Dave Perillo "Muppet Show" Print!

Artist, and friend of the blog, Dave Perillo has a new, officiality licensed, print inspired by the iconic opening of The Muppet Show.

It’s time to play the music, it’s time to light the lights, it’s time to meet the Muppets with Dave Perillo’s print for The Muppet Show!

Dave’s newest print reminds us of the magic of our favorite variety show of all time. We’ve been excitedly working with Dave on prints for Very Important TV Shows, and few shows have entertained and inspired us as much as The Muppet Show. Dave’s print features some of the cutest versions of Muppets that we’ve ever seen!

It's available in two versions, regular (edition size 250) and foil (edition size 150) with each poster hand numbered. 

The Muppet Show by Dave Perillo
Screen print
18 x 24 inches
Hand-numbered edition of 250
$50

The Muppet Show by Dave Perillo - Foil Variant
Screen print on foil paper
18 x 24 inches
Hand-numbered edition of 150
$60

The Muppet Show by Dave Perillo will be available at 12PM EST at Bottleneckgallery.com.

UPDATE:

Both version are now sold out. 

Muppet Stuff Video: Celebrating Jim Henson's Birthday at MOMI!

Join me as I travel to the Museum of the Moving Image to celebrate Jim Henson's birthday  and watch some rare clips of Rowlf on The Jimmy Dean Show.

More info on Museum of the Moving Image.

Be sure to check out more videos on our Youtube Channel.

Henson Related Shows Nominated for Multiple Children’s & Family Emmys!

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced the nominations for this year’s 2nd Annual Children’s & Family Emmys.

While no date or place has been set, last year winners were announced during two ceremonies—one focused on creative and technical arts, and the other to performances and programming on December 10 and 11.

Also of note, earlier this year the Academy created two new Emmy categories - puppetry performance and puppet design/styling and a public service initiative Emmy for campaigns that include both an on-air and off-air component.

Below are all the 2023 Henson- related nominees for Children’s & Family Emmys:

PRESCHOOL SERIES
Helpsters (Apple TV+)
Sesame Street (HBO Max)

Sumberkins (Apple TV+)

CHILDREN’S OR FAMILY VIEWING SERIES
The Muppets Mayhem (Disney+)

FICTION SPECIAL
Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock – Night of the Lights (Apple TV+)


SHORT FORM PROGRAM
Sesame Street: Wes’ First Barbershop Haircut (YouTube)
Sesame Street’s #ComingTogether Word of the Day Series (YouTube)


PUPPETRY PERFORMANCE
Leslie Carrara-Rudolph as Abby & Tango, “Sesame Street” (HBO Max)
Frankie Cordero as Purple Panda, Penguin Referee & Gregory, “Donkey Hodie” (PBS Kids)*
Ryan Dillon as Elmo, “Sesame Street” (HBO Max)
Haley Jenkins as Donkey Hodie, “Donkey Hodie” (PBS Kids)*
Eric Jacobson as Bert, Oscar & Grover, “Sesame Street” (HBO Max)
Eric Jacobson as Animal/Baby Animal, “The Muppets Mayhem” (Disney+)

*Not nominated for a Henson-related show but is former or current Henson performer.

NOTE: Eric Jacobson is competing against himself in this category for his work on both Sesame Street and The Muppets Mayhem.

WRITING FOR A PRESCHOOL OR CHILDREN’S LIVE ACTION PROGRAM
Helpsters (Apple TV+)

Sesame Street (HBO Max)

DIRECTING FOR A SINGLE CAMERA PROGRAM
The Muppets Mayhem (Disney+)


DIRECTING FOR A MULTIPLE CAMERA PROGRAM
Sesame Street (HBO Max)

ORIGINAL SONG FOR A PRESCHOOL PROGRAM
“Community is Everything,” Sesame Street (HBO Max)


EDITING FOR A SINGLE CAMERA LIVE ACTION PROGRAM
The Muppets Mayhem (Disney+)


EDITING FOR A MULTIPLE CAMERA LIVE ACTION PROGRAM
Sesame Street (HBO Max)


SOUND MIXING AND SOUND EDITING FOR A PRESCHOOL ANIMATED PROGRAM
Sesame Street: The Nutcracker, Starring Elmo and Tango (HBO Max)


CASTING FOR A LIVE ACTION PROGRAM
The Muppets Mayhem (Disney+)


PUPPET DESIGN AND STYLING
Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock – Night of the Lights (Apple TV+)
Helpsters (Apple TV+)
The Muppets Mayhem (Disney+)
Sesame Street (HBO Max

This is the big one, every nominee in this category but one is a Henson-related show.

Below are the total Emmy nominations for each series:

Sesame Street:12
The Muppets Mayhem: 6
Helpsters: 3
Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock: 2

Slumberkins: 1

Last year Muppet Babies won for Outstanding writing for Preschool Animated Program, Muppets Haunted Mansion tied with Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock for Outstanding Art Direction/ Set Decoration/Scenic Design, and Sesame Street won for Outstanding Song and Preschool series.

