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The Muppets Mayhem: Backstage Pass - "Drift Away" with David Rudman (Janice) · Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com

• 0:05
  Hello and welcome to The Muppets Mayhem Backstage.
• 0:09
  Pass the unofficial companion podcast to The Muppets Mayhem
• 0:12
  presented by topics.com. This is the podcast where we
• 0:15
  tour through every episode of The Muppets Mayhem to uncover
• 0:18
  behind the scenes, stories, Easter eggs and more.
• 0:21
  With the talented cast and crew who helped put the series
• 0:23
  together. I'm your host, dedicated mayhead
• 0:25
  Joe Hennis. Today we are talking about the
• 0:28
  penultimate track 9, Drift Away, in which the Electric Mayhem get
• 0:33
  addicted to their electronic devices and go their separate
• 0:36
  ways. This week, we're excited to
• 0:38
  welcome some very special guests.
• 0:40
  First up, he's the cocreator and executive producer of The
• 0:44
  Muppets Mayhem. Please welcome Jeff York's back
• 0:46
  to the podcast. Hey, Jeff.
• 0:47
  Thank you. Thank you so much for having me
• 0:49
  back. A pleasure.
• 0:50
  Thank you for being back. Always good to hear ya.
• 0:53
  Next up, he's another Co creator and executive producer, as well
• 0:56
  as the performer responsible for keeping Dr. Hi, how are you?
• 0:58
  Teeth's gold tooth nice and shiny.
• 1:00
  Please welcome Bill Beretta back to the podcast.
• 1:03
  Hey, Bill. Nice to see you.
• 1:06
  Nice to see you and to hear you both of them.
• 1:10
  Our final guest is the Muppet performer who gives life to The
• 1:13
  Electric Mayhem's lead guitarist and space age moonchild, Janice.
• 1:18
  Please welcome David Rudman to the podcast.
• 1:20
  Hey, David. Hello, Joe.
• 1:23
  Nice to be here. So glad you're here to talk
• 1:26
  about this episode. What a what a joy, what a treat.
• 1:30
  So before we get into it, we haven't been talking about the
• 1:34
  episode titles on this show. Some of them are songs that we
• 1:37
  hear in the episode, but some of them, like this one drift away,
• 1:41
  is not. I just wanted to point out that
• 1:44
  this has an unintentional Muppet connection because many people
• 1:48
  don't know Drift Away, which was recorded by Dobie Gray
• 1:51
  originally, was written by Mentor Williams, brother of Paul
• 1:56
  Williams. How about that?
• 1:57
  Really. Did you guys know that?
• 1:59
  Incredible. Oh, you thought that was
• 2:00
  unintentional? Was that intentional?
• 2:06
  Yeah, you didn't know Paul Williams had a brother who was a
• 2:09
  songwriter. No, I just.
• 2:09
  That's incredible. Yeah.
• 2:11
  This is definitely Mentor Williams most famous song and as
• 2:14
  Paul. Gray has put it's the only song
• 2:16
  he wishes that he had written, which is I think is very sweet.
• 2:20
  It's a great song. It is.
• 2:22
  I love this song. We should hear the mayhem Sing
• 2:24
  it someday. Yeah, maybe so, David, this is
• 2:30
  probably Janice's biggest spotlight and probably her
• 2:34
  entire career. How did it feel to give so much
• 2:37
  life to her so many years after her original hayday in The
• 2:41
  Muppet Show? It was really fun to spend four
• 2:47
  months playing Janice and. Really developing her as a fully
• 2:54
  well defined character and I think having this incredible
• 2:59
  team of writers and creators, it was in.
• 3:05
  It was in really good hands and I think, you know, everything
• 3:10
  felt really, really solid and it was fun to play with Janice and
• 3:16
  do more than just say for sure all the time.
• 3:18
  Like it really. All of the for sures were there,
• 3:22
  but it was nice to develop her more than just the other girl
• 3:26
  saying for sure, really, you know, it was nice to kind of
• 3:29
  develop her more and I think it was fun finding her, you know,
• 3:34
  finding her personality and finding more about her.
• 3:38
  Joe, can I ask David a question? You could ask whatever.
• 3:41
  You want We've never, we've never spoken about.
• 3:43
  I'm just curious because you were so close to Richard.
• 3:48
  How? How does it feel like?
• 3:52
  What are there things about him that you think maybe you knew
• 3:56
  that he put into Janice? Or was it just kind of him doing
• 3:59
  this fun, weird character and then you're taking that on and
• 4:04
  like you said, you've got to add new things.
• 4:06
  But do you think about Richard and how he performed her or any
• 4:09
  of like what is what feeds that? Yeah, I definitely think about
• 4:14
  Richard a lot when I'm performing.
• 4:17
  Especially when I was singing True Colors.
• 4:20
  Like, for some reason, like Richard just kept coming into my
• 4:24
  mind when I was recording that. And you know, just I know he,
• 4:30
  you know, would have loved to have a chance to do that song,
• 4:35
  I'm sure, But I think you know. You know, he he inherited Janice
• 4:44
  from somebody else. So he he was like maybe the
• 4:46
  second person to play Janice and he really was the one to set the
• 4:51
  tone for her and give her that kind of Valley Girl personality.
• 4:55
  And I know that sort of came from different things.
• 4:58
  I think it came from when he was on SNL the first season doing
• 5:02
  doing Muppets. It was something that Lorraine
• 5:04
  Newman had a kind of this Valley Girl character that she was
• 5:07
  doing, and I think that they may have influenced him.
• 5:11
  Been bringing that to Janice. So, you know, I think when I
• 5:18
  took over Janice, you know, whenever that was 2008 nine, I
• 5:23
  of course didn't want to change the whole Valley Valley girl
• 5:27
  vibe and you know, keep that going.
• 5:29
  But I always wanted to elevate her.
• 5:32
  And you know, I think now I had the chance to do it.
• 5:34
  But you know, Richard's always on my mind.
• 5:36
  Every time I put my hand in the puppet, I think of him.
• 5:38
  You know, and it's the way he moved her and he, but since she
• 5:41
  when when she played the guitar, when he always had her head
• 5:44
  back, you know, like you know, in their neck, the long neck and
• 5:48
  her head's been her hair's going.
• 5:50
  So, you know, I try to definitely bring some of that to
• 5:54
  Janice that you know, some of the technical puppeteering that
• 5:57
  Richard did, I. Tell you what happened, Bill.
• 6:00
  Like, I think I told you this story.
• 6:02
  I was out in Jersey. This was like a couple of months
• 6:04
  ago and. This is sort of nuts.
• 6:06
  And I was hanging out with a friend, just catching up before
• 6:09
  I had to go somewhere in the middle of Jersey.
• 6:11
  And his kids babysitter came over and he was my friend's all
• 6:16
  proud of me. And he I wish I remember her
• 6:17
  name. I don't remember her name, but
• 6:19
  he said, hey, I want you to meet my friend Jeff.
• 6:22
  Do you know who The Muppets are? And she's like, yeah, he said,
• 6:26
  Well, Jeff has this new Muppet show and she's like, well, yeah,
• 6:31
  well, my uncle was a Muppet. I was like, what?
• 6:35
  What does that even mean? She's like, well, he was one of
• 6:37
  the original performers. I said, what does that mean?
• 6:40
  She's like, he was, he was beaker.
• 6:42
  He was Janice. He was sweet.
• 6:46
  And I'm like, what what kind of practical joke are you pulling
• 6:49
  on? Your uncle was Richard Hunt.
• 6:52
  And she's like, yeah, so her mother's brother was Richard
• 6:56
  Hunt. I.
• 6:58
  Wonder it was a Rachel. Was it Rachel's?
• 7:01
  Is her mom. Yes, Rachel's daughter.
• 7:03
  Rachel, yeah, Rachel's daughter. Yeah, and that's how small the
• 7:06
  world is. And I was just like, oh.
• 7:09
  My God, that's. Well, yeah.
• 7:10
  Our show focuses on Janice and the rest of the band, and she's
• 7:14
  like, that's awesome. Yeah, I have like pictures of
• 7:16
  Frank holding me as a baby and Dave Golds dropping me as a
• 7:20
  baby. And.
• 7:24
  I just. I just could not believe it.
• 7:25
  I left just sort of like shook. I called Bill.
• 7:27
  Bill wasn't picking up. I just kept calling like I have
• 7:30
  to tell this to someone who it was just it was a really nuts
• 7:34
  kind of. Incredible.
• 7:35
  Small world. Yeah.
• 7:36
  No. Yeah, I know Rachel well and I
• 7:39
  haven't talked to her in a while.
• 7:40
  But yeah, I know Richard's whole family and this is the thing
• 7:43
  about the Muppet world is I feel like we all Frost Pads.
• 7:48
  You know, the whether it's the puppeteers and and like people
• 7:51
  in the industry and the fans. And we just, at least in my
• 7:55
  experience, like we just run into each other in the world as
• 7:58
  if, as if the universe wants us to, you know, magnetically
• 8:02
  connect somehow. I, you know, I was actually the
• 8:04
  first person to recognize Richard Hunt really when when I
• 8:09
  was. I think I've told this story
• 8:11
  before but when I was 17 I was in You've probably heard this,
• 8:15
  Joe. But when I was 17, I was at in
• 8:18
  DC. There was like a puppeteering.
