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The Great Muppet Fandom Panel - The Muppet Friend Awards · Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com

• 0:00
  This is a great, hello, and welcome to the great
• 0:15
  Muppet fandom panel from tough pigs.com.
• 0:17
  Usually, this is a panel discussion show about Muppet
• 0:20
  news, but not this time tonight, we're doing something special
• 0:23
  that I like to call the Muppet friend Awards, the panel is
• 0:26
  going to try to determine the best friend of the Muppets and
• 0:29
  come up with. Honorable mentions called
• 0:31
  friends of the Muppets. What do I mean by that?
• 0:34
  Well, not them up performers, not the behind-the-scenes.
• 0:37
  Creative people like Craig Chemin.
• 0:38
  I mean Stars celebrities, who are the big names in the
• 0:42
  entertainment world who have been supporters of the Muppets,
• 0:44
  who were the Entertainer's who've worked with them, a bunch
• 0:47
  and played off them, like they're all part of the same
• 0:49
  family tonight. We find out and we'll put their
• 0:52
  names on nice, little certificates and post.
• 0:54
  Those certificates on social media to show our appreciation
• 0:58
  for the Muppet appreciators in Hollywood.
• 1:00
  The panel for this evening is a group of Muppet fans who all
• 1:04
  have their ties to the entertainment World in one way
• 1:06
  or another. But, you know, them, as the
• 1:07
  hosts of Muppet, ergy, a Muppet Show re-watch podcast, it's one
• 1:11
  of my favorite shows that puts the Muppet Show in the context
• 1:14
  of all the pop culture, that's connected to it.
• 1:18
  They talk about the history of each song.
• 1:19
  The Muppets perform on the show, they talk about what else was on
• 1:22
  TV. The night that that episode of
• 1:24
  The Muppet Show was broadcasting and they even have a short
• 1:27
  biography for each guest star with three.
• 1:30
  Three seasons under their belt. They can tell you which guest
• 1:32
  stars were down to clown with the Muppets, were generally.
• 1:35
  A good fit for them, at least, for the guests, in the first
• 1:38
  three seasons. I'll be filling in the stars who
• 1:40
  work with the Muppets since the third season of The Muppet Show.
• 1:44
  So, the between the five of us, I'm sure we'll have a perfectly
• 1:47
  balanced spread. It'll be great.
• 1:50
  Let's introduce the panelists. If just one person believes in
• 1:53
  you, maybe even you can believe in David Levy.
• 1:57
  Hey. They only got one another but we
• 2:03
  got Christie Bauer. Hello?
• 2:07
  Ask me a riddle and I replied Mahal Richardson.
• 2:11
  And are though, I probably shall not exclaim as I die.
• 2:16
  Adam, gross worth. I have a cold.
• 2:19
  I'm highly medicated, and there is bourbon.
• 2:21
  And this hot toddy. So, really happy to be here.
• 2:24
  Good, great. And I'm JD Hansel Muppet her.
• 2:27
  Just, I'm so happy to have you all here.
• 2:29
  I'm a big fan of the show. I have a bunch of questions.
• 2:31
  I want to ask all of you if we have time but for now I'll just
• 2:35
  ask this, how Did you for decide to start your podcast together?
• 2:39
  It's David's fault. It's true.
• 2:41
  When Disney plus announced that they were going to scream The
• 2:43
  Muppet Show. I just knew that this was
• 2:47
  inevitable. I took to Twitter and I said, oh
• 2:49
  no, this means. I'm going to have to start a
• 2:51
  Muppet Show re-watch podcast, doesn't it?
• 2:53
  And I don't remember who the first person was was like, well,
• 2:57
  I guess you're asking because you want us to tell you, yes,
• 3:00
  right. And I was like, no, I won't you
• 3:01
  tell me? No.
• 3:02
  They're like, we're not going to do that.
• 3:04
  And everyone else were just the people in my Life who were the
• 3:08
  most obvious answers to? Who do I want to spend five
• 3:11
  years watching The Muppets with? I believe my exact response to
• 3:15
  that question was well, I already have a microphone.
• 3:20
  So can you tell me a little bit about, like, what each of you do
• 3:24
  because you all know a lot about theater?
• 3:26
  And I feel like theater is such a big part of what makes the
• 3:29
  Muppet Show The Muppet Show. It's pulling so many songs from
• 3:32
  musical theater. I mean, you all seem like such
• 3:35
  experts so What do you all do? So, I work for Actors Equity
• 3:40
  Association, which is the union for actors and Stage managers
• 3:43
  who work in the live theater in the United States.
• 3:46
  All right, so I write musicals that for stage and screen so
• 3:51
  that's my entry point. Incredibly cool to be clear.
• 3:57
  Both both of you, incredibly cool.
• 3:59
  Sorry, I don't actually work in theater though.
• 4:02
  I am a theatrical and theatrically inclined person but
• 4:06
  I rights Grips for kids media and especially for a children's
• 4:11
  podcast called the Imagine neighborhood.
• 4:13
  That I suggest all of you go listen to right now, pause this
• 4:16
  podcast. Go listen to the imagine a bird
• 4:17
  instead then come back because also an award-winning playwright
• 4:22
  that's very kind of you very accurate for our toward
• 4:28
  runner-up rating. Playwright I've placed
• 4:31
  somewhere. Thank you, and the puppets here.
• 4:35
  And and has, yeah, I do a bunch of crackles.
• 4:38
  You asked what I do, which I assumed meant for money and a
• 4:41
  dancer. I spend a lot of time doing a
• 4:43
  lot of things and it's all valid.
• 4:46
  Thank you. I used to be a stage manager,
• 4:48
  which you will hear on the podcast when I get real,
• 4:51
  pedantic about how things work backstage and why is there no
• 4:54
  crew and weight is, Kermit the stage manager is scooter, the
• 4:57
  stage manager, what's going on, but I now work for a nonprofit
• 5:01
  called the National Alliance. Alliance for musical theater
• 5:04
  which provides services to theater producers.
• 5:07
  Mostly nonprofits. So I am also deeply steeped in
• 5:11
  musicals on the sort of business side of things, all so cool.
• 5:16
  And with that it is now time for the great Muppet.
• 5:19
  Question panelists. Are you ready?
• 5:21
  Great, this. Episode's, great Muppet question
• 5:24
  is, what's the best episode of The Muppet Show that you've
• 5:26
  covered so far on the podcast? I mean, there's only one right?
• 5:30
  Answer to this question and it's the Phyllis Diller.
• 5:33
  Entirely because of the raw sexual chemistry between her and
• 5:36
  Ralph undeniable. It is also undeniable that Sandy
• 5:42
  Duncan makes you feel good all over so can't really beat that.
• 5:45
  This is true. This is true.
• 5:47
  My my actual favorite episode probably of all time but we have
• 5:51
  two seasons to go is probaly and that's just a sincere answer.
• 5:54
  I have no joke. We're like we're not in the
• 5:57
  sincere part of the podcast. I know.
• 6:00
  Well you you put a joke in the outline.
• 6:02
  You gave us So I was like, not really prepared to be sincere
• 6:04
  but I did it anyway but that like there are so many little
• 6:07
  moments like even in some of the episodes we've hated have had
• 6:10
  like some really nice moments and if I were, I'm never doing
• 6:14
  this could be too much work, but if I were going to do like a,
• 6:16
  like, a sketches ranking, it would be, so wildly all over the
• 6:19
  place, and I'm getting ahead of ourselves, but like, I'm really
• 6:22
  excited for these next two seasons that were not released
• 6:24
  on DVD. That I don't have the same kind
• 6:25
  of memories of too to see what, what we're in for Adam just used
• 6:30
  to come out and admit that he loves the period.
• 6:32
  Another episode even though everyone else hates it.
• 6:37
  Because like it mean, there's there is some stuff in that
• 6:39
  episode that I really liked. It's true.
• 6:40
  I it's not high in my rankings overall but it had its moments.
• 6:44
  I also have a weird like childhood Robin Hood, Disney's
• 6:49
  Robin Hood linked affection for produced enough.
• 6:52
  So so yeah, I'm gonna I will continue to stick up for that
• 6:54
  episode. And I'm here to speak for the
• 6:57
  j.p. more fans gave you. Morgan was the first not the
• 7:01
  last but the first guest star, who is brave enough to say that
• 7:06
  the Muppet Show is a piece of string and is below her, but
• 7:09
  despite it all being beneath her, she put on her best chicken
• 7:13
  suit and flew high above the material.
• 7:17
  Well then well thank you all for playing along with all this
• 7:20
  foolishness it's time to move on to tonight's main event.
• 7:23
  But first, I want to remind our listeners Is that tough pigs can
• 7:27
  always, use your help and support so we can keep making
• 7:29
  nerdy Muppet fans stuff like this.
• 7:31
  If you can consider joining our patreon.
• 7:33
  And if you want some fun Muppet merch, you'll find some on RT
• 7:36
  public store, Muppet her just's. You also have a store with
• 7:40
  Muppet fan, Merchants that right?
• 7:41
  The through, I have, in fact wearing some of our merch right
• 7:44
  now and I'm wearing some of the tough Pittsburgh right now.
• 7:49
  David, you just disappeared into the background when you stood
• 7:52
  out. I'm stood and just vanished
• 7:54
  don't bother. He's not here.
• 7:59
  All right. Yeah, I'm so tempted to get the
• 8:02
  Clown's shirt - what I'm wearing tonight.
• 8:06
  Although I do also own tough pigs merch.
• 8:08
  I own the Manhattan. Melodies jerk named.
• 8:11
  Yeah, I gotta get that one. I'm wearing the be the monster.
• 8:16
  You wish to see at the End of This Book shirt the concert.
• 8:19
  In fact, all of our merge also comes in Baby Onesie, I need to
• 8:23
  finally send to my friend tomorrow.
• 8:26
  Look how cute their baby outgrows.
• 8:29
  It, that's wonderful. That's nice.
• 8:34
  All right. And with that, let's jump into
• 8:37
  the Muppet friend Awards. We Haul.
• 8:43
  I don't, I don't know what I'm looking at with your list.
• 8:46
  So, a lot of mystery, why don't you go first?
• 8:50
  And we'll, I'm curious. I'm curious.
• 8:53
  Who have you nominated for a muppet friend award?
• 8:56
  Okay, I wasn't sure how to approach this assignment so you
• 9:00
  can tell me how I did. Okay?
• 9:02
  I will discuss my first pick and why they, I think that this
• 9:07
  person is such a good friend to Muppets or at least.
• 9:10
  One Muppet. Okay, here we go.
• 9:14
  Number 15. Can we talk?
• 9:20
  Okay, listen. Sometimes a friend is someone
• 9:23
  who tells you? What you need to hear?
• 9:25
  She'll tell you when you need Rouge.
• 9:28
  She'll tell you when you need eyebrows.
• 9:30
  She'll give you a complete makeover.
• 9:31
  When you're feeling down, she'll tell you when you're pushing it.
