“When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world.”
Jim Henson
Introduction
From a very early age, Jim Henson knew he was here for a purpose. A man with a sparkling imagination who worked tirelessly against the clock to transform his mother’s coat and a ping-pong ball into the much-loved Kermit the Frog. Sketches, voices and wireframe puppets would go on to light up so many childhoods. An innocence that tugged your heartstrings with his believable characters, which Jim beamed into your living room. An innovator, educator, trailblazer and master of his field, Henson showed that a burning dream could become a reality and was willing to attempt more than was humanly possible. A fearless father who bottled his childhood fantasies and transfused them into characters like Kermit, Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Miss Piggy and the fantasy world of Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth.
As vivid and fresh today as when they were first made, Jim must have studied the very dynamics of body language. Precision in the making with puppeteers working from the back and underneath foam puppets, breathing life into them with a voice, actions, reactions, personality and a distinctive voice. Henson knew precisely how to attract a child’s attention and keep them captivated. It was escapism on the grandest scale. The escapism that silenced a room and educated your children as they say agog in front of the television. Lessons that lay vivid in the memories of all those who grew up on these gems and helped steer them away from the drone of mindless television.
Being Jim Henson
James Maury Henson was born in Greenville, Mississippi, in 1936. Growing up in Leland, Mississippi and University Park, Maryland, Jim developed his puppeteering skills at high school. At the University of Maryland, he made his first television programme, Sam and Friends, a five-minute short shown on WRC-TV between 1955 and 1961. Working with his classmate Jane Nebel, he co-founded Muppets, Inc., now The Jim Henson Company, in 1958 and would later graduate in 1959 from the University of Maryland with a degree in home economics.
In 1969, Henson joined The Children’s Television Workshop and helped create the Muppet characters for Sesame Street. These included Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Grover, Cookie Monster, Count Von Count, Oscar the Grouch, Elmo, Mr. Snuffleupagus and Kermit the Frog, Puppets that often had to be worked by three hands and held above their heads, the team would practice the lines, using a large mirror to make sure the performance was as realistic as possible. A team of eight crafted the muppet characters in a workshop, with Jim overseeing their creation and giving his creative ideas and input. Henson continuously experimented with internal mechanisms and remote control devices. He worked with an ethos of free thinking and collective discipline. The puppet would evolve, taking shape from construction to when the puppeteer came into the workshop and gave it life, stamping their individuality on it and turning an inanimate object into a moving and speaking character. In a script run-through, the characters and voices are developed. The distinctive voice of Kermit resonated across the room—a voice that is not so dissimilar from the one voicing it, Jim Henson. The puppet almost takes over the person—a development from stiff wooden characters in Jim’s early days to joyous characters of human nature.
The Muppet Show
This show began with two pilot shows on ABC in 1974 and 1975. However, a series wasn’t commissioned on the network. Lew Grade, then head of ATV, expressed interest in the programme, and a co-production was formed. Filmed at Elstree Studios, the show ran for 120 episodes between 1976 and 1981, shown on ITV and in America. A concept where the Muppets were in a theatre environment, working between the dressing rooms, backstage and acting on the stage. It was a heated affair, full of laughs, gags and music. This was modern-day Vaudeville with puppets. They controlled the show and were aided by famous guest celebrities.
Using a skilled production team with many who had already worked on Sesame Street, Jim used a multi-camera set-up that flicked between Kermit the host, Fozzie Bear, Scooter to Dr. Bunsen, Rowlf the Dog and Beaker or the Swedish Chef. It even had a news bulletin, a mini soap called Pigs in Space, and a band, The Electric Mayhem, with Animal, Floyd, Lips, Janice, Dr. Teeth and Zoot. The introduction to the show was memorable, with many of the characters singing from a multitude of stage boxes to the lyrics:
It’s time to play the music
It’s time to light the lights
It’s time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight
It’s time to put on makeup
It’s time to dress up right
It’s time to raise the curtains on the Muppet Show tonight.
Later Career
Jim would go on to produce several films such as Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, three Muppet Movies, The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper; The Muppets Take Manhattan, Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird and The Witches and of course Fraggle Rock on television. He formed the Jim Henson Foundation and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop and was twice an Emmy Award winner for The StoryTeller and The Jim Henson Hour. He died in New York in 1990 from toxic shock syndrome. His ashes were scattered in Taos, New Mexico, in 1992. At the time of his death, Jim was in negotiations with Walt Disney to sell his company. His legacy is continued by his son Brian, a skilled puppeteer who was on set with his father as a child.