Congrats to all the talented people behind the these shows and good luck on Emmy night. 

Glow-in-the-dark Marley Brothers POP! 2-pack!

The Muppet Christmas Carol glow-in-the-dark Marley Brothers POP! 2-pack is now available to order. 

The set is a Funko.com exclusive, and rounds out Funko's The Muppet Christmas Carol Pop! line which we first told you about in July. 

Enjoy a timeless classic as the Muppets perform Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, featuring Statler™ and Waldorf™ as Pop! Jacob Marley and Pop! Robert Marley!

 

The holidays will last all year when you welcome this exclusive, glow-in-the-dark, 2-pack of the Marley Brothers into your home and reunite them with the rest of the The Muppet Christmas Carol cast in your collection.

 

Vinyl figures are approximately 4.1 and 4.15-inches tall.

You can order the The Muppet Christmas Carol Glow-in-the-dark Marley Brothers POP! 2-pack! exclusively at Funko.com.

You can order the rest of Funko's The Muppet Christmas Carol Pop! from Funko and Amazon including their exclusive flocked Gonzo as Charles Dickens with Rizzo.

Note: We are part of the Amazon Partner Program and all sales through our links go to supporting the blog. 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Enjoy these terrifyingly good clips to get you in the holiday "spirit"...

Sesame Street Getting “Reimagined” for Season 56!

In an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the produces of Sesame Street stated that the series will be "getting a creative overhaul for its 56th season."

 From the article: 

The most significant change will see the program drop the “magazine”-style format it has long used in favor of two longer, more narrative-driven segments, which will be paired with a new animated series, Tales from 123. The new format will feature two 11-minute story segments, with the new animated series sandwiched in between them.

“It’s going to give us an opportunity to dive further into the narrative,” says Kay Wilson Stallings, the executive vp and chief creative development and production officer for Sesame Workshop, calling the changes a “reimagining” of the show, and adding that the longer segments will allow for more “dynamic” and “sophisticated” stories.

“Both the A story and the B story will come together in some way to really help us with whatever curricular focus that we’re trying to have, what lesson we’re trying to make,” she adds. “Kids love a little bit of peril, they love having emotional stakes, and in nine minutes, it’s kind of hard to really dive into those areas really effectively. And so, by opening up these segments and making them longer, it’s going to give us an opportunity to really serve up what we know from research, what we know from across the industry, what we know from our curriculum and education experts, what we know kids are looking for.”

The changes are the most significant for Sesame Street since 2016, when the show went from one hour to 30 minutes, though it kept the magazine-style format even as it made the program shorter, with a “street scene” leading into a letter or number of the day segment, followed by an Elmo’s World animated segment, etc.

There will be other tweaks as well, including having a signature song in every episode (Wilson Stallings says they hope to bring famous singers in to help sing some of them) and having the Muppet characters address the camera to talk to the kids watching the show.

As for the new animated series, Tales from 123, Wilson Stallings says that the series “for the very first time will give viewers an opportunity to go inside 123 Sesame Street, which is probably the most famous apartment building in the world.”

“And there, beyond the stoop, is where monsters and humans and fairies and dinosaurs and talking numbers and letters and even food will call home,” she adds. “So this will be a great opportunity for our audience to explore a whole new part and a whole new world of Sesame Street.“

Wilson Stallings says that the new series — which could eventually be developed into its own spinoff — has been in the works for some time, collaborating with both internal and external creative talent.

Sesame Workshop’s current deal with Warner Bros. Discovery ends after season 55 - airing next November. This “reimagined” Sesame Street will coincide with the beginning of which service links a deal with the show or stay with Warner Bros. and Max, if they decide not to renew.

You can read the whole article at The Hollywood Reporter. 

Adam Savage Performs with Puppet Up & Learns How the Puppets Are Made!

Adam Savage is back at the Henson company to learn how to perform puppets and see how the Creature Shop recreates some classic characters from the past.

Join Adam Savage and Brian Henson, Chairman of the Board at the Jim Henson Company, for a puppeteering adventure like no other. Discover backstage secrets, get schooled on improv puppeteering, and watch as Adam tries his hand (literally!) on stage along with the incredible Puppet Up! crew. Prepare for laughs and a dash of puppet chaos in Adam’s first on-stage puppeteering performance! (Don't worry -- he's keeping his day job.)

 

At Jim Henson's Creature Shop in New York, Adam Savage learns how talented fabricators transform the characters from two of Jim Henson's earliest sketches -- the Glow Worm and Business Business -- into two sets of puppets that will appear live on stage in Brian Henson's Puppet Up improv show. It's a balance between recreating some of the mechanisms developed by Jim and his team in the 1960s, and using modern techniques like 3D printing to make the performance pop for a live audience. And we'd say they pulled it off quite beautifully.

You can see more Adam Savage’s Tested on his Youtube channel.