• 9:33
  And when she gets fired just for putting a smile or eyebrows on
• 9:37
  your face, shield think it's hilarious or it might have just
• 9:40
  been all the gin and tonics so setting aside their QVC Feud of
• 9:46
  2014. Which I only just learned about
• 9:49
  when I was researching this yesterday, I missed a lot of
• 9:51
  exciting Muppet media in 2014. Nobody has been a better friend
• 9:55
  to Miss Piggy than Joan Rivers. Great pick a great pick.
• 10:25
  I mean, it's true that that she's had a lot of great Muppet
• 10:29
  interactions and that scene in Muppets Take Manhattan is kind
• 10:33
  of a show stealer there that I I never would have thought of this
• 10:37
  choice, but she is a great choice.
• 10:41
  Adam, I think you're up number 14.
• 10:46
  Yeah I found this little challenging mostly.
• 10:48
  I was surprised. There's a, there's a great page
• 10:52
  on my boat with you shut him up a Wiki of people who have
• 10:55
  appeared on both Muppet TV shows and Muppet movies.
• 10:59
  Yeah, and I was actually surprised how short that list
• 11:00
  was because I just sort of think of like, you know, these stars.
• 11:03
  And they must have done so many appearances and it's a
• 11:07
  surprisingly short list at least of sort of the Muppet world that
• 11:12
  I exist in, which does not tend to include Sesame Street, Rallo,
• 11:15
  I love Sesame Street, it's just, I've largely left it behind.
• 11:19
  Yeah, but but I went for my first pick with Whoopi Goldberg.
• 11:23
  I am in these small small group of people who will stick up for,
• 11:28
  it's a very merry Muppet Christmas movie.
• 11:30
  Interesting. How do you figure it?
• 11:32
  Just hit me at just the right time.
• 11:35
  I have watched it recently. I do own the DVD.
• 11:37
  It is not streaming anywhere that I know of it is.
• 11:40
  It is extremely 2002. It is it is it dated immediately
• 11:44
  including By the presence of what we call Berg as God.
• 11:50
  She is credited as the boss. But let's, let's let's call it
• 11:53
  what it is. And, you know, just just the
• 11:56
  credits alone. Those guests are credit alone.
• 11:59
  Oh yeah. It's you know, it's them too.
• 12:01
  But I really love it and that Moulin Rouge sequence alone and
• 12:05
  then you throw in junkies act as the villain.
• 12:07
  And you throw in a plot line about how Kermit is, in fact,
• 12:10
  bad at business and, you know, deeply in debt.
• 12:13
  And and it's like I'm here for it.
• 12:15
  I'm into it and Then and was so good.
• 12:17
  They remade it as a feature film in 2011.
• 12:19
  I mean kinda but without Joan Cusack and Whoopi Goldberg, so
• 12:23
  it's worse and so yeah. So I'm into it and then she's
• 12:27
  actually done a lot with them over the years you know,
• 12:30
  including Muppets tonight. She she didn't have a set of
• 12:34
  she's had the Muppets on various, you know, talk show
• 12:37
  appearances, she's done a lot of Sesame Street, she's just really
• 12:40
  legitimately a very good friend of up at she like, you know, I
• 12:43
  believe that they hang out off camera, like, I buy So I'm gonna
• 12:47
  Whoopi Goldberg. So, I think I'm supposed to tell
• 12:49
  you. My favorite Sesame Street memory
• 12:51
  but I have two of them. Yeah.
• 12:53
  Yeah, the first one, first one was the very first time.
• 12:57
  I walked onto a Sesame, Street, Sesame Street.
• 13:01
  Yeah. And I saw everybody and big bird
• 13:05
  was there and all these kids were there and I was too old to
• 13:09
  be a kid. Well that's what I figured out.
• 13:14
  Yeah, II kind of Affected this episode would almost be a race
• 13:18
  to who could type will be Goldberg first, because with
• 13:21
  just how much she loves to work with the Muppets and how much
• 13:25
  he's done it over so much time. And even doing little odd things
• 13:30
  like narrating, the being Elmo documentary, like she's just
• 13:35
  filled every little corner of the Muppet sphere that she can
• 13:39
  and that she's in the Sesame Street, 50th Anniversary
• 13:42
  Special. She I think seemingly has a On
• 13:46
  Pepe the king prawn or something like that.
• 13:48
  If I remember that running gag correctly.
• 13:50
  So part of me wants to call the Muppet fan towards the Whoopi's
• 13:55
  because it's just she's been such a great friend to the
• 14:00
  Muppets. I think I'm just, I'm, I'm sorry
• 14:05
  I am stuck on this. Take this this.
• 14:08
  It's a very merry Muppet Christmas movie take.
• 14:10
  I'm sorry like I'm glad, I am very glad that the Muppet fan
• 14:14
  Community has. Lots of Of different opinions
• 14:18
  that is one of those opinions that's one of the different ones
• 14:21
  and I appreciate that humanity and fandom are a rich tapestry
• 14:25
  but I did not know that in that rich tapestry there was room for
• 14:29
  somebody being a fan of Mary Muppet.
• 14:31
  This is is No Kermit Swamp Years but - scooter dancing in the
• 14:37
  cage. I mean, come on, come on.
• 14:40
  It's a good guy. I'm sorry, it's funny on edge.
• 14:43
  Also it was very 2002 was it hippin. 2002 to talk about
• 14:47
  Kermit dying. I just yeah you have a real
• 14:50
  problem with Muppets dying. I have a real problem with
• 14:54
  insinuating. The Kermit is dying will have
• 14:56
  died. Was never born will freeze to
• 14:58
  death but then he doesn't. Yeah that they blow dry him but
• 15:02
  not before the it can worry for 2 minutes.
• 15:04
  So they're going to break him in half because he's frozen solid.
• 15:07
  Oh, I didn't me. So do you worry when watching
• 15:10
  the 1979 Muppet movie about a Alert, who kills frogs know that
• 15:16
  clearly is going to turn out? Well, okay.
• 15:19
  But you're genuinely worried for Kermit the Frog when you watch.
• 15:22
  It's a very merry Muppet Christmas movie.
• 15:23
  I watched this movie Once when it came out, and here we are 20
• 15:27
  years later and I'm still concerned.
• 15:29
  It doesn't even get her started on Old.
• 15:31
  Gonzo from Haunted Mansion. I have a problem.
• 15:37
  Just the one. It's my biggest problem.
• 15:41
  Okay. David Number 13.
• 15:47
  You know what? I'm going to stay firmly in The
• 15:49
  Muppets tonight era, because I do love that will be Goldberg
• 15:53
  episode. But my favorite episode of
• 15:56
  Muppets tonight is the Tony Bennett episode.
• 15:59
  And I think Tony Bennett is a great, great friend to the
• 16:04
  Muppets. And not only because he was
• 16:07
  perhaps the best guest star of a show.
• 16:11
  That was the wrong thing at the wrong time.
• 16:13
  But He fit into well because he was having this sort of late
• 16:16
  career Resurgence. The same moment that the Muppets
• 16:19
  were trying to have a late career Resurgence.
• 16:22
  He had reinterpreted himself successfully for the MTV
• 16:25
  Generation The Muppets less. So and so it felt like they had
• 16:30
  a lot in common that they could share with each other.
• 16:33
  But that's not his only Crossover with the Muppets.
• 16:36
  So he had been on Sesame Street, in fact his rendition of the
• 16:40
  song little things which I think is one of General pozos best
• 16:43
  Songs and deserves a long life outside of the context of Sesame
• 16:47
  Street. I think it's just like a great
• 16:48
  Cabaret song in his rendition is a classic.
• 16:51
  His, the his is the version that get included on the Sesame
• 16:54
  Street box set, and he invited Kermit to do a duet on his
• 17:01
  album, The Playground where they did number that actually, they
• 17:04
  had done together on my website needed cyclamens Firefly, which
• 17:08
  is a 20-minute classic that was just so perfect for Kermit to to
• 17:12
  join in. And it seems so inevitable.
• 17:15
  It's amazing that they cook them.
• 17:16
  Until the 90s to do it, then do it twice and on the Sesame
• 17:21
  Street side of things slimy to the Moon is one of the, I would
• 17:26
  say Latter day. But at this point is probably
• 17:27
  mid-career Sesame Street like greatest hit moments ago and
• 17:33
  there's more and there's other things and also, in some ways, I
• 17:37
  feel like the Tony Bennett Lady Gaga connection, which then you
• 17:42
  know, also leading Gaga has been a friend although I don't think
• 17:46
  a best friend of the Muppets in later years.
• 17:48
  I feel like like some way. He's sort of the spiritual
• 17:51
  grandfather of that later connection.
• 17:54
  I just feel like, just, he's someone who's been there for
• 17:59
  decades now with the Muppets. I mean, he was in my best Most
• 18:03
  Wanted. Yeah he was he staying with Miss
• 18:06
  Piggy in the Thanksgiving Day. Parade in 2016.
• 18:09
  It's the longevity. It's the doing stuff on both
• 18:12
  sides of the the Sesame, Street, Muppet, Show, lime.
• 18:17
  And it's just, I think, especially that sort of The way
• 18:22
  that kind of his whole deal fits so well because it's it's
• 18:27
  wholesome but it's not to Wholesome, you know, it's like
• 18:30
  if Frank Sinatra is like a little too edgy for you.
• 18:33
  There's Tony Bennett and that seems just like perfect for for
• 18:38
  them up. And so I think there's not just
• 18:39
  that they perform well together but but that they vibe.
• 18:44
  Sorry. I don't think you.
• 18:45
  I think you mispronounce the name Frank Sinatra.
• 18:48
  You want to take another crack at his full name?
• 18:51
  So there is no to Joe raposo Stan Frank Sinatra, here we go.
• 18:55
  Okay, but if he's too edgy for you there's Tony Bennett now and
• 18:59
  and and and let us not forget oh before Tony himself and ever
• 19:04
  appeared with the Muppets them up is paid tribute to him in the
• 19:07
  Muppets. Take Manhattan in The crucial
• 19:10
  scene, where Gonzo water Keys. Well Camilla and the chickens
• 19:16
  perform. The William Tell Overture in the
• 19:19
  style of Tony Bennett yes no higher honor totally forgot
• 19:24
  about that but you're exactly right in hindsight.
• 19:28
  Those chickens sounded exactly like Tony Bennett wow that's a
• 19:32
  good pick. Things can.
• 19:56
  Thank you. Yes!
• 20:02
  Elmo! Kermit and Elmo are both on the
• 20:04
  album. He sings little things with Elmo
• 20:06
  again. A second time that he's a song.
• 20:09
  Little things on the record. He also did Green with current
• 20:13
  on that album. We also has another duet which
• 20:17
  we'll talk about in a little while with one of my other pics
• 20:20
  who also did that same song with Elmo and a very important moment
• 20:25
  in our nation's history, but that's a foreshadowing.
• 20:28
  Okay. Wow, you know, I was, I was
• 20:32
  saying before that I was really confident that the Muppet Fan
• 20:36
  Awards should be called the whoopies, but maybe they should
• 20:39
  be called that. No, never mind.
