Just One Person… Part 1

You know how the song goes;

‘If just one person believes in you.
Big enough, and strong enough, believes in you.
Hard enough and long enough, before you knew it someone else would say
“If he can do it – I can do it!”
Making it two whole people who believe in you’

And then before you know it there’s 25 Muppeteers onstage singing and crying and I’m crying and then I watch Big Bird singing ‘Being Green’ and it’s a whole thing.
Well, the point still stands – you’ll eventually have everyone believing in you. And with the recent departure of Ryan Dosier (he has left for a job with The Walt Disney Company and The Muppets) Mitchell Stein and I thought we’d gather a whole heap of friends together to wish Ryan well! In fact, there were so many people who wanted to say something, that we’ve had to split it up over 2 posts! I swear we’ll get back to normal soon.

Peter Linz (Muppeteer – Walter)
Congrats on the new gig, Ryan! Looking forward to seeing your smiling face around the water cooler!

Matt Vogel (Muppeteer – Constantine, The Count, Floyd)
Ryan… Your enthusiasm for all-things Muppet is incredible. I’m so happy for you to get this unique opportunity to work so closely with The Muppets (beware: some of them smell). In fact, I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around more often. Congratulations. It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy!

Joe Bailey (Writer for The Muppet Show and Sesame Street)
Ryan, you can go to work for Disney. But you’ll never lose your Muppet Mindset. Best of Luck!

Bonnie Erickson (Muppet Designer/Builder)
What exciting news, Ryan. You are never far from the Henson alumni clan and this sounds like the perfect place for you and your wealth of Muppet knowledge. I send my congratulations on your new position with Disney. Please keep in touch and send your new contact information so The Jim Henson Legacy knows where to find you!

Dave LaMattina and Chad N Walker (Directors of ‘I Am Big Bird’)
Congratulations, Ryan! We know you’ll do a great job at Disney. Thanks to people like you, we were able to make I AM BIG BIRD. We’re thrilled that you’re going to get a chance to put those same skills to use working for such a great organization on a property that you love! Best of luck.

FrogFan76 (Worlds Bestest Muppet Fan, Mildred Huxtetter Obsessed)
Dear Ryan Doozer:

CONGRATULATIONS on abandoning your blog and moving toward GREENER PASTURES. (Do you get it? Greener pastures? Kermit the Frog is green. Get it? Just saying.)

Your new MUPPETATIONAL job has officially put me just ONE PERSON AWAY from Kermit. Because of your close proximity to my favorite CARIBBEAN AMPHIBIAN, I request that you give Kermit a few messages from me:

1) Please return my e-mails and phone calls and faxes and telegrams. Alriiiiight? I’m tired of waiting. Just saying.

2) Have you heard about my new RECORDERING CAREER? I can play sixty different Muppet songs on the recorder. No offense.

3) I am available to be a VERY SPECIAL GUEST STAR on the first episode of the new Muppet Show.

I look forward to receiving Kermit the Frog’s reply at your earliest convenience. Alriiiiight, Ryan Doozer? And you are welcome to visit me in Peoria whenever you want. Just remember to B.Y.O.G.C. (Bring your own generic Cheetos.) I will provide the tap water. Just saying.

Joe Hennes (ToughPigs)
ToughPigs and the Muppet Mindset have had a long, strange relationship. Both sites began with a similar history, branching off from another Muppet fan site. We both began by writing about a lot of similar things in similar ways before finding our own unique voices. We were in constant competition with each other to get Muppet-related news out faster, funnier, flashier. But then the inevitable bonding happened, as if we were trapped in an elevator together on a cheesy sitcom. Ryan Dosier and I would have long conversations about the frustrations of what we do over Gchat. We’d ask for advice about big interviews we had with people we’ve always looked up to. We traveled together to Los Angeles to team up and work the red carpet for Muppets Most Wanted, which remains as one of my all-time most cherished experiences in this crazy path I’ve chosen.

So after years of this, I should probably be jealous of Ryan for his new gig with the Muppets. But I’m not. I’m proud of him, and he totally deserves to finally be let into the Muppet machine. Dosier’s been like a little brother to me, and I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Jamie Caroll (Graphic Designer)
Congrats, Ryan! Your years of hard work and perseverance have paid off. This day was inevitable. You have finally become a Muppet! Well, the next best thing I guess. You are talented, enthusiastic and have such a sweet spirit that’s tempered with just enough strangeness to fit right in with the famous felt and fuzz anarchists. The Muppet gang could not have picked a better representative. I’m thrilled about what this means for us fans too. Thanks for all you’ve done with the Mindset and all you will be doing in the legit world of Muppetdom. We’re all very proud of you!
Just one more thing. I keep seeing smiling photos of you with the Mouse and around Disneyland. They do eventually let you leave, right? Signal to us if you’re being held captive and we’ll send help!
Don’t forget about us. Good luck and Frogspeed!

