It's time to play the music It's time to light the lights, It's time to me the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight!

When I was a young kid my parents and I would always go to Coulsens News.  My parents would go for various reasons, but I would always talk them into buying me comics or more importantly renting me a video.  One of the videos I rented the most was The Best of the Muppet's Show.  From Pigs in Space to watching the old men in the balcony rip a part the Muppet's I always loved this show!

The Muppet's were my childhood.  Along with The Muppet's Show I made sure I rented all of their movies.  The first of their films was The Muppet Movie (1979).  The Muppet Movie (1979) chronicles how the characters met one another, and tells of their battle with a restaurant that serves frog legs (gulp).  The first film was not my favorite, but who doesn't love the song "The Rainbow Connection?"

The there was the The Great Muppet Caper (1981) which takes the characters outside of their typical world and has Kermit, Fozie, and Gonzo playing newspaper reporters for The Daily Chronicle.  I love this movie, I think it is very clever and funny.  I love the running joke throughout the film that Kermit and Fozie are twins and no one can tell them apart unless Fozie has his hat on.  I also love that they get to England being thrown out of the cargo deck, truly hilarious.

In 1984 there were two huge landmarks in the Muppet world, The Muppet's Take Manhattan (another feature length film) and one of my favorite cartoons growing up The Muppet Babies (1984-1991).  The third Muppet film chronicles the group's journey as the Manhattan Melodies to attempt to make it on Broadway.  With numerous guest stars (like usual), from Liza to Brooke Shields, this film takes this rag tag group to the Great White Way.  This may be my favorite Muppet film, and is the only one I own.

The Muppet Babies was the first show I was able to watch, not on video, but when it actually aired.  This show was incredibly smarter than most cartoons.  The Muppet's imaginations took them in the world of books, movies, and to distant lands.  I loved this cartoon, and I am not shocked it lasted 5 years (a long time in the cartoon world).

As the years went on the Muppet's inspired shows like Fraggle Rock, have been connected with Sesame Street, The Bear in the Big Blue House, and many more.  All of these things were possible because of one man, Jim Henson.  Jim Henson was the creative mind behind these projects.  Henson worked mainly with puppetry, voiced Kermit of course, and was a master of working towards developing children's programming throughout his life.  Unfortunately Henson's past away in 1990 from complications with pneumonia.  Henson was only 53 and had some much more to do with these characters.  I remember a special episode where they had the Muppet's talk about his death so that children could understand what was happening.  I respected that so much as a kid, but was so sad about it.

On November 23, 2011, the Muppet's are coming back to the big screen in true Jim Henson style (unlike the 90s Muppet films). this one looks true to form.  Jason Segal (How I Met Your Mother) and Nicholas Stoller are writing the film, while Segal is starring in it with Amy Adams (and of course the Muppet's) and Stoller is directing the film.  I will be attending the midnight showing of this film.  I am excited to relive my childhood with another great experience with this cast of characters that includes, Kermit Gonzo, Miss Piggy, Fozie, and my personal favorite Animal.