• 20:41
  It's already taken. All right.
• 20:45
  Number 12. Christy sure it's funny.
• 20:52
  I my runner-up pick was actually noted daughter of noted.
• 20:57
  Joe, raposo Stan, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra.
• 21:01
  But I didn't include her, because her biggest Muppet
• 21:04
  contribution is a thing that most of us have never seen.
• 21:07
  Right? Which is devastating to me.
• 21:09
  Yeah. Release the tapes.
• 21:11
  Oops, but I'm actually going to, I think, go through my pics from
• 21:16
  most to least obvious. When originally posed this
• 21:21
  question, my gut had one answer in one answer only and that was
• 21:26
  my president as a member of ASCAP, Paul Williams.
• 21:30
  And I just think in terms of both contributing as a fellow
• 21:35
  performer, but also, as I writer, who over multiple
• 21:40
  movies, Infuse The Muppets with so much hard and so much soul.
• 21:45
  I mean game over, right? Yeah, yeah.
• 21:50
  Just so to run through the credits, the Paul Williams
• 21:53
  Muppet credits where to begin, I mean, he did The Muppet Show
• 21:58
  first. Yes, I believe.
• 22:00
  And then was immediately tapped for Emma.
• 22:03
  Daughters, jug-band Christmas. And then shortly after that.
• 22:07
  Sorry. So is on screen on The Muppet
• 22:10
  Show as their guest star, then writes the songs for Emmett.
• 22:15
  Otters Jug Band, Christmas, but is not in it.
• 22:17
  It would be wild if he was in it because those puppets are on a
• 22:20
  very different scale. He absolutely should have
• 22:23
  cameoed. And then after Emma, daughters,
• 22:26
  jug-band Christmas was the Muppet movie.
• 22:28
  He makes a cameo appearance in that and he co-wrote all the
• 22:31
  songs for it Rainbow Connection. I'm going to go back there.
• 22:34
  Someday You Can Call Me Al. That's an inside joke.
• 22:38
  Just for Jared Faircloth. He'll appreciate that my
• 22:40
  personal theme song. Yeah.
• 22:42
  Well it's also Jared fair clefts and Paul Williams.
• 22:44
  Apparently. To seeing you can call me out,
• 22:47
  Jarrod, Fair Cliffs funeral. So, we've got to make that
• 22:49
  happen soon. Come on Jared, anyhow.
• 22:53
  After that Muppet Christmas Carol, he writes all the songs
• 22:58
  for that. And then years later, didn't he
• 23:03
  didn't just write the songs for the Muppets Christmas letters to
• 23:06
  Santa or a Muppets Christmas letters to Santa.
• 23:08
  Hey whatever Christmas letter to Santa a Muppets Christmas, very
• 23:12
  merry Thoroughbred, hop and jump.
• 23:15
  And letters to Santa exactly. Someone update the Muppet Wiki
• 23:21
  right now, he was the one who pitched letters to Santa.
• 23:26
  That's the thing that breaks my brain is that I appreciate
• 23:29
  everything else about Paul Williams history with and
• 23:32
  friendship with the Muppets. But I don't know why he gave us
• 23:35
  this and he was just like, he was the chief elf and he's in
• 23:39
  it, and he's very pleased about the whole thing.
• 23:42
  He's in love with that movie, and it's a terrible.
• 23:47
  But he does love it so much and he's so proud.
• 23:50
  But he's also been a friend to Muppet fans.
• 23:53
  He's been on multiple tough pigs podcasts and he's always a great
• 23:57
  guest and he loves to talk about Jim Henson and the Muppets.
• 23:59
  He's one of the great Champions, Showtime Showtime at the El
• 24:02
  sleezo. Filling in for the vacation in
• 24:09
  El, sleezo, dancing girls, they funny for a fabulous fuzzy.
• 24:15
  Bear number 11, Oh, I was about to kill one of you, one of you,
• 24:23
  but it's actually my pick. I'm going to do this is almost
• 24:28
  cheating, but my first pick is Harry Belafonte.
• 24:32
  And that's an unusual one, because he didn't have a lot of
• 24:36
  appearances with the Muppets. Like we mostly know his episode
• 24:40
  of The Muppet Show. We all love his episode of The
• 24:41
  Muppet Show. It's one of the greats, it's the
• 24:44
  top, but the thing is around the time of Jim Henson's passing.
• 24:49
  He was Is very active in paying tribute to Jim Henson.
• 24:53
  In The Muppets part of that was at Jim Henson's memorial
• 24:56
  service. He performed Turn the World
• 24:57
  Around And there's video of that, and it's great.
• 25:01
  And everyone should watch Jim, Henson's memorial service, and
• 25:03
  cry and cry and cry. He was also in the tribute TV
• 25:07
  special, The Muppets celebrate Jim Henson.
• 25:10
  And then he appears in the PBS TV documentary, the world of Jim
• 25:13
  Henson, he contributed a corn pudding recipe for Miss Piggy's
• 25:18
  cookbook in the kitchen with Miss Piggy.
• 25:21
  He also appeared in a CNN documentary people profiles, Jim
• 25:24
  Henson, and most interestingly wrote an introduction for the
• 25:29
  book. Jim Henson, the works.
• 25:30
  Now for many Muppet fans that is like the definitive Muppet book,
• 25:36
  because before the Muppet, Wiki this coffee table book, had all
• 25:41
  of the information, you are going to get about all the
• 25:43
  things that Jim Henson did. Like just every little thing
• 25:46
  that Jim Henson The Muppets. I mean, not every little thing
• 25:48
  but a lot it became the Watch list for so many fans in the 90s
• 25:54
  and for myself. So and then he also did stuff on
• 25:57
  Sesame Street. So it's I don't know if I
• 26:01
  consider him the best friend to the Muppets, but I do consider
• 26:04
  him a really great friend to Jim Henson's Legacy.
• 26:06
  And that's why I nominate Harry Belafonte.
• 26:08
  I feel we should note that. Harry Belafonte is not only a
• 26:11
  best friend to the Muppets. He's very close to Christie.
• 26:14
  Personally, we've decided in our head Canon just okay, Christy is
• 26:19
  appropriate. Him as her boyfriend.
• 26:21
  That's fine. Oh okay, we're in love.
• 26:24
  He just doesn't know yet. I'm very happy for you.
• 26:27
  That's so happy for you. Lovely didn't that recently
• 26:29
  turned into a triple? Oh, right, right, right.
• 26:32
  Roger Miller. But Roger Miller is dead.
• 26:34
  So ya know it. Complicates things a little bit.
• 26:37
  A little not that much. Yeah.
• 26:39
  But will there be a zombie Jamboree wedding?
• 26:41
  Or let's go with. Yes, you heard it here first.
• 26:51
  00:44. What do you think, seven?
• 26:55
  Twenty eight. Twenty nine.
• 26:56
  Thirty coconut. Yes.
• 27:01
  Yes, sir. I think you're thinking are we
• 27:03
  need to find a bigger island anyway?
• 27:05
  Yes, I got you. So what else?
• 27:07
  Ha ha, ha. All right, who's next?
• 27:11
  Apparently, it's me and I'm gonna lean further into this
• 27:15
  ridiculous Tech because nobody seems to be stopping me.
• 27:17
  Okay? Number 10.
• 27:22
  Knowing that nobody could be a better friend to piggy than Joan
• 27:26
  Rivers. I'd like to talk about somebody
• 27:29
  who's the best possible imaginable friend to Kermit.
• 27:32
  So a friend, a true friend will lend you her professional
• 27:37
  artistic skills if she believes in your project or even if she
• 27:40
  doesn't even if she's convinced that you'll never sell your show
• 27:43
  and she'll never see, a bloody sent but only a real writer die
• 27:47
  friend. Everybody else, please charge?
• 27:49
  What you're worth even to friends, you can give them a
• 27:51
  friends. Count.
• 27:52
  But charge them a true friend. Richard, Michael Gomez, charge
• 27:56
  your friends. I got nothing please.
• 27:59
  They want to give you money. It's true.
• 28:02
  It's beautiful artwork. I've bought some a true friend
• 28:05
  will help you with every hairbrained scheme.
• 28:08
  She'll help you con your way into a job even if you're no
• 28:10
  good at it and then she'll help all your weirdo.
• 28:12
  Friends also come their way into a job even though I'm not sure
• 28:16
  how her dad could afford it. She'll give you the Huggies when
• 28:19
  you need the Huggies because that is what friends do friends.
• 28:22
  And my dad do not spy, who could be a better friend to Kermit
• 28:25
  then Jenny in The Muppets. Take Manhattan.
• 28:26
  Nobody. QED.
• 28:29
  Wow, this is cheating. All right.
• 28:32
  Sure. Fine.
• 28:35
  Fine. You know what?
• 28:37
  Fine who am I to argue? Okay.
• 28:40
  Can't you got it? So, what argument so do we
• 28:42
  clear? We're not making the case that
• 28:48
  Giuliana. The Giuliana, Donald is a great
• 28:52
  friend to the Muppets. Specifically runs to The
• 28:54
  Muppets. This is my response.
• 28:57
  Okay, are there any objections? No.
• 29:02
  Oh, I just want to know what she's done for them in the last
• 29:05
  30 years. No, she's disappeared from the
• 29:08
  public eye. I'm pretty sure she had a couple
• 29:11
  of credits after the Muppets, Take Manhattan, but not, I mean,
• 29:14
  the Just seems like a fair-weather friend to me, she
• 29:17
  helps them not even helps him. She uses them to get her first
• 29:21
  Broadway credit and then she splits mmm-hmm that's business
• 29:27
  David. It's yeah you know better than
• 29:29
  anybody. Okay, my name is Jenny number
• 29:34
  nine. Adam who's your next pick?
• 29:40
  All right, I'll keep this short and sweet.
• 29:42
  The late great Madeline, Kahn not a ton of appearances, but
• 29:46
  she was on several Sesame Street episodes.
• 29:49
  Apparently, all filmed on the same day, I do recommend looking
• 29:52
  at the Muppet Wiki just to see the amazing 1978 shirt that she
• 29:58
  is wearing blouse. It is astonishing and And I love
• 30:01
  it, but this is not a fashion podcast.
• 30:04
  She had a one of the best episodes of season one Muppet
• 30:08
  Show, which is not the highest of bars, but it's pretty good.
• 30:11
  And one of my favorite cameos in the Muppet movie.
• 30:15
  It is the reason that I confused Madeline Kahn and Carol Kane for
• 30:18
  about 40 years. Yeah Carol Kane has the better
• 30:21
  joke. She is the myth myths recurring
• 30:24
  gag but Madeline Kahn up here is an El sleezo Cafe and says buy a
• 30:28
  lady, a drink. And because she also appeared in
• 30:30
  The Muppet Show which Cal canted, not Advantage goes to
• 30:33
  Madeline Kahn. She's also one of the Great's
• 30:36
  and I just love that scene. I loved her in the movie.
