Chatting in the Oz-Universe (Land of Oz, perhaps?)

Early this week, Ain't It Cool News of the AIC network, sent out their interviewer extraordinaire, Capone, to catch up with Frank Oz in Chicago, where they chatted out the highlights, problems, and history of Frank's career.

"As I look at it now," Frank tells Capone, "I realize I'm part of history in certain ways with 'Sesame Street' and 'Saturday Night Live' and 'Star Wars' and 'The Muppet Show.' It's odd, because for me, I was just doing gigs."

Which was, of course, how it all started; with small gigs on a plethora of programs. "That's what we were known for at first. We were an act in the beginning. We'd go from the Perry Como show to the Bob Hope show to the Johnny Caron to Jack Parr...to awards shows. We did the Emmys and the Oscars, the Grammys, we did it all."

Yes, he sure did do it all, even when sometimes he shouldn't have... "My instincts were saying, 'Don't do a big movie'," Frank explains as the subject of Stepford Wives inevitably occurs. "I had a very strong viewpoint to do the movie, but I didn't expect such huge stars. When the stars came, everything kind of ballooned up. My original instincts were to make it more intimate. The problem was that it got so big that my instincts to make a small movie didn't mesh with how big it was getting, and I was losing my way a little bit... I should have brought it all down and said, I'm sorry, I know we have all these huge stars but I don't care, I want to do something intimate."

Which brings us right back to the present.

Death at a Funeral is released on the 17th August, directed by Frank Oz, and starring Alan Tudyk and Peter Dinklage. "I laughed out loud and I was touched by it," Frank says of the movie script, as he went on to discuss comedy in general. "The thing about comedy is that people think of comedy as only one thing. You can have high wit; you can have low buffoonery; you can have puns or physical comedy....The only thing that is a mainstay in my opinion...is my being honest to the world in which we are creating. "

And of course, no interview worth his salt (and your salt is being trucked to you by over-night delivery, Capone, dear) can go by without asking the all-important question: "What was it about the relationship between Kermit and Ms. Piggy that people seemed to cling to and identify with?"

"There's some sort of recognizable affectionate tension in any relationship," Frank tells us. "I think the complexity of the pushes and pulls in any relationship, in part, is what people saw. But the truth is, I don't know. People saw themselves in them."

There's more about Frank, there's more about Death at a Funeral, Sesame Street, Star Wars conventions and Grover in this in-depth article at Ain't It Cool News, until then, let's just remember that when a person, or persons, still see themselves within the complex relationship of Pig and Frog...there is something going right with the world.

Miss PIggy is big, blonde and beautiful on late night TV!

Yes, the diva has it, and she's not afraid to show it off! With the season two Muppet Show DVD set officially released to the slobbering population of muppet geek---er, fans, we're all aglow here at Swinehearts, dreaming of getting those DVDs into our eager hands. In the meantime, Piggy, Gonzo and Rizzo have all been seen in TV land (Note: Not TVLand) promoting the release, and causing general glee (Note: Not General Lee).

In the first appearance that we've witnessed, the fabulous Miss Piggy paid an extremely friendly visit to "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" last Wednesday night... or very early Thursday morning if you're inclined to split hairs. Now, this is just one person's humble opinion, but that was perhaps the best interview with Miss Piggy, and perhaps any muppet in years. She was glorious; she was gorgeous; she was witty and charming. She played to adults. Miss Piggy has never been on Sesame Street, and it shows. Barring muttered comments from a disgruntled frog, who has asked to remain nameless, we haven't heard much negativity about Piggy's flirtatious behaviour or Eric's performance.

I speak for myself, and surely for others when I say that Piggy's natural blonde beauty is simply breathtaking, head and shoulders (Note: Not Head and Shoulders) above the ditzy platinum look she's been sporting lately. I don't often criticize Piggy's looks... unlike Kermit, I don't like being chased and tackled by a lady pig, but looking back at the movies of the past, the sweet golden blonde that is almost certainly Piggy's natural hair colour is so much more appealing than the blatantly false (or faux, as Piggy would say) plastic platinum.

I can't be alone in thinking that she doesn't need anything else making her unlifelike? After all, even Craigy himself stumbled into a landmine when he distinguished between a live audience and a muppet audience. (Don't panic. Piggy set him straight... before leaving him bent...over.)

For your Piggy viewing pleasure....(Kermit, don't point that scrunchy face this way!), we present to you the interview in its entirety, so that you too may bask in the radiance of the one, the only, Ms. Miss Piggy!