

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 250: It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Podcast

The Muppets are back on the big screen, Blake’s niece Maggie is in love with Kermit, and it’s Christmas Eve. What better reason for Blake and Heather to sit down, watch, and discuss the Muppet specials A Muppet Family Christmas. The Muppet Christmas Carol, It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie and A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa? Also: learn the joys of podcasting with a 1-year-old! In the picks, Heather has become a big fan of ABC’s Once Upon a Time and Blake gives a plug to the first issue of IDW’s Memorial. Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@CXPulp.com!

Music provided by Music Alley from Mevio.

Episode 250: It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Podcast

It’s (Almost) Time to Play the Music

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Muppets lately. In and of itself, there’s nothing unusual about this. I spend approximately 63 percent of my waking time thinking about various projects connected to Jim Henson even on an ordinary day, so being Muppet-heavy is par for the course for me. But this week I’m thinking about them for a reason… because in a little less than two weeks, they’re going to be back on the big screen for the first time in 12 years.

To say I’m excited about this movie would be something of an understatement. I was “excited” when the McRib came back again. The Muppets? I’m ecstatic to have them back in movie theaters. I, like virtually everybody reading this who was born after 1957, grew up with the Muppets as a constant presence in my life. I loved the Sesame Street Muppets, I grew into the Muppet Show Muppets, I fell in love with their feature films one at a time. I still defend their 90s TV show, Muppets Tonight, as a worthy successor to the Muppet Legacy. I was devastated when Jim Henson passed away, and I waited with terrible anticipation to find out if Kermit the Frog would find a voice again with his creator gone. (He did, although some of Jim’s other creations — and here I am specifically thinking of Rowlf the Dog — still haven’t quite made a comeback.)

I was okay when the Walt Disney company bought the Muppets in 2004, because this was actually something Jim had been considering himself prior to his death. And I felt secure that, under Disney, the Muppets would flourish. But sadly, I have thus far been mistaken. Although they’ve made a few efforts — the TV movie Muppet Wizard of Oz and the special A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (the former was a mess, the second was good, but not great).

In truth, except for a few YouTube videos and a brilliant comic book series by Roger Langridge, there hasn’t been a lot about the Muppets for fans to get excited about. Disney’s intentions were no doubt good, but they haven’t known what to do with the characters. They still haven’t put out the last two seasons of the TV show on DVD, for Heaven’s sake. No, as is so often the case, our hope for the salvation of a brilliant cast of characters lies not with studio executives, but rather in the hearts of our own,  unabashed Muppet fans made good. The film was co-written by director Nick Stoller and actor Jason Segel, one of the stars of one of my favorite TV shows (How I Met Your Mother), who previously collaborated on the film Forgetting Sarah Marshal… which, admittedly, doesn’t make them the first choice for the Muppets. But I think Segel — himself an oversized Fozzie of a man — has the right heart for the property. Segel is star of the movie, which will feature a new Muppet named Walter (Segel’s character’s brother, in a wink-at-the-camera nod to The Great Muppet Caper) trying to find and reunite the Muppets after some time apart. The premise frankly sounds perfect for a movie intended to bring the characters back, make them stars again, and introduce them to an entire generation that hasn’t really gotten to see them enough.

“Geez, Blake,” you say. “Why are you getting so worked up over an old kids’ show?”

No, sir. No. If you dismiss the Muppets as “some old kids’ show,” you are not only demonstrably wrong, but you’ve fundamentally misunderstood one of the greatest artistic achievements of the last 50 years. And no, this is not one of those times I’m exaggerating for the sake of hyperbole. The Muppets were brilliant. Jim Henson was the second-greatest wizard of the 20th century, right behind Walt Disney himself. And those who carry his standard have a lot to live up to.

First of all, the Muppet Show Muppets (Kermit and the gang) were never intended to be characters merely for the entertainment of children. Hell, the title of the pilot episode of their show was “Sex and Violence.” You don’t do that if you want your entire audience to be in short pants. Yes, children should be able to watch the Muppets, and they should love them, but if their parents can’t sit down with them and love them just as much, then somebody, somewhere, has failed.

