Hi-ho, d.w. mckim here! I am a lifelong "Muppet Freak" - a devoted hardcore fan of the various works of The Jim Henson Company - including the Muppets, Farscape, and much much more. I'm basically a living Muppet/Jim Henson Encyclopedia and historian.
I've been a part of the Muppet fandom community since the mid-90's when it made its way onto the world wide web (and even a member of the official Muppet Fan Club years before that). I've contributed in various ways to multiple sites, fanzines, and forums but this is my first endeavor at doing something of my own. Mainly because i don't believe in duplicating others' efforts and there's lots of other great Muppet fan sites and forums that do what they do well. I wouldn't want to do something unless it was unique, and i think this blog will be something unlike anything else. It's not a news site (though if i have heads up on something, i'll post it), it's not Tough Pigs (though since that's another blog-based site for adult Muppet fans, that's probably the site this blog has the most in common with), in fact it's not even going to be totally about the Muppets!
So what is it exactly? Though it may change and evolve, at present i plan for it to be reflections, analysis, reviews, commentary, tributes, and the like from someone who loves to discuss the Muppets/Jim Henson. Perhaps in the future, i may include rumors, interviews, or scoops if i end up with any insider sources or help (Muppet/Henson insiders are always welcome to correspond - and i'm happy to honor wishes of anonymity.)
But that's not all...probably between 15-25% will also touch on some of my other areas of fandom and personal observations and reflections.
When the idea of doing a blog came to me, i wanted to be sure it was something that had some potential for longevity - i don't want to find ten posts into it that i've run out of ideas of things to talk about after all. But i sat down to just brainstorm around 25 possible topics and ended up thinking of twice as much (plus many more since that initial brainstorm session) Some posts will be silly, others snarky, sweet, scholarly, and much more.
This won't be for "everyone" (nor do i intend it to be) - but i hope to attract a number of people who find it insightful, entertaining, worthy of bookmarking, and something to look forward to.
I'll close with where the name came from...there's not really any official name for Muppet fans. (Though fans of Farscape are known as Scapers - and i am a major Scaper!) But i've always really loved the term "Muppet Freak" - It comes from one of the episodes from The Muppet Show's first season where guest Valerie Harper refers to herself as a Muppet Freak (at which point George the Janitor comments that everyone on the show is a freak) Not only was that one of the few times Muppet fans were referred to by anything resembling a title in any of the productions, but i think the name may take on some particular significance since the next Muppet film is being written by Jason Segel...who was originally known by his role on Freaks and Geeks.
I also considered "Fleet's Scribblings" - Fleet Scribbler being an obscure Muppet gossip reporter character which was also my name on some forums (and my avatar on Muppet Central) - All of his rare appearances were laugh out loud funny, i loved the look of the puppet, and originally chose the name because i wanted to name myself after a Muppet reporter or broadcaster but wanted to do something more obscure than The Newsman. (Nor did i want to set myself up to have heavy objects frequently falling on my head.) But let's face it...Muppet Freak just fits more, sounds better - not to mention works better on search engines! (Plus i already have experience naming something after The Newsman...i was the one who came up with the name for the wonderful Muppet Newsflash blog - so that name was already taken...by myself...?)
In my next post, i'll introduce myself in more detail and after that we'll begin the first installment of Muppety Goodness.
[Well, after reading the "new" beginning, here's the "old" beginning, Going back to Jason Segel, he would continually refer to himself as a "Muppet Freak" in promotional interviews and each time i heard it, it always did my heart proud! I also thought of something i hadn't remembered til now - back when i was in my preteens and writing songs, i had decided that if i founded a band it would be called "Freque Waves" - a multiple play on words referencing frequency waves and New Wave Music. I still think it would be an awesome band name and as far as i know to this day it still hasn't been taken...and since chronic bronchitis has forever ruined my singing ability, i sure as heck won't ever be using it so it's up for the taking for anyone who wants it! Heck, just for free i'll even throw out the runner-up name i had thought about using - "Decadent Desserts". So, if i ever hear a great new song by one of those band names, i'll know someone in the band was a Muppet Freak reader!
Yikes! I had hoped that reposting the old articles would be a simple matter of copy-and-paste, but that function doesn't work with this site so i have to manually type the whole old articles all over again!!! Good thing i'm a fast typist...but it will also probably mean it will take longer to get all the old articles up that i had initially hoped.]
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