"The Sesame Street Storytime Calendar" (1982)

A new year always brings new calendars and 1982 was no exception, with that year's "Sesame Street" calendar featuring scenes from classic stories for each month, with the Muppets taking on the parts, as illustrated by Michael J. Smollin.

So, December wisely chose "A Christmas Carol":

Oscar the Grouch naturally takes on the Scrooge part, which anticipates 2006's "A Sesame Street Christmas Carol," although in that special he was still himself as a Scrooge surrogate.

Bert is portraying Bob Cratchit and Ernie would be Peter, as he's wearing one of Bob's collars, which is a nice touch.

The calendar's cover points out that these are the "Sesame Street" Muppets, as opposed to "The Muppet Show" Muppets, who, of course, later featured in 1992's "The Muppet Christmas Carol."

So, a nice little vignette here!

As a bonus, let's go back ten years to 1972, for what I think was the first "Sesame Street" calendar (the show had premiered in 1969).

It interestingly features art by the legendary Jack Davis, best-known for his work in "MAD" magazine.

Here's the December page:

It never fails to amaze me how Jack Davis could do spot-on caricatures that still look like Jack Davis characters!

And a shout-out to the late Bob McGrath, who passed away at age 90 last month. Rest in peace.

Disney Emoji Blitz Update - "The Muppet Christmas Carol"

You may remember last year when the Disney Emoji Blitz game featured special emojis of Bob Cratchit Kermit and Miss Piggy Emily Cratchit from "The Muppet Christmas Carol."

Well, they're back this year and they have their own little trailer:

Pretty fun!

But did the movie really come out 30 years ago?

More Blitzin'!

Disney Emoji Blitz also includes emoji from the Muppets franchise, so more holiday cheer this year included new emoji from "The Muppet  Christmas Carol" featuring Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy in their roles of Bob and Emily Cratchit:

Love it!

"I'll Begin Again" - Jim Nabors (1970)

"I'll Begin Again" (1970)

Jim Nabors

Columbia Records

We give one more version of "I'll Begin Again" from Leslie Bricusse's score for the 1970 movie "Scrooge," this time by Jim Nabors!

Columbia Records released the song as a single from the album "For the Good Times - The Jim Nabors Hour" in 1970.

Give it a listen:

The subtitle of the album is a tie-in to Jim's 1969-1971 TV variety series, which succeeded his popular sitcom "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." which had run from 1964-1969. It sounds like they added some applause to studio tracks to make them seem live.

I always thought Jim Nabors was a fascinating show biz figure, with his big, booming singing voice at odds with his goofy comedy persona. 

I especially enjoyed his work on "The Andy Griffith Show," where his Gomer Pyle was a surreal side character.

I just recently saw him as a guest star on a 1976 episode of "The Muppet Show" (thankfully streaming now on Disney+) and he was extremely likable and seemed like a good sport, not shying away from his Gomer Pyle roots.

My grandmother did not like "Gomer Pyle" at all, but she loved Jim Nabors's singing. I think she had all of his albums - and he had a ton of them!

"A Christmas Carol" All-Star Team - Day 6

 

We continue to assemble our All-Star Team of characters from "A Christmas Carol" with Belle, the former fiancée of Ebenezer Scrooge.

There are some good Belles out there, but my pick is Meredith Braun from 1992's "The Muppet Christmas Carol."

Of course, she gets a lot of sentiment because her big song, "When Love is Gone," was unceremoniously cut from the film before its theatrical release.

But we get to enjoy the song as a deleted scene and she does an awesome job!

There's more info at this previous post!

Hallmark Keepsake Ornament - "The Muppet Christmas Carol 25th Anniversary" (2017)

We turn from the little talking Tonie guy to a talking ornament from a couple of years before - Hallmark's 2017 "The Muppet Christmas Carol 25th Anniversary" ornament!

Hallmark makes awesome ornaments, of course, and their licensed designs are always totally on-model, this one featuring Kermit the Frog as Bob Cratchit and nephew Robin as Tiny Tim is no exception:

The ones where you press the little button for sound snippets are extra fun!

You have to snap these up when they're new, as they quickly become collectors items fetching much higher prices!

"The Muppet Christmas Carol" (1992) Lobby Cards

Before the lobby card train leaves the station, we have another theatrical adaptation to check out" "The Muppet Christmas Carol" from 1992!

Here are some:

Good fun!

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) - Part 4

"The Muppet Christmas Carol" (1992) is actually a pretty straightforward retelling of the story. It's certainly Muppetized, but stays grounded.

Since they went with a human Scrooge, the producers wisely had some additional human characters in the film, including Scrooge's nephew Fred and his wife, named Clara here, as well as Belle and some assorted extras.

The biggest Muppetization here is having the Great Gonzo appear as Charles Dickens (sort of) while narrating the story, although his pal Rizzo the Rat knows he's not Charles Dickens. It's all very meta as the story appears to have happened already, yet Gonzo and Rizzo are watching it happen and interact a bit with other characters. It's all good fun.

