Greetings Earthlings.

Welcome back to Moving Right Along, a Muppet Movie podcast brought to you by toughpigs.com, starting today on this episode.

This is the podcast where we watch Muppets from space 2 minutes at a time and talk about it a lot.

I'm your host, Ryan Rowe.

I'm your other host, Anthony Strand, and I am 3.

That's yeah, that doesn't come until later at the movie.

Yeah, Yes, we are.

We are three, both of us.

And it's just the two of us this week to kick off this new season of the podcast covering a new movie.

You know, just the two of us, the Kate Edgar Singer and Bobo as a Rancho of the podcast.

I thought you said the goat.

So today we're going to talk about minutes one and two of Muppets from Space in which the movie starts in gonzo chases Noah's Ark.

But first we got some general overview stuff to get to.

This is the 6th theatrical Muppet movie.

It was released on July 14th, 1999 by Columbia Pictures and Jim Henson Pictures.

It was directed by Tim Hill and Anthony has some stuff to say about Tim Mill.

So I for years, for years, for no reason, I have been obsessed with Tim Hale and Raja Gosnell who is a very similar director.

Raja Gosnell directed the first live action Smurfs movie, Scooby-doo, Beverly Hills Chihuahua Home Alone 3.

So that's Roger Gosnell, whatever.

But I've always said I've done this bit.

Roger Gosnell and Tim Hill, the Titans of cinema, you know, talk about them like they're Scorsese and Coppola or something.

Right.

And so when we when this season was coming up, I decided to watch all of Tim Hills movies.

Run the run the filmography from beginning to end.

Wow, Tim Hill has directed 8 movies and I watched them all.

And here's the thing, Ryan, this is the best one.

Really.

Yeah, I think so pretty easily.

Out of eight, this is #1 on your ranking of Tim Hill movies.

Yes, although the next two are both pretty good as well, which are Max Keeble's big move.

OK, never seen that which?

Is kind of a charming middle school Ferris Bueller's Day Off OK starting homeland Three's Alex D Linds and then Garfield.

The tale of two kitties, I think has a really weird fun energy, thanks in large part to Tim Curry as as Prince, the British Garfield.

Oh, well, sure.

Yeah.

But yeah, never seen that one either.

Do you want to run through the rest of your Tim Hill ranking for us?

Yeah, so then those are the.

But those three are his first 3, and they are his best 3.

Interesting this was his first feature, right?

This is this first feature.

Much like Jim with Great Muppet Keeper, much like Frank Oz with Muppet Muppets, Muppets Take Manhattan, and much like Brian Henson with Muppet Christmas Carol.

Wow, this is his first.

Solo directorial effort, just like all those guys, and much like James Bowman with The Muppets later, that's.

True.

Wow.

James James Frawley is the only one.

That's.

Not his, not his debut.

Yeah.

So then after that it really is downhill.

But I would say 4th best is Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever.

Oh boy.

Which is ATV movie starring Aubrey Plaza as the voice of Grumpy Cat.

Oh, I remember when that.

And which is I have not seen it, though it's kind of fun because Aubrey's having a good time.

You know, it's basically just like her commenting on this very generic Lifetime movie as it happened.

But OK, so that's that's the top half.

Those are all those are all fun.

I would honestly recommend watching all of them.

OK.

All right #5 is where Ryan we're shipping out.

We got our orders, we've been drafted.

It is the war with grandpa.

This is This is a movie where Robert De Niro plays a guy who moves in with his daughter, Uma Thurman, and takes over his son's bed.

Yeah, Uma's the.

Uma Thurman is in that.

Uma's the mom, It's a Mad Dog and Glory reunion.

And yeah, and the son, which is the kid from Pete's Dragon and Wonderstruck Oaks Fegley, he is mad because the grandpa took his bedroom.

So they do a prank war.

And it's not, it's not good.

I'm not going to like be like, you gotta run, don't walk to see the war with grandpa.

But not only is De Niro the grandpa and Uma Thurman, De Niro's friend group in this picture is Cheech Marin, Christopher Walken.

So it's a Deer Hunter reunion also.

And then his new love interest is Jane Seymour.

And all of those old pros are like, they really go for it.

There's like a scene where those guys have to have a dodgeball war with the kid and his friends.

And you know what?

Like it's nice to see them having fun.

Sure.

Are they, are they all in it a lot like a significant amount?

Yes, walk In especially like there.

There are scenes of like De Niro and Walk In, just like hanging out at Walk In's apartment.

Yeah, Stacy and I talk a lot about this being one of our favorite sort of sub genres of movie, which is like famous old people.

Yeah, kind of dramedies which that they they tend to get cast and things like that.

