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The Muppets Mayhem: Backstage Pass - "Virtual Insanity" with Matt Vogel (Floyd) · Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com

0:06
Hello and welcome to The Muppets Mayhem Backstage.
0:09
Pass the unofficial companion podcast to The Muppets Mayhem
0:12
presented by toughpigs.com. This is the podcast where we
0:16
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
0:26
Joe Hennis. Today we are talking about Track
0:30
8 virtual insanity, in which the mayhem makes a whole bunch of
0:34
enemies. Thanks to the toxic hellscape of
0:37
Twitter this week we have three extremely 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. Hello, Jeff.
0:48
Hello, thank you for having me back yet again.
0:50
I'm very happy yet again. We can't get rid of you.
0:54
Next, he's another cocreator and executive producer, as well as
0:57
Dr. Teeth's left hand Man. Please welcome Bill Barretta
1:00
back to the podcast. Hey, Bill.
1:02
I'm sorry, Joe, Are you, Are you already sorry?
1:06
Yeah. Oh, all right.
1:08
Well, that's a great way to kick off another fun podcast.
1:11
Sorry, I'm sorry, everybody. Preemptive preemptive apologies.
1:17
I just feel bad about the next guest on our show.
1:20
Oh well, let's introduce them. We'll see how everyone else
1:23
feels. Our final guest, unfortunately.
1:26
This isn't good. A Muppet performer who brings
1:29
characters like Big Bird and Kermit the Frog to life.
1:32
On The Muppets mayhem, he slings bass as Sergeant Floyd Pepper.
1:36
Please welcome Matt Vogel to the podcast.
1:39
Hey, Matt. Hey, Joe, how you doing?
1:41
I'm doing great. You know, I, I before we begin
1:44
and and Bill I I I heard your your your apology your apology
1:49
you had before I came on but I actually have an issue here.
1:52
You said in the beginning there that this is the unofficial
1:56
podcast for this. So I thought it was the official
2:01
podcast is the official unofficial podcast.
2:05
This is how I tell everyone, subtly, that I'm not being paid
2:07
by Disney to be. Here this is my own volition.
2:11
Also, he doesn't say unofficial on the other episodes.
2:14
Oh, oh, it's just. The only one.
2:16
Just in case this doesn't, well, probably won't go well.
2:19
It probably wouldn't. It probably won't make it out
2:21
is. That it a official a FFICI.
2:27
F Well, I'll stay, then I'll stay.
2:28
I mean, I don't have anything else to do.
2:30
So it's fine. I so appreciate you suffering
2:33
through this with this already disaster of a podcast.
2:36
Sorry, it is Matt. Please tell me hello again.
2:43
How does it feel getting the chance to focus on just one of
2:46
your many Muppet characters for Muppets Mayhem?
2:50
It's actually really exciting. It was really exciting to get to
2:54
focus on just one character, one character's arc for an episode.
2:58
And then over the course of the season, I'm sure you've talked
3:01
about this with other folks because, you know, I'm here at
3:04
episode. 8 We're all almost at the end.
3:08
So I mean, it feels like probably you've asked other
3:11
people this and they probably have said, I'm guessing.
3:14
I mean, I can't imagine that somebody be saying, well, I wish
3:16
that I was doing more characters in the show.
3:18
Did anybody say that? No, no, no.
3:22
I think it's really interesting training as an actor to be able
3:26
to actually then play that single character and see how he
3:31
may grow or or transform in some way over the course of the
3:35
season. That's that's rare for any
3:37
Muppet character. I mean, just Kermitter and Piggy
3:40
and Fozzy and all them. Like they don't get the chance
3:42
to do a whole season about just about themselves.
3:46
Yeah, other than like if it's a movie, right?
3:48
You have a chance to have an arc as with your character.
3:50
And that's this is kind of what we always thought of as a big
3:53
long movie. So I think it's fun like.
3:56
It's a good word used that they grow.
3:58
You know, we're not, we're not fundamentally changing these
4:00
characters, but we are deepening them and helping them grow,
4:04
dimensionalizing them. Yeah, that's a challenge for
4:07
anything like this, where you have to have the characters grow
4:10
but also kind of get back to the status quo in the end, because
4:15
we want people to be able to, like, turn on the Muppet movie
4:17
and still recognize these characters as the same people
4:19
from Muppets. That's right.
4:21
I mean, it really is just informing more.
4:22
It's informing the audience more about who these characters are.
4:26
I can think of moments in the episode with the flashback
4:29
episode with between Floyd and Teeth, which is one of my
4:32
favorite episodes. Just getting to to.
4:35
Because I'm really, I'm really good in that.
4:37
You are. No, I mean, I really do feel
4:40
like, I really do feel like the that that was for me as a as a
4:46
as a fan of these characters to get to see the the relationship
4:51
and how it began was really. Special, but more special for me
4:58
personally and on a selfish in a selfish way was getting to play
5:01
those scenes with you. Billy is just like.
5:03
Well, stay with me. Really loved it.
5:06
I've been waiting to do something like that with you,
5:08
cuz we tend to not do a lot of scenes our character
5:12
dynamically, you know, they don't kind of always interact on
5:14
a on a regular basis. And so I was looking forward to
5:18
that too. And also, in my little fantasy
5:20
world, I was always imagining Jim and Jerry doing this.
5:24
You know, and I know you know, I never got to meet Jim, but I
5:29
know how close we were with Jerry and and you just know that
5:32
maybe he would have liked what we did with it, you know, and
5:35
how amazing you're doing with this character and what you,
5:38
what you do with Floyd is so great.
5:41
So I I loved it. I just love doing this episode.
5:44
I mean that. Episode.
5:45
I did too. I did too.
5:46
I really did. I really was just watching it
5:47
the other day. Not this one.
5:49
No, no, this one. This one.
5:50
I can't stand, but I'm glad we're talking about that one.
5:55
Sorry, Joe. Hey, it's all right.
5:57
This is, this is what the show is all about, apparently, as
5:59
we've learned, Does it speaking to Jerry Nelson, does it feel
6:03
like you've got him kind of whispering in your ear as you're
6:05
performing? Floyd?
6:05
Does it? Do you still feel that?
6:09
I do. At the very least, I feel like
6:12
I'm, you know, Jerry was the coolest cat in the room.
6:16
Always, always. He would walk in and everybody
6:21
would turn to him. And he was just the coolest guy.
6:25
And I don't know if I hear him whispering in my ear, but I I
6:28
feel like I want to emulate that who that version of Jerry Slash
6:35
Floyd is for me. And you know, while these
6:39
characters are kind of blown up, ridiculous versions of, you
6:45
know, who human beings might be, I feel like.
6:49
This character, Floyd very much is Jerry and is how he would
6:54
react in a kind of given situation if given the chance
6:57
with this puppet. You guys were talking a little
7:00
bit about that back story episode, the flashback episode,
7:03
and you know, Floyd is one of the few characters, along with
7:06
Dr. Teeth and Animal, who actually gets a back story in
7:10
the season. How does it feel for you as
7:13
someone who didn't originate these characters but, you know,
7:16
working obviously very closely with them, to be adding so much
7:19
history to them? I mean, does that feel
7:21
terrifying to you? Or is it like, no, no, it's just
7:24
it's part of the script we're gonna run with it and it's done?
7:27
It was never terrifying and and and mostly because we have a
7:30
team, our team of writers and and having you know Jeff and
7:35
Bill. What's the other guy's name?
7:37
Aaron. Gareth, Aaron Get.
7:40
Aaron Goldstein. Yeah, yes, him now having having
7:44
our creators and just knowing that they love these characters
7:49
just like we do and they are super talented and are able to
7:55
bring these these situations to us as the actors.
8:01
To get to play is is a joy. Never was nervous or scared
8:05
about what it was going to be. I was knew it would be so much
8:09
fun to play. I never thought that it would
8:12
be, you know, I actually really didn't even think about it as in
8:16
terms of of fear. It just was this is just part of
8:21
what that characters is. We're going to now show this.
8:24
And now I guess in a way Billy and I get to kind of put our
8:27
stamp of who we are in that way that we are the Muppet
8:33
performers through these characters, which I do love.
8:36
I love being able to kind of put that stamp on them, I guess.
8:40
Yeah, and also, you know what? There's, I mean, let's hope we
8:43
get another season or Four Seasons.
8:46
We really didn't do explore Floyd's back story.
8:49
It's more teeth, right? It's it's how they intersected.
8:52
So there's more to do with Floyd, which would be so much
8:54
fun. I forget, Matt, did you read our
8:57
back story for Floyd that we, I mean, we don't have to talk
9:00
about it now. Like, I did, like early on.
