les vieux raleurs du Muppet Show - toys (21)

14.04.2009

Tomato'ing Statler & Waldorf Muppet Motorcycle Figurine
les vieux raleurs du Muppet Show - toys

Statler (sur la moto) et Waldorf (dans le panier) sont une paire de deux vieux raleurs qui passent leur temps à se moquer des personnages du Muppets Show depuis le balcon de leur loge (Fozzie et ses pauvres blagues étant leur victime préférée). Ils apparaissent dans presque tous les épisodes. Ils doivent leur nom aux deux célèbres hôtels newyorkais, le Statler Hotel et le Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. L'épouse de Waldorf, Astoria, étant la soeur de Statler ; ils sont donc beaux-frères.

Le Muppet Show

Le Muppet Show (The Muppet Show) est une série télévisée américano-britannique en 120 épisodes de 24 minutes, créée par Jim Henson et diffusée entre le 25 septembre 1976 et le 6 août 1981 sur le réseau ITV1. En France, la série a été diffusée à partir de 1977 sur Antenne 2.

Cette série, présentée par Kermit la grenouille dans le rôle du directeur de théâtre, propose une succession de sketches et de numéros musicaux réalisés par les marionnettes de la troupe (les Muppets) autour d'une guest star humaine, issue du monde du cinéma, du théâtre ou de la musique.

English version

The Muppet Show is a television program featuring a cast of Muppets, which was produced by Jim Henson and his team from Sesame Street. The show stars Kermit the Frog as a showrunner who tries to keep control of the antics of the other Muppet characters (and his temper), as well as keep the human guest stars happy and secure. The television show depicts a vaudeville- or music hall-style song-and-dance variety show, as well as the behind-the-scenes aspects of such a show.

The show was known for outrageous physical (slapstick), sometimes absurdist comedy, and particularly for using its puppet characters to create humorous parodies. Each show also featured a human guest star; after the show became popular, many celebrities were eager to perform with the Muppets on television and in film. By the end of its run, over one hundred guest stars had appeared on The Muppet Show.

Muppet performers over the course of the show include Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold, Kathy Mullen, Eren Ozker, and John Lovelady. Jerry Juhl and Jack Burns were two of the show writers.

History

Since 1969, Sesame Street had given Jim Henson's creations exposure; however, Henson began to perceive that he was pigeonholed as a children's entertainer. He sought to create a program that could be enjoyed by young and old. Two specials were produced and aired that are considered pilots for The Muppet Show. Neither led to the sale of a prime-time network series. However, the prime-time access rule had just been enacted, which took the 7:30 to 8pm ET slot from the networks and turned it over to their affiliates. CBS suggested it would be interested in Henson's proposal as a syndicated series it could purchase for its owned-and-operated stations, to run one night a week in that time slot.

Lew Grade, head of the British commercial station ATV, offered a deal to Henson that would see his show produced at the ATV studios in Elstree, England. ATV would network the show to other ITV stations in the United Kingdom, and its distribution arm, ITC Entertainment, would sell the show in the United States and around the world. Henson put aside his misgivings about syndication and accepted.

At first, signing guests was a challenge and producers had to call on their personal contacts. The breakthrough was the appearance of the ballet dancer, Rudolf Nureyev. His appearance on such an unusual show generated such positive publicity that the series became one of the sought-after productions to appear in. The Muppet Show premiered in 1976 and finally, after five years and 120 episodes, it went off the air in 1981 because of Henson's desire to move on to other projects and changes in the structure of ATV and ITC Entertainment.

As the show was produced in the United Kingdom it was recorded onto 2-inch videotape using the European industry standard PAL 625-line colour system. For transmission in the United States it had to be converted to NTSC 525-line system. The reason for this has never been explained as ATV's Elstree studios were the only facilities in Europe capable of recording simultaneously in both and had done so many times as ATV/ITC had a track record for exports to American television.

photos : sources : Har ley-Davidson Collectible Toys
textes : sources : From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia