The Muppet Christmas Carol – Picture Disc

Product Information

All of a sudden I was waking up in the morning with no cravings. I'd found my tribe. I was comfortable and grateful in this world in a way I'd never experienced before," declares Williams. "That's when I was asked to write a score about Scrooge, who is experiencing a spiritual awakening and a changed outlook. It was a perfect fit." That's my sober birthday," admits Williams. "I'm 32 years sober. By the end of the 80s my career had basically gone. I had misplaced the 80s. When you misplace an entire decade, you have earned your seat and you are officially an alcoholic. I had a reputation in Hollywood as an alcoholic and an addict."

Michael was the first actor we approached," says Henson. "I knew I wanted a British actor, and he had to have a certain standing. That limited the field in a healthy way." Hiring Williams to work on the songs for The Muppet Christmas Carol proved to be a masterstroke, as he used his own recent spiritual awakening as a parallel for Scrooge's journey.

It only feels right that the United Kingdom gets to see The Muppet Christmas Carol in its correct form, as Henson credits the British audience with building its legacy. "The following year after its release, when it was sold on videotape, so many people watched it in the UK. It broke all sorts of records. It was a small-screen hit," remarks Henson. "It was the British that really forced the reintroduction of the film to the American market. Now, every year audiences just gets bigger and bigger, too." Plus, I met my fiancée while directing her in the UK tour of An Evening with Eric and Ern, so I really do owe a lot to their legacy! DC: Finally I’m gonna chose a song. Why? Because its Christmas and what’s Christmas with out a good Christmas song? Especially when it’s presented to you by the fabulous Bec Hill. You can see why it never made it to air, but still the laughter is so infectious that it has you crying with them! In his free time, Shane loves going for runs and playing with his 16-year-old beagle Butterscotch. Butters for short, she has been the greatest love of his and inspires him everyday, both creatively and emtionally. On top of that, he's now a huge collector. He loves Funko Pop, McFarlane Toys, and Neca's huge line of horror figures. In the last two years he has been going to a lot of conversations to buy an unhealthy amount of figures. This has also allowed him to meet some of his favorite filmmakers/actors like Mike Flanagan, Matthew Lillard, John Carpenter, Grace Caroline Curry, Steve Burns and Kathryn Newton.

JT: I have loved this routine ever since I first saw it. I just watched it again and I was giggling away like an idiot. He is a glorious character and the writing appears so simple, which is what makes it such a triumph. The song in itself is wonderful but add Bec Hill’s uniquely brilliant flip charts and you have comedy Christmas gold!
I’ve known Bec for many years since we were paired together on a radio show in Australia to promote our shows at the Adelaide Fringe, and I think I’ve been in total awe of what she does since. If you are already a fan of hers then enjoy this Christmas offering, if you haven’t yet been bought in to her beautiful crazy world, then you are welcome and enjoy!Michael Caine’s straight performance is so, so, wonderful and the songs (Marley & Marley, especially) are enough to melt my humbug heart. We watch it every year and even went to a Singalonga- at The Prince Charles Cinema, where Dan ‘accidentally’ entered a kids’ Christmas jumper competition. That didn't stop the pair from having a fruitful creative relationship, though. "I was in the studio directing him. Which is me just making faces, singing along with him and doing gestures," exclaims Williams. "But he was so completely present. He doesn't just perform the song. He experiences the song. That's everything you could want." Love film and TV? Join BBC Culture Film and TV Club on Facebook, a community for cinephiles all over the world. We'd lost Jim. We were all really still mourning," says Steve Whitmire, who, like Brian, was tasked with replacing Jim Henson in The Muppet Christmas Carol, this time by voicing and puppeteering Kermit the Frog. "We were also just trying to move forward. We were not completely sure whether we would. That's one of the most interesting things about the film on the inside, it was really a bit of a test. Could we continue without Jim?"

In the days before YouTube, I remember it being like the holy grail if your friend somehow had a bootlegged VHS of the show and you’d all gather round and watch in awe at this often rough round the edges crazy LIVE comedy show. It isn’t easy acting drunk and it is even harder to make it this funny. It also helps that Dan and I have met a few Jeremy Lions in our almost 20 years of touring family-friendly theatre… However, Shane isn't just a movie guy. He also loves video games. Super Mario Sunshine, The Last of Us Part 1 and 2, and Batman: Arkham City are some of his favorites. Music plays a big part in his life as well. Given that Shane's a big horror fan, you might be surprised to learn that he's a pop guy. Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Dua Lipa, The Jonas Brothers, and Demi Lovato play on repeat while he's writing. DC: Christmas just isn’t Christmas without them. My dad was such a huge fan of them when he was growing up and this was then passed down to me and immediately, they became two of my comic heros.So here is Jonnie Common and Bec Hill with Yippie Ki-Yay Father Christmas –in my ongoing quest that this could one day be our Christmas number one! One of Williams's most cherished memories of this process was the song When Love Is Gone, sung by Meredith Braun. "I felt like my greatest success as a songwriter for The Muppet Christmas Carol was When Love Is Gone. Because, emotionally, you see what grief and loss did to Scrooge and his behaviour." Their Christmas sketches are some of my favourites but one that always has me laughing is Bill Hader and Fred Armisen as the two doorman Renaldo and Alexi. This sketch only ever made it as far as the dress rehearsal and never got broadcast. The premise is very simple, two doorman share Christmas stories with the kids that come out the building, but Jeff and I have been there often, both the comics can’t hold it together and corpse throughout! There was one awkward moment between Caine and a member of The Muppet Christmas Carol's creative team, though. Unfortunately, when he introduced himself, Williams' decade-long amnesia made him forget that he'd actually already met the legendary actor. I walked into the recording studio and went straight up to Caine and said, 'It's so wonderful to meet you'," recalls Williams. "He turned to me and said, 'You know, we spent a whole weekend together.' I just went, 'Oh my God! You're right.'"

Henson believed that Frank Oz, the voice of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and Animal, as well as the director of The Dark Crystal, Little Shop of Horrors and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, should have been overseeing The Muppet Christmas Carol instead of him.We knew that, if we were going to do it, we just had to do it respectfully, because the story and the book demanded that," says Henson. "That was good, because it stopped us talking about Miss Piggy as the Ghost of Christmas Present and Gonzo as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. We threw all that out." In their heyday their Christmas specials scored one of the highest ever audiences in British television history withmore than 20 million viewers –almost a half of the country tuning in on Christmas day to see them, just unheard of today!