• 8:22
  Unumah Convention 1980 and The Muppets were performing at the
• 8:25
  Kennedy Center and I went to it and before the show there was
• 8:32
  like a reception in front and Jim was there and Frank was
• 8:37
  there and Richard was there and I just seen The Muppets on 60
• 8:42
  minutes. This is like did a story in like
• 8:45
  like right around that time And so Richard was like all over
• 8:48
  that interview and he was so funny and.
• 8:51
  Just like I couldn't like help. But look at that guy and go he I
• 8:55
  want to. I'd love to meet that guy
• 8:57
  someday. So like few months later, I'm at
• 9:01
  the Kennedy Center. I'm just walking around.
• 9:03
  I see Jim and Frank and I'm walk past this guy who's wearing this
• 9:07
  orange University of New Jersey tshirt, which there isn't such a
• 9:11
  place but it's Richard. He didn't go to college, but he
• 9:14
  went to the University of New Jersey and.
• 9:18
  I'm like, that's the guy from the Muds, Richard Hunt.
• 9:20
  So I went up to him and I said, are you Richard Hunt?
• 9:22
  He goes, yeah, how do you know me?
• 9:24
  I said I just recognized you. He goes, wait, you recognize me?
• 9:28
  I go, yeah, you're one of the Muppet guys.
• 9:30
  He goes, come here. And he grabbed me, dragged me
• 9:33
  over to Jim and Frank and he said this guy recognized me for
• 9:40
  the first time and so incredible.
• 9:43
  And so then like we talked a little bit.
• 9:48
  You know, And then they went to do the show.
• 9:50
  And then I didn't see him again for like another year.
• 9:52
  Once I started working for The Muppets, as at the workshop, I
• 9:55
  ran into him again. He's like, hey, you're like, so
• 9:58
  and so from from Chicago. Yeah.
• 10:02
  And I go, yeah, he goes, How'd you get in here?
• 10:06
  That's cosmic. That's great.
• 10:09
  Yeah, I love that. Who was The Who was the
• 10:11
  character? Didn't he used to do?
• 10:13
  The only time I ever talked to him and and met him was at
• 10:16
  Brian's wedding. In Tortola.
• 10:20
  And he he came through the crowd.
• 10:23
  His reverend character. Right, Reverend Richie.
• 10:26
  Yeah. And he came through, just given
• 10:29
  the gospel and the crowd like it was just everybody was just
• 10:32
  waiting for something, like for the wedding to start.
• 10:35
  And from the back of this crowd he came, but he's calling out.
• 10:39
  He was doing his sermon through the crowd and people separated
• 10:42
  and he came forward. I was like, oh man, this guy is
• 10:46
  unbelievable. Yeah, so.
• 10:49
  Well, so we're we're talking about how great Richard Hunt was
• 10:53
  and, you know, just such a a unique, a singular human being.
• 10:59
  What do you think? If he were still around, and if
• 11:01
  you were performing Janice for a project like this, what do you
• 11:04
  think he would have brought to the character that we're just
• 11:08
  unable to comprehend? But do you think that there's
• 11:11
  like that that missing element that that's just very
• 11:14
  specifically, Richard, it's. An interesting question.
• 11:19
  How you would know how you was? I mean, I guess that's true.
• 11:23
  I will say this coming from, you know, being a Muppet fan,
• 11:28
  Richard was my Janice. And even as we were writing,
• 11:32
  we're just writing for the character.
• 11:35
  And there was always that just slight hesitation, OK, we're
• 11:38
  going to you know. David does Janice and I remember
• 11:42
  Adam and I turning at some point and just being like, no, he's
• 11:45
  Janice. You absolutely are Janice.
• 11:47
  You're your Janice. But now our Janice.
• 11:50
  Does that make sense? It's, it's just.
• 11:53
  But he was developing her further even on the over the
• 11:55
  years, I mean. Absolutely, absolutely. 2000 and
• 11:58
  I mean and and then Real and got an opportunity, at least on the
• 12:01
  last series to play a bit more with her.
• 12:04
  Not a lot, right? But, but at least you had some
• 12:06
  more time with her there. But.
• 12:08
  Yeah, yeah, It's been your it's kind of been your Janice for a
• 12:11
  while. It's it's never ours, right?
• 12:13
  When we take over somebody's characters, Never ours anyway,
• 12:16
  but. It's our, you know, and we we
• 12:19
  have to make it our own. We grow into it, yeah.
• 12:23
  Yeah, right. And you have to, you have to,
• 12:25
  you know, keep, you know, a little bit of the original
• 12:29
  character because that's like in the DNA of the character.
• 12:33
  But then you have to bring something new to it, or else
• 12:35
  it's just not authentic. Yeah, it doesn't grow and they
• 12:38
  can't grow. It's like we maintain, we
• 12:40
  maintain the integrity of of who they are and what the original
• 12:44
  aiders created. And then hopefully we can add a
• 12:47
  little bit in there along the way until yeah, yeah.
• 12:52
  They have to stay, they have to stay relevant.
• 12:54
  In order to stay relevant they have to be able to evolve and
• 12:58
  change so. This was a great opportunity to
• 13:01
  do that. It was really fun, yeah.
• 13:04
  And Speaking of changes, how did you feel about the revelation
• 13:09
  that Janice has an identical twin sister?
• 13:13
  I love that story and I know I think I'd heard, I think Bill
• 13:18
  mentioned it to me like way back that there was they're thinking
• 13:21
  of doing that and I just, I love getting her back story and I
• 13:28
  love how that connected to the story, you know, the the sisters
• 13:34
  in the show like their story and it really helped.
• 13:36
  Them with their situation, so it just came together really nicely
• 13:40
  I thought and. Dovetails So.
• 13:43
  Yeah, it really, it really did. And Sarah was fantastic.
• 13:46
  And well, she was she she was talking about your performance
• 13:49
  with her at the door and how amazing you were with Janice
• 13:53
  revealing that photo of the sisters to her.
• 13:56
  And yeah, she just loved that scene.
• 13:58
  That was her favorite. Like most, I guess she felt.
• 14:01
  What did she say it was like? Like it just felt like real
• 14:07
  emotion. There wasn't, it wasn't The
• 14:08
  Muppets comedy thing, but it was just a real scene that she got
• 14:12
  to play with the Muppet and she loved it.
• 14:15
  I didn't think it was very good, but she liked.
• 14:17
  I know what? What does she know?
• 14:19
  Yeah. Actress.
• 14:23
  No, that was, I mean just being able to work with Sarah and you
• 14:27
  know Lily and Taj and Anders, they're just they're so great
• 14:32
  and. Just being able to play those
• 14:34
  real scenes with them, you know, or it wasn't just comedy, you
• 14:38
  know, was like some nice emotion really helped define the
• 14:42
  characters too. Just giving more levels.
• 14:45
  Again, like I was saying, just, you know, playing stuff for
• 14:48
  real. I loved it.
• 14:50
  You know, some of the scenes with Lily too, is just, you
• 14:53
  know, it's just fun to explore that.
• 14:56
  Tell the Lily story. The sleepover when you guys are
• 14:59
  laying next to it. Not the sleepover, but the.
• 15:01
  Sorry, what? Oh yeah.
• 15:03
  Lily's favorite moment We're now.
• 15:05
  We're going to quote one of the previous podcast.
• 15:10
  She just said one of her greatest moments on the show and
• 15:13
  it just felt again, super real, but I guess in a different way,
• 15:16
  was when she walks in for the first time to find you in your
• 15:20
  pillow palace, You know in the pillow nest and you're
• 15:25
  underground, you're under the floorboards and you're
• 15:28
  performing Janice. So Lily's just walking into a
• 15:30
  room where just. Janice is right there.
• 15:33
  There's no sign of any performers or any you know and
• 15:36
  she's just having this conversation.
• 15:37
  She just felt it was just such a great scene for her.
• 15:41
  And, Bill pointed out probably your.
• 15:44
  Worst experience? Having to be like the complete
• 15:48
  opposite of enjoying the moment. Stretch because I.
• 15:52
  Had your shoulder was against the.
• 15:54
  Floor Not only stretch up to get Janice's, but she was on a
• 15:57
  pillow. Or a couple of pillows.
• 15:59
  So I like my head was literally at the bottom of the floor and I
• 16:05
  had to stretch all the up and kind of deliver somewhat of a
• 16:08
  performance. And that's why I said to, I said
• 16:11
  did it. Yours was completely opposite.
• 16:13
  A couple times that way and then we took the floor out and we
• 16:16
  just shot her half. Out of that but we also talked
• 16:20
  about the scene where your where Janice is in the hospital bed
• 16:24
  and you're basically in this coffin performing Janice I I I
• 16:30
  could be wrong you you all tell me if if this is accurate but
• 16:35
  Janice may have been in the worst positions for a puppeteer
• 16:40
  in this entire series. Do you think that you had it the
• 16:44
  worst? Some good ones.
