User:MuppetArchives/Today on Muppet Wiki Archive 09

Archive of Today on Muppet Wiki, September - October 2007.

October 2007

 * October 31 &#8226; Sesame Street Monster Gallery: Sesame Street is known for its hairy-but-not-scary monsters, and here's a page that helps you find the monster you're looking for, from Andre to Zostic.


 * October 30 &#8226; Sesame Street pet costumes: New York Dog, a company that makes outfits for dogs and cats, has produced a line of four canine Sesame Street costumes. Now dogs around the world can live out their lifelong dreams of looking like Big Bird, Elmo, Bert and the Count. I know, it sounds crazy, but the pictures are soooo cute.


 * October 29 &#8226; Celebrating the Music of Paul Simon is a tribute to Paul Simon which aired on PBS in June. Among the celebrity tributes, Grover and Elmo make a pre-taped appearance covering "Feelin' Groovy". After the song is done, Grover notes how short the song is, remembering that he'd always heard that Paul Simon was a short song writer.


 * October 28 &#8226; Miss Piggy bathroom set: A shower curtain made by Jakson Co. in the 1980s featured Miss Piggy as a mermaid. Other products included a tissue box cover and towels.


 * October 27 &#8226; The Snowths are furry pink creatures with horns and yellow lips who sing the "do doo do doo doo" backup vocals in versions of "Mahna Mahna" that have appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Muppet Show. Both Snowths were performed simultaneously by Frank Oz, who performed one puppet on each arm; as a result, the Snowths' arms swung freely from side to side.


 * October 26 &#8226; Pushing Daisies is a new fantasy-romance series airing on ABC, starring Lee Pace as a pie maker who can bring the dead back to life with a single touch. Jim Henson's Creature Shop created an animatronic pigeon for the most recent episode, "Pigeon". Sesame Street fans will also recognize Kristin Chenoweth, aka Mr. Noodle's sister Ms. Noodle, as Olive Snook.


 * October 25 &#8226; Grover's Jobs: Grover is most well known for his superhero and waiter personas, but as any dedicated Sesame Street viewer knows, Grover has held a multitude of jobs over the years. When he's not working as a camp counselor or a salesman, he may be seen spending his time as a magician, a detective, or a mild-mannered hot dog vendor.


 * October 24 &#8226; Muppet Masquerade is a 3-LP set of Sesame Street songs from the first nine years of the show. The set also includes cardboard masks of Ernie, Bert, Big Bird, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, Count von Count, and Cookie Monster. The person listening can put on the masks, and as the front cover says, "Be a Muppet!".


 * October 23 &#8226; The Siskel and Ebert caricature Muppets appeared in the Summer 1988 issue of Muppet Magazine. The two feature in the Mondo Muppet section, in a salute to the movies. Paired with a rat, and stocked up on munchies, they trade jokes about such cinema classics as The Empire Strikes Back, Superman, The Wizard of Oz and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.


 * October 22 &#8226; The Letter of the Day Pageant was hosted by Guy Smiley on Sesame Street in the mid-1980s. The skit was a spoof of the Miss America Pageant, complete with tearful candidates and a song by Guy Smiley (à la Bert Parks).


 * October 21 &#8226; Episode 4151: It's time for the Worm Cup, the international worm sporting event that happens to be taking place right outside Oscar's trash can. Sports reporter Lotta Chatter describes the gripping action to the viewing audience of worms, humans, Grouches and eight-foot birds. Sesame Street's own Slimey the Worm is one of the finalists, squaring off against the French champion, Squirmadine. The action gets a little rough, leading to a shocking physical assault. Seriously.


 * October 20 &#8226; Smedley is a wooden dummy performed by Fozzie Bear in a one-page Muppet comic strip that appeared in the final issue of Disney Adventures. Not surprisingly, Fozzie and Smedley's performance ("GLAH GLAH GLAH GLAH") fails to amuse Statler and Waldorf. However, when Smedley combusts due to a sudden flare and has to be extinguished by Scooter, the two hecklers burst into uproarious laughter.


 * October 19 &#8226; Sesame Street 45 RPM Boxed Sets: When Sesame Street began to produce LPs and singles in the early 70s, they also created some sets of singles that were released in special custom boxes. These sets sometimes had unique artwork. The sets included the "Carry About" titles: The Sesame Street Carry About, The Muppet Alphabet Carry About and the Havin' Fun with Ernie and Bert Carry About.


 * October 18 &#8226; Ben Cooper Sesame Street costumes: It's a couple weeks until Halloween, which means it's time to get your costume ready. If this was the early 80s, and you were in middle school, that would mean going to Woolworth's and getting a Ben Cooper costume. You'd find shelves of blue boxes to rummage through, each holding a plastic mask that you couldn't see out of and a vinyl smock that usually had the name and picture of the character printed on it. Ah, those were the days.


 * October 17 &#8226; Sesame Neighborhood is a replica of Sesame Street at the Sesame Place theme park. The neighborhood includes Big Bird's nest, 123 Sesame Street, Oscar's trash can, Courtyard, Hooper's Store, the Fix-It Shop and Mr. Macintosh's Fruit Stand. The street also extends past the Fix-It Shop to "Sesame Street Engine House No. 1", a location not part of the regular show set.


 * October 16 &#8226; Elmo's World Episodes: Guess what Elmo is thinking about today! Well, it's hard to guess, since it could be anything from Penguins to Skin, or maybe Violins, or Noses, or Helping. It's hard to keep track of all the things that Elmo knows about, so you need our complete episode guide to Elmo's World, with tons of pictures and descriptions for each episode.


 * October 15 &#8226; Antibodies are Y-shaped proteins that are found in blood or other bodily fluids of vertebrates, and are used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects, such as bacteria and viruses. A group of antibodies appear in an episode of Sesamstrasse, representing Nils' immune system when he takes his medicine. The antibodies explain to a concerned Finchen that Nils needs to take his vitamins in order to keep his immune system healthy.


 * October 14 &#8226; Moppet is a human character featured in the Return to Labyrinth manga series. Moppet has lived inside the Labyrinth for as long as she can remember. As a human, she felt insecure about looking different from the goblins, and disguised herself as a goblin. She hides her human features with a poorly made goblin mask and a wig. She quickly becomes an ally, friend and possible love interest to Toby.


 * October 13 &#8226; Panwapa is a world-wide video initiative produced by Sesame Workshop. The video debuted on October 10, 2007, released online via iTunes and Panwapa.com. A DVD release will follow, and the program will be featured on PBS Kids Sprout On-Demand service in January 2008. The production stars an original group of Muppets that live on Panwapa Island, a giant floating island. The program aims to "foster the foundation for global citizenship and community activism in young children, ages 4 to 7." The Muppet cast includes Azibo the Monster (Kevin Clash), Bill the Bug (Joey Mazzarino) and Koko the Penguin (Leslie Carrara).


 * October 12 &#8226; Moon Dreams: Puppyduck comes running into the shop; she's found a moon creature sitting outside. It turns out that Mopatop can speak moon language, so he's able to figure out that the creature, Clicksnizz, has lost his favorite dream. After a few attepmts to find a new dream in the dream apartment, Puppyduck suggests that Clicksnizz is looking for a dream about stars. Unfortunately, the dream about stars is missing, because Moosey Mouse used the stars to decorate his room. Moosey overhears the conversation in the shop, and returns the stars.


 * October 11 &#8226; Happy Grouchy Day: Grizzy is nicer than the other grouches, and gets kicked out of class for good manners. Elmo and Oscar the Grouch help her become more grouchy so that she can live peacefully in Grouchland.


 * October 6 &#8226; Sweetums is a grotesque, hairy ogre who towers above mere humans and his Muppet co-stars. His bulldog-like lower jaw, thick eyebrows, shabby brown shirt and threatening expression belie his more or less genial nature. This page is the latest to be awarded Quality status on the wiki, marking it as one of our best. Check out the Quality nominations page to nominate and vote on the best Muppet Wiki articles!


 * October 5 &#8226; Ricardo is Rosita's father. While Rosita has been a major character on Sesame Street since 1991, her father made his first on-screen appearance in 2007. Ricardo will first appear in a project being developed by Sesame Workshop for military families, in response to Talk, Listen, Connect. In this special, released in 2007, Rosita's father is a member of the military, and was deployed far away. When he comes home he is in a wheelchair and Rosita has a hard time coping with the change. He is friends with Elmo's dad Louie, a fellow Sesame Street servicemonster.


 * October 4 &#8226; Pablo Bigotasso is a Multimuppet artist who appears occasionally on Plaza Sésamo. He often uses his art to demonstrate geometric concepts, and has also been known to innocently create his masterpieces on public walls.


 * October 3 &#8226; The Muppets 2008 Calendar: A new calendar is out for next year, published by American Greetings.


 * October 2 &#8226; Lotta Chatter is the anchorwoman at the Worm's Cup game in Episode 4151. Speaking with an English accent, she gives the play by play commentary to viewers at home and summarizes the game's progress, much to Oscar and Monsieur Depabois' dismay.


 * October 1 &#8226; Super Morphin Mega Monsters was a recurring Sesame Street sketch in the 1990s, spoofing the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers franchise. The Mega Monsters team consisted of Elmosaurus, Zoeteratops, Telly Dactyl, and Rosita Raptor, who would "morph" into caped and helmeted outfits when trouble arose. Their arch-enemy was the evil alien Zostic, ruler of the planet Enormous, who would send his underlings to cause trouble on Earth. In contrast to the fight scenes on the real Power Rangers, the Mega Monsters would run around and wave their arms in vaguely martial arts-style motions, but would only reason with others instead of attacking.

