A few days ago we ventured down to the American History Museum to see Jim Henson's Fantastic World--an exhibit honoring the 50th anniversary of the Muppets. Why? Because in the late 80's/early 90's we grew up on Sesame Street and were down with Fraggle Rock!
This particular exhibit housed a lot of the muppets that were made famous on "The Muppet Show" (like Mahna Mahna, Doctor Teeth), "Sesame Street" (Bert & Ernie and of course, Kermit), "Fraggle Rock" (the doozers, Red and Cantus), and "The Dark Crystal." They had also displayed a lot of Jim Henson's original sketches, posters and ideas for shows.
The truly sweet thing about the whole experience was watching the adults enjoy the exhibit (I know we did). Most of the children there hadn't gone under their own volition, the parents were excited to go and see figures from their childhood under glass. It's fun to be in a room full of adults who all light up at the sound of a familiar theme song--"It's time to play the music! It's time to light the lights!" Good stuff. Grown men sitting on tiny stools next to their kids reading books and drawing pictures.
3 comments:
The muppets rock. I have two vivid memories of the muppets. First, back in nineteen hundred and seventy-nine, I went to the movies and saw the first muppet movie. Loved it. And it opened with Kermit playing a banjo and singing a great song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thEiXbovv98
Second, I loved watching the muppets with you and Jeremy. All those fun songs to sing. I liked singing "Amigo" with you guys. I remember the whole song to this day. "Amigo, amigo. Another name for friend ..." :-)
Yay!! I'm glad you went and saw it...when I heard about it on NPR I was jealous I wasn't able to teleport myself to DC to go see it. Sunny days, sweepin' the clouds away...
The Muppet Movie (along with the Cosby Show and My Fair Lady) changed my life. The hours spent..... oh, the hours spent watching Miss Piggy shout "Oh Kermie....", and laughing at the same sad joke about "French fried frog legs"... These are still in-house jokes that get my sisters and I laughing, while on-lookers who didn't grow up part-muppet, part-human just stare in bewilderment...
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