Kliph Nesteroff Presents "a portal into a previously unseen world" - The Guardian
"Invaluable" - The Onion AV Club
"Important" - John Hodgman, The Daily Show
The Peanuts specials also mined old newspaper strips for gags, but at least in that case Schulz had built continuity between individual installments. Here, Henson and Co. were stuck with trying to lash a story together out of separate strips built around repetitious gags. Not much else they could have done but insert rinky-tink piano between the punch lines and have the puppets run around.
This is like the Peanuts specials in that the writers tried to knock a story together from material in the original strip, yet Schulz developed continuing storylines in his strips, while Id was strictly a gag-a-day phenomenon built around recurring settings.
Given the limitation of the source material, Henson and Co. could either radically rethink the premise (in which case, why use it?), or settle for a blackout-style structure where punch lines were followed by rinky-tink piano and the puppets running in circles. We can see which route they chose.
The Peanuts specials also mined old newspaper strips for gags, but at least in that case Schulz had built continuity between individual installments. Here, Henson and Co. were stuck with trying to lash a story together out of separate strips built around repetitious gags. Not much else they could have done but insert rinky-tink piano between the punch lines and have the puppets run around.
ReplyDeleteThis is like the Peanuts specials in that the writers tried to knock a story together from material in the original strip, yet Schulz developed continuing storylines in his strips, while Id was strictly a gag-a-day phenomenon built around recurring settings.
ReplyDeleteGiven the limitation of the source material, Henson and Co. could either radically rethink the premise (in which case, why use it?), or settle for a blackout-style structure where punch lines were followed by rinky-tink piano and the puppets running in circles. We can see which route they chose.
Holy Kamoly! I've never heard of this. How do you find these terrific things?
ReplyDeleteI hear Stan Freberg's voice as well as Hensons. Wow. Freberg's a muppet!
Doug