DM's Beatles forums
Beatles forums => Films, TV Shows, Interviews => Topic started by: OldTop on October 06, 2005, 07:02:09 PM
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:)
Hi everybody! I am a Quebecer fan back from 1970. Became crazed with the Beatles practically overnight, at 12 of age, some 3 or 4 months after they had split up! And in a way, I still am, today at 47! The thing happened on one of those lazy summer afternoons when you run out of fun things to do and you almost long for school to resume... I asked that good pal of mine if he had ever heard those pop radio melodies I was pretty sure were from the Beatles, I proceeded to hum these to him... Sure, he said, just come over to my place, my older brother HAS ALL THOSE RECORDS!!! Sure enough, he spent he rest of the day spinning those wonderful, cool looking Apple 45s he had - much all the Beatles Apple singles in fact - and full blast... The world was just never the same for me after that trip!
Anyway, here is my query. Did I DREAM seeing the Muppets on the Ed Sullivan Show back in '69 or '70, lip-synching Come Together, all dressed up and bearded like the Beatles?
From the moment I got Internet in '97, I have been looking for a link on this and just never found one! So either I don't know where to really look, or I have simply imagined all this...
If no one else here saw this skit, could anyone help me get to a good link, where I could try and settle this once and for all... or go back to sleep!?
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Welcome and let's hope you'll enjoy the forums.
Just a question: were The Muppets already born in 1969?
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Welcome. I KNOW you will enjoy the forums.
Lets see if we can help you with The Muppets thing.
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Hi Bobber,
The Muppets had been appearing regularly on Ed's show since the Fifties I guess. The only character from those original old ones I can recall that made it in the actual Muppet Show of the 70s was Kermit the Frog , but then maybe I am wrong (+ Piggie?).
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Some researching:
1966 Regular appearances begin on "The Ed Sullivan Show," which will last through 1971; Additional appearances on "The Mike Douglas Show" and "The Hollywood Palace."
(http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/5275/smedsullivanmuppetmagicgth8156.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
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There is a recording of Come Together from April 12th, 1970. It was not included on the dvd, due to copyrights. Found that here:
http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/reviews/merchandise/muppets_magic_dvd.shtml
I couldn't find a link or shot from the clip however.
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I thought it was Sesame Street first and then later on they made the Muppets using characters from Sesame Street.
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Oh and by the way, WELCOME OLD TOP!!! ;D
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Thanks for the welcome and...
Bobber... YOU ROCK MY PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and thousand thanks for the wonderful link: gotta have that DVD!!)
I was seriously beginning to doubt my sanity and/or memory about this... Thanks to Yoko Ono I imagine, this appearance of the Muppets as The Beatles had apparently been shunned all the while (and still is) by classic TV media.
But I can tell you this: even though I wasn't exactly into the Beatles yet in April '70 (come to think of it, perhaps this was Jim Henson's bow to the Beatles quitting the business as our beloved group, as CT was not at all a very recent hit then. so it wasn't any promo of some sort), I had heard CT on the radio before that, I knew what the Beatles started to look like in recent years, and I could tell that the Muppets' "impression" was a gas!!! I remember quite vividly that each time John sang his claking "Shoot me" on the chorus, his flat top hat (like the one he was wearing on the cover of The Ballad of J&Y) went up in the air springing a little bit, then landed back in its place... This was hysterical!!
And come to think of it even yet... Who knows if this specific appearance of the Fab Four as The Muppets isn't what actually turned me on in the first place! Because I was actually a bit obsessed with that song since its release (heard a lot on the radio, didn't buy records yet then), so this skit was for me sort of the first and only "clip" of the Beatles performing CT!
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You're welcome, in many ways!
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Right, probably more than a coincidence there! Jim Henson, being this long-time regular guest of Ed Sullivan, must have been aware that Ed had always been a great champion of The Beatles, which you surely know, from their very beginnings in the USA right up to airing a "clip" from Let it Be (can't remember the song though, probably the title track) around the time the movie was released - or was it around the time it actually got recorded (perhaps even!)...
And the choice of CT by JH was a hip and daring one... double-entendre, risqu
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These Muppets and the Beatles surely have something in common.
(http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/369/parbeattlesmall4sb.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
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gotta have that DVD!!
Well, did you get it?
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Welcome Old Top...Some good reading there. I love The Muppets too. ;D
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Ringo Starr's "Octopus's Garden"
Original Airdate: March 1, 1970
Since nobody really understands what this song is about, it's only fitting that the Muppets would pick this bizarre Ringo Starr tune. This scene features a nice water background and a singing clam sitting on a log. Like "Java" the performers are hidden from view as the characters swim in the water. Jim sings the lead as a sea-diving Muppet while Frank Oz performs an Octopus. It wasn't until "Sesame Street
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This is the Muppets doing All Together Now:
http://s53.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=03AEDYYHZNVYD2O9IA8MJC9M1S
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Ringo Starr's "Octopus's Garden"
Original Airdate: March 1, 1970
Since nobody really understands what this song is about, it's only fitting that the Muppets would pick this bizarre Ringo Starr tune. This scene features a nice water background and a singing clam sitting on a log. Like "Java" the performers are hidden from view as the characters swim in the water. Jim sings the lead as a sea-diving Muppet while Frank Oz performs an Octopus. It wasn't until "Sesame Street
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SUPER, Bobber!!
I had no recollection at all of that bit, although I had been a fan of the show. (BTW, no, I still don't have the DVD. When I say "I gotta get it"... You have to stretch that intention to some extent! I WILL try to get it for sure!) I tried to make out who the guest star was in the dialogue bit in the end, but I couldn't tell...
The performance is top notch anyway! The "Can I take my friend to bed?" line transformed into "Do I have to go to bed?" is a bit "sullivanian" but really cute!!
To An Apple Beatle:
Thanks for the kind words!
What a terrific signature Paul-lookalike transformation!
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^Youre welcome. I'll try to spot Octopus. Not succesfull till now, however.
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i remember seeing alice cooper on the muppet show...
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Yeah, this one was great, too!
So many legends appeared on that show!
My own favorite one is the one with Buddy Rich, where he "drums his way", blinded by a power failure in the Muppets Theater, from his dressing room to the stage, where awaits him a drum battle with the house band's Animal!!