Like let them all talk and Queen bees and 80 for Brady.

Book Club.

Book club for sure, yeah.

Las Vegas, I think, yes.

Yeah, definitely.

So yeah, that's I, that's the one I might have to check out of all these.

The bucket list.

Yeah, yeah, that's an earlier example, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

So watch War with Grandpa, but then.

But then the last three are not so good.

It's SpongeBob Sponge on the Run, which is his second newest movie.

That's right before War with Grandpa.

And which is fine if you like SpongeBob.

I just don't really, you know, OK, It's the third SpongeBob movie.

And then the two, the worst two, and I couldn't even, I don't know that I can choose between them because they're both dreadful, which is Alvin and the Chipmunks, the 2007 movie, the first of that series, which is just not like it's coming right off Garfield, the tale of two kitties, which I just said I enjoy, right.

Which I just said I enjoy.

So like, you know, I I went into Alvin and the Chipmunks with good faith.

With an open mind.

Yeah, and it's not fun at all.

It's not funny.

Jason Lee, as Dave seems embarrassed to be.

Sure, yes.

The jokes aren't like it starts with the chipmunks in a tree singing Bad day.

OK, yeah, which tells you what you know, Like what?

About what time?

Period.

It came out, yeah.

Exactly 2007.

And it's just yeah, it's like, I don't know, David Cross doesn't seem like he's having fun either, as their as their like other manager who steals them away.

And then I guess I would put on the bottom hop, which is the movie where Russell Brand plays the Easter Bunny son who just wants to be a drummer and James Marsden plays a ne'er do well who has no direction in life but ends up becoming the first human Easter Bunny.

And here's the thing.

You can't make a good story about the Easter Bunny because the Easter Bunny is nothing.

Yeah, there's no, there's, there's nothing there to work with.

Like Santa?

Yeah.

Right, you say what?

You know what?

Hey Ryan, where does Santa Claus live?

Yeah, the North Pole.

Everybody knows that.

What?

Who are his Co workers?

He has elves.

He has reindeer, Yeah.

What?

What kind of environment do they do they do their work in?

It's it's it's a workshop at the North Pole where it's called.

Yeah.

How do they, what's the, what's the manner of delivering the the holiday item?

How?

How do they?

A sleigh, they write a sleigh around the world on Christmas Eve.

Yeah.

I'm doing great.

I'm this I'm acing this test.

Same questions about the Easter Bunny.

Where does he live?

Maybe like a hole in the ground.

Yeah, see.

You're you're like trying to think of an answer because.

I'm trying to make make up an answer he.

Has no Co workers, he has no associated characters yet you know what?

There's no mythology.

So this movie tries to pretend that the Easter Bunny is Santa Claus, right.

He has like a right.

Yeah.

Like a like a factory work.

They were.

Hoping to create that mythology I think.

Yeah, and it's on Easter Island, which is just happens to be a real place that exists.

You know, there you go.

But yeah, it's bad.

I mean, even putting aside like Russell Brand being the lead, which is unpleasant for other reasons, which is a, which will be a theme with this movie, Frank.

Yeah, this, I, I, I think it was our frequent guest, Eric Adams who suggested to us that Muppets from Space is the Muppet Movie with the most that like the greatest number of cancelled cameo stars.

Yeah, I think that's right.

We will.

Get into that.

Get to them as we go along.

But yeah, so anyways, that's that's the Tim Hill filmography.

And here's the thing, I think the longest one of those movies is 100 minutes.

Like they all went down.

They all went down pretty smooth.

Sure.

Yeah.

OK.

Well, thanks for watching all those so we don't have to.

But I gotta say, I'm tempted to put on the war with Grandpa.

It's where did I watch it?

It's on Disney Plus I think, OK streaming.

It's like on one of the major streamers.

Is that a PG?

Yeah, every single one of those is a family film.

All right, I I bet my nephews would like that.

Yeah, you can watch more with grandpa, with your nephews.

Yeah, sure.

OK.

Maybe I'll give that a try.

I'll report back if I do that.

I'm excited to hear what you think.

Yeah, So that's Tim Hill, everyone it.

Sure is.

And the movie was written by Jerry Jewell and Joseph Mazzarino.

That's the word.

And rather than an ampersand, which means they worked on it separately.

What was that?

Just wow.

Just those two guys.

Just that those are the credited screenwriters on this movie.

Yeah, yeah.

It doesn't, it does not feel like Jerry Jewell.

What should have been involved in this film?

You mean because it doesn't feel like some, like it doesn't feel like other things, he wrote.

Correct.

Yeah.

