While on my amazing trip to Los Angeles for The Good Dinosaur, we were fortunate enough to be able to visit some TV show sets – one of them being The Muppets and the set of Up Late With Miss Piggy! We also got to do a Question and Answer session with executive producers Randall Einhorn (also a director) and Bill Barretta (also a performer). We learned some pretty interesting things that I am excited to share with you today!
Of course we had to ask Bill about the mechanics of a puppet. One of my favorite things was hearing about how the floor of the set is actually set up away from the actual floor of the studio so that the puppeteer can stand up straight while they are using their character. Also, some characters are operated with more than one person – for example, Fozzie Bear. He is operated by two people. I never would have guessed that most of the characters are actually performed by 6 people – how crazy is that? It amazes me how well they all come together to operate one character – that’s definitely good teamwork!
I love the guest characters The Muppets have had on – including Dave Grohl, Josh Groban, Reese Witherspoon, Kristin Chenoweth, and more. I would have never guessed that they get these celebrities to come on by just calling them. A lot of them want to come and do it – for example, Reese Witherspoon wanted to do it from the get go. I loved the episode with Kristin Chenoweth, and I was surprised to find out that someone else was originally supposed to be in her place but couldn’t be there because of scheduling conflicts. Even Mr. Barretta agrees that he couldn’t imagine anybody else doing that part but her now because she did so great.
It was so fun learning more about The Muppets and getting to visit the set! Make sure to tune into The Muppets every Tuesday at 8pm EST! I was fortunate enough to screen tonight’s episode, and you do not want to miss it!
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
i love the muppets and have adored every single incarnation of muppet shows. this is amazing