Top 15 Favorite Muppet’s (plus a few I Hate!)

 

In the past I have done several Muppet articles, but all have been about the various TV shows and Movies the characters have been in. I have never really go into the characters I liked, and why i like them. Ok a few times one or two would pop up in another list, but it didn’t cover every Muppet and it didn’t go into detail. So today, I wanted to rectify that. I present to you my favorite characters out of all the amazing creations that have come out of Jim Henson Productions.



Not every Jim Henson production involves Muppets. For instance the 90’s show Dinosaurs was Jim Henson but those weren’t Muppets. Though I loved Baby Sinclair. And while Fragile Rock does count, I never watched the show so sadly none of them will appear. And no animated stuff like The Muppet Babies, live action only. So this list includes The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and all Muppet movies.



Why 15? Did you really think I could limit this to 10? It went up to 12 and then 14.





#15.Robin

This is one of the sweetest characters ever. He is just adorable and innocent, how can you not love him? Honestly I almost put Rizzo here, but while Rizzo is funny he doesn’t have the legacy behind him that Robin does. Though he has kind of faded, in fact both Rizzo and Robin appear in Muppet’s Most Wanted to call out there lack of a role in “The Muppets”. Robin is Kermit’s nephew, and I love the relationship between the two. His best role may have been in the John Denver Holiday Special, which I reviewed already, or as Tiny Tim in The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Underrated Trek:The Royale (TNG)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. A few weeks ago I talked about how with the right writing and acting, a really stupid idea can be turned into gold. Alas, that is not always the case. Sometimes a stupid idea that makes no sense is just a stupid idea that makes no sense, no matter what you do. Especially when you rush that has been re-written to many times. That brings us to :

 

Ah, second season Next Generation. It wasn’t as bad as Season 1, but still had a lot of problems. This is my third or fourth time talking about an episode which I really want to love from that season…but yeah let's talk about it

Five Once Popular Actresses Who Faded Away

It’s not easy to make it famous. Sometimes an actor will have to really pay their dues before finally getting a success. Teri Hatcher bounced around all kinds of minor roles before Lois & Clark and of course Desperate Housewives finally made her a name. Lauren Graham had minor roles in virtually every 90’s NBC sitcom, some were supposed to last like NewsRadio but none ever did. Until Gilmore Girls made her a star, and she was great in the Parenthood series which NBC finally ended last year. And Megan Mulally was an unknown face appearing all over the place, until her breakout role as Karen on Will & Grace finally made a star our of her.

But many are not so lucky, and the saddest thing is when they have an opportunity which should lead to amazing things…but doesn’t. Awhile back I talked about how actors get screwed over by typecasting, but sometimes that isn’t even to blame. Not through any faukr of their own, they just never land the right role and kind of fade away.


Here are five examples of actors who have faded away despite the fact they were very popular at one time but just never landed that critical success which would keep their career moving.



Marcy Walker

One of the few soap operas I watched in the late 80’s was Sana Barbara. The hot couple in that show were Cruz and Eden. Eden was played by Marcy Walker. Walker was on fire during that time, she was just super popular as part of the ultra hot couple. But then she made some bad choices. The first was an unsold pilot about lawyers. Then she got cast on a series which did sell, and in fact she left her soap opera to commit to this series. The show was “Palace Guard” and lasted like two episode. It was so boring! Walker went back to soap opera’s but never did get that magic back. She has lately has stopped acting altogether. Oh, and what about Cruz? He was played by A Martinez and honestly he should be on this list too.

Sitcom Episode Face-Off:Everybody Loves Raymond vs King of Queens

Hello my friends, welcome back as I take two episodes of different series with the same plot and see which did it better. So let’s say you have two sitcoms based around the fact the husband is a lazy idiot. These shows also have cranky, bitchy wives who love to complain about the fact their husband is a lazy idiot. Then suppose they decide to do the same story about how the lazy idiot husband is also totally useless in an emergency. Yeah let’s play a game of who’s the worst husband as we discuss :

 



I am comparing “What Good Are You” from Everybody Loves Raymond’s 5th season to “Oxy Moron” from King of Queens Season 4. Both of these came along in 2001 (ELR in Jan, KOQ in Nov…seriously what is it with these shows blatantly stealing idea from each other?) when each series was at their peak, and basically tell the same story. But which did it better?



 
ROUND 1:BASIC PREMISE

On Raymond, Debra coughs on a piece of fruit while Ray watches TV. Even though she wasn’t really choking she is still angry because Ray did nothing to save her. Any other guy would have not let it bother him, but this is Ray of course.

Ten Memorable Celebrity Movie Cameos

I love cameo’s! I could be here all day talking about surprise appearances on TV, but I think instead I’ll focus on movies. It’s a real special treat when a celebrity you weren’t expecting appears in a movie. Sometimes they play themselves, and other times they are so buried under make-up you don’t even realize it’s them at first. Yeah sometimes they made no sense (why was Christian Slater in Star Trek VI?) but it’s always a memorable moment. Here now are ten of my favorite movie cameo’s.





Two rules,  the actor/character has to have at least one line (walk-on’s where the actor basically waves to the camera and then is gone aren’t as much fun) and only appear in a single scene to count. Oh and needless to say that these are in no particular order.





10.Big Bird in The Muppet Movie

Of course, I could do all Muppet movies for this list and still not get all the cameo’s they have had in these movies. This one barely counts as a drop in the bucket. But it was always one of my favorites. Kermit and Fozzie are driving along when they run into a big yellow bird. It makes me smile every time.

Top 10 Star Trek Movie Themes

One thing I haven’t really talked about much is the music we’ve gotten over the years in the Star Trek movies. Let’s be honest, there is some great music to be found in these films. And the TV series, but today I am focusing on the movies. So I thought it would be fun to go over the theme’s to all ten movies, and rank them from what I consider worst to best. And I am not including the re-boot movies simply because the music never did anything for me with either of them. Yes I did listen to them they are OK just not “Star Trek”. Besides this way it can be a “Top 10″.




#10.Star Trek Nemesis

This is considered one of the worst Trek theme’s, and I agree. No offense to Jerry Goldsmith but man is this boring. Maybe for a dark movie like The Terminator or something, but it just isn’t Star Trek and really sucks. It’s to dark and to damn dull.








#9.Star Trek V:The Final Frontier

Awesome, Jerry Goldsmith was back! Did he have to use the exact same theme as The Motion Picture? Seriously, The Next Generation was going strong also so hearing this in the theater wasn’t really exciting. It felt lazy, like they didn’t want to try something new. This movie was awful and it started with this recycled theme music. To be fair the standard theme does segue into some new music which is nice, .but….eh.

Five Things I Hated in “Back to the Future-Part II”

It seemed like the ball had barely dropped in Times Square on New Year’s Eve when all the articles about what BTTF Part 2 got right and got wrong came along. Then a few weeks ago came the 30th anniversary of the original film, leading to more tributes and analyses of this fantastic movie trilogy.



So while I would love to discuss those things, it’s already been done. Including a fantastic pod cast on this very site which I urge everyone to listen to if you haven’t. But since this is the anniversary of the original movie, and the future seen in the sequel was set in our current year of 2015 (October 21st to be specific), I had to do some kind of article. I mean, I only adore these films and have only seen them 244 times. I have watched all three back to back a few times, and love it! So the best thing I could think to do would be for me to do another “Things I Hated About” article. I already did it for the first and third movies, so today I will discuss the second. But to be honest these are nitpicky things more than actual things I “hated” in the movie, so I adjusted the title accordingly




You can read my article on the first movie HERE
And my (kinda old) article on the third movie is HERE