It feels and I and I know not a lot of what we're seeing on screen is, is Jerry's work as I understand.

So we have we've managed to get access to a few early drafts, most of which are written just by Jerry Jewell, like only by Jerry Jewell.

I would say the basic plot and the just like kind of the beats of the screenplay were all his for the most part, but it's more some of the the jokes and individual details that got changed along the way.

OK.

And it was shortly after this movie that he announced that he was walking away from The Muppets.

So I you have to wonder how much of that had to do with him being asked to make changes.

Or, you know, maybe this will maybe even the scripts that we can read today are not what he would have read if he had more creative freedom.

Who knows?

Right.

And all I mean, we should also like this is this is his last credit.

Yeah.

This is the last thing he was ever credited with writing in his lifetime.

He died six years later, right, Not not too terribly long after this.

And he never did any professional work, as far as we know, in those six.

Years.

So yeah, we always kind of hoped that he would write one more Muppet thing after this, but it did not happen.

And then, yes, Joey Mazzarino, of course, Muppet performer and writer who was a head writer on Sesame Street for several years.

We talked about him recently, right?

He was in the wait.

Am I getting this wrong?

Was he in the Muppet Treasure Island?

Sing along.

Was he?

I don't think.

Maybe I'm wrong about that.

I thought we had talked about him really relatively recently, but.

We probably have talked about, I'm sure that you and I have talked about Joey Mazzarino recently.

On this podcast.

But yeah, that's what that's what I'm not sure.

OK, well, let's see.

He did a ton of Muppet stuff from the 80s through the 20 tens, I guess, and then mostly Sesame Street toward toward the end of that tenure.

Yeah.

And then he he left his role as a head writer on Sesame Street to work on other stuff, including the Jim Carrey show.

Kidding.

Is that what that was called?

Is that what it was called?

Kidding.

Yeah, I think so.

We're Jerry.

We saw the show.

I mean Jerry.

We're Jim Carrey played the host of a kid show, which was a very unusual and cool TV show.

Sure, Joey Mazzarino did work on the Muppet Treasure Island.

Sing along.

There we go.

That's.

Yes, we did talk about it on the podcast.

OK, good.

I'm not.

He's also he's also game show Gator on Don Quixote, so love that.

Oh, nice.

Yeah, Well, yeah, he's continued to be a puppeteer of course, too, as well as being a writer in an O.

And I also had in my notes, we might as well mention that this one did not do well at the box office, so I'm sure that'll come up later in the season as well.

In a previous season, we concluded that Muppet Christmas Carol is probably the most talked about of all the Muppet movies.

I am going to declare here at the top that Muppets from Space is probably the least talked about Muppet movie.

Do you agree?

I think that's right and I think that means we have a lot of we, you know, we can stake our claim.

Oh yeah.

OK.

So we'll we'll be making some definitive statements about this movie.

Nobody else is talking about it.

Yeah.

So we're going to be asking our guests for their history with this movie.

But now I want to ask you, Anthony, what's your history with this movie?

So I was 14 when this one came out and I had just recently become a real Muppet fiend.

Like I read Jim Henson, the works when I was in probably 7th grade.

That'll do it.

And that's when I that it and that'll do it.

That's when I really became like once once I learned the names Dave Goals, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, you know, then I was now I'm Mr.

Muppet fan, but I didn't see this in the theater because I broke my leg on June 29th and and it was quite a bad break.

I mean, I was like laid up at home for the rest of the summer, you know, in the.

Summer.

What a what an inconvenient time.

Yeah, what what was fun about it was that I could make my brothers do things.

Sure, yeah.

But I did, I didn't get to see Mother from his face.

I mean, first of all, it was in theaters for what, 2 weeks?

Like there, you know, it's not like I had all summer to go see it anyway.

Yeah, I came and.

Went but, but I didn't get to, so I'd never saw it until that fall.

My I didn't have HBO, but my friend Bryce did and he taped it off HBO for me.

And so I had that taped off TV, like just at the home VHS until the DVD.

Until I got the DVD several years later, that was my only copy.

I didn't even pay money to own the movie.

Yeah, but I watched it a lot.

My friend Jason and I, who I've mentioned was my was kind of like my Muppet fan pal in high school.

OK.

We, we watched it over and over in like, freshman, sophomore years of high school.

And we thought it was great and we quoted it all the time.

Yeah, there are a few memorable quotes.

Yeah, that it does have that going for it.

Yeah, but I think that's part of why I still feel fondly towards it is it was the exciting new Muppet thing when I first became like a real Muppet geek.

Yeah.

You know, like, I mean, I knew the name Jerry Jewell when this one came out, and I sure didn't when Treasure Island came out, right?

