The newspaper that reported the Roswell UFO incident in July 1947 is closing its doors.

Wanna watch it? It's actually NOT on Disney+ since Disney doesn't own the film's distribution rights--they're still with Sony Pictures. But you can catch it free on Amazon Prime, and for a bit of money on plenty of other platforms. Go watch it. You'll love it. END

MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN opened on July 13, 1984 to good reviews. But Oz was always somewhat unhappy with his final script. "It didn't have flights of fantasy," he said. But he knew he'd gotten one thing right: "I just wanted to make sure characters came out, and their relationships, That's all." /17

"I thought it was fair," Oz said, "or, at least, my ego wanted that. But Jim kept putting him off with "We'll see." A month before the film's July 1984 release, Jim gave Oz a mantelpiece clock. Inscribed on top of it: A FRANK OZ FILM. That's when I knew," said Oz later, smiling at the memory. /16

Postproduction on MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN went smoothly, though one contentions point remained until nearly the last minute. Oz, who had cowritten and directed the film and performed several major characters, wanted the film credited as "A FRANK OZ FILM." /15

Muppet Babies was a critical and commercial hit, winning its time slot easily and winning the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for the first 4 years of its 7 year run. But that’s another story. /14

To Jim's surprise, lucrative offers poured in from companies wanting to produce items targeted to infants and toddlers, including Proctor & Gamble, who wanted to produce Muppet Babies Pampers diapers. "You're going to let kids shit on my name?" Jim laughed. The deal was approved. /12

With MTM due to premiere in July 1984, Henson Associates spent the Spring approving movie-related merchandising. While Muppet films always generated decent revenue, this one would blow off the roof because it had one thing the first two Muppet films didn't: The Muppet Babies. /11

The 3-minute number was a physically tough shoot, requiring marionettes, radio controlled figures, and special baby Muppets with "stubby arms and legs." Keeping performers hidden was tough, and often required hiding them behind props as they stuck their arms up through tiny holes in the floor. /9

But the one scene that REALY got people talking was a dream sequence about the Muppets as children. Jim knew it was something special, as the only production note he wrote in his journal during MTM's 15-week shoot was one line: "SHOOTING MUPPET BABIES IN MOVIE." /8

Reporters asked Jim if the two were "really" married. "We're not telling!" Neither Jim nor Oz would say. "I'm just an actor," Kermit told reporters. As Jim said, "The [discussion] will continue on, hopefully into...I don't know what. We'll wait and see." /7

Oz also recalled annoying even the normally unflappable Jim Henson, who grew tired of constant retakes. "I fucked up," said Oz. "Jim was steaming. He got so powerfully silent...I just remember that blistering silence. I apologized and Jim was very forgiving." /5

Oz appreciated that Jim had given him a chance to direct. "I made all the decisions, but it was still Jim protecting me," he said. But Muppet performers braced themselves, knowing Oz's penchant for countless takes, often refilming until it was impossible to tell the difference between versions. /4

Filming began in NYC on May 31, 1983, with all shots of the Muppets in Manhattan filmed on location, with performers wheeling around on their backs in carts. Even generally disinterested New Yorkers would stop to watch. "We got a very nice, happy feeling from people in the streets," Jim said. /3

Jim first hired seasoned writers Jay Tarses and Tom Patchett for the first screenplay. They turned in a script titled THE MUPPETS: THE LEGEND CONTINUES. Oz found "too jokey" and asked Jim Henson if he could change it. "It didn't have the oomph of the characters and their relationships," Oz said. /2

OTD in 1984, The Muppets Take Manhattan was released in theaters. Written and directed by Frank Oz, it would spawn one of the Jim Henson Company's most successful--and unexpected--spinoffs. It would also be the last Muppet film to be released in Jim Henson's lifetime. /1

*Diondre Cole voice* WE OUTTA TIME

“I’m beeg now. Don’t smoke.”

Best STAR TREK captain. Wrong answers only.

This evening’s e-mail scammer was too exhausted to really even bother, but sent the e-mail anyway.

Mamdani listening to Trump’s speech:

I had a nearly 60 year old Japanese Maple on my yard in Maryland, and when its leaves fell in the autumn, it made a beautiful red carpet on my yard. If anyone cut it down, you’d have to forcibly restrain me.

People sometimes compare Mamdani to Judge Clay, a character from the July 1974 issue of Detective Comics 441 who adopted the persona of The Judge and sought vengeance on . . . wait, where are you going?

For Jim's agent Bernie Brillstein, there was never any doubt that he was seeing Jim's story on the screen. "Kermit was Jim," said Brillstein. "Jim believed in the entire world."

Like Kermit, Jim had left the swamps for the glitter of TV and hot, had put together his own "clan of whackos" to work with, and struggled to escape from the advertising business. Kermit's motivation in heading for Hollywood was also similar to Jim's own--rather than fame, he wants to entertain.

When the movie opened in June 1979, critics LOVED it and Jim was delighted with its success. In a way, The Muppet Movie is Jim's own story--and Muppet writer Jerry Juhl had infused elements of Jim's own life and personality into the plot.

Among the performers was director John Landis--he's performing Grover--and a young Disney animator who had answered the casting call: 20 year old Tim Burton. You can see both of them in the crowd shot below.

The movie's finale, filmed on CBS Studio Center's Stage 15, would require 150 performers to manipulate 250 Muppets. Puppeteers who responded to a casting call were given a Muppet and a number that corresponded to a chalked spot on the floor of a giant pit, 17 feet across and 6 feet deep.

Filming started on July 5, 1978. For 87 days, Jim and the performers sweated in the sun on locations in California and New Mexico, rolling on dollies to stay out of sight of the camera, other times being squeezed into trenches to perform shoulder to shoulder, buried up to their necks.