Late Night Buffet Taping Summary: Not Enough Juice!

[renegade]

Hi Gang ,
I just got back from a 4 hour taping down at the Henson studios for the show LATE NIGHT BUFFET WITH AUGIE AND DEL .
I really felt the show was very close to awful , Not enough Juice ! It reminded me of that show ALF'S HIT TALK SHOW ( YUCK )
Now that being said here is the good news the puppets were friggin AMAZING!
and watching Brian Henson and Bill Beretta work was soooo Great !
The band has 3 monkeys and a brooklyn big hair type lady as the band leader. The monkeys were some of the best designed muppets I've ever seen ! and what a terrific female puppet! I will try to do a few drawings this week of them.
One of the monkeys was puppeteered by Karen Prell and it was also great to watch her work, she has such great timing ! and acting
But they never took advantage of the band and there great characters, they just played music and never did any bit's which I feel was a huge Mistake .
There was one DIRTY bit at the end of the end of the show that had a few laughs . The interview of the guest were just God AWFUL and super borring.. .
If your going to do a talk show why does it have to have the same format as every other talk show (IE:the band and the sassy band leader, two chairs for the guest and a back drop of the city behind them )
but all in all watching the people work was well worth it !
Just thought I would share .
thanks ;)

[JJandJanice]

Wow, well guess I'll have to jugde for myself.

[renegade]

please do . These are only my opinions and I would luv to hear yours .

[Stulz]

I was there as well. As pilots go this was really a great 1st step. I think once they add more sketches into the show and use the charcters outside the studio setting the pacing will improve.

We were laughing are "beeps" off (ooops I can't say that here.. you'e gonna have to beep that) for most of the show.

The puppets were huge!! I'm surprised they made them so big.. it's a lot of weight to mess around with.

Anyway I posted the preview shown @ comic-con yesterday on YouTube..

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Od4NW_kNbzg

Enjoy!

[Kimp the Shrimp]

well thanks for the utube and sorry to hear that it was awful

[Teenager's]

Wow! Those Puppets Are Huge!....sheesh, but very nice though....they move so smoothly....and realistically....sorry to hear that the actual show wasn't that great/fun....but it's good to hear Karen Prell is in it!

[JAZZ4JEFF]

I also attended the first taping. Two quick comments. The guests at the first taping were Kathi Najimi and Hal Sparks. They both brought lots of energy and comedy to the show. And, I found it odd the the pages kept telling the audience in line "These are Puppets, not Muppets". "Don't make the producer angry by calling them "Muppets". What was that all about?

[Stulz]

Henson doesn't own "The Muppets" anymore so I guess these puppets will not be considered "Muppets" ..plus that way Disney can't sue/ try to buy the rights to them and then burry them in the vault .. ; ) :p

[Stulz]

Oh just one more thing: The guests for the 2nd taping were Fred Willard and Kaitlin Olson (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia).

[matleo]

Fred Willard should be fun. He's great in an improv scenario casue he always looks like he's uncomfortable so you start to ignore him but the he says some really outlandish things.

--matt

[JJandJanice]

When does the show air on TV? TBS, right?

[Stulz]

The thinking is 11pm on TBS. Won't be on until early 2007 I heard, but we'll see..

[JJandJanice]

Also shouldn't this thread be in the Jim Henson company threads rather than the Walt Disney Company threads.

Disney doesn't have anything to do with this, right?

[minor muppetz]

Does anybody who saw the tapping remember what voices Brian Henson and Bill Baretta used for their characters?

Man, it seems like this will be the first-ever Henson series to actually be performed in front of a live studio audience. I wonder how close to a real talk show this wil be. I wonder if episodes will be rerun.

[MWoO]

Bill sounds like slower slightly less italian Jonny Fiama and BRian sounds like a less ftrantic slightly deeper italian Sal.

I don't really know why they used such giant puppets. I don't think they are all that great. Not much expression in them other than what is built in. I was expecting something less human looking.

[WOCKA2416]

please do . These are only my opinions and I would luv to hear yours .

I think the show was very good and has a lot of potential. I believe it is going to be a 30 minute show, so you have to remember that the not so funny parts will be cut out. I think Henson has a potential hit on their hands! :)

[Fozzie Bear]

I bet the format being the same as every other talk show is parody. Keep in mind that Hensons like parody.

By the way, I merged the two threads together since they were the same topic.

[tomahawk]

I went with Chris (Stulz), and I thought it was hilarious. It was great to see the Muppets (puppets... whatever) back to being a little more edgy without it feeling forced. I felt that was the worst part about MWOO was that it felt forced. Brian and Bill were great as always. Fred Willard was hilarious.

