Weekend At Kermie's: The Muppets' Strange Life After Death. Elizabeth Stevens asks:
What if, in 1990, instead of recasting Kermit—something that had been done to Mickey and Bugs Bunny before him—the Muppets had continued on Kermit-less, as "The Simpsons" did after Phil Hartman died. Recall Susan’s words on "Seasame Street" about Mr. Hooper in 1982: “Big Bird, when people die, they don’t come back.” Let’s say Robin showed up saying his uncle Kermit had passed away? Or, if that was too dark for Disney, what if Kermit had left show business to go off to start a family with Piggy? Someone else could lead the gang of weirdoes.
It would’ve made more artistic sense than what happened
.
posted by zarq
on Jul 14, 2011 -
67 comments
MacRobertson's Confectionery were, in the 1930s, trialling new ideas for their children's range. An employee suggested that as "women and children were afraid of mice," rather than a chocolate mouse,
a chocolate frog would be more popular with children. Three days later, what would become Australia's most popular children's confectionery, the
Freddo Frog, was born. Its supposed creator, Harry Melbourne,
died last week, having never received a cent in royalties. However, to this day there remains confusion as to whether he, or rather the inventor of the
Cherry Ripe, Lesley Atkison, was
in fact responsible. Those that only know him in chocolate form may be surprised to find out that Freddo was also the star of
Australia's first cartoon.
posted by Mil
on Jan 29, 2007 -
22 comments
'The Jitterbug' is a somewhat bizarre scene from the original
The Wizard of Oz movie that cost $80,000 to produce and took five weeks to rehearse but was ultimately cut from the final film because, according to the studio, it would "
date the film." However some say the scene represents Dorothy's loss of innocence and that this is the reason why it was cut. What makes it even more freaky is that the scene was shot by producer Harold Arlen on a home movie camera, making the whole thing look grainy and which casts the whole scene in a sort of pink-purple hue.
Check out the scene for yourself over at Youtube.
posted by Effigy2000
on Aug 3, 2006 -
43 comments
The Warriors of Oz "The Heroes of Oz as You've Never Seen Them!" You got that right. Three words: "Warrior Maiden Dorothy". Not Safe For Wizard Fans
The picture on the site doesn't do justice to all the excruciatingly awful detail, but if you get a Sunday dead tree newspaper, there's an ad in most coupon sections.
posted by wendell
on Apr 9, 2006 -
47 comments
We all know the story: little Elli, a girl living in the steppes of Kanzas with her dog Totoshka, is blown by a hurricane (stirred up by the wicked witch Gingema) all the way to Magic Land, where she meets the Cowardly Lion, the Iron Woodman, and the scarecrow Strashila and has to make her way to the Emerald City to find the magician Gudvin so she can get back home... What, you don't remember it that way? Didn't you read
The Wizard of the Emerald City and its much-loved sequels
Urfin Jus and his Wooden Soldiers, The Seven Underground Kings, The Fiery God of the Marrans, The Yellow Fog, and
The Mystery of the Deserted Castle? Ah, you're not Russian!
Listen [
RealAudio] to a five-minute description (
on Studio 360) of
Alexander Volkov's Russified versions of Baum (with illustrations by
Leonid Vladimirsky) and how they captivated children and adults in the Soviet Union (you even get a bit of the famous song Мы в город Изумрудный/ Идем дорогой трудной ["We're going to the Emerald City by a difficult road..."]); visit the
Emerald City website (Russian version, where all the links work); and see the wonderful illustrations at
this site, which links to the texts of all six novels (click on Читать...)—in Russian, but the images need no explanation. (Fun fact: the word "Oz" doesn't occur anywhere in the Russian versions.) And if you're interested in other alternate versions, go to
Oz Outside the Famous Forty.
(Via P. Kerim Friedman.)
posted by languagehat
on Nov 25, 2005 -
21 comments
Hippie Atrocities and Beautiful Freaks -- Oz Magazine was, for a ten year run during the Sixties and Seventies, Australia's, and later England's, premier underground satire 'zine. Featuring contributions from (among others) Lenny Bruce and Germain Greere, and subject to two obscenity trials--one in Australia and another, more famous one following the editors' exile to
England--it evolved, in its English incarnation, a
wicked,
witty and of course, thouroughly
psychedelic design aesthetic. There are galleries of cover art
here and
here,
and a Shockwave adaptation of the infamous School Kids issue
here.
[warning: some images NSFW.]
posted by arto
on Aug 26, 2003 -
6 comments