• 16:45
  Everybody got it, there was. Some good ones.
• 16:47
  I think there was one when she when she sneezed and passed out.
• 16:51
  And then she was laying down and you guys were all around her.
• 16:55
  There was another one where it was like, I don't even know how
• 16:57
  I was able to get my arm to do that everything.
• 17:01
  But how far can we push Rudman before he?
• 17:04
  Snaps. You know, before your arm snaps
• 17:07
  there. Were some fun.
• 17:08
  Like the yoga pose scene, which I think it was in this episode
• 17:12
  that we're going to start to talk about.
• 17:14
  We've already, like, run out of time.
• 17:16
  Yeah, exactly. Okay, that was really fun.
• 17:20
  But that was just posing Janice and I think I was in blue or had
• 17:26
  a blue sleeve on, so they just removed me from it.
• 17:28
  So that was fun to pose her, and it was just sort of me and Alice
• 17:32
  just coming up with these. Really funny.
• 17:35
  Like, ridiculous poses to go along with what these guys
• 17:38
  wrote. Yeah, well, let's let's talk
• 17:40
  about this episode, and we'll get to that yoga scene in just a
• 17:43
  second. But we start with a cold open
• 17:45
  Nora is driving the band around in her car because the van has
• 17:49
  been stolen by the Beliebers, but they're all on their phones
• 17:54
  and they're not really paying attention to her.
• 17:57
  Nora wonders how they can all be on their phones without getting
• 17:59
  carsick, and so of course they all immediately get carsick.
• 18:03
  We had written ourselves into a corner because the van was
• 18:06
  stolen and all of our episodes start with the van cold open, so
• 18:10
  we had to figure out how to make that work.
• 18:12
  Right. And they had to buy a car.
• 18:15
  Talk about being in some positions in that car, getting
• 18:19
  six of us in there, plus Lily. That was a tight one.
• 18:24
  Did that car have a false bottom or are you just crammed into
• 18:27
  the? No bottom, but still it was a
• 18:29
  small little. Car, you know, Sure, yeah.
• 18:32
  So we stores with with our monitors and everything we need.
• 18:36
  It was still, and then everybody's all scrunched up.
• 18:39
  Yeah. And then the projections were,
• 18:42
  the projection screens were all all around the car.
• 18:45
  So we could see, you know, driving down Sunset Blvd. or
• 18:49
  wherever we were. We can, you know, we can kind of
• 18:51
  see the backgrounds moving and we're going really cool.
• 18:56
  You guys were just in a fit of giggles.
• 18:58
  Yeah, I was. I was very proud of my burps.
• 19:01
  I was proud of my burp thing. I don't know what happened, but
• 19:04
  it was like really, it was an authentic one.
• 19:06
  I can't remember what how it was.
• 19:07
  There was some nice regurgitation.
• 19:09
  It was sounded wet. It was like a It was like a gag
• 19:12
  and like a like a. And a wet it was like, yeah,
• 19:15
  like a gurgle burp or something. I remember like we were cracking
• 19:19
  up when we were doing that, like the gagging, like starting the
• 19:23
  line and like, like having like, interrupt the line.
• 19:28
  I'm very grateful that there's a lot of heaving and a little bit
• 19:32
  of burping, but like, you don't take it too far.
• 19:36
  As someone who I I am a sympathetic vomiter.
• 19:40
  Like, I don't like seeing, I don't like thinking about
• 19:42
  vomiting. Like it just it puts me over the
• 19:44
  edge. And I think if you took it a
• 19:47
  little bit further, I would have been like, oh, I don't know, I
• 19:49
  got a fast word through this scene.
• 19:50
  Next time, like, I can't deal with it, but the heaving was
• 19:53
  okay if I you know. I think, oh, yeah, that was
• 19:58
  Janice. Yeah.
• 20:01
  I think my favorite thing was animal going oh, like every
• 20:04
  time. And then and then there was a
• 20:07
  take we didn't use, which was an animal just wanted to be like
• 20:09
  everybody else. And so he stuck his hands in his
• 20:11
  mouth to gag himself, and then he'd throw.
• 20:15
  The person's gonna hate this, Yeah.
• 20:20
  So our episode begins. Janice is leaving with excuse
• 20:24
  me, Janice is leading a yoga live stream on Instagram and we
• 20:29
  see here doing all these poses. The downward dog, downward
• 20:31
  facing, upside reclining donkey, 3 legged rooster, the flirty
• 20:36
  mermaid, the drowsy dreidel, the nauseous narwhal, and the
• 20:40
  magician's assistant, which that last one is her levitating
• 20:44
  somehow. Going wee.
• 20:46
  That was very fun. So you're making these up on the
• 20:48
  spots? No, the names were written, they
• 20:52
  were in the script and they were hilarious.
• 20:55
  But the poses, I just, I remember just working with
• 20:58
  Alice, we just had. We had the Janice puppet that I
• 21:01
  went in through the back of her head and she was all armatured,
• 21:04
  like her arms, legs were all armatured, so we would just
• 21:09
  like. Come up with like funny poses
• 21:11
  and like, ridiculous poses. I think, Bill, you were there.
• 21:13
  I think you were there for. In and out.
• 21:15
  I looked back and forth a little.
• 21:16
  Bit, but it was just like coming up with like these ridiculous
• 21:21
  poses and being able to bend her in any direction we wanted.
• 21:24
  And and then yeah, and then I think it ended with the
• 21:30
  magician's assistant. So we just had Alice was holding
• 21:33
  her legs, I think, and I was holding her head and just did
• 21:36
  that little wee. That's best.
• 21:39
  There's an interesting amount of levitation happening on this
• 21:42
  show, but it mostly comes from Zoot.
• 21:44
  I feel like this is the one where Janice kind of joins in on
• 21:47
  the magic. Yeah, and Janice has gotten over
• 21:54
  a million Instagram followers in just a week.
• 21:56
  Because she's got all these followers that just blindly
• 21:58
  follow everything she says. Yeah.
• 22:01
  Yeah, it's all new to her. It's like, wow.
• 22:04
  She's a natural. That's important, Yeah.
• 22:07
  Not surprised. Lips is meeting with
• 22:11
  speechwriters in his quest to save the world.
• 22:14
  The one sitting right next to him is a guy named Ben
• 22:17
  Zevlansky. Who?
• 22:19
  Zevlansky is one of my one of my college buddies, though he is.
• 22:24
  Yep. And and Adam, we all went to
• 22:26
  school together and he's he's also on a ton of The Goldbergs.
• 22:33
  Yeah, I noticed that. I love his reading for Europe.
• 22:36
  You're you're in the band. Yeah, that's really.
• 22:40
  Good. Yeah, there's also a whiteboard
• 22:42
  behind them. And I paused and tried to get as
• 22:45
  much of the whiteboard as I could to see if there was any
• 22:48
  jokes in there. And there were, of course, you
• 22:51
  know, things you know that you would expect to see.
• 22:53
  Save the whales and plant trees go green.
• 22:56
  There's one thing that says find out who let the dogs out.
• 23:00
  There's a higher pay, lower expectations.
• 23:03
  No white shoes after Labor Day. Feed the homeless home, the food
• 23:07
  list. And my favorite was stop
• 23:10
  cyberbullying and also regular bullying.
• 23:15
  Jeff, you are nodding. I'm guessing this was all you.
• 23:17
  Is that correct? No, no, no.
• 23:19
  But we did spend a good 20 minutes just coming up with a
• 23:22
  bunch of issues to tackle. Yeah, it's a blast just being
• 23:26
  sent off to do like that's the the distraction for the day.
• 23:31
  There's the job. Life is so hard, Yeah.
• 23:34
  I just wanna go back to one thing that Janice said in that
• 23:36
  earlier scene where she said like breathe in peace and
• 23:40
  breathe out love. Yeah, it was at the end and I I
• 23:43
  heard that when I was driving into the studio on the radio
• 23:47
  like a like a week before I just heard it so like and and I was
• 23:50
  like that's a Janice saying have I ever heard one?
• 23:53
  So I just wrote it down and I just it was like the perfect
• 23:56
  time to say it. Ohh.
• 23:58
  Wow. So great.
• 23:59
  Yeah, great. Awesome.
• 24:01
  I I just assumed that that was a scripted thing.
• 24:02
  I didn't even didn't even clock for me.
• 24:04
  I don't think it was. It was like it wasn't.
• 24:06
  It was just I just threw that in and.
• 24:08
  Tried some things somehow. Yeah, yeah, nice.
• 24:11
  Well, that was so much fun about the show is that we could try
• 24:13
  lots of things, you know, do alt takes.
• 24:16
  And you know, it was such a surprise to see all the episodes
• 24:20
  because there was so many. You know, there's lots of
• 24:23
  versions. So much coverage.
• 24:25
  You know, it really could have been.
• 24:28
  Edited together so many different ways, so it's fun to
• 24:30
  see how it all turned out. That's why we need to see
• 24:35
  outtakes. We need to see like deleted
• 24:37
  scene compilations. We need to see extended scenes.
• 24:40
  If anyone from Disney Plus is listening, that's what we want.
