the muppets Tagged Articles at Cinematical

• William Vince (1963-2008) - Producer - Oscar-nominated for producing Capote. He also produced Saved!, Just Friends, Ripley Under Ground, The Final Cut, The Snow Walker, The 4th Floor, Air Bud, Air Bud: Golden Receiver, Malicious and the upcoming films Push, The Stanford Prison Experiment and Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which stars Heath Ledger. He died of sarcoma June 21, in Vancouver. (CBC)

• John Barnes (1920-2008) - Film Historian - Co-founder of the Barnes Museum of Cinematography, which was in St. Ives, Cornwall, England (it closed in 1986) and author of multiple texts, including the five-volume "The Beginnings of Cinema in England, 1894-1901." He died June 1. (Guardian)
• Robert L. Bendick (c.1917-2008) - Director, Producer - Co-produced the Oscar-nominated documentary This is Cinerama and co-directed a follow-up, Cinerama Holiday. He died June 22. (Entertainment Insiders)
• Rodric Beckham (1914-2008) - Former U.S. Army-Air Corp. Staff Sergeant who spent much of World War II in a German POW camp. He appears in Billy Wilder's Stalag 17 along with other WWII POW survivors. He died June 21. (Entertainment Insiders)
• Howard Brandy (1929-2008) - Publicist, Producer - Handled PR for A Hard Days Night, Help! and Privilege and was a publicist for the Police Academy movies, The Karate Kid, Part III, Young Frankenstein, The Last Emperor, The Pope of Greenwich Village, The Last Seduction, Things Are Tough All Over, Runaway Train, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man and Gorky Park. He also handled the Academy Awards campaigns for All About My Mother, Sexy Beast and Sweet and Lowdown and produced the 1970s exploitation films Blood from the Mummy's Tomb and The Take. He was apparently the inspiration for the cartoon character Dudley Do-Right, who received his own movie starring Brendan Fraser in 1999. He died June 21 in Los Angeles. (Variety)

• Dody Goodman (1915-2008) - Comedienne, Actress - Played "Blanche", the principal's secretary in Grease and Grease 2 and Tom Hanks' absent-minded secretary in Splash and Splash, Too (in which Hanks was replaced by Todd Waring). She also appears in Silent Movie, Max Dugan Returns, Private Resort, Cool as Ice, Frozen Assets and Bedtime Story, and she had a recurring role in the Alvin and the Chipmunk cartoons, including the 1987 feature, The Chipmunk Adventure, providing her voice to the character of Miss Miller, adopted mother of the Chipettes. She died June 22 in Englewood, New Jersey. (AP)
  
• Sidney J. Bartholomew Jr. (c.1954-2008) - Production Designer, Writer, Director - Won an Emmy for his work on TV's Pee-Wee's Playhouse before collaborating on most of the Farrelly brothers' films, including There's Something About Mary, Dumb & Dumber, Kingpin, Shallow Hal, Me, Myself and Irene, Stuck on You, The Heartbreak Kid, Say It Isn't So (produced by the Farrellys) and Osmosis Jones, in which he appears. He also co-wrote and directed the 2003 soccer comedy Just 4 Kicks, which starred Tom Arnold. He died June 15 in Los Angeles. (Variety)
• George Carlin (1937-2008) - Comedian, Actor - Appears in Dogma, Outrageous Fortune, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Jersey Girl, The Prince of Tides, Car Wash, Scary Movie 3, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, With Six You Get Egg Roll and the documentaries The Aristrocrats, F*ck, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism and The N Word. He also voiced characters in Cars, Happily N'Ever After and Tarzan II. For info on his death, read William's full post.
• Cyd Charisse (1921-2008) - Actress, Dancer - Starred in Singin' in the Rain, Brigadoon, Party Girl, Ziegfeld Follies, The Band Wagon, It's Always Fair Weather, Two Weeks in Another Town, The Silencers and Silk Stockings. For info on her death, read my full post.

The earth may continue on for many more millenia, and the human race may eventually colonize and populate other planets, but no matter how long our kind continue to exist, there will never be another Jerry Juhl. Even if you don't recognize the name, I promise you know at least something of the man's body of work -- he wrote or co-wrote nearly everything performed by Jim Henson's Muppets from the early days of TV specials until his passing last year. In truth, Jerry was as much a part of the Muppets as Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, and the rest of the more familiar names, even though he was not a performer. Jerry understood the magic of the Muppets, the soul, if you will, of foam rubber and antron fleece ... and the Fraggles were no exception. Jerry served as the primary writer for the run of the wonderful children's series, and was responsible for much of the "feel" of the show.

As we've discussed before, the Hensons are looking to return to Fraggle Rock for a new feature film. Remarkably, most of the key performers for Fraggle Rock are still living -- at least those who performed the famous "Fraggle Five." Jim Henson's presence will of course be missed, but Henson was never a primary cast member,* and Richard Hunt was Junior Gorg; but Steve Whitmire (Wembley), Karen Prell (Red), Dave Goelz (Boober), Kathryn Mullen (Mokey), and Jerry Nelson (Gobo), are all still with us.** The big remaining question mark has been who will write, now that Jerry Juhl is gone?

We have an answer now, in the form of largely untested (as a writer) Ahmet Zappa. On the upside, a limited body of writing work leaves us nothing to point to as a bad example ... but you can see the obvious other side of that dubious benefit. I want this film to be good. Desperately. I'd trade a dozen good Fantastic Four movies for one more great appearance from my old Fraggle friends. I have reason to hope -- the heart of the Fraggles should remain intact as long as the original performers can return, after all. I rejoice to see the Fraggles back on track, but mourn their old friend Jerry.


*His most recognized characters were Cantus the Minstrel and my personal favorite, Convincing John.
**Although health issues limit the amount of time Jerry Nelson can spend performing.

And here we are with another sad day for The Poseidon Adventure. Only, unlike Red Buttons, who died last week, Jack Warden appeared in the sequel, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure. Yes, the great supporting actor -- he was nominated twice for the best supporting actor Oscar and won a supporting Emmy -- passed on Wednesday at the age of 85.

My introduction to Warden was with The Great Muppet Caper (there I go showing my age again), in which he played the news editor who sends Kermit, Gonzo and Fozzie to London, but eventually I came to enjoy the man I continually referred to in my youth as "Buttermaker" (because I must have seen the TV-series of The Bad News Bears before the movie, which starred Walter Matthau as the character) in nearly all of his roles. It helped that he was in some damn good films, like All the President's Men, Twelve Angry Men, The Verdict, From Here to Eternity, Being There, Bullets Over Broadway and Run Silent Run Deep. He worked on a number of films with Warren Beatty, including Shampoo and Heaven Can Wait, the films that netted him those Academy Award nominations, and occasionally worked for directors Sidney Lumet and Woody Allen. His greatest achievement, though, might be that he stuck it out through all three Problem Child movies (even that damn kid didn't reprise the title role in the third, made-for-TV installment).