| Dan Howard |
The Muppet Movie plays in stunning 4K at the Trylon Cinema from Sunday, August 2nd, through Tuesday, August 4th. For tickets, showtimes, and other series information, visit trylon.org.
Dom DeLuise, James Coburn, Madeline Khan, Telly Savalas, Carol Kane, Paul Williams, Milton Berle, Elliot Gould, Edgar Bergen (and Charlie), Bob Hope, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, Cloris Lechman, and Orson Welles!
Talk about an all-star lineup of cameos, right? Jim Henson, director James Frawley, and writers Jerry Juhl and Jack Burns certainly pulled no punches with the Muppets’ silver screen debut. These days, I don’t think any of us could imagine a world without the Muppets, The Muppet Movie, or even “The Rainbow Connection.” However, the deeper connections that all these guest stars throughout The Muppet Movie have to the Muppets themselves is something I absolutely can imagine.
As the Muppets gather in a Hollywood screening room for the first viewing of their motion picture debut, we see the origins of the ever-iconic Kermit the Frog (Jim Henson), Fozzy Bear (Frank Oz), The Great Gonzo (Dave Goelz), Ms. Piggy (Frank Oz), and all your favorite Muppets as they journey across America towards Hollywood, chasing their dreams of the spotlight, all while evading the crazy Doc Hopper (Charles Durning) and his assistant Max (Austin Pendleton) who is oddly obsessed with attaining Kermit as his mascot for his French-Fried Frog Legs restaurant franchise.
Now, I’d like to note: This article is purely speculative as we discuss folks like Elliot Gould, Richard Pryor, and Orson Welles, leaving these thoughts about their deeper connections to these characters of plush and fabric entirely to our imagination
To quote one of the greatest poets and songwriters of our time, Tom Waits, from his 2004 Harp Magazine ( http://tomwaitslibrary.info/biography/quotes/computers/ ) interview:
“We have a deficit of wonder. I think it’s because of computers. When I ask people questions now, they get on their computer—‘Gimme a few minutes and I’ll let ya know …’ And I’m like, ‘Noooooo!’ I want ’em to wonder about it, man! I don’t wanna know the answer—I just want ’em to wonder about it.”
I like to think Jim Henson himself would greatly approve, even encourage, this speculation and anything embodying the spirit of wonder.
Now, the majority, if not all, of the special guests in The Muppet Movie had met Jim Henson on the talk show TV circuit, variety shows, and on Saturday Night Live in the 70s and many of them (DeLuise, Martin, Pryor, Khan, Williams, Berle, Bergen, and Lechman) had their stints as guest hosting The Muppet Show in seasons 2 and 5. The truth is, all actors are grown children at heart who love playing pretend and one of Jim Henson’s greatest gifts was reminding us of our inner child. Yet, it’s the ones whose first Muppet experience was being in The Muppet Movie that intrigues me the most.
The first being the great Carol Kane, who famously plays the woman with a lisp who appears whenever Kermit repeats the word “Myth! Myth!” Responding with “Yeth?” Growing up, her mother, Joy, was a jazz singer, teacher, dancer and pianist and her father was an architect. The talents from her mother and the art of building your work from her father were no doubt a recipe for success! After she appeared with Jack Nicholson in such revered films as Carnal Knowledge and Dog Day Afternoon, Carol would gravitate towards comedy following her Muppet Movie casting. Perhaps Carol had that reawakening of her own inner child after sharing her debut scene with a talking lime-green frog? Perhaps even awakening her inner frog? Judging by her performances in The Princess Bride and Addams Family Values, “Myth” Kane naturally inhabits that goofball Henson-Muppet energy.
Speaking of goofball energy, let’s talk about the now-hundred-year-old comedy legend: Mel Brooks. With films like The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein, the guy was already a bit of a Muppet in his own right. His cameo as Professor Krassman, it seemed to provide a slightly different outlet for his style of comedy. Brooks admitted that a lot of his comedy may have been rooted in anger and hostility due to his father dying of tuberculosis as age 34. Brooks, at the time, was only 2 years old.