• 30:38
  I loved her episode of the show and I think she's great.
• 30:41
  Yeah. If I were to have a zombie
• 30:43
  Jamboree wedding with any celebrity, I feel like I'm
• 30:47
  leaning towards Madeline Kahn not if I get there.
• 30:49
  First, this picture of her on the wiki with Grover is like,
• 30:53
  truly one of the cutest things I've ever seen and I might have
• 30:55
  to go track down this episode. Okay.
• 30:58
  So oh alright then this is this is a Actually a question, Adam,
• 31:02
  have you seen Madeline? Kahn singing, sing after me with
• 31:06
  Grover? I mean, have I in my life?
• 31:09
  So I was three in 1978. So, have I seen it?
• 31:13
  Probably. Okay.
• 31:15
  Do I recall it? No.
• 31:17
  Okay, so you should seek that out.
• 31:20
  If you find that video online, I believe as it fades in you here.
• 31:26
  I don't know if it's been edited out at some point by Sesame,
• 31:28
  Workshop, in, its current form on YouTube, but originally, Ali,
• 31:31
  you do here Grover saying to Madeline Kahn you are looking.
• 31:36
  You are looking attractive today, you, thank you.
• 31:41
  Amazing. I still don't totally know what
• 31:43
  to make of it. But yeah she she has this
• 31:46
  Trifecta of being on The Muppet Show being in the Muppet movie
• 31:51
  and being on Sesame Street and in all three of those
• 31:55
  categories, she's great, you know, I just really don't think
• 31:59
  it would work out if we got married.
• 32:01
  Right. Yeah, I suppose, I am kind of
• 32:03
  short for, you know, it's well anyway.
• 32:09
  Hey, I hope we can be the very best of friends.
• 32:17
  If there's anything I can ever do for.
• 32:19
  You is one thing? Let me finish my saw.
• 32:22
  Oh, number 8. David who do you have next for
• 32:28
  us? You know this is funny.
• 32:29
  I was thinking about this during your introduction how you
• 32:33
  expected us to bring folks for the first three seasons of The
• 32:36
  Muppet Show and I'm not doing that.
• 32:37
  But I do have someone from season 4 of The Muppet Show and
• 32:40
  that is John Denver, John Denver, I would say in the 70s
• 32:45
  and early 80's was about as identified with the Muppets as
• 32:49
  any non mapper performer. Possibly could be besides being
• 32:54
  on a truly great episode of The Muppet Show which we haven't
• 32:56
  done yet. Podcast.
• 32:57
  But this next phrase because it's the first one in season 4,
• 33:00
  he did two different specials with the Muppets and also two
• 33:03
  albums with that were related to the specials, a Christmas
• 33:07
  together, and then John Denver of the Muppets Rocky Mountain
• 33:09
  holiday and what's interesting about these specials in
• 33:13
  particular, Rocky Mountain holidays, unlike say, Julie
• 33:17
  Andrews, who did a ton of specials that had Muppets in
• 33:19
  them. These are truly the Muppets and
• 33:22
  John. Denver present, not John never
• 33:24
  does a special and the Muppets were there.
• 33:26
  Yeah. Especially Session, especially
• 33:27
  from Rocky Mountain holiday, which is almost The Muppets
• 33:30
  doing Special in John Denver is there, but it, but it really is.
• 33:33
  It does feel like an equal collaboration especially because
• 33:36
  they're on his home turf there and they're just listen
• 33:39
  Christmas together. Not really, my gem-like not my
• 33:42
  holiday and and it's like weirdly religious for a muppet
• 33:49
  special especially compared to the the later Christmas
• 33:52
  specials. Yeah.
• 33:54
  But you know much like how I think You better have the right
• 33:57
  Vibe for them up as at the 90s. I think John Denver had exactly
• 34:01
  the right Vibe for the Muppets of the 70s and 80s, where he was
• 34:04
  popular, he was beloved, he was non-threatening, but he also, he
• 34:10
  did have a little Edge to him, you know?
• 34:11
  He did. He did movies like, oh God, that
• 34:15
  that were not uncontroversial ROM.
• 34:19
  It's just like, what's not to love about John Denver?
• 34:22
  They had a notion to Jim's characters could use their
• 34:25
  unusual combination of sincere. Charity and humorous are
• 34:28
  reverence to convey real information.
• 34:30
  Say the shows a create a real name is Henry, John
• 34:34
  deutschendorf jr. What are you doing?
• 34:36
  Oh I'm just using my sincerity and humorous irreverence to
• 34:39
  convey real information, right? Thanks.
• 34:43
  You're welcome. Also I think he might be the
• 34:45
  only person we mentioned today. Who has a crossover with the
• 34:50
  Muppet comic strip? Oh explained in one of the
• 34:53
  strips there is Kermit and Robin are mountain climbing and Robin
• 35:01
  makes a crack about not wanting to hear.
• 35:03
  Kermit start singing, Rocky Mountain High.
• 35:06
  Hmm. And if you'd like to learn more
• 35:07
  about the Muppet Show comic strip, you should listen to the
• 35:11
  episode of commitment where they discuss it with a very special.
• 35:14
  Guest our me. Oh hey, I know that guy number 7
• 35:23
  Christie. Who do you have next?
• 35:25
  So my next pick is the person that I think in the current
• 35:28
  culture in the year 2023 is making the biggest play for
• 35:36
  best. Human friend of the Muppets and
• 35:38
  that's actor. Writer comedian, start Ed lasso
• 35:42
  extremely handsome man, Brett Goldstein.
• 35:44
  He is all those things especially extremely handsome.
• 35:47
  He loves The Muppets in a deep and pure and true way.
• 35:51
  And Has it at every possible opportunity?
• 35:54
  I watched a video that was posted by British GQ last week,
• 35:58
  in which they asked him to bring his 10 essential items in his
• 36:03
  life. And one of them was a water
• 36:05
  bottle that he got visiting the Muppet Studios, huh?
• 36:10
  Well, that's the cutest thing I've ever heard.
• 36:13
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 36:13
  He and he said something along the lines of, you know, people
• 36:16
  say don't meet your Heroes but everyone's hero should be the
• 36:20
  Muppets because No notes. Yeah, he made a very Charming
• 36:26
  appearance on Sesame Street. He early in his career,
• 36:30
  apparently did a one-man Abridged version of Muppet
• 36:34
  Christmas Carol on stage, he did, it's interesting.
• 36:39
  Yeah. And, you know, he is a very late
• 36:43
  addition to this Pantheon, but I think he will continue to be
• 36:48
  aware the contributor to it. Right now.
• 36:51
  I'll tell you Veselka I think it would be fair if you do Captain.
• 36:55
  Yeah good idea how yummy like that you know me the best player
• 36:59
  after all. Oh really?
• 37:02
  Oh well I say your footwork. Yeah, that's beautiful Alpha.
• 37:09
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 37:10
  Here watch this. Oh yeah, pretty good.
• 37:15
  Thank you. All right.
• 37:16
  Fair enough. You're the captain.
• 37:17
  Okay, good. Number six.
• 37:21
  My second. Like, since we're on the newer,
• 37:24
  people is Danny Trejo. And not, that Danny, Trejo is by
• 37:29
  any means new to the movies at this point, but he's in a lot of
• 37:35
  the modern stuff that the Muppets do, and I guess, I guess
• 37:37
  I'm using modern Loosely, he's in the trailer, for the 2011
• 37:42
  Muppet movie, but he didn't actually make it into the Final
• 37:47
  Cut, which is maybe kind of unfortunate and very often when
• 37:51
  that happens. When Um, one gets cut out of a
• 37:53
  movie. They feel somewhat burned by the
• 37:56
  people who cut them out. And so you'd think that after
• 37:58
  that, maybe he would not work with the muppets again, but he
• 38:02
  comes back for Muppets Most Wanted and then he just keeps
• 38:05
  coming back. He was in the show Muppets now
• 38:08
  on Disney plus we're calling that a positive.
• 38:12
  Well if he was good on it then that's a real.
• 38:16
  That's a real skill that he has actually to him.
• 38:19
  I'm not going to say that he was particularly Good or bad on it
• 38:23
  but in terms of one's dedication to The Muppets in terms of being
• 38:27
  a great friend to stick with them, even through that and to
• 38:31
  be willing to work with them again after Muppets.
• 38:33
  Now that's really something and he did, he's back in Muppets
• 38:37
  Haunted Mansion so they can always count on Danny Trejo.
• 38:40
  He showed up as a guest on the Beretta Brothers.
• 38:45
  He's such a good pal to The Muppets and always fun to see
• 38:49
  seems like a neat guy. That's my pick.
• 38:52
  On a specialist. Hey, hot dog.
• 38:55
  No, a script doctor, these jokes keep dying.
• 38:58
  And so do I, I also like how were acting as if like Kermit
• 39:08
  personally cut him out of the 2011 movie.
• 39:10
  Are you saying he didn't? You don't think Kermit had Final
• 39:12
  Cut Walter. Walter did it?
• 39:14
  That makes more sense. That's a better explanation.
• 39:16
  It's in the fine. Print of the standard rich and
• 39:18
  famous contract number 5 but uh, I'm looking at the Google Doc
• 39:25
  right now, and I'm already kind of sighing a little bit about
• 39:31
  what comes next, but you know what?
• 39:32
  Go ahead, go ahead, you haven't cut me off.
• 39:37
  So I'm just going to keep doing this.
• 39:39
  Keep doing what you're doing, great.
• 39:41
  All right, so let's say, we take a little bit of a left turn
• 39:43
  here. Have you ever gone from enemies
• 39:47
  with someone two best friends with them in a span of 46
• 39:50
  minutes? Have you You from a cantankerous
• 39:54
  old misanthrope to perchance. Santa Claus, not my holiday, but
• 39:58
  we're still talking about my favorite production, the
• 40:00
  universe. Okay, think about it, you show
• 40:02
  up at Christmas. Yes, you show up at a country
• 40:07
  Farmhouse, you're hoping for a nice quiet holiday with your dog
• 40:10
  and half an hour later. You're digging around in the
• 40:12
  snow for a pig. You've never met when it's cold
• 40:15
  enough out there to freeze your Winnebago up until a short.
• 40:18
  While ago, you might have found that strange.
• 40:20
  I would say forming that kind of bond with a group of people that
• 40:24
  quickly and that intensely really only happens once in a
• 40:27
  lifetime when you're a true friend with an enormous heart
• 40:30
  and you have met some extremely, nice weirdos.
• 40:33
  There is no better friend to the Muppets.
• 40:34
  Doc from Fraggle Rock. I know.
• 40:41
  All right, yours is I think it's good that there's been at least
• 40:44
  some acknowledgement of the fraggles today.
• 40:47
  Yes. And you know I will I will come
• 40:49
  to my called rescue and name drop at the same time.
• 40:52
  Please. Because we now live in a world
• 40:53
  with two docks and I am friends in real life with Lily Cooper,
• 40:57
  who is truly delightful human being and a wonderful, you know,
• 41:02
  doc doc to so so we can, we can like bring that around to to
• 41:08
  True talent and and true. Lovely.
