Advent Calendar House - TV Holiday & Christmas Specials

The Tale of the Bunny Picnic

Episode Summary

The not-very-Eastery Easter special debut of Bean Bunny. Guest: Emily Rowley. Find show notes at https://adventcalendar.house

Episode Notes

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Hello, sunshine! Join us for a hop back to Easter 1986 to revisit the Jim Henson special, The Tale of the Bunny Picnic — which is about neither Easter, nor a bunny picnic — but it did introduce the world to Bean Bunny, the Muppets’ Nermal.

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🎙 Guest:

Emily Rowley (@mlerowley).

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. Jim Henson’s original introduction to The Tale of the Bunny Picnic.

2. The Jim Henson Hour.

3. Bean Bunny is still around at Muppet*Vision 3D in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

4. Bean was also a late-series addition to Muppet Babies, and his picture is on the playroom wall in Disney’s new Muppet Babies.

5. The Muppet Musicians of Bremen and its grotesque, full-size Muppet bad guys.

6. Sweetums in Tales from Muppetland: The Frog Prince.

7. Bean trying to tell the other bunnies to quiet down or the dog will hear them is also the plot of the first act of Trolls.

8. Every Easter Bunny costume is terrifying.

9. Y’all remember Puffalumps? You do now.

10. The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta is home to several Muppets from this special, including both Bean and his Dragon Bunny form from his dream sequence.

11. Carlin Trammel’s Video Tour of the Center for Puppetry Arts’ Jim Henson exhibit.

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📼 Retro Commercial Break:

McDonald’s Muppet Babies Holiday Huggables, 1988.

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Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.
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