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The Muppets' 1967 IBM Sales Films
harrymcc writes "Forty-three years ago, before most people had ever heard of the Muppets, IBM contracted with Jim Henson for a series of short films that it used to educate and entertain its sales staff. These little-known movies — some of which feature cutting-edge office automation equipment such as very early word-processing systems — remain fresh, funny, and surprisingly irreverent. And one of them features the first appearance of the Cookie Monster, who got his big break on Sesame Street a couple of years later."
and IBM is still populated with muppets...
And thats why the stocks went through the roof. Best investment IBM has ever made.
Just like when Bill did his two-step with Jerry on TV...or maybe not at all. Oh god...I just threw up in my mouth a little....
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
Computer! Computer! Computer starts with C!
John Cleese did a lot of stuff like this. Some were pretty good.
Good thing they had Jim Henson, otherwise the office equipment might have had their feelings hurt, you know where that leads to, getting your tie caught in the printer. Don't forget the word processors, without the Muppets we would have had an legacy of spell checkers getting it wrong. Well actually I think they passed over Firefox's spell checker. (^_~)
My Web Site
Could you imagine Statler and Waldorf evaluating IBM products and software?
Now that would fun to see.
in the past, when facing problems not resolved in a manner timely enough for me, i have referred to tech vendors as "fucking meat puppets"
but, thanks to this vendor educational material, i now know to refer to tech vendors i am displeased with as "fucking sock puppets"
i regret the past inaccuracy
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
See, the Muppets worked for THE MAN!
The Muppets are bring me DOWN!
Actually, the first "Cookie Monster" appearance was before this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie_Monster):
"In 1966, Henson drew three monsters that ate cookies and appeared in a General Foods commercial that featured three crunchy snack foods: Wheels, Crowns and Flutes. Each snack was represented by a different monster. The Wheel-Stealer was a short, fuzzy monster with wonky eyes and sharply pointed teeth. The Flute-Snatcher was a speed demon with a long, sharp nose and windblown hair. The Crown-Grabber was a hulk of a monster with a Boris Karloff accent and teeth that resembled giant knitting needles.These monsters had big appetites for the snack foods (like cookies) they were named after. Each time the Muppet narrator, a human-looking fellow, fixes himself a tray of Wheels, Flutes and Crowns, they disappear before he can eat them. One by one, the monsters sneak in and zoom away with the snacks. In 1967, Henson used the "Wheel-Stealer" puppet for an IBM training film called Coffee Break Machine. In the sketch, called "The Computer Dinner", the monster (with frightening eyes and fangs) devours a complex machine as the machine describes its purpose and construction. At the end of the sketch, the talking machine explains that its primary purpose is to produce the greatest explosion known to man. The monster promptly explodes. This sketch was also performed in October, 1967 on The Ed Sullivan Show. It was also later performed on the George Burns episode of The Muppet Show using the Luncheon Counter Monster. Two years later, Henson pulled the puppet out of the box again for three commercials selling Munchos, a Frito-Lay potato chip. This time, the puppet was called Arnold, the Munching Monster. After the three ads were produced, Henson had the opportunity to renew the contract. He chose not to, because at that point he was working on Sesame Street — and that monster puppet was moving on to the next stage in his career."
-= Who are The Headlocks? =-
The Smithsonian wrapped up an exhibit on Jim about a year back. It had some of the scratchpads used to put together these commercials, and the above mentioned training films. Great exhibit. sad to see it go.
These little-known movies... remain fresh, funny, and surprisingly irreverent.
Everything Jim Henson ever created remained fresh, funny, and surprisingly irreverent. I had my son watch sesame street for as long as I could, and I bought the Muppet show seasons for my niece as they come out. The old movies are still hilarious. The man was a genius!
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
I was just reading today about Jim Henson's mid-1960s TV commercial for RC Cola, featuring two birds that evolved later to become Big Bird.
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make install -not war
...but I am sure there is a 'hand up their ass' joke in this somewhere.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
...and C4 explosive
I liked the image from an Apple "Think Different" advertisement with Jim Hensen and Kermit. On top of his amazing art, even he even thought "different" when in college.
He helped to pioneer the "create your own major" program at University of Maryland, College Park, graduating with the first degree in puppetry.
It's time to dress up right
It's time to get things started
On the IBM tonight
And now for the origins of the muppet show tune
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXu4P6KpoLU
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
I ves a beet cunffoosed by thees soobmeessiun, becoose-a it seems tu hefe-a beee trunsleted qooeete-a puurly! Loockeely zee erteecle-a itselff helpffoolly leenks tu a trunsletur, su here-a is zee soommery dune-a reeght:
Furty-three-a yeers egu, beffure-a must peuple-a hed ifer heerd ooff zee Mooppets, IBM cuntrected veet Jeem Hensun fur a sereees ooff shurt feelms thet it used tu idoocete-a und interteeen its seles steffff. Zeese-a leettle-a-knoon mufeees — sume-a ooff vheech feetoore-a cootteeng-idge-a ooffffeece-a ootumeshun iqooeepment sooch es fery ierly vurd-prucesseeng systems — remeeen fresh, foonny, und soorpreesingly irreferent. Und oone-a ooff zeem feetoores zee furst eppeerunce-a ooff zee Cuukeee-a Munster, vhu gut hees beeg breek oon Seseme-a Street a cuoople-a ooff yeers leter.
...Insult the good name of Muppets.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
I remember an episode of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" with the Muppets. A Muppet Admiral Nelson tried to take over the ship. The Muppet crew members replaced the real crew. When a bogus crew member was killed, he turned back into a (dead) Muppet.
Love those old IBM coffee break films with the Muppets. I'm still looking for one of these films where two Muppets try and order a pizza through a DOS PC with an external modem. Like most computer endeavors it doesn't work the first time and like most computer geeks the two Muppets try and again and again and again. It's hilarious.
...we can drive out of here.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Anyone have a link to Monty Python Siemens training skits?
God spoke to me.
The "eating the expensive advanced computer piece by piece" bit they did again (reworked slightly) on the Muppet Show. Even used the exact same prop, but I believe a different monster.
Actually the last one, the talking heads montage, seems to be the basis of the "I'm an IBM'r" ads shown even today...and it is interesting how they seemed to have a bit of sense of humor about their stiff image even way back in 1967!
Developers! Developers! Developers!
Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
Apparently, it's "Sweden: Hell and Heaven." My bad. And, here is the footage. Very SFW except for a single second of some boobs at the very end of the clip.
Why do I M2 everything negatively?
from the first few seasons on Netflix last month. Was surprised to see Jim Henson's Muppets every week from the Land of Gorch, and again, some pretty irreverent, funny stuff.
The Mighty Favog!