2015 – A Look Back (Part 1)

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Celebrate good times!  2015 has been a big year for not only the Muppets, but for us here at The Muppet Mindset as well.  We’ve gone through a hierarchy change, we lost a good friend, and we’ve had some exclusives. We thought we’d take a look back at the year that the Muppets, and The Muppet Mindset, had.  Come back tomorrow for Part 2!

Kirk thatcher

January 8th – An Interview with Kirk Thatcher
Mitchell Stein interviewed director and top hat model Kirk Thatcher over 3 seperate articles.  They discussed Star Wars, Jim Henson, The Muppets and much more!
Read Part 2 and Part 3 here!

February 10th – I AM BIG BIG Gets A Release Date
It was announced that the amazing Caroll Spinney documentary would be released on iTunes and Video On Demand on May 8th.

February 14th – Happy Valentines Day
We celebrated Valentines Day with photos of our 3 favorite couples!

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February 21st – The Muppets Predict The Oscar Winners 2015
We predicted which film would win which Oscar, which was more just an excuse to do some hilarious Photoshop work.  Beaker as a woman still haunts my dreams.

February 23rd – Review: The Cookie Thief
Ryan Dosier reviews the Sesame Street TV special ‘The Cookie Thief’, and doesn’t particularly love it.

February 26th – News, including a Birdman Parody and Big Bird with Billy Eichner!
After a few weeks of lax news reporting, we got back in to it, with a Big Bird / Birdman parody, Big Bird with Billy Eichner and Michelle Obama, and ToughPigs first (and probably last) Snuffy Awards.

March 19th – Why The Muppets Should Come To Australia
Our pal Marni Hill argued that Australia would make a great audience to live Muppets.  It’s definitely a topic we whole totally agree with!

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March 24th – Show Me Show Interview with Noel MacNeal
We interviewed Muppet performer Noel MacNeal on his incredibly fantastic idea for The Show Me Show, a puppet show for kids with autism & special needs.

April 1st – April Fools 2015: The Mindsets
For April Fools, we created a whole bunch of new Mindset sites, including The Mindset Mindset, The Mandy Moore Mindset, and The Mario Mindset.

April 2nd – I AM BIG BIRD Press Release & Poster
We got a good look at the new poster for I AM BIG BIRD, as well as a detailed synopsis of the film.

Ryan and Kermit

April 3rd – Saying Goodbye
After 5 and a half years, Muppet Mindset founder Ryan Dosier left The Muppet Mindset for an exciting role with The Muppets and The Walt Disney Company.

April 5th – The Muppet Mindset – Under New Management
New Muppet Mindset Head Operator Jarrod Fairclough assured everyone, with the help of Peter Linz, that everything would be okay.  It still remains to be seen how true that is…

April 6th & April 7th – Just One Person
A ‘who’s who’ of the Muppet world wished Ryan Dosier good luck in his new job, with Muppet performers, writers, directors and fans coming together to pat him on the back.

April 9th – Let’s Talk About A New Muppet Show
Recent news was that a Muppet pilot was being commissioned by ABC. Jarrod Fairclough explained why that didn’t mean we’d necessarily get a new show, his concerns that the show would be too geared to children, and how we might not see any Pepe and Bobo in the show.  In hindsight, almost everything in this article was incorrect.

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April 14th – 10 Obscure Characters We Hope Return In The New Muppet Pilot
Jarrod Fairclough chose 10 obscure characters he wanted to see return in a new Muppet show.  Of the 10, only 1 came to fruition, with Yolanda the Rat becoming a star in her own right.

April 16h – Outrageous Makeover: Sesame Street Edition
Sesame Workshop released images of the newly made over Sesame Street set.  Elmo moved, Abby got a garden, and Big Bird lives in a tree.

April 18th – We Want You
We put out the call for contributors.  What came next was some great articles.  This is just a reminder that we’re always looking for new writers! Take a look at that post and get in to contact with us!

April 21st – Why The Muppet Moments Shorts Are A Magical Treat
Mitchell Stein takes a look at some of his favorite Muppet Moments shorts, and explains just why they’re so delightful.