• 24:44
  We want more, more, more, more. Hannah is helping Animal with
• 24:49
  his TikTok dances. He's got almost 4 million
• 24:53
  followers on TikTok and we get to see like a little compilation
• 24:56
  of all these full body animal dances, which is super fun.
• 25:01
  And we we had David Bizarro on the podcast earlier and he was
• 25:05
  talking a little bit about performing animals feet for
• 25:07
  these. And yeah, it turns out animal
• 25:11
  has killer rhythm. Who?
• 25:12
  Who would have known? For a drummer that he did good
• 25:15
  rhythm, but Hannah's working into the bone and he collapses
• 25:19
  in exhaustion. That's gonna be his runner
• 25:21
  throughout this episode is that he's he is tired.
• 25:25
  Did any, did either of you guys work on on this animal stuff or
• 25:28
  were you just kind of watching on the sidelines?
• 25:30
  No, no, I didn't. That's right.
• 25:32
  Our hands in it. No.
• 25:34
  Yeah, no, not not hands on, but there.
• 25:37
  But it's always it's always surprising to see how long
• 25:42
  animals legs are, how short this torso is.
• 25:45
  Yeah, you know, this is something we're talking about.
• 25:48
  Muppet. Height is a thing that goes up
• 25:50
  and down well, but things change obviously, and Janice is
• 25:54
  obviously always, especially when we see her merchandise.
• 25:57
  She's very tall and she's very thin.
• 25:59
  But one thing that I've always wondered when we see Zoot
• 26:03
  specifically, he seems to have these tiny little legs, but not
• 26:08
  always. Is there like, are you trying to
• 26:11
  keep it consistent when we see these full bodied Muppets or is
• 26:15
  it like, I don't know, whatever legs are attached to them, just
• 26:18
  move on. Well, no, I think, I think we
• 26:21
  have to address his legs, you know, because he is considerably
• 26:24
  shorter than everybody else. And you see it in the opening,
• 26:28
  you know, the concert that they do in the opening show.
• 26:31
  But what's in you know, you normally don't see them all
• 26:34
  standing next to each other. Normally, if they are full body,
• 26:38
  Zoot's usually sitting on a stool right, playing something
• 26:42
  or right just to get we. We try to find those heights for
• 26:46
  everyone so it feels balanced. More so.
• 26:49
  It's rare that I'm trying to think of another time when we
• 26:52
  saw Zoot standing next to lips. Full body.
• 26:56
  I don't know if there is one. Yeah, normally it's a, it's a,
• 26:59
  you know half body. The frame cuts you off or or
• 27:03
  they're inside of something or sitting on something just like
• 27:07
  out in the back when they're playing at the pool.
• 27:09
  Janice is sitting on something. Zoot's kind of in the back
• 27:12
  sitting lip. You know, they're all we're
• 27:16
  trying to find create this composition or this look that
• 27:19
  feels like it's balanced. And unfortunately, yes, Zoot has
• 27:23
  very small legs and he probably needs a a good. 5 inches added
• 27:28
  to his legs, just as he would still be the shortest.
• 27:31
  I need that too. Okay, we got shoes.
• 27:35
  We can put puppeteer shoes on. Yeah, just give them some
• 27:38
  platforms. Yeah, give them a little lift.
• 27:42
  Yeah. Dr. Teeth is posting videos on
• 27:45
  his YouTube channel of Penny eating hot foods.
• 27:49
  We see her in the video eating a Satan's blowout chip, and
• 27:54
  apparently this hashtag, the one chip challenge, is a real thing.
• 27:58
  I looked it up. There's a company called Paqui.
• 28:00
  I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right.
• 28:02
  And they sell just like this. They sell individual chips that
• 28:05
  are so spicy it comes in a tiny little coffin shaped box.
• 28:09
  Apparently they're so spicy they turn your tongue blue.
• 28:12
  And I don't know how that science works.
• 28:14
  That's what they claim on their website.
• 28:18
  But we get to see Dr. T eat one and like, steam comes out of his
• 28:21
  ears and you know, he goes blind in the video, which is
• 28:24
  hysterical. And Penny feels nothing.
• 28:28
  Yeah, she's fine. For me, and I think I'm trying
• 28:31
  to remember, but I think I suggested that she eats hot
• 28:35
  things. I can't remember Jeff Howe
• 28:36
  played out because my wife loves hot, hot Peppers and that's kind
• 28:40
  of our dynamic. Like, she'll eat super hot
• 28:43
  stuff. And I can eat.
• 28:45
  I can eat hot, but not like hers.
• 28:46
  So to me, my wife and I are teeth and penny to a certain
• 28:50
  degree. When it comes to the hot stuff,
• 28:52
  the the spicy stuff, I. Was going to say, Adam seems to
• 28:56
  know all these random Internet, you know, challenges.
• 29:00
  There were like three others that he suggested.
• 29:02
  And I was just like, that's just too weird.
• 29:04
  Like, I I, you know, I feel like I've been around the Internet,
• 29:07
  but that's too weird. And this one seemed about right.
• 29:11
  Having a couple of kids myself who are obsessed with YouTube.
• 29:14
  I am very aware of the style with which these videos are
• 29:19
  edited, so I thought that was an important thing to capture.
• 29:22
  So I sent a couple links to our editors for them to sort of
• 29:25
  mimic that just, you know, the amount of cuts, the terrible
• 29:30
  edits, terrible graphics of it all, and then just take that and
• 29:35
  even go further and to the point of distraction.
• 29:38
  But at a certain point, we were sitting with the VFX guys.
• 29:40
  And they're like, do you want us to fix the esteem coming out of
• 29:43
  that? No, no.
• 29:45
  No, absolutely not. The worst, the better.
• 29:49
  And yeah, it works. I think it really does.
• 29:52
  Yeah, it's exactly how Dr. Teeth would edit a video.
• 29:56
  Totally. That's all.
• 29:57
  He doesn't have the skills. Floyd has a hit song on the
• 30:03
  Internet. It's his soup Jingle, his soup
• 30:06
  to dope song. It's being played in YouTube
• 30:09
  ads, which seems like a big win for him, yeah?
• 30:13
  That's the best part. I love.
• 30:14
  I love the soup song. I wish it was on the soundtrack.
• 30:17
  I do too. Jeff wrote it and it's like.
• 30:20
  Basement. Tapes.
• 30:21
  It starts off as my soup, but then but we he changed it to
• 30:25
  Ma's soup because it had to become a Jingle, right?
• 30:29
  Proper Jingle. I was kind of hoping it would
• 30:31
  just be like a generic ad for soup.
• 30:34
  Like how we have like an ad for milk or.
• 30:37
  Beef. You know, it's what's for
• 30:39
  dinner. That's specific enough.
• 30:40
  It's MAS that's specific enough, but I like the idea just in
• 30:43
  general of we're just promoting soup.
• 30:46
  The soup council got together to promote soup, yeah.
• 30:50
  I think we also like we had like 12 different tags that Matt
• 30:54
  recorded. Yeah, right.
• 30:56
  I don't remember what we even ended up with Mas soup.
• 30:58
  It's better than Dad's. Yeah, there was like a bunch of
• 31:01
  them. Yeah, I.
• 31:02
  Don't know more than ever. Yeah, what was it?
• 31:05
  I can't remember what it is. I didn't write it down.
• 31:07
  It was something that was it was relatively generic.
• 31:10
  It's. Not bad.
• 31:13
  It's not that. Bad.
• 31:15
  It's not that bad. That was it.
• 31:16
  It's not that bad. And you know what?
• 31:19
  He's right, it's not. But I think that was like an
• 31:22
  argument on this episode. Like which one do we use there?
• 31:24
  There there was enough that we're really good that it had to
• 31:27
  be a 5 minute discussion. Too many options, yeah.
• 31:33
  Moog seems to be the only one who recognizes that the band is
• 31:36
  starting to divide. None of the album is finished.
• 31:39
  He is packing up and leaving because his favorite band that
• 31:43
  he's been following for all this time is is over.
• 31:46
  So he's a little rudderless. But N still has to tell the band
• 31:52
  that she's booked the Hollywood Bowl, and JJ suggests, well, why
• 31:57
  don't we just tell the whole world?
• 31:58
  He'll just call his friend God, which is a segue to meet
• 32:03
  Charlemagne the God. He is hosting the Electric
• 32:06
  Mayhem as guests on his podcasts.
• 32:09
  I assume this is a podcast. It seems like it's going out
• 32:11
  live. So is it a radio show?
• 32:13
  Is it a podcast? Believe.
• 32:15
  It's a radio show. It's his actual, it's a radio
• 32:17
  show, right? He says.
• 32:18
  He normally has that show right? Right.
• 32:20
  I believe we added it with visual effects.
• 32:22
  There's a sign that says on air in the background.
• 32:26
  Of the booth, right? In the studio.
• 32:28
  In the Yeah, the booth. Great.
• 32:39
  Well, it has to be live, because Penny has to hear it, right?
• 32:29
  I was gonna say if there's gonna be a podcast on Muppets Mayhem,
• 32:34
  then I would like to volunteer to host that podcast since I'm
• 32:38
  here. Of course.
