Pizza and Movie night...

Another Saturday, another post on the movie we watched last night as a family.

Yes, "MUUU-PPETTTSSS...FRRROOMMM...SPAAAAACE"!

Had to say it that way 'cause it's ingrained in my head from growing up watching 'The Muppet Show' every weekend.

First comment--it's totally amazing the staying power Jim Henson's creations have.  If you factor in 'Sesame Street' and 'The Muppets' I think you could claim that Henson and crew have, by this point, influenced two or three generations.  My kids laugh their guts out to many of the same skits I loved when I was their age.

Talk about your 'evergreen programming'.

Seems to me from watching MFS last night that there are four key things going on that make this, and the other classic Henson stories, relevant, successful, and long-lasting.

1) We love the characters.  Because we love Fozzy so much, his lack of screen-time doesn't really stress us out too much because when he is in the frame he's being classic Fozzy.  Of course, the reason that Fozzy had to take a back seat in MFS is that MFS is Gonzo's story and both Gonzo and Fozzy are typically performed by Frank Oz.  But, each Muppet character has deep resonance with us because we've known them for years.  Translated to TV-land that means you have the great opportunity with producing a 'long narrative' (like 'The Muppet Show') to tell your character's stories over years.  If you don't have that chance, like in moive-land, you need to try and swing the characters a little more towards universal 'types' so that the audience will have enough built-in familiarity with them to make the characters resonate even though your viewers haven't been watching them every saturday morning for most of their lives.

2) The story is simple, and universal.  Gonzo doesn't know who he is because he doesn't know where he's from.  He needs to find his family.  Hence the 'quest' to make contact with his alien brethren.  Naturally, the story climaxes with Gonzo realizing his 'family' has been with him all along.  A simple, universal story that almost everyone can identify with.

3) The movie is 'BIG' meaning it takes us to outer space, inside a top secret government installation and to a beachside rendezvous with extraterrestrial life.  The film is an escapist treat--great production value for what it is.  Every story we tell, we do well to remember to make it 'event programing'.

4) It's funny, in that classically Henson way.  Double entendres, one-liners, jests, jabs and sarcasm, all delivered with love and trusting friendship as the undercurrent.  I've read that if you can make your audience laugh and cry in the same movie you've got a 100 million dollar grosser on your hands.

Strong characters, universal stories, big--escapist--scope, and humor mixed with emotion.

The Henson recipe.

And all of us, whether telling a story at work, or building a sermon for Church, or in crafting a film or a television series--or whether we're just reading C.S Lewis to our kids at night--would do well to inject the essence of those four into our storytelling.

'Cause story matters.  It's our great escape.

T