Animal eat drums

April 27th – What Is Animal?
Joshua J. Carr asks the important question – What is Animal?  The general consensus online was ‘A drummer’.

April 28th – the muppets.
The title of the new Muppet pilot was revealed.  ‘the muppets.’, which had everyone confusing it with the brand and the 2011 film.  Jarrod Fairclough had a few ideas for different titles, but ‘The Last Man On Earth’ was taken.
He also speculated that it wasn’t guaranteed to keep that same title, because he was naive.

May 2nd – Jarrod Went to Sesame Street (6 Years Ago)
Jarrod Fairclough recalls the time in 2008 he went to Sesame Street, where he met Elmo, who encouraged him to ‘get wasted’.

May 4th – The Muppets Are Taking Over YouTube
The Muppets and YouTube Space LA teamed up to bring us a bunch of new content, including an a Capella version of ‘Cool Kids’ by Echosmith, and what would happen if Quicksilver ran past you.

I AM BIG BIRD-poster

May 5th – I AM BIG BIRD Is Out Now
After 3 years, Copper Pot finally released their Caroll Spinney documentary I AM BIG BIRD.  You can still get it here on iTunes.  Mitchell Stein reviewed the film.

May 7th – The Great Non Muppet Fan Quiz
Jarrod Fairclough quizzed his good friend ‘Magic’ on some hard to answer Muppet questions, in the only Non Muppet Fan Quiz so far.  We should do this again soon.

May 7th – Muppets Everywhere!
It was announced that the new ABC series ‘The Muppets’ had been picked up for a full season to begin in the fall, with a slew of promotional images released.

May 9th – Top 10 Magical People
Kieran Moore celebrated Kermit’s 60th birthday with 10 other Muppet-connected people who turned 60 this year.

May 11th – The Third Greatest Gift Ever – Laughter
Elizabeth Riordan wrote a heartwarming piece on how The Muppets can make her laugh, even in the toughest times.

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May 13th – The Muppets Trailer Is Here!
The trailer for the new Muppet pilot was released, and we did our usual break down of it, bit by bit.  We wondered who the new lady pig was (it was Denise), we laughed at a weed joke, and got excited about the return of Chip.

May 15th – A Salute To All Attractions, But Mostly Muppet-Vision 3D
Mitchell Stein lamented the loss of Muppet-Vision 3D at the Disneyland Resort.

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May 16th – Jim Henson – 25 Years On
Jarrod Fairclough remembers Jim Henson on the 25th anniversary of his passing.

May 26th – Who’s That? Part 1 – Andrew James Spooner
We begun our look at the lesser known Muppet performers with Andrew James Spooner from The Furchester Hotel.  We’ve since looked at Julienne Buescher, Alice Dinnean and Victor Yerrid.

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May 28th – Throwing Penguins Thursday
We ‘threw back’ to Ryan Dosier’s interview with writer Nick Stoller.  I’m only including it here as an excuse to post my ‘Get Him To The Greek’ poster.

June 1st – Little Shop of Horrors – Miss Piggy Edition
In the inaugral Little Shop of Horrors, Jarrod Fairclough found some of the strangest Miss Piggy items you can find online.  You can take a look here at the Kermit Edition and the Halloween Edition.

June 6th – Frank Oz & Eric Jacobson: Feminist Icons
Jarrod Fairclough explains why these two performers of Miss Piggy deserve to be noted as feminists just as much as the character.

June 11th – News Update
On the red carpet for Inside Out, Frank Oz was asked if he missed The Muppets and would consider a return.  For the first time in years, Frank said that he’d be open to it.  While it’s yet to happen, and while the logistics would be difficult, we still wait with baited breath to see Frank pick up the pig, maybe just one more time.

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June 18th – Frank Oz on Jim, Yoda, His Friends & Inside Out
Our friends at Inside The Magic released a 40 minute interview with Frank Oz about his career, a lot of which was about Jim Henson.  He also talks about his role with Dave Goelz in Pixar’s Inside Out.

That’s it for Part 1 of our look at 2015.  Come back tomorrow for Part 2, including the premiere of the new show, Sesame Street moving to HBO, Turkey Hollow, and much more!

 

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