Are Kermit, Fozzie and Miss Piggy poised for a comeback? Jason wrote about it in June, and now there's more news if you believe this item from the UK Telegraph. Citing an unnamed source, the newspaper reported that How I Met Your Mother's star Jason Segel has written a script that brings Jim Henson's Muppets to the big screen, setting up a return to television. It sounds like a great idea, but without confirmed sources, I'd take the whole thing with a grain of salt.Disney owns the rights to the Muppets and they would produce the picture. Segel's story picks up with the Muppets reuniting long after their TV show has ended. They agree to put on one big variety show to save the studio. Should this come off as planned and the film is a hit, the Muppets would then come back to series TV.
Muppet fans know that some characters evolve while others just spring up from out of nowhere. Cookie Monster, for example, began life as somewhat more ferocious-looking monster (the row of sharp teeth helped) in several commercials before being toned down and brought to Sesame Street.
After the jump, I've placed a YouTube clip of the first appearance of Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street. Ernie is in his bathtub, but there's no rubber ducky to be found. Oh, and he calls his bathtub "Rosie" but I'll let you watch the clip to find out why that is. The voices are a little different than what they eventually evolved into, but even with this first appearance you can see how well Jim Henson and Frank Oz bounced quips and one-liners off one another. I love watching really early Sesame Street episodes, because the puppeteering, while excellent, hadn't quite reached the perfection it would in the show's later years. If you look closely, you can actually see part of Frank Oz's arm and head in the lower right corner. Part of me kind of prefers that raw, unedited look. Enjoy:
High on the list of things none of you probably care about is the fact that Grover is my favorite Muppet of all time. He and I even share a birthday (it's true). What I love about Grover, besides his lovable furriness, is how willing he is to do himself bodily harm in the name of education. After the jump I've placed five clips of Grover doing what he does best: teaching kids no matter how much physical punishment it causes him. Now let's all learn together, shall we?
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