9:03
I think there was something about the original pitch, yeah.
9:06
So the concepts of. And him being, you know, like an
9:10
army, army, army brat. Well, we got that.
9:12
We got the hints that, you know, he was at West Point and got
9:17
dishonorably discharged, like we you were able to tell us that.
9:21
But I feel like there's more to it.
9:23
I feel like there's. A lot more to be done,
9:24
absolutely. I'm sure there is.
9:25
And then we also have, you know, animal, baby animal dropping
9:28
dropped off at Floyd's front door.
9:30
There's got to be so much more to talk about that and like
9:33
Floyd raising Animal, we we obviously we want to see more of
9:37
that. I was a little surprised, I mean
9:40
not surprised knowing that there's plans like wait for for
9:42
future seasons, but surprised that we got that moment of you
9:46
know Floyd accepts baby animal and that's it.
9:50
You just got to put that puzzle together in your mind.
9:52
Create your own head cannon until we can show you.
9:54
The day you went to Home Depot and got the chain to put around
9:58
animals neck. That's right.
10:00
You know this little guy gets around everywhere.
10:02
I gotta figure out how to keep him under control.
10:04
And a dog leash doesn't work. He just chews through it.
10:08
Well then someone calls child services on you for buying a
10:10
chain for your child. He's an animal.
10:13
He's an animal. He's an animal.
10:15
Fair enough to. Be All right, so let's talk
10:18
about this episode. Episode 8, Our Cold Open has the
10:22
band driving through Hollywood. We see once again the dock
10:24
hoppers, frog legs billboard in the background.
10:27
I assume this is the exact same shot that we see that we saw in
10:30
the previous episode, just recycled.
10:32
I think so. I know that they spent a day
10:34
driving around, driving the van around and setting up different
10:38
shots you need. And trying to find that
10:40
billboard. Exactly.
10:41
That's the tough one. Man.
10:44
If you two, one of them, they couldn't use, I think it was
10:47
blocked by a Pizza Hut delivery truck.
10:49
So they're like don't have the rights for that.
10:51
But they did spend a day setting up and getting those shots.
10:55
It must have been so cool to just be, like, walking down, you
10:59
know, Hollywood Blvd. And then there's the van.
11:01
It's just, it's just right there in real life.
11:04
But I also recognize that, like, there's a lot of weird cars in
11:07
in Hollywood, so maybe it didn't bat a whole lot of ice.
11:11
We had our premiere a couple weeks ago and you know, the bus
11:15
was there, the van was there, Mooc's trailer was there.
11:17
But at the end of the night, I watched as like the bus was
11:20
leaving the premiere. And I'm like, someone's going to
11:22
be driving at 11:30 at night and passing the Electric Mayhem bus,
11:27
you know, just on the street, just.
11:29
Like, you know, it's so funny. It's so funny you mentioned that
11:32
when on the on that day of the the release or launch.
11:37
Yeah, we were. You know, a couple of gigs got
11:42
cancelled because of the writers strike.
11:44
So I was trying to think of something that we could do to
11:46
have some fun just to create some buzz out there.
11:49
And I wanted us to rent a sightseeing van where the ones
11:55
without the roofs on them. And that we would all ride with
11:58
the characters next to us. As if there's a bunch of people
12:01
running around Hollywood and people.
12:02
So people could just grab photos and, you know, post them and
12:05
stuff. I think that'd be really fun to
12:07
do someday. And that was they said no to
12:09
that because. It wasn't enough time in between
12:13
what we had finished and getting to the venue, to rehearse, to do
12:17
everything we had to do there. You have to get there.
12:19
Yeah, it didn't work out. I know I tried, Frank.
12:22
Frank tried. You know, we've talked about it,
12:24
but it just wasn't possible. Right, right.
12:26
Yeah, we've been amazing. Well, I'll tell you, here's this
12:30
is something like that, that cold open there is, there is
12:34
something that I do want to say about about that scene.
12:38
Is the scene where they're coming up with different names
12:41
for the album, right. So the thing that I remember
12:45
about shooting this scene is that I didn't shoot this scene.
12:50
I am not performing Floyd because at during the time we
12:54
were shooting this show, we were going through COVID tests every,
12:59
I guess every three days or something like that.
13:02
And I went in on this was maybe on a Monday and I went in on a
13:06
Monday and they shoved the swab in my nose and how we all went
13:11
to work. And then a little bit later I
13:12
was in my trailer and somebody came up and said you have to
13:16
leave. You have COVID.
13:18
I was like, I do, I don't feel like I have COVID and I feel
13:23
fine but okay bye. And so I couldn't.
13:26
I couldn't shoot this scene. I mean, I had to like, wait, I
13:31
don't even. I think it was 24 hours before I
13:33
had to take another test. Is it a false positive?
13:35
It was a false positive. So I didn't have COVID, but you
13:39
know, they were trying to be very safe.
13:41
I. Mean.
13:42
So I had to wait two days, wasn't it two days?
13:44
I thought it was 2 days you had to wait.
13:45
Yeah, I had. I was two days, I was out two
13:47
days. So when they gave me the test it
13:49
was 24 hours from there. I had to take it and then wait
13:51
another 24 hours or something. We couldn't even stop
13:54
production, you know, like not even for an hour.
13:58
Like we have to go No. No, gotta keep going.
13:59
What I'm trying to remember? Was it Alice?
14:01
Yes, it was Alice. It's crazy like we were just we
14:04
were we'd be editing and you just hear this kind of Floyd,
14:08
but very much not for you. Don't bring me whitefish.
14:11
Yeah, yeah, that's right. There's a performance.
14:14
Wait, is this the episode? Is this the?
14:17
The? Yes, it is.
14:18
Right. This is the.
14:19
Album title. No, no, sorry the fans.
14:24
Yes, yeah. Yeah, cuz there when we were
14:26
editing this, there were three different Floyds because Matt
14:30
either was sick or he was on something else that we were
14:33
doing. But so Peter did Floyd once.
14:37
Yep. And Alice did them and you did
14:39
them. So the three of you?
14:41
Yeah. Wow.
14:43
Yeah. Well, you can't.
14:43
I'll tell you. Right.
14:44
I'll tell you when the other scene comes up.
14:45
I'll tell you. I'll tell you when the other
14:47
scene comes. Yes, you can tell, Yeah.
14:49
Anyway, so yes, as, as we've said, the band is brainstorming
14:53
band names. They go through a huge list.
14:56
I have to assume there's 10 times as many that you did on
14:59
the day. It's album names.
15:01
Just to. It's just to make sure they say
15:03
band names. Isn't it's name you did, but
15:04
it's names for the album. I believe album names.
15:07
I did mean album names, but does the band have a name?
15:12
Should should we come up with one right now?
15:14
I. Think we wrote maybe 60 and then
15:19
we cut it down a little bit. I mean it could be its own
15:21
episode. And I think, I think even from
15:25
what you recorded, we what you filmed, we cut down even further
15:29
just cuz we have to get to the show already.
15:33
And so it's. Like it was, actually.
15:34
It was actually hard to do on the day.
15:37
Sure, The tempo and the timing. Cuz I.
15:40
Part of me felt like it would. It would have played great in
15:42
just one shot as well, you know. Yeah, just kind of in the why
15:47
but and a few like Poppins. But it was hard to do to get the
15:50
keep the tempo going in the comedic way.
15:53
You know, it's tricky, tricky, do you?
15:56
I don't want to read the whole list here, but do you have any
15:58
favorites that either that were said in the episode or things
16:01
that did not get said edited out of the episode?
16:06
I don't remember. What you did.
16:07
You don't bring me a white fish. I do like that's good one.
16:11
I mean I can share some of my favorites cuz I have them here.
16:14
You know, feeling funky. Tronic is actually a good.
16:16
That's a good band name. But then you got like he who
16:19
Rocked it rolled it. Mr. Fluff in the puff Police.
16:23
I like there's an album. I like that one.
16:25
There's an. Album.
16:27
There's an album, that's what Suit says.
16:28
Llama llamas, llamas everywhere. I like that Lips does throw in a
16:34
few and of course we can understand that.
16:35
But one of them sounds like he's saying Sergeant Pepper, which is
16:38
very funny and and Floyd says I wish I knew my dad, which sounds
16:45
like a joke. But it also makes me wonder, you
16:48
know, Season 2, maybe that's something's gonna come back
16:51
around. I think it was intentionally
16:52
said ambiguously. Uh huh.
16:54
I mean it was very ambiguous cuz it was just an album title,
16:57
potentially album title. Or was it or, yeah.