September 2007

 * September 30 &#8226; Who You Looking At, Tiger?, also known as "Tiger Looking Song," is a Sesame Street song sung by David over film footage of a tiger. He sings about who the tiger is looking at and what the tiger is seeing and feeling.


 * September 29 &#8226; Wild Thing is a hit song written by New York-born songwriter Chip Taylor and originally recorded by The Wild Ones in 1965. The song is probably best known for its 1966 cover by the English band The Troggs, leading many to assume they are the original artist; however, the Troggs' version is one of several covers. Animal sang "Wild Thing" in episode 222 of The Muppet Show, accompanying himself with a raucous drum beat. At the end of the number, Animal is dragged away by pigs with nets.


 * September 28 &#8226; Emotion in the Ocean is a Sesame Street song, in which Elmo sings about the feelings of aquatic animals -- the love that a mother whale shows to her babies, the pride of a strutting penguin, and the hunger of a shark.


 * September 27 &#8226; Fisher-Price Talk-to-Me Books were a collection of books released by Fisher-Price. Each page had a small, colored vinyl circle. A special player, known as the "Fisher-Price Talk-to-Me Player", could be put on these circles, allowing the reader to listen to the characters telling the story. Fisher-Price released a set of five Sesame Street books in 1978: Big Bird's Look and Listen Book, Good Night Sesame Street, Grover Visits His Granny, I Wish I Had a Giraffe and Welcome to My Castle.


 * September 26 &#8226; Chunky Cheese is the chief cheese of the planet CH in a Sesame Street "Spaceship Surprise" skit. Chunky Cheese is the planet's leader, and rides a chariot. He explains to the voyagers that the planet is full of chimneys, cherry trees, and cheering chairs, among other items.


 * September 25 &#8226; Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a long-running documentary series about a guy trapped in space with two robots of his own design, forced to watch bad movies by mad scientists who hope to turn these "experiments" into a blueprint for world domination. Okay, so it's not a documentary. But over ten seasons, Joel, Mike, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot mercilessly mocked some of the worst movies of all time. The wide-ranging pop-culture references included frequent mentions of the Muppets and Sesame Street, which we've arranged in a lavishly detailed page, complete with a screenshot for each one. This page is the latest to be awarded Quality status on the wiki, marking it as one of our best. Check out the Quality nominations page to nominate and vote on the best Muppet Wiki articles!


 * September 24 &#8226; The Jim Henson Legacy is a non-profit organization founded in 1992 that seeks to further the appreciation of Jim Henson as an artist. The Legacy hosts periodic screenings, exhibits and live appearances that celebrate Henson's work. They are also involved in locating examples of Henson's work that are not yet part of the Jim Henson Company Archives.


 * September 23 &#8226; The Kingdom of Loathing is an online, multi-player role-playing text adventure game that parodies traditional fantasy role-playing games. Several elements of the game feature references to the Muppets, including a dual reference to Kermit the Frog and Yoda, as the player encounters a little green man strumming a banjo on a log, who speaks backwards. The character explains, ""Writing I am a song about rainbows. Many songs are there about rainbows, and believe I do that a connection between them there is."


 * September 22 &#8226; The Muppets North Pole Christmas Village: In 2007, Hawthorne Village is producing a series of three hand-painted, Christmas village buildings that light up: "Santa's House," "Statler and Waldorf's Toy Factory," and "Swedish Chef's Bakery." Limited in number, the sculptures also feature ten Holiday-themed character figurines.


 * September 21 &#8226; Spies Like Us is a 1985 comedy directed by John Landis. Frank Oz appears in a cameo role as a grouchy exams monitor. In 1999, Muppets From Space spoofed a famous scene from the film as Kermit the Frog and Pepe the King Prawn infiltrated C.O.V.N.E.T., posing as doctors.


 * September 20 &#8226; Fraggle Rock (France): Fraggle Rock is a show that was developed specifically with international co-productions in mind. Certains elements for the show were custom fit to the country inwhich it would be broadcast, such as Uncle Traveling Matt's postcards. In France, the character of Doc was re-conceptualized as a chef played by Michel Robin, who lived in a bakery with his dog Croquette.


 * September 19 &#8226; Muppet greeting cards: American Greetings has put out another batch of greeting cards, featuring Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Animal and the Swedish Chef.


 * September 18 &#8226; The Sesame Street Podcast was launched today by Sesame Workshop. Each week, a 5-minute segment will become available online to web browsers and cell phone users as a way for parents to provide educational media for their children while they are on-the-go. Sesame Street material from current episodes is mixed with older segments and features never-before-aired content.


