Hey guys,

So we have been busy working on some programming for a web network that puts out weekly episodes. We sent them a pilot episode and they all loved it and thought it was original for their networks and loved the puppets.

However, they felt that it seemed aged at a younger audience. The good news is that they liked the stuff we sent them so much that they want us to try and redo the pilot to make it aimed more at a college age group. 

Now as many of you know puppets are often percieved as only for children. Which makes me and many others very sad.  The few puppet shows that are aimed at adults do so by using lots of swears or sex. I would like to change this show slightly to make it more for adults. The ideas I have come up with so far are to change the voices to a more natural sounding voice opposed to cartoon and to change the set to look like a punk rock band members room or a college dorm room.  If you guys have any other ideas please let me know.

Toward the end of this demo reel you can see the puppets I'm talking about. Please keep this info here among friends thank you. Especially since the project is still in production.

password is demoreel08

Thanks for the help everyone.

I think that you have lots of potential.....I think making the puppets a little more....how should I say this.....tired, worn out, less cute and adorable.  If you have ever seen the canadian puppet show called "Puppets that Kill" (which is a adult oriented show) they walk on the fine line of cute and odd.  I agree with you on making the voices more human and less cartoony.  Also I would consider an adult to be part of the interaction but this does not need to be in the pilot just something for you to work into the proposal......most college theme puppet shows have at least a human at times to interact with the puppets (see "Ed the Sock" show).......Puppets for adult shows usually are insulting (not necessarily swearing or sex) just put downs of other stars or famouse people or each other type of scenarios....they are of risky situations on the streets and interacting with other people.  At a college level you need to push a little harder with the risky material......look at South Park. 

I am at work and can't grab links to some of the above mentioned shows so please do a google search and look around it might give you some formulas of shows that are a success in the adult puppet world.

Good luck on this fascinating ride.....

Daryl H

Puppet who kill, Great example Daryl. I personally love the show, because they to tend to test the border of censorship. The characters are so different yet they're all puppets. Great combination. Sadly I think they have been cancelled.

Crank Yankers comes to mind. That show always had guest comedians doing the voices.
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/crank_yankers/index.jhtml

Mr Meaty is another that touches the High School and College crowd.
http://www.nick.com/all_nick/specials/meaty/

Weinerville was a kids show but still had a lot of potential on the adult format.

Some of it is probably just using topics that can appeal to an older audience.
It doesn't have to be dirty or include swearing to do that.
Just look at The Muppet Show.
The puppets were mostly 'adults' but they did really silly things because of their personalities.
And the skits that they did sometimes were specifically for an adult audience.  Kids didn't know who most of the guest stars were, but when you added puppets and some silliness, they could enjoy it, and the adults could enjoy the performers too along with the silliness.

I am not really sure which puppets are from the pilot, but you may want to alter the look or style of your characters. They do have a very cute/fuzzy/"kiddie" look to them. On Crank Yankers the puppets are very much in the Muppet tradition, but have a sort of hip-hop aesthetic that appeals to the show's target audience.

Another thing you could try is to give the show a more sophisticated feel. That's hard work, but it can be done on a budget. I was just watching TVTV and Gordon has done a really good job of establishing an "adult" feel for it that doesn't rely on sex or swearing, largely through the way it looks along with the puppeteering and writing.

Oh and I liked the "Shaving Cream" song and the bit with the bike chain.

The bit with the bike chain are the puppets we are using. The yellow and the blue guy. They are Tuck and Snippit. 

So I have been doing a lot of thinking and rethinking some stuff.

So let me run some stuff by you guys to see what your opinions are.
First off I am thinking that the setting will be a college dorm room posters and what not. The dorm room opens a possibility for odd pairings. So, what I'm thinking is that Tuck the yellow one will get a punk makeover and have a nice deep voice. The voice will be like this one that I did for the punk puppet here ;

Then Snippit will be his really dorky roomate that he happened to get paired up with in his room. Snippit's voice will be somewhat like that pimply teen on the simpsons.  I think this will open a lot of possibilities of humor as Tuck tries to teach his tutorials Snippit can interupt and the two can have that sort of put down relationship.  That is as far as I have gotten. The trick is we are trying to convey info but also get laughs. I don't know kind of tricky.

By the way thanks for the help so far guys. The puppets who kill is really interesting look. I have been watching Gordon's stuff all day has given me several ideas. Well let me know what you guys think of that stuff. I am thinking of redubbing the tutorial part of the video we made with the new voices to see if it changes the vibe.