• 32:43
  Also, there's no editing. There's no, like, hang on, I
• 32:45
  know we said XY&Z, but like, let's not tell the world, let's
• 32:49
  let's convince Charlemagne to not release that information.
• 32:52
  But like, it's too late. It's out there.
• 32:53
  Everyone knows the mayhem is splitting up, yeah?
• 32:56
  I think really stupidly. If you listen carefully, you
• 32:58
  could hear of Dr. Tate's phone. Get an alert from Penny.
• 33:04
  Yeah, I know. I noticed it on this watch along
• 33:06
  and in preparation for this podcast.
• 33:09
  And I thought I looked at my phone because I was like, oh
• 33:11
  shoot, I didn't mute my my thing.
• 33:14
  Then I realized about 30 seconds later, oh, he just got the
• 33:17
  message from Penny. Yeah.
• 33:20
  I love, I love Bill. I love, I love Doctor Teeth in
• 33:23
  there, giving the web, the website So funny.
• 33:28
  That was just taking your time. And then I I think you did it a
• 33:32
  second time. Didn't you do it twice?
• 33:35
  But you started the second one out.
• 33:36
  Yeah, Floyd. Like what's that?
• 33:37
  Again, what's that again? WW And then what's his name,
• 33:42
  Cuts him off Put a. Slow push on it.
• 33:46
  The boy I love how you just took your time.
• 33:49
  Just I. Had to explain it, Yeah.
• 33:52
  Well yeah, and it would have been enough to just say the
• 33:55
  letters. You could have said it's HTTP,
• 33:58
  but no, you're like, OK, there's the two dots, one on top of the
• 34:01
  other. It's the two lazy lines that are
• 34:03
  leaning to the side. That's just the W It's not 2
• 34:06
  U's, it's there's a W Yeah. And then there's very clear when
• 34:10
  there's, and then you hear them. I think he's still going when
• 34:14
  it's on. There's a shot of Nora and
• 34:18
  Hannah in the booth, and he's still here.
• 34:21
  Let me just explain. It wasn't clear.
• 34:24
  It's just kind of a little fill in there I stuck in.
• 34:27
  And I I think I had the next line after that Janice had a
• 34:30
  line. So I just was like I just said
• 34:32
  it really fast and rather energy.
• 34:36
  Just to contrast it all. You're really fast.
• 34:38
  Just to contrast it just to Janice gives a shout out to her
• 34:45
  followers. This is the first time we hear
• 34:47
  what they're called. They're the for Shirleyans,
• 34:50
  which is pretty good. That's the thing that she says.
• 34:53
  It seems like some of the people would pick up on, especially as
• 34:56
  like in previous episode, a previous episode of Muppets
• 34:58
  Mayhem. You know, we talked about like
• 35:00
  the believers and you know like the beehive and you know we we
• 35:04
  have the may heads for The Muppets.
• 35:06
  But Janice needed something that felt like something that the
• 35:11
  fans would have come up with on their own and that nailed it for
• 35:15
  Shirleyans. Is is exactly right.
• 35:17
  It's. Incredible.
• 35:19
  I don't know where that. Created by a fan, He's sitting
• 35:21
  right in front of you. I'm not sure.
• 35:23
  I don't want to say. Wasn't that you?
• 35:25
  Actually? Oh, Adam came up with for
• 35:27
  Shirley I. Think so.
• 35:29
  I'll take credit for it. Absolutely.
• 35:31
  I. Thought why did I think it was
• 35:33
  you? I guess it feels like you to me,
• 35:35
  but because. It doesn't, I don't think.
• 35:36
  Somebody else? No, no, because it's funny.
• 35:38
  It's, you know. So good, Yeah?
• 35:41
  Charlemagne the God asks if all these solo projects means the
• 35:44
  band's taking a break, and they all kind of agree.
• 35:47
  Like, it's that we should explore these, these other
• 35:49
  avenues. So yeah, let's break up, Janice
• 35:51
  says, as, as her goopy pal Gwyneth would say, we're
• 35:55
  consciously unbanding. Which also I like the fact that
• 36:00
  Janice will be friends with Gwyneth Paltrow specifically
• 36:03
  over, like, bonding over the goop stuff.
• 36:06
  Yeah. That made sense.
• 36:07
  Yeah. I also really appreciate that
• 36:10
  the breakup is like, they're also supportive of each other in
• 36:13
  this breakup because it would have been so easy for you guys
• 36:16
  as the writers to create a rift or have them do like some
• 36:20
  infighting or whatever. And we wouldn't have blinked at
• 36:24
  it. Like, I would say easy, but
• 36:25
  like, we wouldn't have been like, oh, that was a, you know,
• 36:28
  a simple, you know, fix. But I just really appreciate
• 36:33
  that like these the arts still kind of a family and they are
• 36:36
  still they still love each other but they're just gonna.
• 36:38
  We also had to go out there similar.
• 36:39
  Separate ways we did. We had something more intense.
• 36:42
  I think I pushed back maybe to Jeff, I don't.
• 36:44
  Know. But also, we did it in previous
• 36:45
  episodes, you know, like Floyd and Teeth just got into a fight.
• 36:49
  Animal left the band already and it was, you know, out of anger.
• 36:54
  So it just felt like it way you're treading the same ground.
• 36:58
  But I think we did have them get upset in a draft.
• 37:01
  But then we realized where we were headed to, and it was like,
• 37:04
  you know what? We just don't We don't need them
• 37:06
  to be upset. It's actually better if they're
• 37:08
  embracing each other's separations.
• 37:10
  Yeah, it's just a weird, weird breakup, you know?
• 37:12
  Yeah, the intent was that that's the worst thing that could
• 37:14
  happen to a band, is that they break up.
• 37:16
  But to do it like this is so weird.
• 37:17
  And nor is like I thought I understood you guys.
• 37:20
  And just when I thought I did, I don't at all what is happening,
• 37:23
  you know? Right.
• 37:24
  Yeah. And we, we dumped the break up
• 37:26
  on her, which helps us right with the story, yes.
• 37:30
  But also like, in a positive way.
• 37:31
  They're all like, oh, thanks, Nora.
• 37:33
  Like you're the one who introduced us to all this new
• 37:35
  stuff, you know, it's still very positive.
• 37:37
  And I have to point out in Muppets Take Manhattan, when all
• 37:42
  The Muppets decide to go their separate ways, the mayhem still
• 37:45
  decides to stay as a collective unit.
• 37:49
  Like this is just like they just can't.
• 37:52
  They can't break up. They're too close in a way that
• 37:55
  like very few other Muppet characters are.
• 37:59
  We're going to check in with Janice.
• 38:01
  She is packing and she explains to Nora.
• 38:05
  True family never really says goodbye.
• 38:08
  Zoot immediately pops in and says hey Janice, bye I.
• 38:12
  Love that hi and you're like bye.
• 38:17
  Bye. Can you explain what Janice is
• 38:20
  wearing in this scene? I don't.
• 38:21
  I didn't clock it. What is Janice wearing in the
• 38:23
  scene? I don't even know it's something
• 38:25
  victorious. It seems almost out of character
• 38:27
  for her. Can you describe it so?
• 38:31
  For those lessons, you don't remember Renaissance Fair like,
• 38:34
  you know, a threaded lattice. Work and it's like a crocheted
• 38:37
  top or something, right? Is it like a pale crocheted
• 38:41
  something? It's not like anthropology, you
• 38:44
  know, like boho chic. It's right.
• 38:48
  I could see Janice wandering into a Renaissance fair and
• 38:53
  fully dressed like someone who would belong, but also not
• 38:57
  clocking that she's at a Renaissance fair.
• 38:58
  Like not clocking that anything is weird or wrong.
• 39:06
  Janice gives Nora her family album and tells tells Nora that
• 39:12
  she will always be an honorary for Shirley and who shall be
• 39:15
  spared during the reckoning. I love that line.
• 39:21
  I love how how quickly these for Shirleyans are becoming like an
• 39:24
  obvious cult. Yeah, there's a dark edge to
• 39:27
  this that we're not so settled painting like what Truly, you
• 39:31
  know, like, and Janice has that throughout the show.
• 39:33
  Just behind the sweetness is this antagonism and something a
• 39:38
  little nasty. And there were notes coming from
• 39:42
  the top saying. How culty is this cult?
• 39:46
  You know, like what's there? I remember here, I think we had
• 39:50
  a conversation about that too. Yeah, Bill, I remember you
• 39:52
  called me and I think you called me and I go weekend and we're
• 39:55
  like this is. Cuz we were getting notes about
• 39:57
  the cult. Cuz you got taking the art.
• 39:58
  Yeah, yeah. No, I.
• 40:00
  But I think it was just rode the line and it was, yeah.
• 40:05
  Well, we did have to ADR stuff, whether it was Norsing and I
• 40:08
  think Janice has almost started a cult, but I think what does
• 40:11
  the line say? Right, that's right earlier.
• 40:15
  Right. She doesn't call it a cult, but
• 40:16
  she doesn't insinuate it is getting very culty.
• 40:19
  Whatever. That is, yeah.