Henson gathered around him a cast of magnificent performers: Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Jerry Juhl, Steve Whitmire, Dave Goelz, Richard Hunt, Kevin Clash and many more that I’m embarrassed not to have mentioned by name. Each of these people was not only a puppeteer, but an actor, a comedian, a singer, a dancer, a mime, and probably a dozen other performing specialties all rolled into one. And the characters they created are every bit as clever and diverse: the exhausted Kermit the Frog, would-be diva Miss Piggy, neurotic comedian Fozzie Bear and so forth… each of them capturing a specific goal or ideal, something that speaks to something inside of us.

The Muppets were also subtly subversive, sneaking in little jokes and comments that the kids wouldn’t understand but that their parents snickered at, even going back to the aimed-at-kids Sesame Street segments. (One of the goals of Henson and show creator Joan Ganz Cooney was to create an educational show for children that wouldn’t bore the parents out of their minds.) The Muppets could teach, not only simple math, reading, and phonics on Sesame Street, but moral lessons in the likes of Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas, conservation messages in Fraggle Rock, and even classic literature from projects like A Muppet Christmas Carol (which, despite the fact that Charles Dickens was played by a little blue weirdo, remains one of the most faithful adaptations of Dickens’s original novel that exists).

And by God, they’re funny. I can pop in any episode of the Muppet show at random and be laughing in seconds, because the writing was not only smart and clever, but timeless. I’ve never seen anything with Rudolf Nureyev except for his Muppet Show episode, but I never felt left out of the jokes. Still don’t.

Disney may own the Muppets, but Henson and company’s creations really belong to everybody. For every goofy guy who just wants to tell jokes, every little girl who dreams of being a show-stealer, every awkward kid who knows they have the heart of a dancer in there somewhere, and every friend who spends half his life keeping the rest of his friends from coming apart at the seams… and wouldn’t have it any other way. The Muppets aren’t just felt and foam. The Muppets mean something. The Muppets matter.

Here’s hoping, in two weeks, they prove that all over again.

Everything But Imaginary #350: Those Things We Get For Free

Last week was the ninth annual Free Comic Book Day — maybe you heard something about it. This week in Everything But Imaginary, I’m sitting down with the books I picked up on the greatest of Geek Holidays and give you my thoughts on everything from War of the Supermen to Fraggle Rock and everything in-between.

Everything But Imaginary #350: Those Things We Get For Free

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 169: Free Comic Book Day 2010

It’s time once again for Geek Christmas, Free Comic Book Day! The Showcase boys, including Blake, Mike, and first-time panelist Daniel, sat in at BSI Comics in Metaire, where they talked to novelist Lewis Aleman, the world’s smallest Clone Trooper, and chatted about the beginning of War of the Supermen, the upcoming Iron Man 2, the recently-released Kick-Ass, and discussed just what they hope to see Free Comic Book Day become in the future. Thanks again to BSI Comics for being our host now for four years running! Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@comixtreme.com!

Music provided by the Podshow Podsafe Music Network.

Episode 169: Free Comic Book Day 2010
Inside This Episode:

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 125: Convention Season Kick-Off

Chase is out of town, so Blake and Mike sit down this week to talk about the beginning of the comic book convention season! The guys discuss the current state of comic cons, Mike talks about his experiences at last weekend’s Wizard World Philadelphia convention, and the boys bat around some of the announcements from Philly and HeroesCon in Charlotte! In the picks this week, Mike chooses Power Girl #2 and Blake selects Zorro #14, with a bonus book pick, Was Superman a Spy? Contact us with comments, suggestions, “Ask Chase Anything” questions, or anything else at Showcase@Comixtreme.com!

