Trivia / Muppets from Space

• Acting for Two:
  • Dave Goelz performs The Great Gonzo, Bunsen Honeydew, Waldorf, Zoot, Beauregard, and Birdman.
  • Steve Whitmire plays Kermit the Frog, Rizzo the Rat, Bean Bunny, Beaker, one of the Alien Gonzos, and one of the cosmic fishes Gonzo encounters.
  • Bill Barretta performs Pepe the King Prawn, Bobo the Bear, the Swedish Chef, Johnny Fiama, Bubba the Rat, Rowlf the Dog, and the other cosmic fish Gonzo encounters.
  • Robin, Statler, Floyd Pepper, Lew Zealand and Ubergonzo are all played by Jerry Nelson.
  • Dr. Phil Van Neuter, Sal Minella and the talking sandwich are performed by Brian Henson.
  • Clifford and Carter are played by Kevin Clash.
  • Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Sam the Eagle and Animal are all voiced by Frank Oz (although Animal and Piggy are physically performed by Rickey Boyd and Peter Linz respectively).
  • Dr. Teeth, Sam the Eagle and Fozzie Bear are performed by John Kennedy (the latter two puppeteering to Frank Oz's vocals).
• Box Office Bomb: Budgeted at $24 million, its gross just barely missed that mark, settling at $22.3 million.
• The Cast Showoff: Bill Barretta once again shows off his singing abilities as one of the Alien Gonzos in his rendition of "Celebration".
• Christmas Rushed: Originally planned to be released in early 2000, but Sony Pictures wanted it to be part of their summer 1999 lineup, resulting in this trope.
• Creator Backlash:
  • In a February 2000 interview with IGN, Frank Oz went on record to say that Muppets from Space "was not the movie that we wanted it to be." It would be the last Muppet film with which he is associated.
  • Apparently, Steve Whitmire doesn't think too highly of the film either. During a 2011 promotional radio interview with Kermit for The Muppets (2011), he said "With all due respect towards Muppets From Space, you don't want that to be your last film, you want to make a better one."
  • Writer Joey Mazzarino dubbed working on the film "a miserable experience" in an interview with Tough Pigs. Specifically, his draft of the script was very parody-heavy, with references to Men in Black, Contact, and Alien. Then, original director Randal Kleiser (who directed Grease) was fired right before filming began for "not bringing enough vision" to the project. He was replaced by Tim Hill (a writer for All That, Rocko's Modern Life, and SpongeBob SquarePants), who decided to tone down the parody element and change the ending. In Mazzarino's original draft, it was going to be revealed that Gonzo wasn't actually an alien; the aliens that were trying to contact him had been getting the signal of The Muppet Show, and they made themselves look like Gonzo because they believed that he was the ultimate being. Mazzarino thought Hill did a good job with the film, but left the project over the script change issue, and he admits that the new ending with Gonzo actually being an alien still "bugs the crap out of me."
• Creator Killer: The failure of both this and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (which was released a few months later) badly damaged The Jim Henson Company's film division Jim Henson Pictures and prompted Columbia Pictures to drop the label. While the Jim Henson Company did manage to produce more theatrical films^note Albeit with the JHP name only appearing in the credits until 2005, they never made another one with the Muppets (thanks to Disney's purchase of the property), and the next time the characters graced the big screen 12 years later, Disney handled it solo.
• Cut Song: The rock band Ween wrote an Image Song for Gonzo, entitled "Eye 2 The Sky". By the time they sent the demo to the filmmakers, the decision to have the whole soundtrack be 70s funk had been made. The band were then asked if they wanted to do a cover of "Brick House", but they declined. (The original Commodores recording plays at the beginning of the movie.)
• Deleted Scenes:
  • Pepe announcing that the kitchen is "closed" during the breakfast scene.
  • Rizzo visiting Gonzo on the roof of the Muppets' house, and trying to talk him into coming inside.
  • Muppets Tonight's Mr. Poodlepants (playing cereal mascot Kap'n Alphabet) visiting C.O.V.N.E.T.
  • An apparent extension of Gonzo's vision of the cosmic fish, ending with him flying smack dab into an asteroid.
• Kids' Meal Toy: Wendy's released a set of five different toys in their kids' meals. These consisted of a Kermit keychain, an Electric Mayhem bus viewfinder, an activity book, a voice-changing microphone, and Gonzo in a glowing spaceship.
• Looping Lines: Like the previous Muppet film, Frank Oz was unavailable for most of the film's shooting. His characters were performed by other Muppeteers while he looped his lines for them during post-production.
• Make-A-Wish Contribution: A young fan of the Muppets with bone cancer, Kristina Donnelly, got to work as a Muppeteer on this film as her wish. She operated Baab the Sheep.
• Meaningful Release Date: The movie came out 2 days before Dave Goelz's 53rd birthday.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: The film was originally going to be an actual musical, with the song "I'm Going To Go Back There Someday" from The Muppet Movie making its return, this time, in reference to Gonzo's ambition to find his family. The concept was dropped when it was decided that the whole soundtrack would be classic funk instead, though the song still appears on the soundtrack album.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Scooter makes his first appearance in a Muppet production (hawking Gonzo t-shirts at the beach) since the death of his performer Richard Hunt in 1992, with his younger brother Adam Hunt doing the voice (but not the puppetry).
  • Two of Jim Henson's characters also get to (briefly) speak again, with Bill Barretta playing Rowlf and John Kennedy as Dr. Teeth.
• The Other Marty: Like with Muppet Treasure Island, Frank Oz was unavailable for most of the filming^note He revealed in a 2017 Reddit AMA that he was only on-set for two days, and only performed Piggy.. In his absence, Miss Piggy was performed by Peter Linz (and Steve Whitmire in at least one scene), Fozzie and Sam were both performed by John Kennedy, and Animal was performed by Rickey Boyd. He looped his characters' voices for the scenes for which he was not on the set.
• Prop Recycling: The Muppet Labs "Door in a Jar" heavily resembles the front stoop of 123 Sesame Street; this is because this film and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland were filmed side-by-side at the EUE/Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, NC.
• Screwed by the Network: Sony pushed for this film to headline their summer 1999 slate alongside Big Daddy. The problem was that the decision was made so late into production that the advertising budget had to be cut, resulting in a mediocre campaign. That it was up against Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick's parting gift, as well as holdovers such as The Phantom Menace and Tarzan really didn't help at all.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Per Muppeteer Joey Mazzarino, the original draft (written by him) had Gonzo turning out to not be an alien, but rather the subject of alien worship—they'd been receiving transmissions of The Muppet Show, decided Gonzo was the ultimate being, and tried to contact him. The aliens only resembled Gonzo because they'd taken A Form You Are Comfortable With. The original ending was thrown out when Tim Hill replaced Randal Kleiser as director.
  • Prior to that, it was going to be Muppets in Space. In this iteration, aliens would've abducted Kermit because he resembled their leader, forcing the other Muppets to journey into space to rescue him. Though this was announced first, it was passed over in favor of the movie we got; Welch's Jelly jumped the gun and released collectible jars based on the ultimately-unmade movie.
• Word of God: During a Q-and-A Dave Goelz did at a fan event with Gonzo, someone asked asked Gonzo if he sees his alien family any more and he responded "Yeah, we haven't seen each other after Frank Oz explained to me that it was just a movie..."

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