• 40:20
  Yeah. And then you see it in the next
• 40:22
  episode and it's totally, I mean, you see all these people,
• 40:25
  all the for sure. Yeah, I love how Janice grabs
• 40:29
  her face. That's.
• 40:30
  My favorite? Yeah, there's a soft sound and I
• 40:33
  just. Close talking, I say, oh, that's
• 40:35
  right because I 80 yard that I don't know what was there
• 40:37
  originally but it wasn't that originally.
• 40:40
  It was something else. And I we added that in one of
• 40:44
  the ADR sessions. Like you have soft skin.
• 40:46
  Yeah, you. Have soft skin.
• 40:48
  I think that was that was added later.
• 40:51
  I don't know what was there originally, but that's right.
• 40:54
  David, since you're not gonna be here with us next week, do you
• 40:57
  wanna Do you have any memories of being on the compound that
• 41:01
  you wanna share with the others for Shillions, man?
• 41:06
  Like, was it? Was it fun being a cult leader
• 41:08
  for for a few minutes? Yeah, yeah.
• 41:12
  I mean I think the way that it was shot, I I really wasn't with
• 41:15
  them that much. I think there's maybe 1 scene
• 41:18
  where I was actually there. I think there was the one scene
• 41:21
  where she's by herself in the tent that was just Janice like
• 41:25
  armatured. So I wasn't even in the puppet
• 41:27
  for that I don't think. But and then I think some of the
• 41:31
  other stuff that we shot when Animal comes through that was
• 41:33
  shot in the studio, I don't think that was even at on
• 41:38
  location. I think it was.
• 41:40
  But I feel like I got a friend to call that day that you were
• 41:42
  trying to work out the green screen tearing.
• 41:44
  Yeah, but it didn't work. Something didn't work.
• 41:46
  So we wound up shooting it at the studio.
• 41:48
  We. Did two different things, yeah.
• 41:50
  Yeah, maybe we shot it there and at the studio.
• 41:52
  We tried it, yeah. We have the plate for it and all
• 41:55
  that, but yes, yeah. Have you ever been in the cult
• 42:00
  you're? About to answer, yeah.
• 42:02
  That's not a real question. Called the bus.
• 42:06
  Yeah, all The Muppets. Sure, right.
• 42:08
  Being Being a Mayhead is is like being in a cult.
• 42:11
  Yeah. Yeah, can confirm at Wax Town
• 42:16
  Records we see Penny using a vibrating belt machine.
• 42:20
  I had to Google this because I was hoping there'd be a fun name
• 42:22
  for it, but they are just called vibrating belt machines.
• 42:25
  Like, you know, like you've seen cartoons.
• 42:28
  I know, right? So good.
• 42:30
  It really does, And you really, you get a real sense of, like,
• 42:32
  how huge that puppet is. Like she's yeah.
• 42:36
  And Leslie did a great job keeping the inside of there,
• 42:40
  yeah. Her voice is doing it at the
• 42:41
  same time because that also. So was that, was it actually
• 42:44
  moving? Was that moving or she was just
• 42:46
  moving it? No, the belt was.
• 42:49
  We had a bar and a bar behind her that the belt went to.
• 42:53
  So, so that could still be going, but then Leslie had to
• 42:56
  move her as well. So it was kind of a combo of
• 42:59
  both you? Know is, Is the belt controlled
• 43:01
  by a person or is it like you flip a switch and it actually
• 43:04
  vibrates? No, it's a switch.
• 43:05
  Yeah, it's a real, real thing. Cool.
• 43:08
  Yeah, feel like the puppet lost £6.00 that day.
• 43:13
  It's all that. It's all that water weight.
• 43:17
  Penny is ecstatic about the fact that the band is breaking up,
• 43:20
  because that means she and Teeth can go on a worldwide spicy
• 43:24
  pepper cruise, which is a thing. And she is leading Nora in
• 43:29
  charge of wax. Tom records, which is pretty
• 43:31
  exciting for Nora. But she seems pretty down about
• 43:35
  the whole thing, because it means that her friends are
• 43:37
  breaking up. You know, she cares a little bit
• 43:38
  more about that than her job. JJ is also.
• 43:43
  There got everything she wanted, but it turns out it's not what
• 43:45
  she wanted at all. Exactly, yeah.
• 43:48
  And what's interesting about this, we have JJ here as well,
• 43:50
  who has been this almost antagonistic character.
• 43:54
  But really, it's just that he's smarmy and he's got, I don't
• 43:59
  know that finance bro style to him.
• 44:02
  That makes us just assume that he's gonna be an antagonist.
• 44:06
  But he's making it clear here, like he wants to work with Nora.
• 44:09
  He wants to be a power couple. He wants his app to support her
• 44:14
  dream of being CEO of a record label.
• 44:18
  So he's not so bad in the end. Like I kind of have mixed
• 44:21
  feelings now. But then he basically says, you
• 44:25
  know. We should be shooting higher
• 44:27
  here. This is, you know, this is
• 44:29
  nothing right now. These these guys aren't worth
• 44:31
  you giving up a whole business for, you know?
• 44:33
  And that's where it's that's where she goes.
• 44:36
  Oh, well, yeah. You were so close, JJ.
• 44:39
  You were so close. Yeah, you were so close.
• 44:41
  They're not relevant and like, yeah, yeah.
• 44:45
  Do you, David, do you have any memories of working with with
• 44:47
  Anders home on this show? Because he is not a guest on
• 44:52
  this podcast series. We didn't get a chance to ask
• 44:54
  him, so we're gonna ask you. He was really funny.
• 44:57
  He was hilarious. And and I loved when he would
• 45:00
  just go off like he'd do, like the written line.
• 45:04
  But then he also would improvise a bunch of stuff and yeah.
• 45:09
  There's amazing stuff. It's just just amazing.
• 45:11
  Like, really funny. Did he come up with Zed Danson?
• 45:17
  Sorry, I just have to ask, how did he?
• 45:19
  Zed dances Zed Cruzer. Cheers, Zed dances.
• 45:23
  Cheers. So.
• 45:26
  Good. I think, I think I remember
• 45:29
  because he came in later than everyone else, right.
• 45:31
  He was sort of he joined us after we had already been there
• 45:34
  for a while, I think. And and I think, you know you
• 45:39
  could just see him walking into this environment and like seeing
• 45:43
  all the holes in the floor and I think he was trying to like you
• 45:46
  know figure out how am I gonna walk into a room with whole you
• 45:50
  know he was it was it was all new to him like it was everybody
• 45:53
  else but but he jumped right in and he was great from day one.
• 45:59
  So funny. There's the one thing it was
• 46:01
  really scary the in the documentary episode, when Animal
• 46:09
  throws the bongos at his head, it just misses him.
• 46:13
  It was like really close. He, he's perfect timing.
• 46:16
  He just got out of the way, you know, really good, great timing.
• 46:23
  Oh, he's from Evanston. IL, too.
• 46:26
  He's from where? Right near where I where I live.
• 46:28
  Yeah. Oh really?
• 46:30
  And the other the another improv bit that cracked me up was also
• 46:36
  in the documentary episode the The Beatles episode.
• 46:42
  When he's talking about when he's saying to Nora, like how he
• 46:44
  did all this for her and he talks about the things that he
• 46:48
  did where he shaved his or what was a wax, his chest and hand.
• 46:52
  And he said hand gesture in classes.
• 46:56
  Amazing. So good.
• 46:58
  So good. Here's a random Anders bitch.
• 47:00
  So he showed up late, but he also had to leave early because
• 47:03
  he had another gig. And the ironic thing was, I
• 47:05
  think I mentioned before I cut trailers to help people sell
• 47:08
  their shows. And I've done it for different
• 47:10
  studios. And one of those studios was
• 47:11
  legendary and one of the shows that I helped them sell a pitch
• 47:15
  for was for this Godzilla show. And so I'm like, what?
• 47:19
  So wait, Anders now has to leave a week?
• 47:21
  What is Anders leaving for? What is this show?
• 47:23
  And they're like, it's a Godzilla show and I'm like, wait
• 47:26
  a SEC. So I I helped.
• 47:30
  Get rid of. Them.
• 47:32
  Thing the reason he's leaving. Yeah, Yeah, you did.
• 47:37
  The butterfly effect. That's what that is, totally.
• 47:40
  Right. Yep.
• 47:41
  Mothra. I believe it is I.
• 47:42
  Believe it's Mothra. It's the Mothra effect, right?
• 47:44
  Well done. So animals, TikTok is getting so
• 47:47
  popular he's starting to get corporate sponsors.
• 47:50
  So of course Hannah is getting jealous.
• 47:54
  The TikTok that they previously shared Animal is dropping the H
• 47:57
  It's just Animal now. And she's jealous, cuz she's.
• 48:02
  Working their butt off, making contents for you know her whole
• 48:06
  career. But Animal scratches himself and
• 48:08
  it goes viral, which is actually what we see.
• 48:10
  We see him scratching himself and the the likes are climbing.
• 48:14
  They get up over 400,000 in in just a few seconds and I I just
• 48:19
  have to point out this is exactly what it's like working
• 48:22
  you know making contents for the Internet.