The opening scenes have a few changes that don't disrupt the story, but add some more fun. I don't know if there's another version that gives Bob Cratchit an accounting staff to work with. This staff consists of a whole bunch of rats who provide comic relief.

Scrooge's nephew is still in the office when the charity solicitors come in, so he gets to interact with them a bit. They're played by Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker. This is interesting, as in the book, only one of the gentlemen talks. Beaker doesn't really talk, he squeaks, so is this an homage?

As mentioned previously, Scrooge was partners with the Marley Brothers, Jacob and Robert. Scrooge only sees Jacob's face in the door knocker, but they both come to haunt him. Scrooge says that they always criticized him, but they maintain they were heckling him!

The other three spirits are original Muppet creations for this movie and are effective overall.

The Ghost of Christmas Past looks like a youngish girl floating around. She has a haunting female voice.

The spirit brings Scrooge back to his childhood school and Charles/Gonzo and Rizzo hitch a ride. Rizzo gets mixed up with a cat in the past, which is wacky.

They have a progression of young Ebenezers, which is an effective way of showing him grow up.

Fan never shows up, so the final young Ebenezer gets a pep talk from Sam the Eagle as his headmaster before becoming an apprentice at the rubber chicken factory of Fozziwig and Mom!

The older Scrooge is excited to see Fozziwig's party. The younger Marleys are there to heckle everyone from an upper box.

As so often, Belle is at this party, and Fozziwig introduces her to the young adult Scrooge. I do think this version of young Scrooge here does look like he could grow up to be old Scrooge, which is not often the case!

Then the inevitable breakup scene follows.

The Ghost of Christmas Present appears next and he is definitely how you would expect a Muppet version of this spirit to look. He's quite absent-minded here, which provides some humor and also reminds me of Willie the Giant from "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1983).

He brings Scrooge to Bob Cratchit's and Fred's houses for their Christmas celebrations and Scrooge is getting the message. The ghost ages as the night goes by and he leaves Scrooge behind.

The mood becomes so ominous that Gonzo and Rizzo leave as the next spirit appears because they're too scared. They should be, as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is pretty scary. I like this representation. The Muppetness works well as for once, it's not just some guy in a cloak!

They see the indifferent businessmen and Old Joe's place as well as finding out that Tiny Tim died.

Scrooge seeing his own tombstone is enough for Scrooge to realize he needs to mend his ways.

After waking up on Christmas morning, Scrooge spreads a lot of joy. It's a lot of fun. He even gets to pat Gonzo and Rizzo on their heads and wish them "Merry Christmas!" Also really fun is that he visits Sam and Fozziwig at the old folks' home!

A novel twist that I don't think I've seen before is that the "boy" (played by Bean Bunny) whom Scrooge engages to get the turkey is the same one who was singing a Christmas carol outside of his office door. I like it!

He distributes quite a few presents, including a big stack to Fred and his wife. As he goes along, he gathers quite a crowd and they all go to Bob Cratchit's house with the turkey and have a big dinner/party. Scrooge does wind up at Bob's house on Christmas Day in a lot of versions, doesn't he?

This whole sequence reminds me most of "Scrooge" (1970), as Albert Finney also bought and gave out lots of presents.

So, we have a solid version of the story with a lot of humor that is actually funny and doesn't distract, as well as some songs that don't bring things to a halt.

They did their job to create a version of "A Christmas Carol" that everyone can enjoy!And Michael Caine stakes his claim as great Scrooge!

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) - Part 3

So, we have a great Scrooge in Michael Caine for "The Muppet Christmas Carol" (1992), but since we have "Muppet" in the title, we must have Muppets!

Kermit the Frog co-stars as Bob Cratchit. This befits his status as the de facto head Muppet, similar to Mickey Mouse in "Mickey's Christmas Carol," although Kermit couldn't get his name in the title!

Miss Piggy gets her dream role as Mrs Cratchit and is given the first name of Emily here. Both Miss Piggy and Kermit do a good job and act as you may expect.

Kermit has one of those convenient nephews, in this case Robin, and he plays Tiny Tim. No joke when I say that he's one of the best TTs ever! He's actually tiny for a change!

An unbilled member of the Frog family plays Peter and twin pigs play the Cratchit daughters, Belinda and Betina. Good casting!

This version is perhaps unique in that Scrooge's former partners are brothers - the Marleys, Jacob and Robert (get it?). They're played by Statler and Waldorf, the master hecklers, who are in good form. Interestingly, we see rare younger versions of them in the Christmas Past sequence.

The other spirits that visit Scrooge are not traditional members of the Muppet family, but are effective. We'll talk about them more when we go over the plot.

The Christmas Past sequence also feature Sam the Eagle as young Ebenezer's headmaster and Fozzie Bear plays Fozziwig, along with his mother as Fozziwig's mom.

The most, um, interesting casting is the Great Gonzo as Charles Dickens. He narrates the story and is pretty funny exchanging banter with his sidekick Rizzo the Rat.

Various other Muppets pop up here and there to add to the fun!

So, we have a solid Scrooge and supporting cast. Did they stick to the original story?