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From the Balcony

Statler & Waldorf: From the Balcony was an online series starring Statler and Waldorf which ran biweekly on Movies.com from June 2005 until September 2006. The series consisted of 35 episodes and featured many Muppet characters, old and new. The two elderly curmudgeons would discuss upcoming films, watch the latest movie trailers, and share the week's "balconism" from their theater box. For a time, the series was also available on iTunes as a subscribed podcast.

Many of the "webisodes" featured segments spotlighting other Muppet characters - for example Pepe the King Prawn often reviewed the recent DVD releases or gave remote reports, and fictional movie trailers or commercials featuring other Muppets were common. Other established Muppets who appeared included Pepe, Rowlf the Dog, Johnny Fiama, the Swedish Chef, Bobo the Bear, Dr. Teeth, Animal, Sam the Eagle, and Sweetums. In addition to one-shot supporting Whatnots, a few new recurring characters were also introduced, such as Larry and Oliver, Lester Possum, Ted Thomas, Stan and Louie, the Hollywood Pitchmen, The Blimp, Loni Dunne and a pair of musical performers.

Production[]

Statlerandwaldorf — Statler and Waldorf in the balcony.

FTB-BTS — Massey and Yerrid perform characters in "Poseidon: The Musical".

From the Balcony was produced by Movies.com in association with The Muppets Studio and Hirsch Productions.

A test pilot was briefly available online in February 2005. The pilot featured Statler and Waldorf in a movie theater watching, rating and commenting on the latest trailers for The Pacifier and Constantine; additionally, Pepe the Prawn appeared to give a rundown on the latest DVD releases. The pilot did not feature the classic balcony set seen in later episodes, a "Balconism" and other regular features the series would later include. The puppeteers on the pilot were Victor Yerrid (Waldorf) and Drew Massey (Statler and Pepe). The pilot was removed from Movies.com in the spring of 2005 and has not been officially released or reposted since.

In early June 2005, Movies.com announced that From the Balcony would soon become a regular feature of the site. Biweekly episodes started appearing on Movies.com beginning on June 26. The first eight episodes featured regular Muppet performers Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire and Bill Barretta performing the cast of Muppets in each episode. However starting with episode 9, and continuing until the end of the series, Victor Yerrid and Drew Massey returned to take over the main puppeteering duties on the project. During their tenure, the show took a slight change in format, dropping the use of film trailers and utilizing more comedy sketches and parodies featuring recurring and one-off characters.

Victor Yerrid commented on his and Drew Massey's role in the series in a 2007 interview:

“We did about ninety-five percent of the puppeteering so we worked on just about every scene together. We were also involved in the creative meetings and got to pitch characters and segment ideas.^[1]”

The opening of each episode started with a quick first-person perspective traveling through the El Capitan Theatre. The song "Hey a Movie!" from The Great Muppet Caper was used as the theme song in early run of the series before being replaced (starting with episode 5). The show originally was produced in the traditional 4:3 (1.33:1) aspect ratio, but starting with episode 15, and continuing for the rest of the series' run, the picture switched to a 16:9 (1.78:1) widescreen format.

Aside from the biweekly episodes, the series produced sets of promotional Halloween and Oscar clips that were released to television news syndicates to promote the web series. Statler and Waldorf also appeared from the set of From the Balcony in a promotional tie-in to introduce the films for ESPN Classic's Reel Classics Extra and promote the webshow. The characters and set were also used in a public service announcement for the Will Rogers Institute in late 2005.

In October 2006, after the 34th episode of the webshow debuted online, Movies.com sent the following message via the "Balcony Bulletin" mailing list (an e-mail mailing list that would alert subscribers when a new episode was posted):

“Dear Statler & Waldorf Fans:
As you know, your favorite cranky critics, Statler and Waldorf, are getting up there in years. While they're not ready for retirement, they've decided to take some time away from the balcony for some well-earned rest and relaxation (read: finding new things to complain about).
Don't despair, though -- during the hiatus you can still enjoy classic From the Balcony. Every show is available for viewing in the archives! There's also a rumor going around that everyone's favorite curmudgeons may be popping in for special appearances on new parts of Movies.com. Stick around to find out where!”

Episodes[]

See Category:From the Balcony Episodes

Bonus Clips[]

Picture	Description
	Episode 3: Bonus Clip — July 19, 2005 Upset that Johnny Fiama took his place in episode 3, Pepe the King Prawn releases a "top-secret" video giving his take on the week's new DVD releases.
	Halloween Press Clips — October 28, 2005 In a series of videos not released on the official website, Statler (dressed as a mummy) and Waldorf (dressed as a vampire) give a "Halloween Film Countdown". These clips were released to news syndicates to air as promotion for the web series. Balconism — RUN-derwear: When a female in a scary movie runs away from the killer and for some reason is always in her underwear.
	Oscar Press Clips — March 2, 2006 In a series of videos not released on the official website, Statler and Waldorf are interviewed about their Oscar predictions. These clips were released to news syndicates to air as promotion for the web series.

Picture

Description

Episode 3: Bonus Clip — July 19, 2005

Upset that Johnny Fiama took his place in episode 3, Pepe the King Prawn releases a "top-secret" video giving his take on the week's new DVD releases.

Halloween Press Clips — October 28, 2005

In a series of videos not released on the official website, Statler (dressed as a mummy) and Waldorf (dressed as a vampire) give a "Halloween Film Countdown". These clips were released to news syndicates to air as promotion for the web series.

Balconism — RUN-derwear: When a female in a scary movie runs away from the killer and for some reason is always in her underwear.

Oscar Press Clips — March 2, 2006

In a series of videos not released on the official website, Statler and Waldorf are interviewed about their Oscar predictions. These clips were released to news syndicates to air as promotion for the web series.

Awards and Recognition[]

In August 2006 Time magazine named the series among "the 25 Sites We Can't Live Without" (sharing the ranks with eBay and Amazon.com, Google, and Wikipedia).^[2]

From the Balcony won a Silver Telly at the 2006 Telly Awards, for best use of comedy. Movies.com was awarded the highest-level Silver Telly Award for Best use of Humor in a Non-Broadcast Video for From the Balcony's creative spoof of the film Dukes of Hazzard.^[3]

In April 2007, the series won a Webby Award. Hailed as the "Oscars of the Internet" by the New York Times, the Webby Awards are the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. The series' nomination, in the "Comedy: Long Form or Series" category, was Movies.com's first nomination for a Webby. Public voting ran on the Webby Awards website throughout April 2007 to decide the winners of the award. On May 1, 2007 it was announced that From the Balcony was the winner of the People's Voice 2007 Webby for Best Comedy Long Form or Series due to the show gaining the most votes of the five nominees in the category.^[4]