Right, right.

Yeah.

So I think that's part of why I generally think fondly of it.

Yeah, that all makes sense.

I yeah, I was living in a town that had a six screen movie theater when this came out, and it generally would get every movie released by a major studio.

But guess what?

It never got Muppets from Space.

So.

I had to go to the nearest big city, which was San Antonio.

And I saw this with my mom and we were the only two people in the auditorium, which I have a feeling is going to be like, I have a feeling other people are going to have similar experiences when we ask them.

And I just, this was the first time I was ever disappointed by a Muppet thing.

I, I saw the movie.

I was, I think so I was looking forward to it.

And I just came out of it going, oh, like, why?

Why couldn't The Muppets make a better movie than that?

True, yeah.

And and so we should clarify you're, you had just graduated, you're 18.

Just graduated high school, yes.

Yeah.

And so I think like really, I do think the difference between 14 and 18 is huge.

Probably.

You know, like, like I was, I was, I had just finished 8th grade.

Yeah.

And you had just like you were you were you're supposed to go off to College in the month that year old parents are back on screen.

But I also, I was very enthusiastic about Muppet Treasure Island and Muppets Tonight.

I was right.

I was all about both of those.

Right.

Yeah, Your, your, your, your freshman year, that's what I'm saying.

Well, yeah, OK, I see what you're saying that it's that was younger.

Yeah, yeah, but but also, I just mean like, I think I have to imagine that you were like excited for The Muppets to be back.

Yes, as a as as a young man on the cusp of adulthood, it was going to let you like it.

It had to have felt more important that you know, I don't know, maybe not maybe that's silly.

But I mean, you like you want The Muppets to still be great, right, even though, even though it's time for you to put away childish things, you know, and they and it wasn't and it's not and it's not great.

I'm I'm not going to spend this whole season being like, actually Tim Hill is a master and this is a masterpiece.

Like, that's not that's not my intention, but I do think I think this movie is better if you expect less of it.

I'm amused that you know me as well as you do.

And you think there was ever a time in my life when I put away childish things?

No.

I but no, I don't really.

I don't really.

Yeah, no, but I am.

So yes, this is at the bottom of my Muppet Movie ranking, but I'm going into this, you know, trying just to keep a level head and maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Sure, and, and I should clarify, this is #7 on my Muppet Movie rankings.

OK.

Like, like it's a, it's above Treasure Island.

I mean, I think, I think the audience knows by now how I feel about Treasure Island.

But but it's not above anything else.

It's not like I'm, it's not like I'm out here, you know, kicking Muppets, take Manhattan to put Muppets from a space above it or whatever, you know, like.

And, you know, there might be people out there who do, and that's fine.

Everybody has their favorites and every movie is somebody's favorite, so I.

But I do like that they got back to The Muppets as themselves after the two literary adaptations.

I.

Know.

Yeah, for sure.

There are people out there who think that they should be doing literary adaptations all the time.

I do not agree with that.

So it was just nice to get them like, oh, Kermit is Kermit and Fuzzy is Fuzzy and Piggy is Piggy and Gonzo is gonzo again.

And then of course it's a sci-fi movie.

Not surprising in 1999 because sci-fi was very hot in the 90s.

You had Independence Day and Men in Black and they knew.

There's an interview somewhere.

I saw it with Brian Henson when they were promoting this movie where he said they knew that this was going to be the year of Star Wars because The Phantom Menace was coming out.

So they thought like, Oh yeah, we'll do a sci-fi movie too.

Yeah, with Frank Oz in it.

He's a phantom menace.

Yes, yes, that's true.

Yeah.

Man, I was just thinking about this earlier today.

That puppet version of Yoda from the original cut of the Phantom Menace looks so weird.

What were they thinking?

They were good.

They were trying to make him look younger I guess.

But Yoda 30 years younger shouldn't look that different from the Yoda we know.

Right, if he's 900 in Return of the Jedi.

Yeah, if he's 870, he's not going to look that much different.

Right.

Anyway, it it, it almost feels like they were trying to sabotage the puppet.

I don't know.

I'm just not sure they could replace it digitally.

Yeah.

Digitally, yeah, as soon as they were able to, yeah.

I I kind of think, yeah, there might be something to that.

And I haven't watched those.

Like Miles kind of wants to watch those prequels now and I haven't seen him in years.

Yeah.

So I guess I'll watch him with Miles, see how he likes them.

Sure, Yeah, he's the right age to really appreciate The Phantom Menace, I would think.

Yeah.

And that's right.

There were a few other ideas that they considered before landing on this movie.