• 41:11
  People in the real world. I, you know, I don't know how
• 41:13
  good a friend, she is the Muppet.
• 41:14
  There's only been one season of that new show but hey, she's
• 41:17
  great. So and she's real.
• 41:20
  So there you go. And you know, there's time
• 41:23
  there's still time for more seasons of back to the Rock and
• 41:25
  for her to do things with the Disney mumps or Sesame Street.
• 41:28
  There's so much Time renewed, right?
• 41:30
  Yeah yeah yeah. So doc from Fraggle, Rock in all
• 41:34
  possible. Iterations Andre generations and
• 41:38
  the associated humans. Okay.
• 41:42
  I, That's not. Start with this was for here's
• 41:50
  the thing but it doesn't just look like was such a good
• 41:53
  friend. Then why did every International
• 41:56
  Version Fraggle? Rock replace him now hold on
• 42:00
  every this is Generation and regeneration of talk with over
• 42:03
  the thing is that technically all of those different docks are
• 42:08
  our dock now. They're all the collectively
• 42:12
  together diverse. Dude the best.
• 42:14
  Well I guess that is the Thing is that this is the only person
• 42:17
  who's definitely been a good friend to Muppets in several
• 42:22
  different Muppet universes of all across the Multiverse so and
• 42:30
  in multiple countries and languages.
• 42:32
  Mmm. I don't buy it.
• 42:35
  Okay. Um, Okay, it'll be newspaper.
• 42:41
  This is wicked. But anyway, on Adam.
• 43:00
  Yeah. Sorry.
• 43:02
  Thank you. Thank you for your three.
• 43:04
  Very interesting thoughtful. Very a real.
• 43:08
  Well written response is very mug, fictional answers.
• 43:13
  I mean I'm pleased, I've been smiling this whole time, I'm
• 43:16
  having a good time. So great, thank you, having a
• 43:19
  great time. Thank you for inviting that, if
• 43:21
  just one person believes in, you like, with all believes in her
• 43:25
  choices. Okay.
• 43:26
  So, speaking of David already mentioned my choice, it's real
• 43:32
  obvious, Julie Andrews. David already dist your choice
• 43:36
  for some reason, which I don't Stan.
• 43:38
  Just, I've just whatever would be packed up.
• 43:41
  What? You're here to nominate friends,
• 43:45
  not make them look, I've had a busy week.
• 43:49
  I did not do a ton of research. I went obvious.
• 43:52
  It's okay, Julie Andrews, she's great, she's fucking Julie,
• 43:56
  Andrews. Oh, Blake Edwards is fucking
• 43:58
  Julie Andrews. I was hoping you would clarify.
• 44:05
  He's dead. But yes, exactly.
• 44:08
  Sorry. Did you just spit take Christmas
• 44:12
  anyway, surprised to discover that.
• 44:16
  She never did any Sesame Street appearances, but her Muppet Show
• 44:19
  episode is one of the all-time best indisputably.
• 44:23
  I mean, come on. Lonely goatherd with actual,
• 44:26
  yeah, Muppet goats, perfect, actual Muppet.
• 44:28
  Goats those were real Muppet gonna live Muppet goats.
• 44:31
  Come on. Yeah, there are real puppet, and
• 44:34
  Many many, many variety show, special appearances with the
• 44:38
  Muppets. She was still not technically
• 44:42
  Muppet inquiry but Jim Henson company puppeting.
• 44:45
  As recently as 2017 on the Netflix show, Julie's green
• 44:48
  room. She obviously has a great
• 44:50
  affection for working with puppets and with the Henson
• 44:55
  company and she's Julie Andrews voice of a Henson puppet in the
• 45:00
  stage version of dr. Dolittle in the West End.
• 45:03
  Well, Great. That's right.
• 45:06
  Great. But there was a McCall, has
• 45:08
  pointed out to me via text that, there was a special Julie on
• 45:13
  Sesame Street. That was one of her many tv
• 45:15
  specials. That is true, but she never
• 45:17
  appeared on Sesame Street proper.
• 45:19
  And in fact, she never even appeared on the proper Sesame
• 45:23
  Street set. Because for Julie on Sesame
• 45:25
  Street, instead of going to Sesame Street?
• 45:27
  She brought Sesame Street to her.
• 45:30
  Wow, she had them rebuild the Sesame Street set in.
• 45:34
  In England, I love that she's Julie Andrews.
• 45:37
  She doesn't she wants. Everybody should see Julie on
• 45:40
  Sesame Street at some point before they die.
• 45:42
  Preferably when they're on drugs.
• 45:44
  She's a very good friend to some of the Sesame Street muppets in
• 45:48
  that special indeed. Well, she's she's a very good
• 45:52
  friend to Kermit on The Muppet Show, when they sing.
• 45:57
  When you were a tadpole and I was a fish, which they had done
• 46:00
  together in one of their many other things.
• 46:02
  There's the one to one special one step into spring, My
• 46:07
  Favorite Things, a whole bunch of things, and we've talked
• 46:11
  about Julie on Sesame Street on monitor Duty before, and I've
• 46:14
  watched, Each pieces of it and it is real weird.
• 46:17
  Hmm it's great. Yep and I actually do like that
• 46:21
  the Jim Henson company series, Julie screen room.
• 46:23
  I thought they did a pretty good job with that show.
• 46:25
  Not again, not technically Muppets but close enough like
• 46:27
  it's nice that is very much for very small children and I
• 46:31
  couldn't really stomach a lot of it, but it's it is for, you
• 46:34
  know, it is for budding. Theater nerds or, you know, if
• 46:39
  you want to mold your small child into a theater nerd more
• 46:42
  power to you. There is a The character played
• 46:46
  or public character played by Stephanie to Rousseau who is so
• 46:49
  clearly modeled on Lea Michele look as Rachel Berry and Glee
• 46:55
  but like really let's be honest it's just Lea Michele and it
• 46:59
  just filled me with such Joy. She's awful.
• 47:01
  It's great. So it's worth a look.
• 47:04
  Even if even if you're like I can't do this as a childless
• 47:06
  adult but it's worth like 5 minutes of your time to just
• 47:09
  check out. I'll also add she was almost
• 47:13
  apparently on. Another podcast in this tough
• 47:16
  pigs podcast feed to introduce our guests are very nearly.
• 47:20
  She was actually interested. It came close.
• 47:23
  So I think that she has a genuine love and respect for
• 47:27
  these characters and has for a long time.
• 47:28
  And for the craft of puppetry, nothing, but respect for Julie
• 47:32
  Andrews. I mean, I've never met her but I
• 47:33
  know people who have worked with her and have not a single bad
• 47:37
  word to say about her. She really does seem like like a
• 47:39
  true Delight on every level. I have a bad word to say about
• 47:43
  her, okay? She is written to full-length
• 47:48
  book length Memoirs, and despite having worked with the Muppets a
• 47:52
  gazillion times. She devotes not one word to the
• 47:56
  Muppets or Jim Henson or any of that experience, huh?
• 48:00
  So, how important are they to her?
• 48:02
  Really. Oh, once again, David is
• 48:05
  attacking Adams Choice hard. I'm a writer one of this.
• 48:11
  I'm having a wonderful time, but I don't care.
• 48:13
  So, okay. Great, great, perfect.
• 48:19
  Get some sleep. I'm sorry.
• 48:22
  Can you see the show is just getting started.
• 48:24
  Now, the same way I sleep through all your shows.
• 48:27
  Oh, really. And don't tell.
• 48:29
  Tommy, you're gonna do it one more time.
• 48:32
  Well, I wasn't going to, but now that you mention it one more
• 48:38
  time, number 87, I mean, number three.
• 48:43
  David, how are you going to top? Julie, Andrews, since you're so
• 48:47
  confident, once again, Blake Edwards, Julie, editors isn't
• 48:50
  the only person who brought Sesame Street to her because in
• 48:54
  1998, Rosie O'Donnell both brought her show to Sesame
• 48:59
  Street. But then, Also brought Sesame
• 49:01
  Street to her audience to her studio.
• 49:03
  So she could have in studio audience for her show on Sesame
• 49:07
  Street, Rosie O'Donnell. I think that if there is, if
• 49:12
  there's truly a best friend to the Muppets in the 90s, it is
• 49:15
  Rosie O'Donnell. Like we talked about her a lot
• 49:17
  about in the context of someone who really made sure that
• 49:20
  Broadway was in the National conversation in the 90s but she
• 49:23
  was just as much doing this for the Muppets at the same time.
• 49:27
  We forget this now but the whole take Oh, Me, Elmo craze was
• 49:30
  really fueled by Rosie O'Donnell promoting.
• 49:34
  Tickle Me Elmo on her show. She had Elmo on her show so many
• 49:40
  times so many times, but not just Almo shit.
• 49:43
  Miss Piggy on her show, she and Oscar on her show.
• 49:46
  In fact, one of the many times as she had Piggy on, she had
• 49:50
  Miss Piggy and the Captain and Tennille and Katie Couric all on
• 49:54
  the show together and they all performed Muskrat, Love.
• 49:57
  And when I tell you, that is so deeply.
• 49:59
  He imprinted on me and it's not available on YouTube and that
• 50:02
  kills me what. But you know in the in the post
• 50:10
  Jim Henson era, they weren't doing the same kind of talk show
• 50:14
  appearances that he did when he was alive.
• 50:16
  Like they wouldn't have the puppeteers on the couch with the
• 50:18
  puppets, but they were doing talk show, appearances and
• 50:22
  mostly up with Rosie and they were so important to keeping the
• 50:27
  Muppets I think in the public eye and then in, in sort of a
• 50:33
  positive way, when Muppets tonight, was sort of flailing
• 50:36
  about when Sesame Street was struggling with the whole, like
• 50:39
  around the corner nonsense, there was Rosie didn't say like
• 50:43
  Elmo is a superstar and we should treat him accordingly.
• 50:46
  Miss Piggy is a superstar and she deserves her flowers.
• 50:49
  She also appeared, you know, besides her own show.
• 50:53
  She appeared on a number of different Muppet projects who
• 50:57
  supposed to be at my place tonight, but I cancel.
• 50:58
  Before her episode was was taped, but she wasn't Elmo
• 51:02
  palooza and she was on Sesame Street and a bunch of other
• 51:04
  specials and Elmo was on her Christmas album.
• 51:09
  That reminds me it when I talked about Tony Bennett Rosie
• 51:12
  O'Donnell and Tony Bennett. Did you duet of the song?
• 51:15
  Put on a happy face on that album.
• 51:17
  The Playground, which is one of the Kermit and Elmo are on yes,
• 51:20
  in the week after 9/11 Elmo and Rosie.
• 51:24
  O'Donnell performed put on a happy face on National
• 51:27
  Television. To help heal our nation in that
• 51:30
  moment. And really, what else can you
• 51:33
  ask for Best Friend Of The Muppets?