17:02
And then also Animal just shouts out music and songs.
17:08
That's what we should have named it, by the way.
17:09
That's what it should have been. Just songs, I believe.
17:13
If I'm not mistaken, without Googling this, the comedy music
17:17
duo Garfunkel and Oates featuring Ricky Lindholm, who's
17:20
in this episode, has an album called Music Songs.
17:25
If I'm not mistaken, I might be mistaken.
17:29
In the studio, the band is rehearsing the song We Are One.
17:33
We will hear more of the song later in the episode.
17:36
We could talk about it then, but Nora and JJ are ready to promote
17:40
this new album, even though it's not completely finished yet.
17:42
And there's only one way to get the word out.
17:45
Not oversized billboards, not windshield leaflets, not animals
17:49
shouting this thing on a megaphone.
17:52
It's the Internet, and the band gets their very first
17:56
smartphones, with the exception of Lips.
17:59
Who is the man who knows everybody and of course has his
18:02
own phone? The.
18:03
Keeper of the phone? Yeah, he's the keeper of the
18:05
phones. Yeah, which?
18:05
Generally, he just uses to call people.
18:07
That's it. He does not really use it like
18:09
he's not. Phone connections?
18:11
Friends. Yeah, right.
18:13
Yeah. I think he says something about.
18:14
Seems like he says something about, you know, he doesn't do
18:16
the apps, he just does the phone.
18:18
You know he does the mAh nomina thing.
18:19
I like what Floyd does. I like what Floyd does with his.
18:22
He shakes it like there's something supposed to come out
18:24
of it. Yeah.
18:25
He's like raising it up and down.
18:27
Trying to figure out. Yeah.
18:29
What is it gonna? Well, and it's kind of.
18:31
He does say something about there's like the high tech
18:33
trackery or the yeah. High Tech Tracker.
18:36
We loved and I feel like it was. It's probably earlier than that,
18:40
but it's definitely in the 2015 series.
18:43
That Floyd is like a conspiracy theorist.
18:46
Yeah. And I don't know.
18:47
I mean, Bill, maybe you know this, but I mean, Jerry, I don't
18:51
think he was a conspiracy theorist.
18:53
No, but I think he was fascinated by like UFOs and and
18:58
but also he had a. Healthy distrust of the man and
19:04
authority. And I remember that we were they
19:08
did like a big spread for People magazine.
19:11
I think it was on Sesame Street and all the Muppet performers
19:14
were all there but J and they were all, you know, made-up and
19:18
they all looked great. But Jerry and Jerry looked great
19:20
too. But he had like a hat on and
19:22
dark sunglasses and a tshirt and like he.
19:25
I just remember him always like he didn't really wanna have
19:29
anybody really know. Or maybe what he looked like or,
19:32
you know, did not trust things getting out there that he
19:36
wouldn't like. And that's kind of what I feel
19:37
like Floyd does in The Little. Are you suggesting that People
19:40
magazine is the man? I mean, I'm.
19:44
Not, I think so. Or maybe has been has met the
19:46
man or something. Sure.
19:48
But you know, even more than that, like corporate or just
19:51
bigger than bigger than him, things like that.
19:55
So yes, as you said, Floyd does not trust smartphones because of
20:00
the high tech tracker. Janice doesn't want to be a
20:02
cellular zombie. I like that.
20:04
Doctor Teeth doesn't trust anything that doesn't have
20:05
buttons. I thought that was a funny.
20:07
That was a funny line reading. Yeah, yeah.
20:10
But it also makes sense because he plays the keyboards.
20:12
It's like a whole bunch of buttons.
20:13
It's like 88 buttons in a row. Keys.
20:17
It's music. We call them keys.
20:19
I'm learning so much on this podcast.
20:21
Yeah, it's nice that you guys call him out on it, because I
20:23
was just going to let him just have his little button thing.
20:26
Yeah, yeah. Oh, call him out on it.
20:28
OK, Got it. Got.
20:29
It I'm not allowed to tell jokes on this podcast, apparently I
20:32
would keep. We have to find all my jokes,
20:34
just the funny ones. Oh, then, then definitely none
20:36
of my jokes. They're going to make it
20:37
through. Hey, you said it.
20:40
Doctor Dr. Teeth pens the band's first tweet.
20:44
It is the word tweet. Yeah, I went back and looked,
20:48
looked at the Electric Mayhem's Twitter feed to see when their
20:52
actual first tweet was. It was from December 2015, It
20:56
was Christmas time and it's we set up a big model train around
21:01
our tree so we can jam on it and literally rock around the
21:04
Christmas tree all season long. We were originally going to do
21:08
that in this scene. Yeah, that would have been a
21:10
very deep Easter egg. What?
21:12
We should have done. I wish we were organized enough.
21:16
To have had the official Twitter account at one point in this
21:19
past year, tweet out the word tweet.
21:21
Wait. There's no reason they couldn't
21:24
have. It cost nothing.
21:26
This is another This is a fictionalized It's a fiction.
21:30
This is a fictionalized show. It's a show.
21:34
But. Things from the show may make
21:36
their way into the real world like they're like you.
21:38
They do made an album and I I own it.
21:41
Yeah, man. Yeah, you do.
21:42
That's right. Because we blur the lines, sure
21:46
can't really can't really back up 7.
21:48
Or eight years, you know what I'm saying?
21:50
That's a delete all the and hard to go back there.
21:52
Yeah, you'd have to redo everything.
21:54
And a lot of pain in the neck that.
21:56
Much of a loss. We're setting up our Christmas
22:00
tree. We lost it.
22:02
Gone. Forever Hannah is the social
22:08
media expert and she has been assigned to Animal to turn him
22:11
into an Internet superstar. So we're gonna see more of that
22:14
in a moment. And Moog is the only one who
22:17
knows that this whole thing is gonna blow up in a bad way, not
22:21
blow up in a good way. And I like that.
22:23
While he's explaining this, we see Dr. Keith, Janice and Floyd
22:27
already taking selfies with their phones.
22:29
At least I assume that's what you're doing and not just like
22:32
holding it for reception. I think it was trying to figure
22:36
out still what it does. Is that what it was?
22:39
Yeah, they're holding in that very specific selfie angle.
22:42
That's probably why I assume that, yeah.
22:44
I think he's just trying to see what it does.
22:47
That was in my mind anyway. Sure.
22:49
Yeah, I. Don't know.
22:50
Yeah, I mean, you might get the impression that these characters
22:53
are dumb. What?
22:55
But they're not. I don't think they're.
22:56
I really don't think they're dumb.
22:57
I think they're they are innocent.
22:59
They're innocent. They are inquisitive,
23:02
absolutely. And they I love the innocence of
23:04
that. That they are and all Muppet
23:07
characters are in some way innocent and I love that.
23:10
They don't know what these things are.
23:12
They just it's not been they don't they haven't needed them.
23:15
They haven't needed these things.
23:17
Yeah, there is. Well, he's been out.
23:19
You know, they've been off in their own world.
23:21
It's not in the world. Yeah, just not in the world,
23:23
but. Still, they don't really need
23:25
phones or shooters Or, you know, a lot of things take them by
23:29
surprise. And you might be, But that's
23:31
where the. Awesome comedy, yeah.
23:34
It's an allergic kind of reaction to technology, I think.
23:39
Yeah, and. Change and change, Yeah, sure,
23:42
yeah. The Mayhem's first tweet already
23:47
is getting tons of followers, way more than they want if they
23:50
continue to just interact with their fans in person.
23:53
You know, like we used to. And they're already getting
23:56
followed by celebrities like Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber,
23:58
Beyoncé, Lady Gaga. And so Doctor Teeth decides to
24:02
tweet to them. And what you say is to our
24:07
fellow music makers, you're all absolutely tremendous.
24:11
You're truly talentless. I think I'm saying that right
24:15
with stupendous fans, but it auto corrects half the words to
24:20
You are all absolutely terrible. You are all truly talentless
24:23
with stupid fans. Welcome to two hours in the
24:26
writers room. I was just going to say it took
24:28
us about an hour to come on, come up with the right words to.
24:32
Translate it. You know you're writing two
24:33
things simultaneously, and I have to work and.
24:36
And we wanted to Which did you write first?
24:38
Did you write the stoop like the?
24:39
You're all horrible. I think we needed to figure out
24:42
what the message was going to be.
24:43
Yeah, What? They mess it up.
24:44
Yeah. And then?
24:45
Retrofit it. It's also just such a great gag
24:49
for building on Doctor Teeth's. You know, made-up words and long
24:54
windedness of like of course he would be auto corrected.
