On the August 6, 2020 podcast of Theme Park Thursday, Frank and Justin Monorail of the Monday Morning Monorail Podcast (filling in for Jen who had a loss of power due to Tropical Storm Isaias) were joined by President of The Jim Henson Legacy, Craig Shemin. ‘Muppets Now’, MuppetVision and Muppets aplenty were discussed. Here within, a few links to accompany references made during this awesome conversation!
Craig’s work with The Jim Henson Legacy includes his association with The Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, NY. They have an incredible Jim Henson Exhibition there and Craig has been hosting livestream Q&A’a the last several months with his wife, Stephanie D’Abruzzo. Above is their chat with Jim Lewis, who Craig mentions a few times on the podcast!
The Disney Channel series ‘Walt Disney World Inside Out’ was recalled and this opened a Pandora’s Box of YouTubing for us. Check out this Kermit appearance in a 1994 episode:
It’s no secret that Frank and Jen love ‘The View’ and have even been in attendance for a live taping. Craig talked about Miss Piggy’s opening, taking Barbara Walters’ spot.
Not mentioned on the podcast, was the experience Frank had seeing The Muppets, the villagers of Fraggle Rock, and the cast of Sesame Street onstage at Carnegie Hall in 2012. This show was written by Craig and you can see the program notes at this link. It was easily one of the greatest afternoons he had ever spent inside an auditorium.
This podcast episode was a special one and we can’t wait to have Craig back on to talk about his book about ‘Sam and Friends’, Jim Henson’s first television series… but maybe before then because we have so much we still want to talk about!!! In the meantime, seek out a copy of The Muppets Character Encyclopedia – it sits beside Frank at his desk for a reason!
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