• 51:34
  I could not find a video clip of that.
• 51:36
  I'm dying to see it. I cannot imagine how what?
• 51:39
  That felt like probably came across.
• 51:41
  I can't imagine how that was a good idea.
• 51:43
  But wow, okay, I was not ready for this pitch to be this
• 51:51
  strong. I don't, I guess I just kind of
• 51:55
  forgot about how important she was to The Muppets of that time
• 51:57
  but My gosh, you make a good case and the episode where she
• 52:02
  brought her show to Sesame Street is on YouTube and its
• 52:04
  entirety. It's a delight.
• 52:06
  I had her committed Whoopi. Goldberg is one of the guests as
• 52:08
  is Julia Roberts of all people and it's like they do original
• 52:13
  music numbers. They have like the whole human
• 52:15
  cast and the whole Muppet cast like it's a whole thing, she
• 52:18
  gets stuff up against and Alice into her Studio to interact with
• 52:22
  the audience. Like, it's incredible.
• 52:24
  Yeah, Elmo. You know I just want to tell
• 52:26
  everybody about Elmo. Palooza and there's All these
• 52:28
  great people in it. I judge do it.
• 52:31
  It David out of drift and Tyra bag and and who else in the Fuji
• 52:45
  and Indian Engineers are involved.
• 52:53
  Number two, we're down to Christy your last submission for
• 52:59
  our friend of the Muppets nominations and I have to
• 53:03
  follow, you know, bringing the country together after National
• 53:06
  tragedy with my wackiest choice. I would argue is maybe not a
• 53:15
  best. It's so much as maybe a best
• 53:18
  lover of my business. Who is Charles?
• 53:22
  Grodin, now, I picked Charles Burger because as a kid, I had
• 53:27
  the first three Muppet movies on a Long play, VHS tape that my
• 53:32
  uncle had taped for me, off of cable, and they were taped in
• 53:35
  the following order. Muppets Take Manhattan, the
• 53:38
  Muppet movie and great Muppet Caper.
• 53:41
  So, consequently consequentially I.
• 53:44
  Yeah, well, very chaotic, yes. But as a consequence, that's
• 53:49
  also the order that those movies are ranked.
• 53:52
  In my head, I think if for some reason, the order had been
• 53:56
  swapped the entire trajectory of my life would have been changed
• 54:00
  and I would not be a beautiful theater writer, you know,
• 54:03
  banging on doors and, you know, not taking no for an answer and
• 54:06
  be a jewel thief. But because of that very long
• 54:09
  time, without having seen great Muppet, Caper, and I went about
• 54:13
  six or seven years ago to see a screening of it at the Metro
• 54:17
  graph in New York City, and I was struck Chuck by the level of
• 54:24
  commitment and Charles grodin's performance.
• 54:27
  Mmm-hmm that man is in love with Miss Piggy, hmm.
• 54:31
  And it is not a bit, it is not a game is in love with Miss Piggy
• 54:36
  and it extends beyond the fictional because in every
• 54:41
  interview subsequent to the movie.
• 54:44
  When asked about his experience with the Muppets Charles Grodin
• 54:49
  talked about Miss Piggy like a real human.
• 54:52
  Co-star. I didn't know that these
• 54:54
  interviews existed. Oh, they do and they're
• 54:58
  wonderful. He talks about how they had a
• 55:02
  torrid Affair and it's, it's incredible.
• 55:07
  And so my argument is that in committing to the idea that the
• 55:12
  Muppets are real and the world Charles Grodin is in essence.
• 55:18
  The best human friend to the Muppets have dinner with me
• 55:21
  tonight. Can we meet just for just, for a
• 55:27
  moment? Just one brief moment, Miss
• 55:32
  Piggy. You're a very different looking
• 55:37
  woman. I'm so tired of the same type of
• 55:40
  those tall thin creatures with a long legs, they the aquiline
• 55:44
  noses? The teeth like pearls soft skin.
• 55:49
  Yeah. Well, I can see where that might
• 55:51
  make you sick to your stomach. It's, I don't know, I don't know
• 55:54
  how to justify the much thinner corny or performance the much
• 56:01
  less committed performance in The Muppets at Walt Disney
• 56:03
  World, but that performance in the great mom, Caper is it's
• 56:06
  pretty astonishing. It's so believable and he makes
• 56:11
  the Muppets more believable through it.
• 56:13
  Yeah. That just leaves one last
• 56:16
  nomination for me. Number one and I'm going to
• 56:22
  again stick with the pretty obvious here and go with someone
• 56:26
  else who's newer. It may be a little bit redundant
• 56:29
  for me to bring him up. Now in this tough pigs podcast,
• 56:33
  feed since just a few episodes. Codes ago.
• 56:36
  You heard him talking with Joe and Jared, but I gotta go with
• 56:39
  Bobby, Moynihan. He loves The Muppets.
• 56:42
  So so freaking much The Muppet Show at the Hollywood Bowl.
• 56:47
  It was Quite possibly one of the best experiences of my entire
• 56:51
  life. I can't begin to explain.
• 56:52
  If you ever get a chance to host the Muppet Show, do it, it's
• 56:55
  really fun. He just he clearly adores these
• 56:57
  guys. And by now, he's been on Sesame
• 57:01
  Street has apparently appeared on the Revival of the electric
• 57:05
  company. I'm not sure that that counts
• 57:06
  for too much here but it counts for enough.
• 57:09
  The Muppet Wiki is filled with pictures of him with Muppets and
• 57:12
  most of, that's because of what he did with the Muppets.
• 57:14
  For the Muppets, take the bowl there, their live show at the
• 57:17
  Hollywood Bowl, and then again, Doing a live show with them in
• 57:21
  London. Well, even though nobody knew
• 57:23
  who he was there, he still happily performed with the
• 57:26
  Muppets. Did a bunch of great bits with
• 57:27
  them, he just, he completely believes in the characters.
• 57:30
  He makes everyone else believe in the characters, he's a really
• 57:34
  good friend to them a really good supporter to them.
• 57:36
  In these modern times, when the Muppets desperately need more
• 57:39
  celebrities to appreciate just how great The Muppets are, and
• 57:43
  just how much every celebrity should want to work with the
• 57:45
  Muppets so that they get involved in these package deals
• 57:48
  with Lots of famous people and lots of talents so that they can
• 57:51
  get things made so that we can consume more fun Muppet things.
• 57:57
  I think I'm going to end my rant right there because Adam you
• 58:01
  look like you're falling asleep. I feel so bad for keeping you up
• 58:04
  this late. I want to start something with
• 58:06
  me and my connection keeps freezing apparently.
• 58:08
  So okay, you're getting some weird Frozen views of me.
• 58:11
  I'm fine. Okay, this bottles over here.
• 58:14
  Count is a celebrity in 2023. That's a great question.
• 58:19
  I have no idea. Like, I realize that this is not
• 58:22
  not a not going to him at all, but like, what is he done since
• 58:25
  Saturday Night Live? Well, he was in The Muppets,
• 58:29
  take the bowl, then off its like, the 02.
• 58:35
  It's like what has he done with civilians?
• 58:36
  Know he was the voice of Lou young, but that pales Revival,
• 58:40
  but again like that, I don't think that makes you famous.
• 58:42
  I just think that makes you beloved.
• 58:44
  Okay, all right. Well, I'll tell you what, I'd
• 58:47
  like to hear who are the runners-up who almost was
• 58:50
  included in this briefly as quickly as we can, who almost
• 58:54
  was included in our lists. Because I've got a bunch of
• 58:57
  names that I nearly included that it was, it was tough.
• 59:00
  It was tough. Not to pick them.
• 59:02
  What a what do you got? I don't, I don't have An order
• 59:04
  for who's going to go first. So, what we call have her on
• 59:06
  open on the screen. So why don't you go first?
• 59:08
  While the rest of us are like pulling for those nights?
• 59:11
  I just kept all of mine in the outline to keep you on your
• 59:14
  toes. You wouldn't know which ones I
• 59:15
  had picked. It was a very confusing.
• 59:18
  Yes. I was really excited to
• 59:21
  potentially look more into the life of Gates McFadden because
• 59:26
  she is a fascinating character who has had a really unique
• 59:32
  career and a really unique career.
• 59:34
  With the Muppets. Yes, indeed in dates.
• 59:37
  I mean it's well sorry going. No, I was Sorry that distracted
• 59:44
  by. I think a bug I have no idea
• 59:47
  what I apologize. Okay, kill it squash, it's Bobby
• 59:50
  Moynihan. So it's wild that after all of
• 59:54
  our sort of back and forth about this that none of us talk to a
• 59:56
  Jason Segel, who I think is maybe the most obvious
• 1:00:00
  contemporary choice. We talked about him early on in
• 1:00:04
  our file, a conversation about this.
• 1:00:05
  I'm gonna I don't want to speak for anybody else.
• 1:00:08
  I'm going to because I've scrolled up with our slack and I
• 1:00:10
  found maybe the best thing Mahal has ever said.
• 1:00:12
  And then you can tell us if you want, if you want this, cut the
• 1:00:16
  call. I also thought of only doing
• 1:00:19
  people The Muppets of probably like Phyllis Diller, Raquel
• 1:00:22
  Welch and Ozzy, Osbourne to express he replied.
• 1:00:27
  I mean that's not not part of my Charles Grodin logic so I can't
• 1:00:31
  top that Rosie O'Donnell good. Hey, yeah, if I was going to
• 1:00:39
  troll you with any misunderstanding, The question,
• 1:00:43
  it's a good thing that I told you with the one that I ended up
• 1:00:46
  with. Yeah, okay.
• 1:00:47
  I mean, you can go down to Phyllis Diller.
• 1:00:50
  And I, there is, if you want to, you all are welcome to come back
• 1:00:54
  again for the instead of the Muppet, friends Awards, the
• 1:00:58
  Muppet friends-with-benefits Awards, and that would be
• 1:01:00
  easier. Listen to the podcast.
• 1:01:03
  I wanted to stay Muppet Show Muppet adjacent, but I did
• 1:01:08
  consider lin-manuel Miranda because of all of his Sesame
• 1:01:11
  Street work, right? That lamb Manuel Miranda puppet
• 1:01:13
  is just so cute. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:01:17
  That the fact that he wrote music for Sesame Street to likes
• 1:01:21
  and a really interesting Contender here.
• 1:01:24
  As far as Gates McFadden, I do want to Circle back and remind,
• 1:01:26
  everybody. Her Muppet Arc is, she's in the
• 1:01:31
  Muppets. Take Manhattan.
• 1:01:33
  She does choreography for Labyrinth.
• 1:01:36
  I'm just, I'm just, I'm literally just scrolling up
• 1:01:37
  there are slack when we started talking about doing this with
• 1:01:39
  you, Linda Cardellini was on our List.
• 1:01:42
  Even though we did give you a hard time by Muppets.
• 1:01:44
  Now, she was a high point. One of few, I was ready to make
• 1:01:49
  the case for Herb Alpert, who is key to the development of Miss
• 1:01:54
  Piggy and the development of the, of the studio.