In an interview with the website Looper in 2020, Tim Hill said it was tough because there were two scripts.

They hadn't decided which one they wanted to do.

1 was Pigs in Space and the other was Muppets from Space.

They were both funny, it was just they couldn't quite make up their mind.

They were asking should we do the gonzo story?

Where do they come from?

Or should we do a pure space parody goofy pigs in space movie?

What they went with, I think they made the right choice, so.

Well, I I think it would have been tough to do a Pigs in Space movie with, yeah, Frank Oz's limited involvement, right?

And Link had not been recast.

True, yeah.

You know, really, I mean, maybe he I don't, but I don't think he'd even have like video game appearances yet.

Right.

No, not at this point.

So maybe that would have been ended up being Steve like it was for a while.

Maybe that would have been the moment that they recast him, yeah.

Yeah, but you, you know, people love pigs in space.

Or the idea the iconography of pigs in space at least.

But like 2/3 of the Swine Trek crew were essentially not around and the third one is Doctor Strange pork.

True, yes.

You know, like.

Yeah.

And I, I haven't, I don't think we've really ever heard or seen much about if they actually had a, a full screenplay written for a Pigs in Space movie.

But yeah, I don't know what that would be like.

There was another script called Muppets in Space, which was written written by Kirk Thatcher, with later rewrites by Rick Kopp and David A Goodman.

You want to hear a little bit about that one?

I.

Would love to.

So that one takes place in the future where the US has space colonies and we're interacting with other planets and civilizations.

There's a reference at some point which suggests that these might be the descendants of the original Muppets.

Like the Fozzie character says something about how his grandfather used to work on a variety show or something like that.

But in the story, The Muppets work in a spaceship factory, maintaining spaceships under the supervision of a boss who is described as a Jim Carrey type.

And they are also reporting the the agency is reporting to the Secretary of Defense, who's described as a Robert Loggia type.

So I think they might have got Loja, although maybe they would have got Pat Hingle, right?

Who's in this?

Yeah, but the Jim Carrey type.

I mean, who do, who do we think that would have actually ended up being in 1999 'cause I'm thinking like Chris Catan maybe?

In 99, yeah, probably.

You know.

Right.

Yeah, It'd be fun to see Robert Loja in a Muppet Movie, though.

It would, yeah.

He'd be great.

Kermit gets tired of the job and decides to join the Space Corps along with Rizzo, Gonzo, Fozzie, and Piggy.

They go through training and Piggy does better than everybody else.

She's assigned to the flagship of the the space fleet and the other Muppets are assigned to a different mission.

They are working at a car wash on an asteroid.

And then there's this exciting scene where Piggy saves the flagship and she gets a promotion to helmsman of the ship and also on the flagship, the science officer.

Actually, guess who the science officer is in this script?

It's not Leonard Nimoy.

No, it's a Muppet, but it's not who you might think.

Oh, it's a muppet.

Yeah, and it's not one you've previously named.

Correct.

Lucy.

No, that would be funny.

Who is it?

It's Sam the Eagle.

Oh, OK, yeah.

With pointy ears.

So it's so it is a spot.

Yeah, it's a spot character.

Sam the eagle being like, is it possible that we too you and I have grown so old and inflexible?

Something like that.

Awesome.

And then Janice and Clifford are also on the crew.

Kermit, Fuzzy, Gonzo, and Rizzo wander into a spaceship and accidentally blast off.

They end up imprisoned on the planet Snardia, where the Snardians eventually come to believe Kermit is their long lost savior, the great Shazoo.

Just like in Five O Goes West, that happened to Tiger.

Not with the spaceship.

No, but in the Old West with the what?

Happens.

I haven't seen that in a very long time.

Oh the like native mice think Tiger is a God.

Oh, OK, one of those, that's what.

Yeah, that's what movies were like back then.

It was just like a thing to do in children's movies.

Yeah, it kind of was.

The Snardians agreed to give them a ride back to Earth, but then it turns out that the Snardians are planning to destroy the Earth when they get there.

So Fozzie has to distract them by telling jokes while Gonzo and Rizzo disable their weapons, and Kermit gets a message to Piggy, who prevents the US Space Corps from firing on the ship and killing them, all while Kermit also persuades the Snardians that the planet Earth is worth saving.

And there's also a robot Bunsen and Beaker in there somewhere.

And additional cameos are suggested in the script for Mel Gibson, David Spade, Patrick Stewart, and Jonathan Frakes.

Yep.

OK, David Spade.

Yeah, David Spade is like, I want to say he's like a snarky crew member, maybe.

I don't remember.

And it would just be essentially just Picard and Riker.