[a_Mickey_Muppet]

wow!!! thanks for the YOUTube link... they are kinda BIG lookin'. The one that Bill is doin moves like a robot almost! :smirk:

[cyberroo]

We went to the later taping, and while I thought the guests weren't great, I think the concept has potential. Hopefully Hal Sparks was more entertaining in the early taping.

The puppets are huge, I assume to keep them in proportion with the human guests, rather than having little tiny puppets with big people. We also wondered if there were Disney issues there - by rescaling the puppets, it reduces the confusion with muppets.

The interstitial skits were hilarious, and I think the show will get stronger as they grow more accustomed to the format. Hopefully they'll get that opportunity.

It was completely amazing to see how the show came together, and to see Bill and Bryan in that environment. Very different than even PuppetUP.

[Fozzie Bear]

Thanks for the link, Stultz! The "Puppet Up Improv" was fun.

[minor muppetz]

Did the entire show take place on-stage, or are there any "backstage" sequences?

[WOCKA2416]

They had some pre-recorded stuff that was funny, but no actual backstage stuff. ;)

[Erine81981]

Did anyone take any pictures? I would love to see the band or other things that happend at the taping. I saw the utube thing and that it was pretty funny. I can't wait to see it all together.

[ReneeLouvier]

I also can't wait to see it!

[tomahawk]

Did anyone take any pictures? I would love to see the band or other things that happend at the taping. I saw the utube thing and that it was pretty funny. I can't wait to see it all together.

You're not going to see any photos from us. You'll have to wait for the press photos that were taken. We were forbidden from taking any photos.

[toughrabbit]

I want the show to succeed, but I'm not sure it's going to. The show seems to be lacking something, though I can't put my finger on exactly what. I'm interested to see how it looks on the TV, what bits stay and what gets cut. The live taping was great fun, despite the horror that was Caitlin Olson.

[beaker]

I also attended the first taping. Two quick comments. The guests at the first taping were Kathi Najimi and Hal Sparks. They both brought lots of energy and comedy to the show. And, I found it odd the the pages kept telling the audience in line "These are Puppets, not Muppets". "Don't make the producer angry by calling them "Muppets". What was that all about?

That's hillarious, because NOONE outside of the Henson/Disney legal department considers a "Muppet" seperation between Sesame/Fraggle/Bear/Muppets and JHC. I mean Jim Henson Improv uses known Muppet characters, I don't see the big deal.

Now to be fair, while I consider Animal Jam and Bear muppets, these may fall in line with say, Dinosaur/Creature Shop/Fantasy World type...the use of no hand puppets to me indicates it isnt Muppets. I've never seen a Muppety type production with no hand rod puppets at all.

These puppets appear to be of the big bird type rather than the Gorg type, wherein the right hand controls the face, and the left hand is free.

But these pilots...will they ever be seen? I mean what happened to
the Muppet American Idol pilot spoof?

[Luke]

I actually think Late Night Buffet seems more promising than Puppet Up - the design of the characters is very different and looks unusual for these kinda things, it could catch on. Puppet Up seems ok, but it's just who'se line is it anyway with Puppets ... i think people would get bored after a while. That goes for both shows really, they are both well known formats, is puppetry enough of a difference to make people watch? Maybe! I think Brian and Bill pairing up again is great, if anyone can make it work it's them!

[Fozzie Bear]

Folks were discussing a while back how Disney is looking for the 'new puppeteers' and turned their backs on the original guys...what about what the JHC has done not only with the Muppets, but Steve, Dave, Bill...they're not quite in use there anymore either.

[WOCKA2416]

Folks were discussing a while back how Disney is looking for the 'new puppeteers' and turned their backs on the original guys...what about what the JHC has done not only with the Muppets, but Steve, Dave, Bill...they're not quite in use there anymore either.

Bill is always working with the JHC and Dave and Steve will be a part of the Fraggle Rock Movie and hopefully the Dark Crystal sequel.

[Fozzie Bear]

Thanks for setting me straight on that. I hadn't heard any direct information yet that they were involved (well, other than Bill on this Late Night Buffet thing).

[Kuriboh Man]

But what about Julliane Buescher? I heard she was involved in Late night Buffet also. anyone care to explain that to me?

[WOCKA2416]

But what about Julliane Buescher? I heard she was involved in Late night Buffet also. anyone care to explain that to me?

She performed the band leader who was sort of the sidekick on the show.

[TheJimHensonHour]

So is anything gonna happen with this show or what?

[Kuriboh Man]

"She performed the band leader who was sort of the sidekick on the show."

Oh that's Right, She went by the name of Louisa Capelli, The picture of her is kinda creepy. kinda like a huge Angelina Jolie. Pretty Wacky!