• 1:01:57
  Yeah. He's got such an it have an
• 1:01:59
  older suggested. Oh, sorry.
• 1:02:01
  Go ahead. I have an older suggestion than
• 1:02:03
  anyone that were thrown out so far, who I think, should at
• 1:02:06
  least get an honorable mention, which is Jimmy Dean.
• 1:02:10
  Yep. Oh yeah.
• 1:02:13
  Yeah, that's arguably without his friendship with Ralph.
• 1:02:16
  We wouldn't have all the rest of it.
• 1:02:18
  It's true. Similarly Willard.
• 1:02:20
  Scott. Good friend to the seven
• 1:02:22
  friends, Muppets and Kida them ever making it out of
• 1:02:25
  Washington. Yeah.
• 1:02:27
  Share was on our list. Yeah.
• 1:02:29
  Rita Moreno was on our list. Alan Arkin maybe petite give.
• 1:02:34
  Yeah. Oh gosh, these are interesting.
• 1:02:40
  I was thinking about Tina Fey. Who's Muppet fan Obsession was
• 1:02:45
  all over 30 Rock and all the stuff that she's done and then
• 1:02:47
  of course, Sesame Street and Muppets.
• 1:02:49
  Most Wanted Ruth. Buzzi came to mind for me,
• 1:02:53
  because of how she just kind of became part of the cast of
• 1:02:56
  Sesame, Street, for a while. In the 90s, she's the one of the
• 1:02:59
  worst episodes of The Muppet Show, and then she ruined Sesame
• 1:03:02
  Street. This is he, this name is that
• 1:03:05
  like, I want to give her credit for doing Muppet Show and Sesame
• 1:03:09
  Street. And she is talented.
• 1:03:11
  But what she Brought to Sesame Street was the around to corner
• 1:03:14
  a being, that's not her fault, but the around your core around
• 1:03:17
  the corner era and once you brought to the Muppet Show was
• 1:03:19
  the Ruth Buzzi episode of The Muppet Show.
• 1:03:22
  Yeah, so hmm. I don't, I don't know what to
• 1:03:26
  do. So this is someone who
• 1:03:28
  absolutely does not qualify by the rules that you establish.
• 1:03:32
  But okay would be remiss if I didn't, at least named Danny
• 1:03:35
  horn as someone who has probably done more than anyone else.
• 1:03:37
  Currently alive to keep the Muppets.
• 1:03:40
  Yeah. Legacy.
• 1:03:42
  Alive, and, and relevant. And also to like, genuinely
• 1:03:45
  assist, the people who are making the Muppets now have a
• 1:03:48
  link to the people who made the muppets.
• 1:03:50
  Then that's your not just a link but I'm sure that Muppet
• 1:03:54
  writers. Use the Muppet Wiki every day.
• 1:03:57
  Yeah. Yeah, without Danny's work.
• 1:04:00
  There might not be contemporary writing for Muppets, or it
• 1:04:04
  wouldn't be as strong or wouldn't be as well.
• 1:04:05
  Researched, this is very true. Yeah, not.
• 1:04:09
  Not quite allowed on a technicality but We bend the
• 1:04:12
  rules then? Yeah.
• 1:04:14
  Danny horn, kind of my dad. Danny horn.
• 1:04:16
  Now that I'm a member of tough pigs, I've got Lady Gaga on my
• 1:04:21
  list as a possibility who came up earlier.
• 1:04:24
  Because I mean, it's It's tricky because again, she clearly loves
• 1:04:28
  The Muppets. She's done.
• 1:04:29
  Lots of interesting things with them.
• 1:04:31
  I'm just still upset boy. Is that special unwashable,
• 1:04:35
  right? I'm upset about the unwatchable
• 1:04:37
  special. I don't know.
• 1:04:39
  Brooke Shields kept coming back to do stuff with The Muppets
• 1:04:43
  including the Muppet Show live, she was this doesn't count for
• 1:04:47
  anything but she was in attendance at the Carnegie Hall
• 1:04:52
  Show with the Muppets I mentioned before.
• 1:04:54
  Like some of us fans, saw her like running out of the back of
• 1:04:59
  Carnegie Hall. Trying not to be noticed after
• 1:05:01
  seeing that show, and seemingly visiting, some of the people who
• 1:05:04
  put it on. Tom Bergeron is a guy.
• 1:05:06
  The Muppets like to call a lot for a lot of things is pretty
• 1:05:09
  good with them. Josh Groban keeps Thing up in
• 1:05:12
  Muppets now, we had his he was on our list.
• 1:05:14
  Yeah. We thought about that too.
• 1:05:16
  I mean Groban, make sense. He's good.
• 1:05:17
  I enjoy Groban as an actor more than I do as a musician for
• 1:05:22
  whatever reason. I just he has such a funny
• 1:05:26
  energy. Judy Collins is on my list
• 1:05:29
  because she was on Sesame Street, a ton, she did say I
• 1:05:33
  mean like only in the 70s but nevertheless lots of Sesame,
• 1:05:38
  Street, appearances and she did send in the clowns on the map.
• 1:05:42
  Uh-oh. So we're did and then Dave Grohl
• 1:05:45
  I think is the only one apart from Doc Dave Grohl's.
• 1:05:48
  The only one here who has the fraggle connection now, as well
• 1:05:51
  as the Disney Muppet connections Bob, Hope it was in
• 1:05:56
  consideration since he does the Muppet Show when they do all of
• 1:06:00
  his vendor Muppet movie, right? They do his stuff and he's in
• 1:06:04
  that Miss Piggy's Hollywood thing for the Jim Henson hour
• 1:06:08
  which is a not where I'm expecting to see.
• 1:06:11
  Bob Hope appear. The Jim Henson, our of all
• 1:06:13
  places. And then, of course, Yvette
• 1:06:16
  Nicole Brown, who hasn't done a lot with the Muppets yet, but is
• 1:06:18
  certainly hoping to in the future and is such a big fan of
• 1:06:22
  theirs. So there are a lot of people who
• 1:06:25
  love the Muppets and have worked with them a whole bunch and I'm
• 1:06:28
  so glad okay, it's already gotten late, but I do want to, I
• 1:06:32
  do want to figure out if we had to pick one out of all the
• 1:06:36
  people who've been named who's the best friend of the Muppets.
• 1:06:39
  Like I want to be able to give this.
• 1:06:40
  I want to be able to post this certificate.
• 1:06:42
  It online this fancy schmancy award that does that isn't real
• 1:06:46
  and doesn't matter for Best Friend Of The Muppets to some
• 1:06:49
  star to some celebrity, who's worked with them.
• 1:06:50
  A lot, the case for Tony Bennett was so strong and that was not
• 1:06:55
  at all who I was thinking of before this, that's funny.
• 1:06:58
  Because I think of the three that I brought he is the the
• 1:07:00
  least in contention uterus. I think.
• 1:07:04
  I think it's Paul Williams. Yeah.
• 1:07:06
  Okay. All right Chris, he's raising
• 1:07:08
  your hands for Paul Williams. Aye, it's hard to argue with
• 1:07:11
  Paul Williams. Is it stuff?
• 1:07:13
  I almost thought do we need a separate category of best
• 1:07:18
  celebrity Muppet, contributor for Paul Williams just because
• 1:07:21
  he's in such a unique role that's different from everybody
• 1:07:24
  else. I guess, it's right.
• 1:07:25
  Here's the thing with Paul Williams is that if you took the
• 1:07:27
  songwriting out of the equation, which is impossible to do with
• 1:07:32
  him, but if you did write that he's not on the same level right
• 1:07:38
  here. Also, if you if you deduct
• 1:07:40
  points for the bad, Add songs. Okay, we're to sealer.
• 1:07:47
  Well, but he continues to function for Charles Grodin.
• 1:07:50
  It's true. Probably Paul Williams continues
• 1:07:53
  to be a champion for the Muppets.
• 1:07:55
  It's true. That's true.
• 1:07:57
  Is present and future. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:00
  Okay. So why don't we just call it and
• 1:08:03
  say, Paul Williams is the best friend of the Muppets.
• 1:08:08
  I will insert us a little sound effect here for Paul Williams.
• 1:08:12
  Best friend of the Muppets. There was a sound effect there,
• 1:08:16
  that was fun. Oh, intensifies, great!
• 1:08:24
  What a Nifty device, much appreciated, I rely on it.
• 1:08:28
  A lot we might need that again later in the show and then is it
• 1:08:32
  worth trying to narrow down the list that we already have to a
• 1:08:34
  few who get the certificates or just the the bunch that have
• 1:08:39
  been that were already nominated on the list that we presented is
• 1:08:41
  that Going to be the group who gets, I think the people who are
• 1:08:44
  alive and have a social media presence, should get a
• 1:08:47
  certificate. And, yeah, they are the
• 1:08:50
  runners-up. And I think if you have other
• 1:08:51
  questions that you want to ask, we should address those, all
• 1:08:53
  right, we're going to say that's done and I'm going to get to
• 1:08:56
  finally move on to asking more questions about Muppet ergy.
• 1:09:00
  Do any of you have a different impression of the Muppet Show or
• 1:09:03
  its characters now than you did before you started doing this
• 1:09:07
  project, it were you all, did you all know that you were going
• 1:09:09
  to be big fans of droop going into this?
• 1:09:12
  Did you know you were going to be the droop troop?
• 1:09:13
  No drip was. I didn't know.
• 1:09:15
  We were going, I didn't know. We were going to be the droop
• 1:09:19
  troop but he was the one thing that I remembered fondly about
• 1:09:24
  the Valentine's episode. So I was looking forward to and
• 1:09:29
  I don't even know that I remembered which character it
• 1:09:31
  was who was just so self-pitying and delightfully morose.
• 1:09:37
  But I was looking forward to revisiting him.
• 1:09:39
  It's been a joy to discover how droop?
• 1:09:42
  It has sort of persisted throughout the years.
• 1:09:44
  Like not only did I not remember him but like if you had told me
• 1:09:48
  that group was also in all these other things that are like what
• 1:09:51
  who what? So that's it been like our own
• 1:09:53
  little, we're swallow game. Yeah I mean it's not my memory
• 1:09:56
  is so weird and I've talked about this on the podcast like I
• 1:09:58
  had seen the Valentine's special before but really it fell out of
• 1:10:01
  my head immediately which is weird because you think but
• 1:10:06
  being droop George was mop those little guys popping out the
• 1:10:09
  piano. Like those are all things that
• 1:10:11
  are very much. Like my thing, like the Mia
• 1:10:14
  Farrow, it all whatever, I don't care but like you think I would
• 1:10:16
  have remembered some of that. And I just didn't, I was
• 1:10:20
  recently spoiler for several episodes from now of my
• 1:10:24
  paternity. The Liza Minnelli Copacabana is
• 1:10:28
  like one of my favorite things in the world.