24:56
Of course. Like, that's well, and it took
24:59
us a while too to figure out how they were going to offend all
25:03
these people too. That was a kind of a challenge
25:05
for a while, remember. That originally was going to be
25:07
emojis. Yeah.
25:09
Emojis. Or what was the IT was the whole
25:11
kind of thing is what was the best way to innocently offend
25:15
them. And I don't remember who came up
25:17
with probably Jeff. Yeah, he's gonna say it's him.
25:21
It probably was. But that.
25:22
Yeah. The translator thing, yeah.
25:24
The autocorrect just seems, yeah.
25:28
The. Character.
25:29
Yeah, that Wax Town records. They're all being chewed out by
25:31
Penny over the the tweet. And I like moved like kind of
25:36
starts to explain like oh it was an autocorrect thing And she
25:39
says who is the smart guy and why is he talking to me?
25:43
And we all went, ah, he was smart guy on the show, smart
25:46
guy. It's one of the things that
25:52
absolutely makes the show rewatchable is just what else is
25:55
happening in all of these shots, what else you guys are doing and
25:59
constantly trying to, you know, one up each other or just pull
26:03
focus. It's a blast.
26:05
We're certainly in the ending room, distracted by just trying
26:08
to cut the scene that's in the foreground, and sometimes we
26:11
lose some of those moments, but it is a blast when.
26:15
We spot them and they're still in there and that's.
26:19
Yeah, I'm, I'm, I've said this before.
26:21
I'm on my third rewatch of of the show right now and because
26:25
of the I'm doing the podcast, I'm doing a lot of like pausing,
26:28
a lot of like going back and see like what what are you guys
26:30
doing in the background, what's what's it saying on the wall,
26:32
that sort of thing. So I highly recommend anyone out
26:35
there to just pause it every, you know, 2 seconds and see what
26:38
else you can see, because there's just so much going on,
26:41
there's so much happening on the screen.
26:44
And what's weird is like the timing of the comedy, it's not
26:47
affected at all. No, not whatsoever.
26:51
Just it somehow still works. That's how good you guys are.
26:58
Yeah, that's how I like to watch.
27:01
Yeah, Yeah. Anything really.
27:03
Yeah. It doesn't matter what it is.
27:04
Yeah, the news. Yeah, the news.
27:07
I like to pause on the news. I told you, I'm.
27:09
Listening to If you're listening to this podcast, just pause it.
27:12
Yeah, Every. Like, right now.
27:14
Yeah, right now. We'll go back, but wait, when I
27:19
would watch this or listen to the sound mixes at home and I
27:22
was, I think I was telling you that for episode 5, my kids sort
27:25
of stumbled in. They want to see it and I'm
27:27
like, this is not the way to see it.
27:28
The effects aren't done. Also, I'm going to be starting
27:31
and stopping. So, like, we just want to see it
27:33
like, OK, and it's like, you know, Animal and JJ, Nora, Nora,
27:38
bad. Girl, and I just kept pausing on
27:41
that and they couldn't. They're like we we just want to
27:44
watch this and I'm like. Okay.
27:47
Let me see how far. Nope.
27:49
We got to change this and I'm taking notes again.
27:52
They loved it, Yeah. This is why my wife hasn't
27:54
watched the show yet, because she knows if I'm putting it on I
27:57
need to for the podcast and she's like, I'll catch it on
28:00
your next. Yeah, yeah.
28:04
So the band is in the van, they're talking about how
28:08
they've created a beef with all of music, and Floyd says we
28:12
don't beef with nobody. Well, except that one band.
28:16
From river bottom, yeah. They were a nightmare.
28:18
Yeah, they were a nightmare. Yeah.
28:20
Yeah. Guess where that joke came from?
28:24
So I fought. I'm not going to say the other
28:27
ones. I fought for that joke since I
28:29
think day three of the writers rooms and Adam like taking it
28:34
out, right? Didn't.
28:35
Know what it utilizing it and just being like I'm like where
28:38
is it? What happened to it?
28:40
And he's like, look, this will have many bites at this apple,
28:43
which meant we're losing it, you know?
28:46
And then and then I guess he figured, yeah, by the time we
28:48
were in the editing room, that's when we'd lose it.
28:50
And that's what I made it very clear.
28:52
It was very and and I guess, right.
28:56
Didn't he say that? Didn't he also say that?
28:59
And now like the the most thing that people talk about as a
29:04
Easter egg, is that what he sees on his feeds and everything you
29:08
know? For the fans.
29:10
I just love that there was a point where they were going to
29:13
beef with a real band and we were thinking about that.
29:15
I loved that possibility. Could it be the actual River
29:19
Bottom Nightmare Band? It would.
29:21
Have been amazing. It would have been amazing
29:23
people, you know. No, I very much appreciate that
29:29
you stuck that in there and and I was trying to think if there
29:31
were any other like blatant Emmett Otter references in
29:37
Muppet Cannon. You know, especially since the
29:41
the the split of, you know, Henson and and Muppets and
29:44
Sesame because like you know, they're like the characters are
29:46
there for the finale in the Muppet movie.
29:48
Like if you kind of squint, you can see them real, real tiny up
29:51
close. The only one I can think of and
29:53
someone's going to correct me when they hear this is at Disney
29:58
World at the Pizza Rizzo restaurant.
30:01
If you've ever been to Pizza Rizzo, there's like, one of
30:04
those boards with like, the. Exactly what you're going to
30:08
say. Yeah, I know exactly what it is.
30:10
I'm sure I have. It's, you know, those like black
30:12
felt boards. You put the little white letters
30:14
in them so I can't remember what it says.
30:17
And the daughters dug back Christmas.
30:19
Oh yeah, it must be it. Yeah.
30:20
No, I can't remember what the white letters were saying, but
30:22
if you come close, you could see there, there was previously
30:25
letters on this and like kind of the sun faded a little bit so
30:27
you can see what it used to say. And it's like Paw Otter Memorial
30:31
concert or something like that. Yeah.
30:34
What a great little reference for six of us.
30:38
Yeah. Yeah, and you may not even see
30:40
it if you if you go in there because it's it's, you know,
30:42
it's looks sun bleached. On when I made it my mission to
30:47
to try to replace any of these billboards with real, you know,
30:50
or with Muppet references. One of the ones I was looking
30:54
for and I went through like all these HD copies that I could get
30:56
my hands on of Emma dot or was the music store.
30:59
I just could never get a clear enough copy to see what that
31:02
music store was called. But I was going to try to
31:06
recreate that. Oh, that would have been fun.
31:09
For six people. For six people, actually
31:12
probably less for that one. I don't.
31:13
I can tell you what that music. Store is called.
31:15
That's. Nothing.
31:18
So as the the van is driving around, they are boxed in at an
31:23
intersection by 4 cars and it turns out it's all the angry
31:27
fandoms. Let's go through them.
31:30
We got the Swifties. It's Taylor Swift's fandom.
31:34
They are led by Rachel Bloom from Crazy Exgirlfriend.
31:38
Her only other Muppet connection that I could find was she was
31:41
the voice of a dragon in an episode of the 2018 Muppet
31:45
Babies revival. So, you know, that's a thing
31:49
that she's done. You do your research, Joe.
31:51
I'll tell you. Well, thank good ones out.
31:54
Thanks to Muppet Wiki, they did the research and I just stole it
31:56
from him. We have the beehive.
32:00
That's Beyonce's fandom led by Nicole Byer from Nailed It.
32:05
Love That show. We've Got the Beliebers, led by
32:10
Ricky Lindholm from Garfunkel notes she was also Fozzie Bears
32:13
girlfriend Becky in The Muppets sitcom from 20, 15.
32:17
She's great. She's so funny.
32:18
Such such a great actress. She's so great.
32:21
And we've got Lady Gaga's Little Monsters, led by Jack Mcbrayer
32:24
from 30 Rock. He was also a movie theater
32:27
usher in the episode of Sesame Street from 2015.
32:31
Directed by me. I directed the Directed that I
32:33
did. And Jack's a buddy line.
32:36
I know he is. He's a good guy.
32:37
Oh yeah, Matt, They used to live together in.
32:40
Yeah, back in the 90s. Yeah, back in the 90s in Boston.
32:43
Oh, you go way back. Yeah.
32:45
Oh yeah, That's good. Let me tell you about it.
32:48
So here's what what we were both looking for No, I don't See.
32:53
We didn't. Story No story.
32:54
About we never we never lived together in Boston or in the
32:56
90s. I I But I do know him and he is
32:58
a buddy of mine. Lies.
33:00
No one's going to believe anything we say on this podcast.
33:02
Now. I got to work with him on Kimmy
33:06
Schmidt and as far as we go back, but that's it.