Like, like that's the joke is they run into the the Enterprise.

They're not playing their their Star Trek characters, but I think just, I mean, yeah, just the recognition of, oh, these are Star Trek guys playing these base characters.

Yeah, right.

So, yeah, that's the movie.

They didn't.

Make you know.

You know what?

I think they would have done it, I really do.

They would have agreed to be in it.

I think so.

I mean, Frederick Stewart was on Sesame Street.

Yeah, Frakes.

Frakes likes to goof around.

Yeah, Why wouldn't he have done that?

I just think, yeah, presumably that screenplay would have been a very expensive to actually produce with all these scenes taking place on other planets with spaceships and aliens everywhere.

Yeah.

And I, my, my gut reaction is to think that that would be better, but who knows?

You know it's.

Oh, that the the the more far-flung space movie would be better than this.

Would would would have been better than the movie we got.

But it's also very easy to think anything you don't have, like anything that you can't actually see.

You can imagine what the best version of it would be.

Oh, the thing that didn't happen?

Yeah, yeah.

Right.

So we're about to get to the Minutes finally, But I do have one more thing, which is, yes, Sir, that in 1999, I was a loyal subscriber to Entertainment Weekly and I have a vague memory of their 1999 summer movie preview issue, which had an entry for this movie.

I remember Brian Henson saying something like, we've tried to make this a more modern Muppet movie and this one, Kermit and Piggy are living together, something like that.

And then a couple issues later they published A clarification from Brian Henson where he basically said all The Muppets are living together in the same house.

You know Kermit and Piggy are not cohabitating outside of marriage, don't worry.

So I always wondered if some angry parents had written in after reading his initial quote.

So I looked around.

Because that almost that almost sounds like an early version of the controversial over the 2015 sitcom.

Yeah, yeah, pretty much about them having adult lives.

I looked in a few different places online trying to track this down, but I don't think I, I was not able to find like a scan of the 1999 Entertainment Weekly Summer Movie preview online.

But yeah, if anybody out there knows what I'm talking about or has it or can find it, I would love to read both of those issues.

Yeah, seems like something that you could at times find archived on the Internet at times, you know, at times it's something that might pop up there, you know, eventually.

Maybe, Yeah.

Well, yeah.

And I did start by looking at ew.com, but yeah, they don't have stuff like that going back that far.

Unfortunately need that.

I would love to read that whole thing.

Yeah, see, I shouldn't have recycled all my old entertainment weeklies.

I should have kept every single issue.

You'd have them all in your apartment or in your house right now, stacked up every issue of limit payment weekly.

52 issues over however many years.

I should have just kept them all.

Oh, Yep.

OK.

So anything else before we get into these two minutes?

No, I think everything else I have we can is in the in the minutes.

OK, so we are talking about minutes one and two of Muppets from Space.

At the beginning of these minutes, we see a studio logo, but it's not Walt Disney Pictures like the last two times.

This is Columbia Pictures, a Sony Pictures Entertainment company.

And of course, this is the Columbia Torch Lady logo, which has been their logo for forever.

And this particular version of the logo debuted in 1992.

Some movie nerds will recall the rumor that circulated for a long time that Annette Bening was the model of the face of this version of the Torch Lady.

Did you ever hear that?

I had never heard that, no.

But it's not true.

At least by the time of a Roger Ebert movie Answer Man column in 2012, the model for the painting had been identified as Jenny Joseph, who modeled for the artist Michael Diaz, who painted it.

So that would have been a cool story if it had been an appending.

But it's not.

The next thing we see is the Jim Henson Pictures logo with Kermit sitting behind a camera on a crane.

Anthony just perked up at that.

I'm so excited.

I, I remember this, seeing this movie for the first time.

Yeah, the Jim Henson Pictures logo, which was new to me.

Yes.

And only I think appears in five movies ever.

Is that right?

7 movies ever.

Well, according to Muppet Wiki, only three theatrically released that it that that originally had it.

Yeah.

I think it was later tacked on to a few of them for home video releases.

OK, so it's so it's this Elmo and Grouchland and good boy now.

Earlier well.

Buddy.

Buddy.

Of course the.

Russo gorilla and Russo be friends a gorilla.

Yeah, Danny's favorite.

So it's Buddy this and Elmo and Grouchland.

Yeah, those are the three.

So it wasn't on Good boy even.

Wow.

I don't think well, OK, let me see.

My Muppet wiki also mentioned Jim Henson Pictures receives a credit on Rat Good boy, Five children in it and a mirror mask.

A mirror mask.

So I assume that means it doesn't have the Kermit logo, but it just says Jim Henson Pictures presents.

Right.

For sure.