• 1:10:32
  I've watched that clip on YouTube many, many times, the
• 1:10:34
  rest of the episode, whatever droops in, that never noticed
• 1:10:39
  before. Even I watched it since we
• 1:10:41
  started the podcast, And not notice the trip, wasn't it and I
• 1:10:43
  watched it just recently because it popped up on my Twitter feed
• 1:10:45
  and I was like, oh my God, droops him this I had no idea so
• 1:10:48
  you just keep popping up places that you don't expect them to be
• 1:10:50
  there. So which is funny because one of
• 1:10:53
  the most memorable lines that Mia Farrow has in the
• 1:10:55
  specialist:oh droop you're here too he's just in the he's just
• 1:11:02
  an extra eye right he's just in the club he hasn't he's not
• 1:11:04
  featured in any way but he's there.
• 1:11:07
  He's there too. I wonder if you're going to get
• 1:11:09
  some Flack for that whatever. Just Sing the rest of the Liza
• 1:11:13
  Minnelli. Okay, so it's a great episode.
• 1:11:14
  I just mean like in terms of I did Raising eyebrows my memory
• 1:11:17
  of it. Like I've watched that one seen
• 1:11:19
  many, many, many times and the rest of it less.
• 1:11:22
  So I am pretty confident. I'm going to love the whole
• 1:11:24
  thing when we got to it. I just have not seen the rest of
• 1:11:28
  it in a really long time. Sure, sure.
• 1:11:30
  You know, to answer your question about having a
• 1:11:32
  different impression of the show being over halfway through it at
• 1:11:37
  this point because of where I fall on the age Spectrum, I was
• 1:11:41
  born. After the initial run of the
• 1:11:43
  Muppet Show. And so a lot of my exposure to
• 1:11:47
  Muppet Show content was through and this comes up on the podcast
• 1:11:50
  a lot, the various VHS compilations, which weren't
• 1:11:54
  necessarily faithful to the episodes in their original
• 1:11:57
  format. And one of the joys of the show
• 1:12:01
  is I've been doing a lot of research on mid-century variety
• 1:12:05
  shows for a writing project of mine and so I've been watching
• 1:12:08
  The Carol Burnett Show and I've been watching laugh and and
• 1:12:10
  Sonny and Cher. And the Muppet Show stands on
• 1:12:15
  its own as a brilliant. Variety show, huh?
• 1:12:20
  Like I think in its bones, as you know, the variety show was
• 1:12:26
  sort of in many ways, the, the last big gasp of Vaudeville and
• 1:12:33
  I don't think you could find a place on television where like
• 1:12:37
  the Beating Heart of Vaudeville exists more than the Muppet Show
• 1:12:41
  and it's just, it's a delight. So, true, sometimes I'm down on
• 1:12:45
  The Muppet Show. I'll be honest more than the
• 1:12:47
  rest of the tough pigs crew, but for whatever.
• 1:12:49
  The reason I really enjoy hearing people talk about the
• 1:12:53
  Muppet Show because it's such an interesting thing to confront,
• 1:12:57
  not just as a muppet thing, but as a time in pop culture, and I
• 1:13:00
  really appreciate the way that you all have captured, how the
• 1:13:04
  Muppet Show isn't just this Muppet thing.
• 1:13:05
  It's this 70s pop culture thing. It's so much, a part of that
• 1:13:11
  world that I didn't live through.
• 1:13:13
  I'm too young for that. So, getting more and more of the
• 1:13:15
  references through your show is it's a joy.
• 1:13:19
  It is such a And I want to thank you all for doing that show and
• 1:13:22
  for being a guest on the show today.
• 1:13:25
  My picture, just where can people find yourself on the
• 1:13:27
  internet? You can find the podcast on
• 1:13:31
  various social media at Muppet energy and on the web at Muppet
• 1:13:35
  Church e.com and wherever you get your podcasts.
• 1:13:38
  We're pretty much all the podcast places you can find me.
• 1:13:41
  Personally, on various social medias at Adam 807.
• 1:13:47
  When is this coming out? It's supposed to Ooh, unless Joe
• 1:13:51
  messes with the schedule for whatever reason, it's supposed
• 1:13:53
  to come out on the 23rd of March, then I'll plug my recent
• 1:13:57
  guests. Can't I just recently got to be
• 1:14:00
  a guest on one of my favorite non Muppet podcast.
• 1:14:03
  This had Oscar buzz talking about the movie version of the
• 1:14:07
  musical, dear Evan Hansen. We had a time so you can check
• 1:14:11
  that out. Wherever you got podcasts.
• 1:14:13
  You can find me David almost social media as it's the Levee,
• 1:14:17
  and if we're plugging guest appearances, I am on what I
• 1:14:22
  think will have been the most recent episode of moving right
• 1:14:24
  along on the other tough pigs feed.
• 1:14:27
  When this episode hit talking about minutes, 69 nice of
• 1:14:33
  Muppets Christmas, Carol All right, featuring, Muppets best
• 1:14:38
  friend, Paul Williams writing the songs.
• 1:14:41
  Wow, other. There is no music in Middle.
• 1:14:44
  6970, nice. Take it to Twitter and see if
• 1:14:48
  Paul Williams responds with nice.
• 1:14:52
  Apparently, it alter years of doing minute-by-minute
• 1:14:55
  breakdowns. I was the first guest on a
• 1:14:57
  mother on a minute 69 to say, nice.
• 1:15:01
  Congratulations. I'm very proud of that.
• 1:15:03
  So happy for you. Kristi see ya.
• 1:15:06
  I am at timid Frieda on Instagram quite a bit and on
• 1:15:12
  Twitter as like a very special. You know, sweeps week guest
• 1:15:15
  star, I thought was like three or four times a year.
• 1:15:21
  But also So if you go to kristinb our.com, you can check
• 1:15:24
  out information about the musical's, what I wrote,
• 1:15:27
  wonderful, wonderful and we Haul.
• 1:15:30
  Yeah, I'm not so much on the publicly accessible social
• 1:15:33
  medias, but if you are really curious to look at pictures of
• 1:15:38
  costumes and puppets, that I've built, or weird dance stuff that
• 1:15:42
  I've done. You can go to me, Kyle
• 1:15:43
  Richardson.com, if you want to hear some scripts that I wrote,
• 1:15:49
  and if you have a tiny person, Life or even if you don't, you
• 1:15:53
  might enjoy the imagine a hood podcast.
• 1:15:56
  If you want to hear about Bonkers Adventures of dinosaur,
• 1:15:59
  princesses and teenage rock stars and their weird friends
• 1:16:02
  and also about social emotional learning and kindness.
• 1:16:06
  Who's not a fan of kindness nobody Miss Piggy, that's she's
• 1:16:10
  differently. Not a fan of kindness now than
• 1:16:12
  she wasn't a fan of kindness in the seventies.
• 1:16:15
  And now a moment of spontaneous Applause for our panel of up and
• 1:16:18
  experts that's normally where I added in a side effect.
• 1:16:21
  But I think this time I'm we might have a live set.
• 1:16:23
  Oh, I could just use my instant audience.
• 1:16:24
  Yeah. Oh okay.
• 1:16:36
  That's more like it. Thank you.
• 1:16:41
  There you go. Listeners.
• 1:16:42
  If you enjoyed this program we hope you'll consider supporting
• 1:16:45
  us on patreon. Thank you to those of you who
• 1:16:47
  are already doing so now this tough pigs Muppet fan podcast
• 1:16:50
  was executive produced by the tough picks Muppet fan, podcast
• 1:16:52
  executive producer Johannes thanks to.
• 1:16:55
  Kenny Durkin for our artwork and thanks to Frank Oz because it's
• 1:16:57
  always a good time to thank a Frank or chuff, pigs.com.
• 1:17:00
  I'm this is JD Hansel. Reminding you of Jim Henson's
• 1:17:03
  motto, you'll never get out of the queue.
• 1:17:04
  Goodbye. That she's differently.
• 1:17:15
  Not a fan of kindness now than she wasn't a fan of kindness in
• 1:17:18
  the seventies. Sorry I got distracted.
• 1:17:23
  I'm I was trying to see you probably don't necessarily want
• 1:17:28
  me to plug this, but I was trying to see if in The Muppets
• 1:17:33
  Twitter, tough pigs bracket, if the captain Google video had
• 1:17:38
  made it to the second round of that was worth blogging, but I
• 1:17:41
  don't think that it did. Don't worry about it.
• 1:17:44
  I if you really felt strongly about plugging, it I wouldn't
• 1:17:47
  have jacked but I don't personally think that it's worth
• 1:17:49
  plugging. It Sandy told me that he grew up
• 1:17:52
  watching videos of you. All right, that's it.
• 1:17:54
  I know how to feel about this exaggeration sort of the I threw
• 1:18:02
  out my teen years, I have watched the captain Google video
• 1:18:05
  more times than I can justify. I don't really know how to
• 1:18:07
  explain it, but for whatever reason, something in that spoke
• 1:18:10
  to me, I don't, I can't really put my finger on it, but I I
• 1:18:15
  only made a handful of videos with Ryan and Joe back in those.
• 1:18:18
  We are days where we were just making doofy puppet videos, not
• 1:18:21
  expecting any money to watch them.
• 1:18:23
  I love On Ryan's behalf that you have grown up watching the
• 1:18:28
  cabin, Google video because it doesn't make any sense.
• 1:18:32
  And when he wrote it, it didn't make any sense.
• 1:18:33
  It still has not suddenly begun to make any sense.
• 1:18:37
  It's just a bunch of people yelling Captain Google and
• 1:18:39
  laughing for no reason. I think it has a lot of
• 1:18:43
  interesting jokes that but by the end of my teen years, for
• 1:18:46
  better or worse had been at least somewhat formative of my
• 1:18:49
  sense of humor. Again I can't explain justify or
• 1:18:52
  defend this, it's just a thing. And I wanted to be able to
• 1:18:56
  confess it because I have already confessed this
• 1:18:58
  information to Joe. I think Ryan knows I just I
• 1:19:02
  needed all three of you to know for for my own sake.
• 1:19:06
  I guess that's all I can say about that.
• 1:19:08
  I apologize for the onus inherit in that.
• 1:19:11
  Mark, I appreciate knowing that I will, I will have to take that
• 1:19:20
  into the rest of my year knowing that somebody grew up watching
• 1:19:23
  something that I was a part of it grew up.
• 1:19:25
  I'm not like it's not like I'm 10 like to be clear.
• 1:19:29
  I am at this point, I am. I'm 26 years old, going on 27.
• 1:19:35
  So I am young. And when I saw that video, I was
• 1:19:38
  younger, I was at little like it early.
• 1:19:41
  Nature. It's a little it's a little bit
• 1:19:43
  like I was I guess I was not that many years older than 10
• 1:19:46
  when I first encountered the video.
• 1:19:48
  So hmm maybe it is enough description.
• 1:19:54
  I don't know. I don't like this.
• 1:19:55
  I don't like thinking about this and we're going to move on
• 1:19:58
  towards the end and now a moment of spontaneous Applause for