The French Muppet Show: Muppets TV

The review of the home release of The Muppets 2011 will be posted soon but in the meantime let's take a look at a Muppet project that most people don't know about, even though it starred most of the original cast. If I'de ask people how many iterations of the Muppets Show have aired most will say one, referring to the original Muppet Show. Most Muppet fans will say two, referring to both the original Muppet Show and the short lived Muppets Tonight that aired in the mid nineties. Ask this question to a French Muppet fan however and he'll probably answer "trios" (three) since France got their own version of the Muppet Show. This wasn't a simple dub of the Muppet Show or Muppets Tonight but an entirely new program, made specifically for the French market starring the original Muppets alongside French guest stars called Muppets TV.

How did this all come about? Let's take a trip back to this year 2005...

French network TF1 and French radio comedian Sebastian Caudet made a deal with the Walt Disney Company to produce a new series for the French market where the Walt Disney Company send the actual puppets to France to get puppeteered by French puppeteers. Caudet himself provided the voice of the French Kermit and was a guest star in the final epsiode.

The show started in 2005 as a 15 minute pilot which featured French humorist Franck Dubosc as the guest star. The pilot contained several sketches including a parody on French TV series Mon Incroyable Fiance starring Miss Piggy. After the pilot a ten episode season was made to air in 2006.

Besides Kermit, a large part of the original cast of the Muppet Show was used in Muppets TV, including Muppets that had been retired for a long time in American Muppet productions like Rowlf, Scooter, the Muppets Newsman and Dr Teeth. Complementing these established stars were new Muppets like Denise and several Whatnots. (nameless Muppet 'extras') In contrast to the American series which were set in a old theater (The Muppet Show) and a television studio (Muppets Tonight) Muppets TV was set on a talk show stage. Like Muppets Tonight, it featured two guest stars per show. Each episode lasted 45 minutes and was broadcast on Sundays. The best bits of each weeks episode where rerun in 5 minute segments from Monday through Friday

Unfortunately, the show failed to hold the interest of the viewing audience and was cancelled in mere months with only 10 episodes produced. While the show was exclusively in France, foreign Muppet fans today can catch a glimpse of the show on Youtube:

The Muppets available on Blu-Ray and DVD!

The wait is finally over. The Muppets 2011 is out on DVD and Bluray now in Europe. Along with the movie, the discs hold several interesting extra's although it doesn't include the Toy Story short "Small Fry" that was shown before the movie in theatres. If you like the movie you're  bound to enjoy the home release but of you're not sure if you should spend your hard earned cash you might want to wait on our review which should appear here in a few days.

Dutch home release for The Muppets announced

Dutch Muppet fans will be able to buy home version of the Muppets' latest movie this month as the Bluray and DVD version will be released May 30th which is two weeks earlier than the earlier announced June 11th date. According to the press release, the Wocka Wocka pack, which also contains the soundtrack won't get an European release.

If you can't really wait untill May 30th you can always import the US version, which is region free and will play in European Blu-Ray players

5 Great Sesame Street Parodies


While Sesame Street has the focus on the younger viewers, the producers of the show always seem to sneak in a few segments with a wink to the older viewers in order to make them enjoy the show with their children. Some of the most memorable 'adult' segments are parodies of popular movies, music of tv shows. While the young ones won't always 'get' the joke it sure makes for some entertaining television. While there are a lot of parodies to choose from, here are five that still stand the test of time.


Cookie Monster as Isaac Hayes, "Shaft"
While a lot of younger readers will remember Isaac Hayes as the love driven Chef from South Park, older readers will remember him for his Soul career. One of his best known hits is the tune to the Shaft series. knowing this, Sesame Street dressed Cookie up as Isaac, complete with gold chains and beard and let him perform his version, called "Cookie". Can you dig it?

The Beetles as The Beatles performing "Letter B"
The Beatles were and still are one tof the most influential rock groups of all time. Sesame Street and The Muppets have done a lot of parodies of the Fab four, ranging from album covers like Sesame Road (Abbey Road) to performing Beatles songs on both shows. Sesame Street had a number of songs however in which not only the songs but also the members of the band were parodies. Insect pop group the Beetles (without the a) performed several parodies but the best one had to B "Letter B", a parody of "Let it Be". Paul McCartney, the Beatle who had written Let it Be later wrote a letter to Christopher Cerf, writer of "Letter B" saying he liked the parody.

"24"
The most interesting aspect of hit show "24" was that it took place in real time which is a big contrast to other series. Every minute of the in-show time lasted a minute in real life. A great concept which also made for a great Sesame spoof also called "24". Lasting 24 seconds, it is the Counts favorite show as he happens to count every second.

Grover performing as "Spider-Monster"
The Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn of the dark has had it's fair share of parodies but even so it was surprising to see Sesame Street take a jab at it. Since the musical is known for accidents happening to the actors who better than Grover to play the part of "Spider-Monster" while Mr Johnson watches the play? It gets even better when the original composer of the musical, Bono gets spoofed by the appearance of Bono monster. I haven't seen Turn of the Dark yet but I would gladly pay to see Spider-Monster the Musical.

Donald Grump in "The Grouch Apprentice"
With the Apprentice being a hit on TV and Donald Trump's haircut being so outspoken it was only a matter of time before it was parodied on Sesame Street. In September 2005 a very special guest appeared on the world's most famous street; Donald Grump, the grouch who has the most trash in the world. Visiting Sesame Street looking for a apprentice to sort his trash. Ultimately, both Oscar and Grundgetta got to be his apprentices. However, they soon learn they have to help Donald and ultimately firing him, ending the parody.

Muppet Movie sequel news

With the upcoming (European) home release of The Muppets in sight news of the sequel is already dripping in. An interview with writer Nick Stoller (who also co-wrote the first movie) revealed the following tidbits:

• The Muppet Sequel is going to be a comedy caper.
• Disney really wants the sequel and they want it as soon as possible.  Stoller says Disney wants to release it summer 2013 but he doesn’t think that’s realistic
• Jason Segel might cameo.
• The sequel will introduce new Muppets.
• Bobin (who also directs) and Stoller started writing the script yesterday. They wrote 13 pages after outlining the entire movie over the past few weeks.

Even though I really want to the sequel as soon as possible I hope Disney let Stoller, Bobbin and The Muppets Studio take there time. We've seen a lot of rushed Muppet productions in the 90's and that mostly affected the quality in a bad way.

Muppets get parodied on Robot Chicken

Stopmotion parody show Robot Chicken recently parodied the Muppets again and recently posted their new parody on Youtube. In this parody someone or something is killing the Muppets off. While funny and entertaining it may not be appropiated for the younger viewers.

This isn't the first time they parodied the Muppets though; a few years earlier they parodied MTV's Behind the Music  focussing on the life of Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem after the Muppet Show.

New Muppet commercials on Youtube

MuppetsStudio, the official Youtube account of the Muppets Studio recently uploaded several Muppet commercials starring Kermit, Beaker, the Swedish Chef, Gonzo and many more. It's great to see the stream of new Muppet materia continue. Enjoy: