Tag Archives: The Muppets

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The Bootleg Files: A Muppet Family Christmas

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BOOTLEG FILES 890: “A Muppet Family Christmas” (1987 television special with Kermit the Frog and a lot of friends).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: On VHS and DVD, but in edited versions.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Rights clearance issues.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not unless someone pays a lot of money to straighten things out.

This week’s column is different from its predecessors because the subject in the spotlight, the 1987 television special “A Muppet Family Christmas,” has been commercially released on VHS video and DVD. The problem is that the North American home entertainment format releases were forced to edit out a significant amount of musical numbers due to the problems in clearing the music rights for the songs. Even worse, the production has never been on Blu-ray, has never been on any streaming service and has been absent from broadcast television for decades – with little to no hope of being seen again in its entirety.
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Five More of My Favorite Fictional Movie Rock Bands

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It’s that time of year again and since I haven’t continued in my quest to list all of my favorite fictional movie rock bands, I thought a sequel would be only appropriate. These are five more of my favorite fictional movie rock bands from past and present. While I took some liberties stretching the definition of rock and roll, I think this list holds up.  Continue reading →

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The Bootleg Files: John Denver and the Muppets – A Christmas Together

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BOOTLEG FILES 822: “John Denver and The Muppets – A Christmas Together” (1979 television special).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It was never made available on any home entertainment format.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Maybe next Christmas?

When I was kid in yesteryear, every Christmas season would bring a surplus number of television specials tied to the holiday. Some specials became annual events, such as “A Charlie Brown Christmas” or “Frosty the Snowman,” but most seemed to be one-and-done affairs that might have been lost to obscurity had it not been for the prescience of pop culture vultures to videotape those shows and save them for future viewing.
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Five Great Animated Series Based On A Feature Film

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After learning recently that “Fast and the Furious” actually had an animated series on Netflix for kids, I was stunned, but not entirely shocked. There’s still some cash to be mined from the series, and there’s room to appeal to kids. In either case, with that and with “Gremlins” also being turned in to animated series, I couldn’t help but think back to five great animated series I watched as a kid that were based on feature films. What are some of your favorites? 

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Muppet Babies: Time to Play! (DVD)

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Thirty years after the Muppet Babies made their cinematic debut, it’s been hard to imagine the Muppet franchise without them. They’ve become as big a fixture as their adult counterparts, and other properties have tried mimicking them to a lesser degree. “Baby Looney Tunes,” anyone? Remember “Tom and Jerry Kids” and “Flintstones Kids”? In either case, now with the eighties series in limbo, Disney Junior has revived the property for a new audience offering an educational adventure series with the Muppet Babies, and it’s a nice revamp.

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Our Top Five Jim Henson Characters

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When I was a kid, Jim Henson was my absolute hero. He invented so many of my childhood characters, he pioneered some of my favorite television shows of all time, did so many great voices for various incredible characters, and voiced my favorite character all time, Kermit the Frog. So when he passed away it was a somber and heartbreaking occasion for me. I remember sitting through the memorial song played on television where the muppets are contemplating Henson’s death and I couldn’t even sit through it. Mid-way I literally got up and left putting the television on mute, barely able to come to terms with Henson’s passing. It felt like my grandfather, who spent so many years telling me great stories and inventing this magical world was gone. It was yet another artist going away forever.

The muppets and Sesame Street were never the same again. Sure they can pretend they rebounded, but when Jim died, everything else did, and universe for these characters was just completely pointless and oozing consumerism. Characters were no longer there to tell stories, they were just there to sell merchandise. One of the many reasons why i utterly despised and continue to despise Elmo. Seriously, I loathe that character more than Mickey an the entire cast of “Family Guy” combined. Since his death and my introduction to his work, Henson has been one of the major influences on my life inspiring my love for impressions and voices, and for creating my own characters, and I had to pay homage to the man, the legend, Jim Henson.
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The Muppets (2011)

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MuppetsWhen last we saw the Muppets, it was 1999, we were following the muppets in to space and we were finally learning the secret behind Gonzo. And, let’s face it, audiences weren’t exactly clamoring to learn about Gonzo and his origin. Especially in the midst of game changing movies like “The Matrix” steamrolling theaters. This 2011 reboot basically acknowledges how antiquated the muppets have become in a society bred on computer animation and 3D and how dusty their parts have been in the face of a new generation. In spite of the nostalgia, the muppets aren’t exactly the most popular property out there and the makers behind this fully acknowledge that and create in the process a revival that’s both a tribute to the muppets and a hopeful restart of the franchise once and for all. I can’t be the only one hoping for new Kermit and Fozzy films.

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