Here’s some stuff that’s been going on in the greater Muppet universe lately:
Sesame Street gets more Emmys!
You probably didn’t see the Daytime Emmy Awards on August 30th, because a) They were broadcast on The CW, and b) They’re the Daytime Emmys. But if you did, you saw Sesame Street get a lifetime achievement award, which is one of the most deserved lifetime achievement awards in the lifetime of lifetime achievement awards. To celebrate, the cast did a medley of Sesame songs with some new Emmy-related lyrics, and then executive producer Carol-Lynn Parente gave a little speech. Take a look:
Of course, Sesame Street doesn’t need the Academy to hand it free Emmys. The show is perfectly capable of winning them all by itself. Kevin Clash won for Outstanding Performance in a Children’s Series, and the show won for Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design/Styling, Outstanding Directing in a Children’s Series, and New Approaches – Daytime Children’s, which probably means something but I don’t know what.
New Shalom Sesame
Have you ever seen Shalom Sesame, the bilingual, bi-cultural co-production of Sesame Street and Israel’s Rechov Sumsum from the late 80s? Well, it was pretty great. Now Sesame Workshop has announced a whole new batch of Shalom Sesame episodes, set to premiere around Hannukah 2010, with guest stars like Debra Messing and Cedric the Entertainer, and appearances by Grover doing his Global Grover schtick. And presumably it’ll feature Moishe Oofnik the grouch, who is of course one of the greatest international Sesame characters out there.
Sesame Street vs. the economy
On September 9th, PBS stations will air a new Sesame Street special called Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure in Tough Times. The show is designed to help families deal with the current financial woes that all Americans are facing, including monsters like Elmo’s parents. Al Roker and Deborah Roberts guest star. And thus, Sesame Street proves that a lifetime achievement award doesn’t mean it can rest on its laurels.
S.U.D.S. exists
Some time around 80 years ago, the Jim Henson Company announced a new webshow called S.U.D.S. (short for Simian Undercover Detective Squad), a series about secret agent apes. Last week, S.U.D.S. finally surfaced, with a preview episode on YouTube and a promise of more to come soon on Film.com. I really, really wish I could say I’m looking forward to it, but I didn’t even crack a smile while watching this thing.
It’s a puppet show about talking monkeys! When that magical combination fails to make me laugh, there must be something wrong.
Henson brings monsters to the UK
And speaking of The Jim Henson Company, they also recently announced a new series for the UK’s CBBC kids’ channel, called Me and My Monsters. It’s about an American family who moves into a house in London and discovers three friendly monsters living in the basement. Henson geeks like me will recall that the last time the company produced a show about three monsters in a basement, it was called Little Muppet Monsters, and it didn’t go so well. But presumably these monsters won’t be making Pigs in Space cartoons.
Fraggle Rock final season arrives, fans smack their foreheads
Hey, have we not mentioned this here on the website yet? Henson and Lions Gate have made a deal for DVD distribution, which includes the upcoming release of the final season of Fraggle Rock. This comes months after most fans gave up hope of ever seeing the final season get its own release, after it was postponed with the release of the complete series set. If you already own the first three DVD sets and you managed to hold out until now — or if you just couldn’t afford the complete series set — congratulations! You shall be rewarded with the remaining piece of your Fraggle collection. For the rest of you, who went ahead and got suckered into buying the series set, please join me in some tooth-gnashing and garment-rending, starting… now.
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