• 48:24
  I feel like the more I spend time on a project for for tough
• 48:29
  pigs or whatever it is. The less likely it's gonna catch
• 48:32
  on, but if I just post a picture of Fozzy Bear, then that's gonna
• 48:38
  get retweeted by Mark Hamill and suddenly it goes viral.
• 48:41
  So I really hope people are listening to this podcast that
• 48:44
  we were also spending a lot of time on.
• 48:48
  I guess we'll see. Maybe you just have to cut it
• 48:51
  into a little like smaller sentences.
• 48:54
  Maybe for? All of us.
• 48:55
  So you're just really quick. I think the problem is.
• 48:58
  Talk less. Is that what you're saying?
• 49:00
  Yeah. Not you.
• 49:05
  Yeah, we got to be quick. No, no, no.
• 49:01
  Just in general like everybody's moving so fast and what that
• 49:04
  quick. Tepier.
• 49:07
  Yeah, faster and funnier, as they say.
• 49:13
  Hannah takes away animals. Phone and he's going through
• 49:16
  withdrawal. We get a couple of good shots of
• 49:17
  Animal here where he's like on the couch shivering, and there's
• 49:21
  a good shot in the in the second where he's like inside of a drum
• 49:25
  and he's on his phone and the light from the phone is shining
• 49:28
  on his face. It's a really good visual.
• 49:32
  Yeah. Who who directed this episode?
• 49:33
  I didn't clock. It was this Kimmy.
• 49:36
  Kimmy. I think it was Kimmy.
• 49:38
  We did 8. Is that No.
• 49:41
  Rob did 6. No, this is, this is Matt I
• 49:44
  think. Was this Matt?
• 49:46
  Whoever composed that shot of animal did did a terrific job
• 49:50
  because that's that is a really great, I'm looking up from his.
• 49:53
  Kimmy to the clock that was Kimmy.
• 49:56
  Yeah, Kimmy, Yeah, Kimmy Gate would direct is all those.
• 49:59
  That's from another episode, yeah.
• 50:02
  And there's all those great shots of pushing an animal's
• 50:05
  face, cutting into like, the clock.
• 50:07
  I think it was right. We still talking back and forth.
• 50:09
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
• 50:13
  But it was from a different episode and extended thing.
• 50:16
  I think it was actually from 10:00 when Nora's leaving.
• 50:20
  And like, you know, she realizes she's destroyed the band and
• 50:23
  like, she's like, look at animal.
• 50:25
  And you just see Adam on the couch and he's just, you know, a
• 50:27
  shiver. And yeah, and so finally we were
• 50:31
  just like, I don't know, it's so sad.
• 50:33
  It's really depressing to see him like that.
• 50:35
  What if we took that and just made it more of a comedic beat
• 50:39
  and put it in nine and then even cutting it in a sort of funny
• 50:43
  way? Again, the TikTok of TikTok.
• 50:46
  Just kind of fun. That's the connection.
• 50:49
  TikTok of TikTok. Get it now.
• 50:53
  They discovered that Zoot has thrown away his camera in all of
• 50:56
  his Polaroids, cuz he's gone digital, which is I think the
• 50:59
  saddest thing as someone who likes to collect things,
• 51:02
  especially Muppet history, it's like, Oh my God, why would you
• 51:06
  throw away all those great photos, Zoot?
• 51:08
  So I'm glad. I'm glad Nora saved those.
• 51:11
  They're gonna take a little break from social media and.
• 51:15
  Joe. Joe.
• 51:16
  Yeah, Joe. Yes, Bill.
• 51:18
  It's it's not. It's not.
• 51:19
  It's not real. This isn't a this isn't a
• 51:22
  documentary. You can actually save them.
• 51:24
  No, she didn't actually save them.
• 51:25
  That was part of the it's part of the scene.
• 51:27
  You know she's playing the character.
• 51:29
  I don't understand this. Is this is real?
• 51:32
  No, this is real. I saw it on my screen like that.
• 51:35
  It happened. This is in the show.
• 51:36
  It's in the show. I don't know what you're saying.
• 51:41
  I don't get it. I don't get it at all.
• 51:44
  The. The.
• 51:47
  The group is they're going to take a little break from social
• 51:49
  media. They're going to put a VHS tape
• 51:51
  in the TV. It's the Electric Mayhem and
• 51:54
  Elton John from The Muppet Show saying goodbye Yellow Brick
• 51:57
  Road. We noticed that the audio here,
• 51:59
  although the videos from The Muppet Show, the audio is the
• 52:02
  album version of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
• 52:05
  Is there a reason that you didn't use the audio from The
• 52:08
  Muppet Show for this sequence? No, I don't know, OK, I.
• 52:13
  Don't know, thank you, Thank you for the information.
• 52:17
  That's right. I don't know.
• 52:18
  Yeah, I don't know. It's such a nice choice though,
• 52:20
  That song and that moment from the Muppet shows.
• 52:24
  It could have had to do with the fact that it becomes a montage,
• 52:26
  or maybe we needed a longer score or something.
• 52:28
  Because I don't think they did the full version of it on the
• 52:31
  Muppet. Show that.
• 52:32
  Could be, yeah. Not entirely sure, but yeah, we
• 52:35
  hit upon that in the room and it's the absolute right
• 52:37
  sentiment. It's a strange thing because at
• 52:40
  one point we she was going to hear it from upstairs.
• 52:45
  And we'd love this. The idea of that was the song,
• 52:47
  but it seemed weird that it was going to be Elton John.
• 52:50
  She would hear Elton John and that would draw her, and not
• 52:53
  necessarily something of the band.
• 52:54
  But when we re sort of jiggered what this scene could be, she
• 52:59
  watches him. And so you still have the song
• 53:01
  and the band is playing and it's really, really nice.
• 53:04
  And I love the cassette tape going in.
• 53:06
  And you know, it's just the old VCR and it was really nice,
• 53:12
  great. Yeah, that's good emotional for
• 53:14
  us. It was like, yeah, it really
• 53:16
  was, yeah. We were in the editing room and
• 53:19
  I was like, I just want to try something.
• 53:21
  I could describe it, but I don't think anyone will go for it.
• 53:24
  Let's just try it. And so we laid the double image,
• 53:29
  the video, it's second layer of video on top, so it's playing
• 53:33
  over the rest of the scene at a certain point.
• 53:35
  And it's just, I think it's really sweet.
• 53:37
  I think it works out. Quite nicely, absolutely, yeah.
• 53:42
  Were there. Well, it's also nice.
• 53:45
  You know, we, as you said, you know, it's the Elton John
• 53:48
  version. It's not a, you know,
• 53:51
  necessarily something that's at least audio speaking, something
• 53:54
  that's mayhem. And I think this might be the
• 53:56
  only episode where we don't hear the mayhem sing a song.
• 53:59
  So I kind of feel like it was nice that you found a way in
• 54:02
  that. It's still technically the
• 54:03
  mayhem because we can presume that they're playing back up for
• 54:05
  Elton John, that's what. We're presuming, yeah.
• 54:08
  Yeah, but yeah. But yeah.
• 54:10
  And I love how those would. Make any sense for them to play
• 54:12
  something together? Yeah, Well, I think that's also
• 54:14
  part of it, you know, is that they're not making music.
• 54:17
  So she has to go back to a time when they did exactly, and I
• 54:21
  love when those songs extend to like 2-2 scenes after they keep.
• 54:26
  You can still hear the same song through that whole Nora scene
• 54:29
  and. Source becomes score, yeah.
• 54:32
  And then it just kind of ends. The song ends as that scene
• 54:35
  ends, yeah. You could ride that emotion of
• 54:38
  that song, Yeah. But I think you did that a lot
• 54:40
  in in the show. That happened a lot.
• 54:43
  And it was so nice how the song would start and it just kind of
• 54:46
  continued through the scenes, you know, the next few scenes
• 54:50
  and. That's what I remember early,
• 54:52
  early on, Adam insisted. That's what he really felt
• 54:56
  strongly about was that we did these ending kind of montages,
• 55:00
  you know, that would. Take us emotionally wherever we
• 55:03
  needed to go. And they're all, they're all.
• 55:05
  It's great, works great. Also as Norris putting together
• 55:10
  the photo album, that was another thing that Bill and I
• 55:12
  labored over for quite a few weeks in post production, going
• 55:17
  through all of our collective pictures.
• 55:19
  Photographs we took throughout the show.
• 55:22
  To just pick the right ones to make them look like they were
• 55:25
  suits. Polaroids.
• 55:26
  All the photoshopping you did. We did a lot of photoshopping,
• 55:29
  but yeah, we mapped it out. Build mapped it out.
• 55:31
  Here's what this shot is cuz it was all edited, which is
• 55:34
  Polaroids. This is Polaroid one, this is
• 55:37
  Polaroid 2. Rode this one and here's a
• 55:39
  stack. And then we would, yeah give a
• 55:41
  list, you know we'd make the pictures and then send them over
• 55:44
  to VFX to comp in. This is going to go to one, this
• 55:46
  is going to go to two for this shot.