33:09
That's cool. He was great, though.
33:11
Really funny to have around that day.
33:13
Everybody was so fun. They were just having such a
33:15
good time hanging and it was hot, but they were really, I
33:19
think everybody had fun. Where did we shoot that?
33:21
Where was that? That was, that was on the
33:23
Disney. Is it the Disney Ranch?
33:25
Yeah, that was hot. So that was another thing we
33:27
had. We had the opportunity to, I
33:30
guess, name every storefront. I I only spotted one of them.
33:33
I'd love to hear about more. I don't even remember.
33:36
I know one is is a tribute to Freddie Mercury.
33:40
The theater. There's like a marquee and so we
33:43
named that theater. I think is a real name, but
33:45
everything else is. Yeah.
33:48
Is a is some sort of music Rockstar pun.
33:51
There's a pub though, that is the name of Adam's wife and my
33:55
wife. They own a pub, an Irish pub,
33:57
together because they're both Irish glasses.
34:01
I spotted Here comes the sundries.
34:03
Oh, there you go. Yeah.
34:04
That's why. There's also, I, you know, I
34:07
don't know if it ended up in there, but there was a moving
34:10
there's a van that like you rent vans to cover equipment and we
34:15
had to like Van Morrison or something like that.
34:18
We called and then like you couldn't read the joke.
34:21
And so I think we even said okay in VFX, just call it like
34:25
Hollywood van coverups or something like that.
34:28
I don't know if it's in there anymore.
34:30
That's funny. But yeah, these four people who
34:33
who we see Rachel Bloom, Nicole Byer, Ricky Linholm, Jack
34:37
Mcbrayer. Like they're first of all,
34:39
they're they're all such good sports.
34:41
But they all the second you see them, it's like people who
34:45
should be working with The Muppets like people who are very
34:47
talented, very funny. You know, like, especially, you
34:50
know, like Rachel Bloom, who hasn't gotten to play with The
34:52
Muppets before, who you know, she's so funny and crazy
34:56
ex-girlfriend, but also. Songwriter and and a singer and
35:01
a part of me is a little surprised that it took this long
35:03
to get her on, you know, working with The Muppets.
35:06
So I'm glad that you guys made it happen.
35:07
If we knew that we were getting these people, we probably would
35:10
have written it completely differently to you.
35:13
Interesting. Talents.
35:14
And they're just, yeah, I feel like, you know, she was very
35:18
funny though. She was great with her little
35:22
and gesture thing and yeah. And Ricky Lindholm?
35:27
I'm glad. It's glad to see her again.
35:29
Was she someone who you just thought like she was so great
35:32
with him up? Let's bring her back.
35:33
Or was it more of a coincidence of, you know, oh, we made a
35:36
connection and you've already been here.
35:39
But I'm trying to remember if there was, I think it was our
35:45
our casting people that were so good and thought of different
35:48
people and then they would send us names you know, and say what
35:51
about and we go, Oh yeah, well there you go.
35:52
That sounds that feels right. So really our casting people, I
35:56
brought them up in this situation, you know.
36:00
Yeah, except for, well, I guess maybe except for Jack.
36:03
That might have even gone through Matt.
36:04
In some way, I think it was Kimmy.
36:06
Actually, I think Kimmy was it. Oh, that's right, she.
36:09
Knows Jack also. And so that's right.
36:11
That's how she may have even. Maybe that was a connection she
36:14
might have been connected to all of.
36:15
Them you might have. Yeah, sure.
36:17
Yeah. Kimmy Gatewood has a big improv
36:19
background. She's an actor and.
36:23
And very funny in that world. I also appreciated that Jack
36:28
Mcbrayer says Mayhem come out to play.
36:32
Little Warriors reference. Yeah, yeah, that's good.
36:35
He. Just need a little coke bottles
36:37
on his fingers. He does kind of do that though,
36:40
right? He kind of like goes.
36:42
Yeah, he does a little thing with his fingers.
36:44
So Moo points out as a super fan himself, like he knows how this
36:47
works. You know, if you if you cold
36:49
this their leader, you cold this them all.
36:51
And the van is brutally attacked by these fandoms, which is
36:57
hysterical but terrifying because everyone is freaking
37:00
out. The fans rocking around the way
37:02
you guys edited it made it feel very intense, which I
37:06
appreciate. And Lips is pulled up through
37:10
the sunroof. The door is ripped off its
37:13
hinges. Floyd gets grabbed.
37:17
Yeah, and the Beliebers steal the van and this is it for the
37:23
van, right? We don't see it again after
37:24
this. That's.
37:26
It rip van. It was a bold move this and a
37:30
budget move. Okay.
37:33
Why? Why is that a budget move?
37:36
We had to get a bus. Right and nor his car.
37:40
Sure you mean you mean it made the budget higher because you
37:42
needed more? Yes.
37:43
Now you have to get the bus. Yeah, and we have to have bus.
37:47
Yeah, yeah. Because usually when someone
37:49
says it was a budget thing, it's like, oh, you need to save some
37:51
money. I get it.
37:52
Sorry, It's. The other way, yes, it's the
37:55
other way. It was a budget.
37:57
It was a budget increase to get. Sure, but yeah, but it was the
38:00
story. And you're telling the best
38:02
story. And then what's the best story?
38:04
They gotta have the bus. And Chris Ebers, the best
38:07
producer around who figures out a way to make things happen,
38:10
He's amazing. So we got our bus.
38:13
So grateful for that bus. We'll talk about that once we
38:15
once we see it in a couple episodes, we'll check in with
38:19
Animal and Hannah. He's doing a big photo shoots.
38:22
He's wearing all different outfits and different
38:24
backgrounds against the green screen.
38:26
A couple of these shots, he's got this great, like round head
38:29
of hair. Like, is he wearing a wig?
38:33
Is this a different puppet? How did you guys accomplish
38:35
that? Is it just you just comb the
38:38
hair in a different way and it just made it very spherical?
38:41
Think so, right? I don't know.
38:44
Let me tell you about this scene.
38:46
Oh yeah. Tell me that.
38:47
Tell me everything about animals hair.
38:49
I was not there for the shooting of this scene because I'm not in
38:54
the scene. But didn't you get COVID from
38:56
the scene? I might have.
39:01
Everybody runs into this, into the shack.
39:03
They're freaking out because they're being chased by the
39:05
fans. I like that everyone hides.
39:08
Zoot is wearing a lampshade over his head.
39:10
Janice is, I think, inside of an amp.
39:12
Is that what that is? Yeah.
39:15
Big, big tower speaker. Yeah.
39:17
Yeah, and Floyd is hanging down from inside of the chimney.
39:21
Are you are you actually hanging upside down in that chimney or
39:24
is? This, I'm not upside down, but I
39:25
remember Bill coming to me and going, hey, can we go take a
39:30
look and see if you can get your arm down inside this?
39:35
You know, fireplace. It's not like a real fireplace.
39:37
We're on a set, but I am standing next to the fireplace
39:41
and and reaching very like down deep into the fireplace with a
39:45
monitor kind of taped to the wall or something so I can see,
39:50
did we do the ladder or did we put boxes so you could be
39:52
talking about she has really long arms because it helped a
39:55
lot to get him up above and then he could reach down, so.
39:59
Yeah, I was on Apple boxes, yeah.
40:02
Right. Fascinating.
40:03
So it sounds like the fireplace set wasn't built to have a
40:07
puppeteer inside, but you're like, let's try it anyway.
40:10
Well, it was all open in the back, but nobody.
40:12
We didn't really intend on using it in any way like that.
40:15
So we had to make space and find a way to get mad in there.
40:18
Wasn't comfortable, that's for. Sure, but it's fun and it makes
40:21
for a great sight. Kack looks great, yeah.
40:23
Looks really great, Matt. What was the least comfortable
40:26
position that you were in in the series, do you recall?
40:32
Yes. Gosh, I I feel like it is
40:37
definitely like in a sofa. I think it's in that sofa there
40:41
because there were, there was a certain there, there was like a
40:45
certain position I had to be in that was not conducive to where
40:48
my arm, like how my arm grows out of my body or I had to get.
40:52
It was just a very awkward, weird position.
40:54
It was not great, but you know, got to do it, yeah.
40:58
Whatever it takes for the art, I wonder if maybe it's more
41:00
comfortable than I remember, but feels like when you were in
41:04
those Blues with Floyd playing the guitar in the street, in the
41:09
back, the the flashback. In the flashback, he's got his
41:13
leg up on the bench. And was that?