 * September 17 &#8226; Mahboub is an Arab-Israeli monster who lives on Rechov Sumsum. Introduced in the 2006 revived series, Mahboub is a curious five-year old. He speaks Hebrew and Arabic, and is a gifted drummer.


 * September 16 &#8226; Baloobius: The baloobius is a part of Fraggle anatomy, the proper term for the fringe on the end of a Fraggle's tail. The baloobius tends to flare out when a Fraggle is scared. In the Fraggle Rock episode "Scared Silly," Boober decides to test the baloobius of his fellow Fraggles, primarily Wembley.


 * September 15 &#8226; German Muppet Babies Audio Cassettes: Muppet Wiki strives to be as comprehensive as possible, which means that we end up with pages like this. Want to hear a bunch of German Muppet Babies audio tapes from 1987? Of course you do!


 * September 12 &#8226; Fraggle Rock 2008 Wall Calendar: You can start planning in advance for your Fraggle Rock related fun on this calendar, available now. The calendar includes 100 stickers.


 * September 11 &#8226; Fraggle Rock: Complete Third Season is coming out today, brand new on DVD. The 5-disc set includes 24 episodes from the third season of Fraggle Rock: Wembley fears that Boober has exploded from fright in "Scared Silly", Sprocket gets loose in Fraggle Rock in "Sprocket's Big Adventure", and Cantus the Minstrel teaches Gobo the true meaning of the Festival of the Bells in "The Bells of Fraggle Rock". The box set also has tons of bonus features, including interviews with Michael Frith, Karen Prell, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Kathy Mullen and Gerry Parkes.


 * September 10 &#8226; Because We're Friends is a song from the new season of Sesame Street. Abby Cadabby, Rosita and Zoe are playing and reminiscing about when Abby first arrived on Sesame Street. At first she was too shy even to say hi, but all Rosita and Zoe had to do was ask if she wanted to play, and now they're friends.


 * September 9 &#8226; Stella appears in Wow, You're a Cartoonist! as the proprietor of a cartoon boutique. The store sells a variety of elements that are advertised as "all you need to add spice to your cartoon." From hats, shoes, jewelry, hair styles, clothing, "you know it's fresh 'cuz you draw it yourself."


 * September 8 &#8226; The Fraggle Rockin' Collection: There's more news about the upcoming Fraggle Rock CD set, scheduled for release in late October. For one thing, the title's changed. We've also got details on the contents -- the three CDs will be "restored and remastered" versions of three previous Fraggle albums: Fraggle Rock, Perfect Harmony and Music and Magic.


 * September 7 &#8226; Swedish Kitchen Playset: The Swedish Chef's kitchen was the third playset produced by Palisades Toys in honor of The Muppet Show's 25th anniversary. This playset, released in Spring 2003, had the most accessories and features, including cupboards with opening doors and drawers, a refrigerator and a stove with many working doors, and a telephone.


 * September 6 &#8226; Fiddlesticks: In 1978, Knickerbocker released a Sesame Street version of their Fiddlesticks Toy Builder Set. It included Ernie,  Big Bird, and Cookie Monster character pieces, in addition to a variety of brightly colored building pieces.


 * September 5 &#8226; What's the Big Idea? is an upcoming preschool television series being produced by the Jim Henson Company. The show will feature real-time computer-generated puppets, using the Henson Digital Performance System. 40 half-hour episodes of What's the Big Idea? have been ordered with production said to begin in the fall of 2007; the series is scheduled to debut on PBS Kids sometime in 2008. The show will use a sketch-comedy format to teach lessons in science and discovery.


 * September 4 &#8226; Fraggle Rockin': A Collection: The 3-disc CD set of Fraggle Rock music is coming out October 30th, and we've got a picture of the cover...


 * September 3 &#8226; The Thirty-Minute Work Week: Every Fraggle has to work a grueling thirty minutes a week, and it's Wembley's turn to choose a job. All of his friends have jobs -- Gobo collects messages from Traveling Matt, Mokey gathers radishes from the Gorgs' Garden, Red cleans the pool, and Boober does the laundry. Now Wembley has to decide what he wants to do... but can he choose before the pressure makes him explode?


 * September 2 &#8226; All Work and All Play: It's time for young Cotterpin Doozer to wear her helmet and build like all the other Doozers, but the maverick Cotterpin would rather draw and play than work. Adopting Red Fraggle as her new hero, Cotterpin leaves the Doozers behind and decides to become a Fraggle instead.


 * September 1 &#8226; Lothar the Grouch is a grouch from the seventh moon of the planet Zurkon. He sends a hologram message billions of miles to Oscar the Grouch on Earth via R2D2 in Sesame Street episode 1364. The message is "Oscar the Grouch, get lost!", to which Oscar replies "What do you know? There is intelligent life in outer space."