• 55:48
  In this shot we're tighter. So that's still one that's still
• 55:50
  2, but now we have the IT was it was fun.
• 55:55
  Speaking of that photo album, we also see some pictures of Nora
• 55:59
  and Hannah together. Like those younger versions of
• 56:02
  them. Are those actually?
• 56:05
  Lily and Sara in in all of those.
• 56:08
  I mean, Lily can tell, but but Sara as a baby?
• 56:12
  Was that actually her? That's great.
• 56:15
  Nice little touch. I mean to the photo photo album,
• 56:19
  the family photo album. Yes, right.
• 56:22
  Not the Electric Mayhem album. This is a photo album 2 album.
• 56:26
  But again, that was, you know, clearly the point we're trying
• 56:29
  to make, you know? Yeah.
• 56:30
  That's. That's the album she should have
• 56:31
  been working on focused on. Yeah.
• 56:34
  But yeah, as you said, the song continues to play.
• 56:37
  Over the next couple of scenes, Hannah and Nora and Animal find
• 56:41
  Moog. He's on top of his trailer
• 56:43
  looking out over Los Angeles. As I said, he's questioning his
• 56:48
  life choices now that his favorite band is split up.
• 56:51
  I get how this feels when you know something that you love,
• 56:54
  you know is as a fan goes away, what do you do?
• 56:57
  How do you, how do you define yourself?
• 57:00
  If you are really just that's your number one thing, You're
• 57:02
  just a fan. And Nora tells him that the band
• 57:06
  needs him, but more importantly, she needs him.
• 57:08
  And that convinces him to help get the band back together.
• 57:12
  And that's our cliffhanger. Disney Plus is going to love
• 57:16
  this. Yep, Disney Plus is going to
• 57:18
  love this. Two things I think This is the
• 57:20
  one time we see Hannah's car. It originally made an appearance
• 57:24
  in the first episode and that's why in the opening titles there
• 57:28
  is the hashtag license plate, because that is her license
• 57:31
  plate on her car. Just make sure everyone saw
• 57:34
  that. And then the other thing that we
• 57:36
  just cracked us up in the editing room is that Moog has to
• 57:40
  come down from the roof of that trailer.
• 57:44
  And it is just going to bring that up.
• 57:46
  I was just going to bring that up.
• 57:48
  It's an incredible leap down. To like really soften it because
• 57:53
  it is a huge, it's like a stunt, it's a full on stunt that had to
• 57:57
  be done. And, well, he had to be.
• 58:00
  Yeah, he had to be tethered up there when he was sitting on
• 58:02
  top. And then we had a great stunt
• 58:06
  guy who looked just like him to do the jump and he did the land,
• 58:10
  you know? But yeah, I mean we.
• 58:13
  Never wanted it to be a stunt. And so we just, you know, I
• 58:18
  think we took time out of the jump.
• 58:20
  So he, you know, turns to go off it and then like, there's not a
• 58:23
  lot of time, there's not four, six feet of jump.
• 58:26
  For him to land. And then we softened the land
• 58:29
  sound effect. So it does sound he lands kind
• 58:32
  of light. It's not the What did Taj do?
• 58:36
  Did he just jump in place for the landing or did he actually
• 58:39
  jump I? Think he's jumping from
• 58:41
  something. I think he just jumped up or in
• 58:43
  the air just landed. Or maybe he was on the back
• 58:47
  bumper or something and he jumped into that.
• 58:50
  Yeah, yeah. Any way you looked at it?
• 58:53
  You did that little jumping, stood up and it was like, it's
• 58:55
  no big thing and it just felt so silly, you know, just 20.
• 59:00
  Feet. It was a beautiful location too.
• 59:06
  We could see our spot was well, it was further over it.
• 59:11
  You could see Griffith Park if you were looking out the way
• 59:13
  Moog and and Lily are looking. To the left is the Griffith
• 59:19
  Observatory. And then behind us is the
• 59:23
  Hollywood sign just over these mountains.
• 59:25
  It's like a there's like a turn that you come to and it's open
• 59:29
  on both sides. And we were right there at this
• 59:32
  where this, you know, joins. So you have the Hollywood sign
• 59:34
  over there, Griffith Park over there, LA down there, you know.
• 59:40
  And then we had a problem that was like we had to finish
• 59:42
  because there was some problem up like I can't remember was it
• 59:47
  a fire or some something where they had to make everybody come
• 59:49
  down. So we actually just barely
• 59:52
  finished the the shoot there. Wow.
• 59:57
  Crazy someone who was complaining that some guy was
• 59:59
  jumping off of car trailers. Well, that brings us to the end
• 1:00:05
  of this episode of Muppets Mayhem.
• 1:00:07
  But David, do you have any other memories that you want to share?
• 1:00:11
  Any other stories about performing Janice on the show?
• 1:00:14
  Anything like that? Any favorite or least favorite
• 1:00:17
  moments? I mean playing all the, you
• 1:00:23
  know, the the band scenes are always the most fun.
• 1:00:25
  I think still you know when you know, each time we were doing
• 1:00:27
  the musical number on the rooftop that that was really
• 1:00:31
  fun. That camera move going up to the
• 1:00:33
  top of the roof was amazing. And also Alice Dineen pretty
• 1:00:39
  much always does Janice's hands on the guitar.
• 1:00:43
  So she's always like incredible, just she learns the guitar
• 1:00:46
  parts. I love working with Alice.
• 1:00:49
  Was there any cameo, any guest star that showed up that you
• 1:00:52
  were like, my God, yeah, there was God.
• 1:00:59
  There was so many people. It was Ziggy.
• 1:01:02
  Marley was really cool working with him.
• 1:01:06
  You guys had a love, man. Yeah, we did.
• 1:01:08
  Yeah, that was fun. Yeah, you broke his heart.
• 1:01:12
  Yeah, that was a nice little back story moment, Morgan.
• 1:01:17
  I'm trying to. I mean, there's so many people I
• 1:01:19
  wasn't around for that I don't. Remember the Morgan you wasn't
• 1:01:22
  on the Morgan Freeman? I wasn't.
• 1:01:24
  I wasn't. I didn't see him in the sense
• 1:01:26
  that was mostly going just, Yeah, right.
• 1:01:29
  That's right. Billy Corrigan was great.
• 1:01:31
  He's another guy who lives in my hometown, so it was fun to kind
• 1:01:35
  of see him there. I see him around town here all
• 1:01:39
  the time. And I finally was able to talk
• 1:01:41
  to him there on the set, because that's crazy.
• 1:01:43
  I wouldn't dare go near him in town here.
• 1:01:47
  I don't know. There's so many.
• 1:01:48
  I can't. It's just like a blur of
• 1:01:51
  celebrities. Sobered up, yeah.
• 1:01:54
  Who? Yeah, he worked with me, yeah.
• 1:01:57
  Yes. Heard of him?
• 1:01:59
  Yes, we did. Burt Reynolds.
• 1:02:02
  Burt Reynolds. He was on this.
• 1:02:05
  Did you have to cut him? Yeah.
• 1:02:08
  Yeah. He wasn't.
• 1:02:09
  He wasn't pulling his weight. I get it.
• 1:02:12
  Great. Well, David Rudman, thank you so
• 1:02:14
  much for being here. This was such a treat, Such a
• 1:02:17
  joy to get to talk about Janice with you.
• 1:02:19
  And and thank you for all you did on the show as well.
• 1:02:22
  Thank you. Thanks for for having me.
• 1:02:24
  Thank you. Having so much such a great
• 1:02:27
  spotlight on Janice in this show and to give her.
• 1:02:30
  That third dimension, like like with the rest of the mayhem, has
• 1:02:34
  been such a treat. I've mentioned on the show
• 1:02:36
  before it. It has been a fear of mine that
• 1:02:38
  like, maybe we don't want to know too much about the mayhem.
• 1:02:41
  But seeing it all actually happen and seeing the work that
• 1:02:43
  you all put into it, all my fears are completely abated and
• 1:02:47
  I want now I want to see more. So hopefully we'll get that
• 1:02:50
  chance. Yeah, well, like I said before,
• 1:02:53
  it's because the team was amazing.
• 1:02:55
  It really was the right people involved, and having Bill in a
• 1:02:59
  leadership role was really important, I think, to keeping
• 1:03:05
  characters true to who they are. And nobody knows his characters
• 1:03:09
  more than we do. So it was nice having oops, one
• 1:03:12
  of us again. Yes, well.
• 1:03:20
  Thank you again, David, Phil and Jeff, thank you both for being
• 1:03:24
  here. Always a treat, very excited to
• 1:03:27
  talk with you next week about the season finale of Muppets
• 1:03:31
  Mayhem and Oh my goodness. We'll see you all then.
• 1:03:35
  Thanks everybody. See you then.
• 1:03:36
  Thanks, bye. The Muppets Mayhem Backstage
• 1:03:41
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• 1:03:43
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• 1:03:46
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• 1:03:48
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• 1:03:50
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• 1:03:53
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• 1:03:55
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• 1:03:58
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• 1:04:00
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• 1:04:03
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• 1:04:05
  Thanks for listening. And until next time, rock on.