41:15
That was not as bad. No, that wasn't as bad, but
41:17
there were some blue screen things where it was like harder
41:20
just because of, I don't know, it, just some different things.
41:24
You're not very good at it. It's that that's the I just
41:28
assumed that everybody knows that one, but just in terms of
41:31
like set pieces or things like that, right?
41:34
So it's the set's fault. Well, yeah.
41:41
And my inability, yeah. So it turns out that all this
41:46
Twitter beef is a good thing because the band is getting a
41:50
lot of attention and they've been invited to play a virtual
41:53
concert in Minecraft. I'm sorry, Joe.
41:56
Forgive me, forgive me. But I will.
41:58
I will. In all fairness, Matt actually
42:02
does have the hardest kind of approach, just generally because
42:06
he's the tallest, so he tends to have to squat, bend, get lower.
42:13
You know, he unfortunately is probably the only one who can't
42:17
just be at his full height all the time because we're all just
42:20
ridiculously too short. So.
42:23
So he does tend to get, I mean, generally he's probably the one
42:28
who has to suffer the most. I hate to say it, but just to
42:31
your defense, Matt, more squishing than the rest of us do
42:35
that. Might be some squishing or some
42:37
sliding around on rolly chairs, stuff like that.
42:40
Yeah, he can be on a chair and we can stand.
42:43
Yeah, I'm like on a high chair. He sits on a chair and we stand.
42:48
But you. Would assume that it'd be the
42:49
other way around that, that being.
42:52
Tall as a puppeteer would be a benefit.
42:54
I don't know why I think that. Maybe just cuz Jim.
42:56
And they don't grow them like they used to.
42:58
Well, that's the thing, the average, the average has
43:01
changed, right. So the average has gotten
43:03
shorter over the years. Matt's in the height where the
43:06
guys used to be. Jim, Frank, Jerry, Richard, that
43:10
was the height. But we've all just for, you
43:14
know, everybody's gotten shorter and Matt's still the right.
43:20
Have you considered being shorter?
43:22
I looked into having my leg shortened.
43:25
It's very expensive and incredibly painful.
43:27
Whatever it takes for the art. But you do get they give you
43:31
free ice cream, so that's the plus that's in the plus side.
43:34
Wow. You think it's free, You don't
43:36
think you're paying for that as part of the surgery?
43:38
Well, they said free ice cream. It's better to be deductible or
43:41
not. Maybe they've hit it in the,
43:43
they've hidden it in. It's like a line line item that
43:45
I don't know about, right? I would think about it.
43:47
I would continue thinking about it, not just we got time.
43:51
OK. I'll think about it.
43:54
Hey, Joe, before you go on to the the whole motion capture
43:58
Minecraft thing, there's this, there's this moment in there I I
44:01
want to bring up. That's the scene before that.
44:03
I think when Nora's talking about, I think she's talking
44:07
about JJ, she's looking at a video of him and and Janice is
44:10
in there and she has this little story that she tells and I just
44:14
want to throw. Just some love out to David
44:18
Rudman who I I first of all he's amazing but the I love the way
44:25
that he's that Janice just goes she goes, I don't know she says
44:29
something like good night and then she just she after she's
44:32
done this whole long story she goes good night and then she
44:35
turns and she instantly falls asleep like instantly like she
44:38
has no there's nothing she's out she's snoring she's done.
44:43
And I just think that like the timing on that.
44:46
Was just so great and David Rudman is, I think he's really
44:51
found a really excellent place for his Janus.
44:55
It's like in this really cool spot.
44:58
Yeah, I wanted to see because you're so right.
45:00
It's just perfect. Really.
45:02
Just perfect. Let's talk about the scene for a
45:04
second because I I also love Janice's story about, you know,
45:07
there was a free spirited lass who was torn between two
45:11
different suitors and it seems obvious that she's talking about
45:14
herself, but she's not. She's talking about Betty.
45:18
And one of the suitors was obviously Floyd, and while Betty
45:23
was being wishy washy, Janice just swooped in and stole
45:26
Floyd's heart. And because we know now that
45:30
we're getting these little pieces of back story from
45:33
everyone and hopefully we'll have future seasons of this
45:36
show, you know, to really explore more of that, that we
45:40
might meet Betty, we might see who the other suitor was.
45:44
I mean, I don't know. I'm sure you guys are thinking
45:47
about it. I I remember actually not about
45:50
Betty so much but I remember kind of sitting at home thinking
45:54
why Why would Nora choose JJ over a move.
46:02
What would be something that would you know and and the the
46:05
simplest thing I could think of was a smile Does does that
46:09
person make you smile You know cuz they're both.
46:12
They both have great qualities and and our original JJ was a
46:17
little bit more right Jeff, he was more more of arch villain
46:21
and and we were asked to kind of do some notes and to change that
46:24
a bit and so they started to feel very likeable which is good
46:27
which is great but what is the choice that she makes you know
46:31
and I kept thinking and I so I pitched it to Jeff and Adam I
46:34
think it helped because it who makes it you know you can have
46:38
great qualities but who makes you smile.
46:41
Every day. Such a sweet sentiment.
46:43
Yeah. And I think it worked, hearing
46:45
it come out of Janice's mouth. I think it really helps, you
46:48
know, sell that. Sweet.
46:51
Yeah, it's a beautiful scene. Esecially since Janice is the
46:54
one who's like cosmically in tune with things like she knows
46:58
she knows the truth and the simlest.
47:00
Catch U to her? Yeah, yeah, it's the simplest.
47:03
What is the simplest truth that Janice could find in that?
47:06
And what she would have done, you know?
47:07
And it's about smile that makes you smile.
47:10
It's also a funny scene because Janice is so sweet, but we put
47:13
in this little undercurrent of just evil.
47:17
You know this? Dark side that she snoops in and
47:20
steals from This port is a woman who's now a bad lady in.
47:23
In Paramus Paramus. It's it's like she was born to
47:28
be a cult leader. Like, that's what you just
47:30
described. Yeah, and I love Lily's first
47:32
slide. Cuz she can't.
47:34
What is it, Jeff? What?
47:35
She can't tell that she's a sleeper and I.
47:37
Can tell hell, yeah. But it tells that so good.
47:40
She plays that so great, yeah. Yeah, nighty night.
47:45
The band is getting ready for this Minecraft concert.
47:48
Is this a thing, by the way? Minecraft concerts?
47:50
I don't. Play it absolutely.
47:51
And we use the IT is that does this thing.
47:55
Really, for the animation you mean?
47:57
Yeah, there's a couple called Knox Crew.
47:59
They are known, they're like these incredible Minecraft
48:02
creator group of creators who do these events, like BTS famously
48:08
had this concert in Minecraft. All these different acts do, but
48:12
this was different way different for them because what they do is
48:16
they will take the track, the music and they will animate a
48:20
whole concert. What they had here was all this
48:24
story that they had to tell. And so it was a learning curve
48:28
for them. It was a learning curve for us,
48:31
yeah. It became a storyboarded kind of
48:34
approach. It had to be all broken down.
48:37
The shots, like we they couldn't just animate the entire thing,
48:45
right. We did have, we'd have some for
48:46
some shots and then we could play right Jeff with the move.
48:49
Yeah, I think they could animate the concert and how they were
48:52
playing, but then we specifically were like, OK,
48:54
cool, now take that virtual camera and shoot it.
48:56
We want to start with the closeup of Floyd and pull out.
48:59
And that's just the music stuff. But then there's singing around
49:02
this, you know, yeah, we need the low angle.
49:04
Could we do a low angle here that helps sell the evil fans
49:07
and? And by the way, here's new
49:09
dialogue. Yeah, right.
49:11
You know, they were great. They really.
49:13
I think they it did a great job. When I was thinking about
49:17
watching the show back and I couldn't remember Bill and Jeff,
49:21
when we shot it and we had the music right, we are one.
49:26
Originally that song was much slower, not much slower, but it
49:30
was considerably slower. And did we shoot it slower on
49:34
the day or did we go back and that it was sped up?
49:39
It was sped up in post. The song was great.
49:44
But yeah, it just did not feel like it was this call to action
49:48
for all these people to unite in a loving way.
49:51
I recorded the vocals that are on the album right here in my
49:56
home studio I believe. Yeah, right here.
50:00
I had to do it here because we were just shooting out of
50:02
necessity, but I couldn't remember if we had shot it
50:06
slower and and it is actually the the way it is now.
50:10
It's one of my favorite songs on the record, and freaking Ringo
50:16
Starr is helping out. Animal on the drums.
50:19
It's Ringo Starr like I did. There's nothing.
50:21
Of. A big being made about that.
50:25
Yeah, Linda works as she brings in session musicians to just
50:30
like record live, you know, even on her demos.