“There’s an outrage there. I may be angry at God, or at the world, for that. And I’m sure a lot of my comedy is based on anger and hostility. Growing up in Williamsburg, I learned to clothe it in comedy to spare myself problems—like a punch in the face.” – Mel Brooks, Live at the Geffen
Brooks was also drafted into the US Army at age 18, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. Speaking about his experience, Brooks would recall, “Along the roadside, you’d see bodies wrapped up in mattress covers and stacked in a ditch, and those would be Americans, that could be me. I sang all the time… I never wanted to think about it… .” So, when he was offered a part in The Muppet Movie, it feels like it offered Brooks a chance to channel his comedic talents through joy instead of rage. Maybe realizing that he would be a part of a movie that kids would fall in love with, like he did with Anything Goes at age 9, he knew he could be showing the next generation the path to their own dreams, reminding himself why he wanted to be on stage and the silver screen.
Regarding big-screen stars, Elliott Gould’s cameo intrigues me the most. In the ‘70s, Gould was an immaculate star in pop culture. With roles in films like M*A*S*H and The Long Goodbye, and having been married to Barbara Streisand, he was top of the world. However, Gould must have needed a break from the dramas and serious films. Even though he had been in a musical comedy beforehand, Williams Friedkin’s The Night They Raided Minsky’s, he likely needed to let loose a bit. I do wonder if Jim Henson knew about Gould’s parents’ professions prior to casting him. Gould’s mother sold artificial flowers to beauty shops, and his father was a textiles buyer in the garment business. His family clearly knew about beautiful things, and having Gould play a beauty pageant judge, crowning Miss Piggy the winner, feels like a fantastic, personal full circle moment. Perhaps, in his own unique way, it took him back to his own childhood. All that and finding his way back to musical comedy? The Muppets and Elliott Gould sure were a match made in heaven! Gould even returned to the Muppet world 5 years later, appearing as a cop in The Muppets Take Manhattan.
Finally, we come to the cameo of all Muppet cameos. Henson and company had set out to make The Muppet Movie to be the truest celebration of Hollywood and who better to embody the Hollywood dream than Charles Foster Kane himself, Orson Welles? Welles appears in the film as Lew Lord, the man that the Muppets hope will sign them to his “rich and famous” contract and fulfilling their dreams. With adapting such revered writings from Shakespeare and other very prestigious works for film and theater, what made him say yes to The Muppet Movie? As it turns out, by the time Welles had met both Jim Henson and Frank Oz in 1978 on his unsold, unaired (rather strange) talk show pilot, The Orson Welles Show, he was already a huge fan of their work. Welles cited the Muppets as “the most original thing that ever happened on the box” and highly respected the craft behind “muppetry.” Given how critical he was of great filmmakers like Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock, and even Charlie Chaplin, it’s surprising that it seems Welles could not deny the true innovation that was being brought to life by Henson, Oz, and the rest of the Muppets’ creative forces. Maybe, like the other actors who make cameo appearances in the film, they also reminded him why he wanted to get to Hollywood in the first place. That he and Henson and Oz shared the values that define Welles’s work: storytelling, illusion, discovery, and pushing beyond what was thought possible.
In the years since The Muppet Movie’s release, who hasn’t dreamt of making that jump to the screen to share in that whimsical world with Kermit, Fozzy, Miss Piggy, and the rest of the Muppet gang? Jim Henson may have been taken from us too soon, having died in 1990 at only 53 years old, but his creations, his dreams, are kept strong and alive by die-hard Muppet lovers old and new and The Muppet Movie serves as the ultimate testimony to how beloved Jim was by the likes of Pryor, Martin, Gould and Welles back in the ‘70s. And how adored Jim, and the Muppets still are today. As Jim once said:
“Life’s like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending.”
Edited by Olga Tchepikova-Treon