But I remember this feeling like, you know, the Jim Henson pictures was going to be some big deal now because it had this big logo, you know, with Kermit.

And there's the, as you mentioned, like Kermit's on the crane.

And yeah, and then it falls and we hear animal yells.

It's like a little joke.

Yeah, our friends are making movies.

Yeah.

And then it was nothing and it was nothing.

And the name reverted back to the Jim Henson Company, which like, certainly is a less lofty, like Jim Henson Pictures.

Like it's the dream factory.

Well, yeah.

I mean it right, It was it was an an extension or a division of the Jim Henson Company, right, much like Jim Henson Records, which listeners can check out our previous episode with Jim Henson records head Robert Kraft, which is an excellent episode of this podcast, but.

Yeah, one of my favorites.

Yeah.

And similar to that, this didn't really work out so.

Yeah, it's just, I mean it's a sadly a theme of the post gym era.

Yeah, that's true.

But yeah, I actually, I don't know if I've told this on the podcast.

My church youth group went to see Buddy in the theater and when, when the logo, yeah, when the logo appeared, everybody turned to look at me like, Ryan, it's Kermit.

It's your guy.

You.

Know And what did you do?

Did did you hoot and holler?

I mean, I was just kind of like, yeah, like, I don't know, you know, waving at them or something.

And then?

You.

You flailed your arms, Yeah.

Oh, I should have.

I wish I had had the the presence of mind to do that.

Maybe I pointed at the screen like Leonardo DiCaprio and the meme.

But then the movie I think was pretty bad, so that was.

Not yeah, I've, I've, I've actually never seen it.

I know I've I read Danny's review of Buddy so many.

So then it was more like Ryan, why did your Jim Henson pictures make a bad movie?

Yeah, so.

But no, I I haven't seen it since then, so I should check that one out again too maybe?

Yeah.

Let's watch Buddy.

We should watch Buddy 2 minutes at a time.

Yeah, let's do that.

So next we are flying through space.

I guess we're flying through stars.

It looks like something is passing by us very quickly, unless it's maybe we're in an asteroid belt or a starfield.

Well, you know what it looks a lot like from later this same year?

The opening of Toy Story 2.

Oh, what's the first thing we see on that?

It's the star field.

And then it's like flying because it's Buzz's video game.

You know, we, Oh yeah, we opened with Buzz on a planet in his video game.

So it like starts with flying through the stars and then Toy Story 2 or through the sky and it looks like asteroids and then Toy Story 2 appears.

Yeah.

Because the first one starts in the Old West, you know.

Yeah, Toy Story 2 stole this from Muppets from Space.

Yeah, it came out whatever.

What, four months later.

Yeah.

And we all know that you can.

We all know that you can finish a ACGI movie in four months in 1999 and it's and that.

Exactly.

Of course, there in the there's a DVD commentary on the DVD of this movie, which is it starts out with Kermit and Tim Hill, and as soon as the stuff shows up on the screen, Kermit says that it looks it reminds him of popcorn and then and then he.

Goes to get popcorn.

Yeah, he runs out of the room to go get popcorn, and he doesn't come back until the very end of the movie, because Rizzo then proceeds to join Tim Hill and Gonzo for the rest of the commentary.

And Kermit and Rizzo were both performed by Steve Whitmire.

And we should note that it is a visual commentary.

Oh yeah, we see The Muppets on screen.

Or like they're silhouettes.

Because if it wasn't, Kermit and Rizzo could be in the room and Steve could just switch.

But it's not it's, it's visual, so he can't.

If it was audio only, he could switch.

Right.

And you know, this is still the earliest days of DVD when everybody was trying to come up with as many novel gimmicks as they could.

So yeah, seeing the silhouettes of Tim Mill and Gonzo and Rizzo was was very exciting at the time.

Love to see that silhouette of Tim Hill.

Yeah, I love it.

So exciting.

Next we are flying through space.

As the words, and I say this already, Jim Henson.

Pictures present, appear and then explode, and then a massive 3D title fills the screen.

Muppets from space.

It's very strange that there's an explosion behind it.

Yes.

Because that has nothing to do with space really like.

No, not a lot of explosions like that in space.

I guess I don't know.

I'm not.

I'm no, I'm no expert.

I'm no Carl Sagan.

Now we're flying even faster.

Maybe if you're a wormhole and we approach the planet.

Earth it looks.

It looks kind of like the time vortex in the opening credits of Doctor Who during some generations of Doctor Who.

That might be intentional, and we see that on the surface of Earth there is a huge storm brewing and we fly right into the eye of the storm.

All of this actually looks pretty cool.

This was also a time when movies couldn't get enough of, you know, look what we can do with computer animation, right?

But this is, I mean, this makes it seem like you're about to see something exciting.

Yeah, the storm looks great.

I think it really it's like, why is that happening?

Why is there a storm, right?

Because we all know what Earth looks like.

We all know what Earth looks like, yes?

It doesn't usually have a gigantic storm on it, right?

And there's Thunder and lightning and dark clouds and a desolate landscape.

It's not the Dark Crystal, though.

Yeah, because as we see two birds fly down from the top of the frame, we realize that we're looking at Noah's Ark.

Yes, it is neither a a what is it a different time and age of wonder it's.

Yeah, another time, another place, the age of wonder, something.

Like that?

Yeah, it's not, it's not any of that.

Right, none of that.

So then.

We see Noah's.

Ark Noah's Ark.

You have any thoughts on Noah's Ark from the Bible?

Yeah, that's.

From.

From yes, the story where Noah builds the ark and he puts two of every animal in the ark.

Yes, a popular favorite of children among Bible stories because it's all about animals.

Yeah, so we mentioned, I mentioned Toy Story 2.

This reminds me of another Disney picture that came out shortly after.

Fantasia 2000 came out in December of 1999 and has a pomp and circumstance number where Donald Duck has together all the animals for Noah's Ark.

Oh yeah, that's a good one.

Yeah, it's great.

It's really fun.

So that's another like family movie from right after this that that's like the same old team.

I don't know what was in the I guess.

I guess everyone was feeling apocalyptic because of like Y2 Ki.

Think because of the year 2000, yeah.

You know.

Yeah, I think that has something to do with it.

But then we see the first Muppet to appear on screen in the movie proper after Kermit.

And the logo, of course.

Is it?

Is it an ink spot?

The last two times it was an ink spot.

It is not an ink spot, it's gonzo.

Gonzo.

Yeah, you know that guy.

From the car wash.

From the car wash on The Muppet Show.

Yeah, yes, he did.

Sing Car wash Oh what is it?

Car wash Blues working.

At the car wash, Working at the car wash Blues.

Yeah, yeah.

You know.

Yes, it's that's the chap.

He's running, running toward the ark and yelling for it to wait for him.

And then we cut closer and we see Noah himself hurting Muppet animals inside.

We will talk more about the actor playing Noah next week.

I believe was our plan I.

Think so, I think, I think we've covered enough this.

Time.

Yes, I think a lot of these animals must have been from the animal show.

Yeah, and.

In fact, one of them, at least I did not write down his name, but one of them is named on Muppet Wiki as being an animal who originated on the Animal show.

And but, but I noticed they're not.

They don't seem to be in pairs.

They don't seem to be matched pairs of species.

He's just.

Kind of heard one after.

The other.

They weren't going to build double s for this dream sequence.

Yeah, I guess not.

You know.

So Gonzo runs out the gangplank and says I barely made it.

For a minute there I thought you were going to leave without and that is where the clip ends.

But that's also right before the clip ends.

That's where Noah holds up his staff and blocks Gonzo from entering the ark.

So what's going on here?

We'll have to wait until next week to find out.

We're going to we'll be back with another episode next week because it's happening.

It is happening the whole.

Season this time.

And in the meantime, listeners can check various translations of the Bible to see if they can find one that has gonzo in it.

So, any other thoughts on these two minutes?

No, we certainly covered all my notes.

Very good.

And we do not have a guest, so I don't need to thank anybody for joining us.

Good.

But thank you, Anthony.

Thank you for joining me.

Thank you for joining me, Ryan.

I wasn't sure you were going to show up this season so.

You might have just been talking to an empty zoom window would.

Have just been me ranking Tim Mills filmography by myself.

That's it.

That's what people want to hear.

So we want to, as always, thank Morgan Davey for our show's logo.

And this season, we have a new theme song appropriate to the sci-fi theme of the movie by Jordan Brandon.

Thank you, Jordan.

And listeners, you can find tough pigs on the Internet at toughpigs.com.

We're all over social media as well as T public.

You can chat with other Muppet nerds on the Toughpigs discord server.

Anthony is on blue sky at Durwood Clapper.

I'm on blue sky at me Ryan Row.

Anthony is on Letterbox at Zeppo Marxist.

I'm on letterbox.

Dot movies are neat, so seek out all of that and make sure you tell all your friends to listen to this podcast.

You know that one friend you have who loves this movie.

This is the perfect time to jump on board this podcast.

So let them know and join us again next week for another episode of Moving Right Along.

Goodbye Earth people.

Ryan, we didn't talk about the jam.

Jars.

Oh no.