50:32
So just bringing a group to play all that stuff live.
50:35
She just happened to be friends with Ringo Starr.
50:39
And she like, hey, do you want to play with Animal on this
50:42
track? And he laid down this beat.
50:44
And I mean, you hear it like once you know it's ring gum,
50:47
you're like, what what is happening right there is very
50:51
unique and not what a normal, average drummer would do.
50:56
It's incredible. And absolutely I am shocked they
50:59
haven't parlayed this into it a bigger deal.
51:02
We did a little bit of PR stuff with it.
51:04
We did a little bit like there was like just a small amount,
51:07
but you know. The other thing that's so you
51:10
did record it, we filmed it at a slower rate.
51:13
And so when we're editing, you know, we have to take into
51:15
consideration you can speed up footage, but it starts to look a
51:21
little weird. So you have to use, you know,
51:23
You have to be very judicious with which clips you use,
51:26
especially when there's a clapping breakdown.
51:29
Because that is a set rhythm and also that starts to be.
51:33
You know, I was wondering because those shots of the band
51:35
singing, of course, a lot of it does live in the Minecraft world
51:38
as well. So yeah.
51:42
It was a challenge. You know other plans to put the
51:44
Electric Mayhem into Minecraft? I think, I think that was one of
51:47
the things that this could be. Really a huge.
51:50
Tie in. You know, this was like a big,
51:52
big deal for Disney, for Muppets.
51:55
I want to point out also we meet Clark, who's the guy who's doing
52:00
all the mocap work. He's played by Joel Otruglio,
52:03
best known probably for Brooklyn 99.
52:06
I am a huge fan of his because he was a member of the State,
52:09
the sketch comedy show from the 90s, which is one of my
52:11
favorites of all time. And from what I can tell, he's
52:16
the first member of the state to work with The Muppets.
52:19
There was 11 cast members. And they've gone on to do great
52:22
things. You know what had American
52:23
Summer reading on 911? You know, Stella, you know a
52:27
bunch of other great stuff. And I know that Ken Marino was
52:33
at The Muppets Most Wanted red carpet because I interviewed
52:36
him, you know, on the press line.
52:39
But other than that, he's the first one.
52:41
So about time. Glad you guys got him.
52:44
What about Dan Marino? Does Dan Marino count?
52:46
Dan Marino? Dan Marino did a lot of Muppet.
52:48
Stuff, yeah, that was. It too much Muppet stuff.
52:51
I would say. I love the Dan Marino Christmas
52:55
special that he did with The Muppets.
52:57
That's a classic. When Clark announces the bands
53:02
to all the people in Minecraft, he's got his little.
53:06
A little voice in the microphone, But then we also
53:08
hear the voice of John Bailey, who is the voice from the Honest
53:14
Trailers YouTube videos in the Minecraft world, and he's
53:18
credited as the voice of God, which seems like an interesting
53:22
choice from you guys. The voice of God, isn't that
53:25
just a theater term when just the director speaking to the?
53:31
Vog Stage. Look it up, Joe.
53:34
Look it up. I don't know anything.
53:38
I don't know anything. Come on, Joe.
53:42
Yeah, that was an Adam phone call.
53:43
He was like, wouldn't it be cool if it was the trailer guy and I
53:46
was like, I I get, I mean, I Don Fontaine like and he's like, no,
53:52
no, hang on, he just wrote an e-mail and then also we got it
53:54
back within like 2 hours. He did scratch track for us.
53:58
I'm like, that's cool. Just as the band starts to play,
54:01
someone throws a Minecraft TNT dynamite thing at the band.
54:07
It kills lips. That's sad.
54:10
Takes him out for a minute. Yeah, he regens.
54:12
Yeah, that's a Minecraft term. Right.
54:16
So in the Minecraft world, the Swifties the.
54:19
Beehive, the believers, the little monsters are all
54:22
attacking. We see, you know.
54:25
The even the Natalie Merchant Marines.
54:26
That's my favorite. Natalie Merchant's my favorite
54:29
too. That's a great line, and I
54:32
assumed incorrectly, that Rihanna's Navy was a joke
54:36
because I'm like, oh, it's a battleship reference, but that's
54:38
what they call Rihanna fans as Rihanna's Navy.
54:40
I didn't know that. Yeah, that is true, but the.
54:44
Band takes this opportunity to sing We Are One.
54:47
It's a great song. And rainbows emanate from the
54:51
bands Transform everybody. You make it sound so easy.
54:53
The sun comes out, everybody loves the mayhem.
54:56
And now they love each other through the power of.
55:00
It was, it was several grueling, certainly months of the back and
55:06
forth. I mean really just us figuring
55:08
it out. I mean again, they animated this
55:11
thing, knocks crew. And then at a certain point we
55:13
changed the tempo, you know, of the song.
55:15
It just changes everything and. Ironically, fittingly has
55:19
rippling effects. The stage changed.
55:22
We wanted to have class out, you know, at a certain time there
55:27
was all just constantly some because the more we would want
55:30
to we go. Is the intention of the scene
55:33
clear? Is it clear that's going from
55:36
this regular fans to then the people who are coming to attack
55:40
them and and watching that get dark and then seeing that
55:45
change? I think the other thing was
56:00
that, you know, we don't know Minecraft particularly well.
55:46
Like we just needed those beats. And I think for a while we just
55:50
felt like it was like one run, you know, It was kind of almost
55:54
one note, but it just ultimately we got there.
55:58
But it was a lot of. And we're like, right, Well,
56:05
can't they do this? Yeah, they're like, well, so we.
56:09
We did build something that could do this, and like they had
56:14
to do all these crazy workarounds to make what we
56:17
wanted around. We do have geese and unicorns.
56:21
Do they work for the bad characters?
56:23
That was another thing, You know, we specifically wanted
56:25
like animals that represented these band groups.
56:29
And what about snakes? The snakes work and they're
56:32
like, well, yeah. We got the bees in there.
56:37
I feel like the bees were important.
56:39
You got the bees. These are great, yes.
56:41
Yeah, when Taylor's contended with Mamas horses.
56:45
Yeah, they come in on horses. They come on horseback and then
56:48
we had zombies, right? Right.
56:50
For the little monsters, yeah. Right.
56:52
No, that makes sense. Yeah.
56:55
So the other concerts, a big hits.
56:57
Nora throws the band a classic Mayhem party, the back of the
57:01
Shack. But they are all too engrossed
57:03
in their phones to really appreciate it.
57:06
Like a bunch of millennials. I just want to point out the
57:09
psychedelic foods on the table. Pretty great.
57:13
You know, I thought those are awesome.
57:16
Not psychedelic foods, but the thank you tie, dyed tie dyed
57:21
foods. I also have something to say
57:23
about this scene. My biggest memory of this scene
57:27
is that I was not there for this.
57:29
You were not there. Because this is again, the COVID
57:33
thing that kept me from being there, but Peter Lynn subbed in
57:36
for me. On this scene and made it very
57:39
easy to a Dr. my lines on that line that I had there, yeah, it
57:43
was. So it was great.
57:45
Yeah, he did. Lips I.
57:46
Didn't even need to Floyd, yeah. Why did we have you on this
57:50
episode, Matt? It's just what the schedule was.
57:55
It's fine if I. Recall.
57:59
Just really quick in and out, like one taken.
58:02
We got it was really smooth. Everybody was the same height.
58:05
Worked really great. Yep, probably super easy.
58:09
I get it. Yeah, Moog has finished
58:12
producing the album. The album is done.
58:14
We have two episodes left to go. I'm sure everything will go
58:18
super smoothly now that the big thing is finished.
58:20
Nora gets a phone call from the Hollywood Bowl.
58:23
They saw the concert and they want to make a deal.
58:26
Great, Everything's coming up. Millhouse.
58:29
She agrees to move in with JJ, which is a big deal for all
58:34
them. But Moog season all go down.
58:36
And he's feeling pretty hurt. I love that.
58:39
That's pretty much where the episode ends on this
58:43
cliffhanger. Disney Plus is gonna love this,
58:46
except for the fact that we see Zoot with his iPhone and all his
58:50
photos rained on from the cloud that he had been taking
58:53
throughout the episode, which is a great.
58:56
Love that button of the photos falling from the cloud.
59:00
I also love the previous. There was a setup for way back
59:04
in the beginning of the episode where he does this great.
59:08
Well, he just looks up and he pulls his hand out and nothing.
59:10
And it gets paid off here. Clouds broken.
59:14
Yeah, that's great. I love that.
