Melissa's Voyage to Muppet Treasure Island: A 25th Anniversary Tribute!

Muppet Treasure Island: 25th Anniversary Tribute

By: Melissa Scopelitis

Last week marked the 25th anniversary of Muppet Treasure Island. On June 27th, 1995, I was fortunate enough to be invited to the UK set at Shepperton Studios by Muppet performer, Steve Whitmire.

 A few days earlier, I had graduated high school, and for my graduation gift, my father and I were going to be traveling to London for the first time. It was my first time on a plane, first time overseas, this was a big deal within itself. I had been corresponding with Steve throughout the filming as we were email pals for about 4 years at that point, he knew I was (and still am) obsessed with Tim Curry who was playing Long John Silver, and eventually, the conversation led to “well since you’re going to be in town anyway…” and the invite came. I could not believe it!! I was going to visit not just an actual film set, but a MUPPET film set!!

Fast forward to the actual day of, we had received a fax from Steve sent to our hotel that morning, with a cute little illustration of Kermit in Captain Smollett gear and instructions on what to do once we got to the studio gates. I still have the fax. My father and I had figured out based on some directions Steve had supplied, on how to navigate the British tube and railway system as we were staying in London, and get out to Shepperton, which was a good hour train ride outside of there. 

As a side note, random memory: I remember at one point, a good bulk of the crowd on the train got off at one stop for the Wimbledon tennis tournament. We arrived to the set and told security we were there to meet Steve. I think at first, we were just led onto a soundstage where some rehearsing was going on. We saw the huge Hispanola ship, and the elevated sets which in itself was very impressive. 

Finally, Steve came to greet us. This was our first time actually meeting in person. From there, we were given a tour of the various soundstages and the onset Muppet workshop where they were building the puppets and props. We got to meet Kevin Clash again who we met a few years earlier on the set of Sesame Street in NY. It was my first time meeting Bill Barretta, who later that afternoon had joined us for lunch in the cafeteria on set. We got to attend a screening of the dailies from that day, which is basically all the raw footage shot earlier that day, so there was some fun outtakes and bloopers we got to see.

Honestly, there’s a lot of details from that day that are hard to remember as it was 25 ½ years ago, I was 17, and am now 43. So I’ll give you my 3 major highlights of the day: One was Steve introducing us to Tim Curry, who I had met once prior in 1993 in NYC, after a play he did that ran for a brief time, which we talked about and Tim joked about. Tim was very warm and receptive, chatted with us for a few minutes, I did the fan girl thing of asking him for an autograph and getting a photo. Tim is such a good guy, he instructed my father to take a second shot “for safety” he said, because back then I was still using a regular 35mm film camera, not digital, and Tim wanted to make sure I got my photo. 

The next highlight was getting to meet Kermit the Frog. Steve had found a spare Kermit aka not in his MTI costume to grab for the photo. Steve told me to look at the camera and he would pose Kermit for me. I just remembered out of my peripheral vision seeing Kermit’s long skinny fingers slowly stretching over my shoulder. Steve did a bit of chat with me as Kermit, and I totally get now why guest stars, etc. talk just to the puppet, because I did the same thing, even reaching to shake Kermit’s hand that Steve was not manipulating forgetting oh yeah, he can’t move that on his own! The third highlight, was we got to witness the cast and crew presenting Tim Curry and Kevin Bishop with their own Muppet versions of themselves.

The Tim puppet as fans know, later showed up as part of the extras on one of the DVD releases of the film later on. It was a real treat to see their reactions, and at one point, Tim who went off to have a cigarette break in between filming, walked past us and asked “Did you see the puppet?” as he chuckled in disbelief that he now had his own mini-me version. In regards to those puppets, when I later on became an intern for the NY Muppet workshop as a college senior in 1999, I saw the original puppet patterns for the Tim Curry puppet.

I also later sent some of my on set photos to Kevin Bishop who was truly touched and so happy I captured those moments on film and shared them with him, even though they’re a bit dark as we were allowed to take photos, but were not allowed to use flash. Kevin told me he put them in his home office, which I’m delighted and very moved by that he loved them that much.

 

At this point we got to watch some of the rehearsal of the sword fight scene between Kermit and Tim Curry. And then sadly, it was time to go shortly after as we wanted to make sure we got our train back to London. Steve signed my little autograph book for me, and presented me with a MTI crew only baseball cap that I also still own, and still wear occasionally. I remember the next day, being so paranoid about getting the pictures developed, that we tracked down a one hour photo place somewhere near Trafalgar Square so I can get my photos developed as I was so worried the film was going to get destroyed going back through the airport to go home a few days later. 

But we got some great ones which I’m sharing here for all to enjoy, and I’m so happy to be able to share these freely now, since for many years I kept them kind of hidden away to avoid any issues with Disney, and out of respect for Steve and the Jim Henson Company.

Thank you for reading, and for Chris Stulz and Muppet Stuff for the opportunity to share my story!

For more Muppet fun and frolic, or to just say “Hi” and follow me on social media you can find me under:

Facebook: Melissa Scopelitis

Twitter: @MelissaY1

Instagram: @mscope2008

For my professional portfolio including other media projects and companies I’ve been involved with, as well as my volunteer and photography work, please visit: www.melissascopelitis.net