Julia Gaskill (Co-host of the FrogKissin’ Gals podcast)
Ryan was one of the first people in the Muppet fan community who ever reached out to me, and he continues to be one of my dearest friends to this day. I’ve had the pleasure on several occasions in the past to write for Muppet Mindset as a guest blogger, and he’s been generous enough to come on my Muppet podcast, Frog Kissin’. The contributions he’s made to the Muppet fandom have been persistent and immense, and I know I am not alone when I say: thank you, Dosier. Thank you for all you’ve accomplished, contributed, and given us over the years. The Muppet Mindset, which has been a treat for fans all over the globe, will forever be a landmark for many of us. All of us are so looking forward to finding out what great adventure life takes you on next. I know you’re gonna do great things, bud.

Steve Swanson (Host of The MuppetCast)
I’ll never forget one particular weekend in December, in Columbus, OH. You had flown out here from Illinois to co-present a Muppet fan film screening of Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas and Muppet Family Christmas with me. In fact, as I recall, you flew here the night before, and stayed up playing Apples to Apples with my family and I, and we had so much fun! It’s rare that my entire family can get together anymore, we’re so spread out over the country, and having you there for one such occurrence over the holidays made a great time even more special for all of us. Little did you and I know that, the next day, a snowstorm that rivaled Muppet Family Christmas hit Columbus, and although we made our way through the growing snowdrifts to the venue, very few people followed in our footsteps (probably because they were instantly snowed over). I still have the video footage of us in a nearly-empty makeshift moviehouse, with perhaps half a dozen die-hard fans. All we could do was laugh at the misfortune, and personally it was such a wonderful time I got to spend getting to know you.

Over the years our friendship has grown both on and off-mic, and I treasure that friendship. After I stepped away from The MuppetCast in 2013, I soon discovered that something was missing from my life (much like Kermit’s Manhattan Melodies script). It took time to realize what it was, but when it hit me, it hit like a net full of Jello. The answer, again much like Kermit’s script, was right here. This is what was missing. It was this wonderful community of fans and friends, who become a sort of family, much in the way it’s described in The Muppet Movie. You don’t know this (well, you do now), but it was because of some of the things you said, in your interview with JD Hansel, that made me realize that I couldn’t continue to be away from this family; that in my heart I needed to return somehow. I missed all of this, and everyone in it, and it was you and your passion for the Muppets which re-ignited that passion in me too. In many ways, Ryan Dosier, you are an inspiring young man.

We may not all be entertainers, or even frogs and bears and pigs and chickens – nobody’s perfect, after all – but we fans are part of a close-knit family, and the mark you’ve made here can never be erased. You’re one of ours, and you always will be. Muppet fandom wouldn’t have been the same without you. Thank you for creating this incredible place to celebrate what we love, you will be admired and missed.

Job well done, sir. Now go do the next big thing! We’ll be watching….and, let’s face it, complaining. It IS the Internet, after all.

Dave Hulteen (Graphic Designer, Puppeteer ‘Bang and Bump)
I think back to my early days of Muppet fan forums and meeting “The Dosz” online and instantly being impressed by his incredibly positive “go get ‘em” attitude. Back then, we all had wild ideas we wanted to see accomplished: another Muppet fan fest, a collaborative new movie script, a Muppet Convention on par with San Diego Comic Con, and even new characters based on ourselves. They were all pipe dreams and they all became clear instantly that they were impossible to bring to fruition. But when Ryan announced he was going to create his own site that would be fan driven and celebrate all things Muppet related, it was a no–brainer, and there was no doubt that if anyone could pull it off, it was that plucky PePe fan from the Midwest.

It’s been over ten years since I met Ryan online, and since then I’ve been able to call him a good friend. Shortly after The Muppets movie came out in 2011, I texted Ryan after I chatted with a barista in my local Barnes & Noble in New Jersey. We were talking about how excited we were that a new Muppet movie was coming out and coyly playing “Who’s The Bigger Muppet Fan” between us. As he handed me my coffee, the barista claimed he knew all there was to know about the film because he was a frequent reader of The Muppet Mindset. I proudly told him I happened to know the guy who ran the site quite well. “YOU know Ryan Dosier?!” He practically yelled in disbelief. I won the game then and there of course.

Ryan has personally introduced me to many Muppet and Henson people and I in turn have always enjoyed drawing whatever Muppety requests he’s thrown my way. You don’t say no to a guy like Ryan. You can’t really, he’s just too special. I wish him all the best in the world as he starts this new chapter. I’d say it’s the start of something even bigger but he’s been on that path for quite some time now. I can’t wait to see what he does next!