59:17
But I have to say. What I I really feel for Moog, I
59:22
really do. And not only it's it's not just
59:25
because it's you know it's well written but Taj Mowry who plays
59:31
Moog could not be sweeter and just just nails every scene that
59:38
he is in. To me I just and and when he
59:41
says in that the scene after he says the albums and he says that
59:47
smile made it all worth it. Smile the smile I he's just so
59:53
great. The no, we don't have a ton of
59:56
time left. But I just have to say when we
59:58
all met we read first. I don't know what it was two or
1:00:01
three episodes, but we did like one at a time and we did them
1:00:03
over Zoom and that's how we all met each other really was over
1:00:07
Zoom. And when I met via Zoom, Taj I
1:00:15
just he just there was this. Just happiness and and just
1:00:20
this, this glow that emanated from the Zoom screen.
1:00:24
And I just thought I was like, I just, I want to hug that guy.
1:00:27
I just want to hug him. And we got to the set and the
1:00:31
first time I met him, Taj was on the set in the in the in the
1:00:37
shack. The first time I met him, I said
1:00:39
Taj, can I give you a hug? And he goes bring it in.
1:00:45
And he gave me the big hug and he's just the sweetest guy.
1:00:48
We all, we all. I mean, our humans are fantastic
1:00:52
and I love all of it. There's a shot earlier in this
1:00:55
episode with Joel Otruglio where he's so happy he grabs Taj and
1:00:59
he hugs him. And I feel like, I assume that
1:01:02
wasn't in the script. That was just, he's just so
1:01:04
hugable. You just got to grab him.
1:01:06
Yeah, he is. Yeah, he's Hugable.
1:01:08
We had never seen anyone go down to the studio.
1:01:12
Right. We've always seen them coming
1:01:13
from that area over there, but we never saw anybody go down
1:01:18
that behind that wall and down. And on the day I said we got to
1:01:23
just paint studio like as if they did it and put an arrow
1:01:27
down there. So our our, you know set person
1:01:30
came over and she just like banged it out.
1:01:32
She was made it, called it studio so that you could see,
1:01:35
you know, we knew where he was coming from and going to so.
1:01:38
You know, when we did our pitch, we'd met the guys and
1:01:41
everything. Over zoom.
1:01:43
This was all over zoom. But then for a pitch we had, you
1:01:46
know, it was Adam, me and Bill, although you weren't on at that
1:01:49
point, you know, because what happened was our zoom gets
1:01:54
crashed by the mayhem. So as we're pitching this to
1:01:57
Disney plus, all sudden these little windows start populating
1:02:02
the zoom as each of the band members appear.
1:02:05
And you know, talking to a Muppet like that gets you a
1:02:09
green light. Just having them pop up on the
1:02:12
screen and just like they, these people were watching their own
1:02:16
Muppet show. And then yeah, to just be on
1:02:20
that screen as one of those people and just with The Muppets
1:02:22
was just a thrill. But it was very cool.
1:02:26
Each of you guys set up your own spaces.
1:02:28
Like your own little, Yeah. Like some, I don't know, tie
1:02:33
dyed something in the background I think and some, you know
1:02:36
Christmas lights or whatever it was, it was we all had our own
1:02:40
little thing that we did in our. Box setup, yeah.
1:02:43
That's great. Well, I would agree and lit the
1:02:45
show with that. Absolutely it was.
1:02:48
Very cool. It was very cool.
1:02:49
What did you do? Matt, do you have any other
1:02:54
memories from the series, something from maybe a different
1:02:57
episode that you wanna share, People that you worked with,
1:03:01
really great or terrible moments?
1:03:05
You know, performing Floyd on Muppets.
1:03:07
Mayhem, you terrible one. Now here's a terrible moment.
1:03:09
Come on, give me a bad one. I don't.
1:03:10
What? You what you hate.
1:03:12
I for us like kind of a longer shoot.
1:03:15
And usually there might be a moment where you just like I
1:03:17
just. I'm frustrated about something
1:03:20
this this. I don't remember ever being
1:03:22
frustrated other than the false COVID thing.
1:03:28
I was frustrated by that because I really missed not being there
1:03:33
for these moments. There's like, I think there's
1:03:35
another moment in a van where I'm not there for that, but I
1:03:37
don't think I say anything. Oh, I know what it is.
1:03:39
It's the way I'll get sick when I'll get motion sickness.
1:03:41
I think it's the next episode where they're all looking at
1:03:43
their phones and they all get motion sickness.
1:03:46
I don't think I wasn't there for that.
1:03:49
But what was terrible for me was not being able to be there with
1:03:54
my brothers and sisters in the ban or just in the scene or
1:03:58
whatever, because it was just such a.
1:03:59
As great as Peter now. Sorry, I mean we missed you too.
1:04:02
You know it's you get used to being together and these, you
1:04:07
know, spaces, you know and feeding each other and stuff.
1:04:10
And it's wild how, you know, we've known each other for
1:04:14
decades, long time and to It makes it so much easier to be
1:04:20
able to work with somebody in a scene when you kind of can feel
1:04:23
where they're going to, where they're going to get and you can
1:04:27
jump on and go with them there and add to it.
1:04:30
And yeah, it just was nothing. It was just a player to be to
1:04:35
going to go to work every day. It really was.
1:04:37
Was it about like, who in the parking lot, whose car you
1:04:42
parked next to? Is that like what made it
1:04:43
special? Well, I do think that we were
1:04:48
part. We had spaces next to each
1:04:50
other. We.
1:04:50
Were parking past you and I next.
1:04:52
I That's how I can. See the space park?
1:04:54
Yeah, yeah, I noticed that. Noticed where you were parked,
1:04:56
Jeff. Yeah.
1:04:58
I know. I I found a you know, it was,
1:05:01
yeah, I'm guessing special, though.
1:05:02
You were next to me. Which side?
1:05:03
Come on. It was on the outside, you know.
1:05:10
Just cuz I had a bike. I know, I know where Bill, Bill
1:05:12
was like right next, you know. Where I was, Yeah, I know where
1:05:14
Matt was right there. Where are you, Jeff?
1:05:15
You were next to Matt. I'm just guessing.
1:05:18
You must have been next to me. Yeah, my mom dropped me off, but
1:05:23
most of the day. Oh and you were and but in all
1:05:27
honesty it would have been great and I know you were busy like I
1:05:31
guess writing the show or whatever but to have but in the
1:05:36
in the times that you were able to come to set and be on set
1:05:38
with us and kind of like and throw out alts.
1:05:41
And you know Bill was great about like coming up with alts.
1:05:43
But then you'd also you'd also text Jeff and Adam.
1:05:46
I'd be like okay. Hey, what about, how about this
1:05:48
text back and just to kind of keep the keep it moving so that
1:05:52
we would have some sort of alt and when you know if something
1:05:56
wasn't working or just to kind of plus something and it just
1:05:59
seemed like you guys had a system down that worked really
1:06:02
well. For I mean I've said before I
1:06:05
just wish you would have been there more It's.
1:06:06
So much fun being down there and watching you guys work and
1:06:09
watching you have fun. And then you just coming up with
1:06:11
ideas we would text back and forth.
1:06:13
What do you think of this? We could scribble stuff on, you
1:06:15
know, where we ran by like the the music stores, like, hey,
1:06:18
what do you think of these possible, you know, like, but
1:06:21
yeah, I wish that I could have been down there more.
1:06:24
It's just so much fun, you know? Absolutely.
1:06:28
Well, Matt Vogel, thank you so much for being here.
1:06:30
It was such a joy to get to talk to you about Floyd, to thank you
1:06:32
for all you've brought to the character on this great series.
1:06:36
And Bill and Jeff, thank you for being here again.
1:06:40
I can't get rid of you guys. I hope to have you back again
1:06:43
next. Year.
1:06:46
Bill, you're still sorry? Yeah, here at I knew this.
1:06:49
Wasn't going to be a good one. Yeah, well, maybe next week you
1:06:53
got two more shots. Maybe one of these will be a.
1:06:57
It'll stick. Oh, no, no.
1:06:58
The others are great. Oh.
1:07:00
I just had a feeling this one wasn't going to fly.
1:07:03
Yeah, we're going to do this. You should do it.
1:07:05
You know a different Floyd or anybody.
1:07:07
Yeah, we're going. To do this one with Alice, is it
1:07:09
Alice? Or use Peter.
1:07:10
It's in. Theaters.
1:07:11
It's how they felt and then I'll ADR it perfect.
1:07:16
Great. Well, thank you again for being
1:07:18
here. Everyone else, we will see you
1:07:19
again next week on Muppets Mayhem Backstage Pass.
1:07:25
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1:07:50
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