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 125: Convention Season Kick-Off
Inside This Episode:

Plus: Let’s get literary! Chase has work conflicts this week, so Blake gets together with his sister Heather for this special edition of Week in Geek! The sibs discuss the recently concluded Percy Jackson series of novels by Rick Riordan, chat about the currently in-production Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief movie, and dive into the mythology surrounding the new J.C. Hutchins novel, Personal Effects: Dark Art.

Week in Geek #24: Percy Jackson and Personal Effects

Plus: Blake flies solo for this review of the new Todd Phillips comedy The Hangover. When three guys at a bachelor party wake up to find the bachelor missing, hijinks ensue. But is it funny enough to spend your money on?

At the Movies Episode 7: The Hangover

Everything But Imaginary #311: Convoluted Convention Report

Jonah Hex in hardcover? The return of Top Dog? Comics on the Kindle? The comic book convention season has begun, and this week I take a look at some of the announcements from last weekend’s HeroesCon in Charlotte and Wizard World Philadelphia conventions!

Everything But Imaginary #311: Convoluted Convention Report
Inside this Column:

What I’m Reading: It’s Not Easy Being Green

Between the Street Gang book and the upcoming Muppet Show comic book from Boom! Studios, I’m in something of a Muppet Mode lately. So I dug out a book I got a few years ago, the 2005 book It’s Not Easy Being Green (and Other Things to Consider). This is essentially a coffee table book, but too small to fill the table. A “Keepsake” book?” I’m sure there’s some publishing industry term for a book like this one, but I don’t know what it is.

At any rate, this isn’t a work of fiction, but it’s not a real deep, researched tome like the aforementioned Street Gang either. What we have here, essentially, is a collection of quotes by or about Muppet creator Jim Henson or his various thoughts on life. Using things Henson wrote or said — and, in fact, drew — the book expounds upon his gentle, optimistic, mildly anarchic view of the universe. The quotes are well-chosen, I certainly feel like they illuminate the man very well.

The book also contains a lot of quotes from Jim’s friends, family, and co-workers — people like his son Brian Henson, his fellow Muppeteers Frank Oz, Jerry Juhl, and Kevin Clash, and other collaborators like Joan Ganz Cooney, the guiding force behind Sesame Street. These quotes are usually about Jim himself, about what a kind, inspiring, and powerfully imaginative man he actually was.

Finally, the book contains a lot of quotes from Jim’s characters. The stars of The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock are all over this book, along with quotes from far more obscure Henson productions, like the 1969 television movie The Cube(which, incidentally, bears a striking resemblance in concept to the sci-fi/horror movie of the same name). Some of these are classic, familiar quotes. Some of them are the entire text of a song or a sketch from one of the shows. Some of them I’ve never heard before. But they’re all chosen to help illuminate how Henson’s philosophies were expressed in his characters — Bert and Ernie singing about how they’re best friends even though they don’t have anything in common; Kermit making Gonzo realize how lucky he is just to be himself… and how could we forget the legendary wisdom of the Fraggle Rock theme song?

This isn’t a must-read. It’s a very fast read, most people can probably get through the whole book in an hour, which isn’t really worth the $16.95 cover price. On the other hand, the book has been out for a few years now, and chances are you can find it remaindered for far less money in a lot of bookstores, and if you can snare it for five bucks or less, it may be worth it. Especially if you’re a fan of Jim Henson and the Muppets. It’s a nice keepsake — yeah, that word fits — if the words and genius of the Muppets and their extended family means something to you. It certainly means something to me.

Everything But Imaginary #287: Geekgifts 2008 and the EBI Awards

With only three weeks left until Christmas, friends, it seems like it’s time to get shopping for the geek on your list. So it’s time for my annual EBI list of suggested gifts for the geek in your life — books, electronics, collectables and the like. Hopefully, my list can help you guys make your choices.

But that’s not all! Stick around and find out how to make your choices for the best in comics in 2008 in the sixth annual Everything But Imaginary Awards!

Everything But Imaginary #287: Geekgifts and the EBI Awards