NOTES ON #40:

"T Time"

Here's the t on some poetic connections to Julie Andrew’s guest appearance on Season 2 of The Muppet Show:

 

Andrews has a history with the Muppets.  She did two television specials with them called: 

 

“One Step into Spring”

  and “One to One.”

 

 

& "One” is important. In this episode, Sam the Eagle mimics Joe McCarthy, a man that was destroyed thanks to the television.  Communism is about the collective over the individual, and according to one great book, “The United States” is the child of “The United Kingdom,” and however one might say America is all for individualism, individuals must die for the national collective.  Julie Andrews stars in a film called The Tamarind Seed, where issues of Communism are raised.

& Before The Muppet Show premiered, Jim Henson had a group of Muppets on Saturday Night Live from The Land of Gorch.  On their last episode, they come out of filing cabinets and talk with Lily Tomlin.  That cast of Muppets is connected to royalty, and the main Muppet is King Ploobis, performed by Jim Henson,   In this episode, he says, "Oh, well The Great Book speaks of our return after death..." and then another Muppet, Scred, says, "...The Great Book of Bill Baird!"

 

& Bill Baird was a famous puppeteer.  One thing he is famous for is creating and choreographing "The Lonely Goatheard" on The Sound of Music, which they feature in this The Muppet Show episode.  Also featured in this episode, Julie Andrews sings, "Whistle a Happy Tune," a show tune from The King and I, as the closing number.  OK... now, how wild is this?  In the SNL episode mentioned previously, guess what Lily Tomlin does?  She sings "Whistle a Happy Tune" with the SNL Gorch Muppets!  I couldn't even believe it! Then I discovered Bill Baird had a TV show that was called, The Whistling Wizard!

& Why is there a king in this poem?  America is not a monarchy…is it?! So yes, there is a  The King of Phump featured in "One to One" ( followed by the song "If I Ruled the World," also featured in the Hal Linden episode), but perhaps more importantly, Julie Andrews originated the role of Guinevere, wife to King Arthur, in Camelot, the musical.  In an early draft of the poem, I wrote "The King of Camelot,” but after re-reading Virginia Woolf's Orlando, I thought it should say “The Fisher King."  This was perfect because Julie Andrews sings an original song to Kermit called "When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish."  In the end though, I changed it one more time. I chose to replace it with "Wounded King," This episode indirectly connects with King of Phump, King Ploobis, King Arthur, and King Mongkut (The King and I). Did I forget any? Perhaps the Biblical Magi?

 

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& Swinging clubs and sipping cups aside, in this poem, mom whistles like a kettle.  I learned that apparently “kettle” derives from the word "cauldron."  Many say that a cauldron was in fact the Holy Grail. Stranger, in one line, children grow up to stop asking questions.  According to legend, one had to ask the right question in order to heal the Wounded King.

& Other musicals of Julie Andrews that you can find referenced in this piece are Cinderella and My Fair Lady. Other films include The Americanization of Emily, Sound of Music, Victor Victoria, The Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Mary Poppins

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' in which she often wears the color orange...

 

 

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"T Time"