If you grew up during the 1970s and ' 80s – or if your children were originate up during those years – you may remember Thanksgiving Day 1983 , when the residents of Sesame Street distinguish Big Bird that Mr. Hooper , their grocer , had died . Today , multitude look back on the episode as a touching and groundbreaking moment in telly account . But at the fourth dimension , people control it mostly as a way for families with children to talk about death and sorrow . Nearly seven years later , the table were turned , and Big Bird appeared at memorial service for his creator , Jim Henson . Big Bird sang " It ’s Not Easy Being honey oil " as a protection to Kermit the Frog , one of the many character Henson had execute .
Henson is well known for creating theMuppets , a classifiable group of puppet characters whose popularity has endured almost since their origin . He is often considered to be one of the most influential puppeteer in the worldly concern . Others think of him as a very talented tyke ’s entertainer . hand the huge sports fan base for his most popular shows , it ’s well-situated to understand why . As puppeteer David Stephens suppose , " A majority of people still placepuppetryat the ' kiddie table . ' " But Jim Henson was n’t just a puppeteer ( although puppeteering at his level deal unbelievable talent and skill ) . He also wrote , direct and produced not only Muppet - related projects , but also projects that had nothing to do with the Muppets .
Jim Henson died suddenly in 1990 , of organ failure make by a Group A streptococcus infection ( Strepoccocus pyogenes ) , but his innovation , and the unique feeling that makes the Muppets so beloved , survive on .
Next , we ’ll look at how Henson got into puppetry in the first place . Here ’s a hint : It was n’t because he started out with a great lovemaking of the art form .
Puppeteering as a Means to an End
As a small nestling in Mississippi , Henson spent a lot of time with his enate gran , who was an creative person and help to foster his originative gifts . Many biographies cite his sexual love of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen on theradio , the marionette show " Kukla , Fran and Ollie " and the work of puppeteer Bil Baird as inspirations for his later body of work . However , Henson say that as a shaver , he was n’t concerned in puppets and did n’t play with them [ source : Harris ] . He also loved the zany humour of comic Ernie Kovacs and the irreverent , satirical production of musician Spike Jones . Henson basically sleep together the medium of television and begged until his parents bought one in 1950 . He have sex that he require to be a part of it .
ab initio major in studio art in college , Henson acquire a puppetry course , as well as course in textile and craft . He before long found a fashion into boob tube by puppeteering for local fry ’s TV show but considered puppets just " a means to an end " [ generator : Finch ] . In 1955 , Henson started working for another local boob tube place with his own puppet show , " Sam and Friends . " He also had a successful line making silkscreened event posters and was get laid for his extremely detailed , colourful and imaginative house painting style .
" Sam and Friends " did well , but Henson was unsure about making the allegiance to being a puppeteer after he graduated from college . A tour of Europe , where puppeteering was considered a serious nontextual matter descriptor that could toy with all ages , helped with his decision . After return to the U.S. , he hook up with his puppeteering partner , Jane , and his puppet begin appearing in commercials for everything from umber to cad intellectual nourishment , as well as on national talk display . He take form his own company in New York in 1963 and employ Frank Oz and Jerry Juhl shortly subsequently , when Jane quit puppeteering to kindle their tyke . Throughout the sixties , Henson Productions focused in the first place on makingcommercials .
In 1969 , Henson was invited to be part of a fender for a new fry ’s boob tube show call " Sesame Street . " Once the show got going , make up commercials became a thing of the past .
Next , we ’ll delve into Henson ’s role on " Sesame Street " and find out how he worked to forfend being typecast as a child ’s entertainer .
The Blessing and Curse of ‘Sesame Street’
Contrary to pop belief , Jim Henson was n’t a Lord of " Sesame Street " , but hisMuppetswere entire to the show ’s achiever . At first , Henson was n’t interested in participating in a children ’s show , but he was finally persuade to ratify on by the noble-minded educational and humanitarian goals of The Children ’s Television Workshop ( now the Sesame Workshop ): " to use the metier of video as a peter to facilitate kid learn [ source : Sesame Workshop ] . During the first seven seasons , Henson also produce brusk segments for the show , in which he employed several different proficiency : resilient - action picture show , traditional animation , stop - motility animation , Claymation andcomputer animation .
Around the fourth dimension of the show ’s first appearance , Henson began produce a series of Muppet TV special , which set the wheels in motion for a Muppet television show . The trouble was the typecasting that Henson had been afraid of when he contract up to run on " Sesame Street " – the networks did n’t know what to make of the lineament and conception , or of a puppet show that was n’t designate just for children [ source : Plume ] .
Meanwhile , Henson had the chance to attain a raw hearing when his squad performed survey on " Saturday Night Live " during that show ’s first season , but ultimately , it did n’t work . Although Henson appreciate what SNL creator Lorne Michaels was trying to reach , the quislingism never quite got off the ground [ source : Harris ] . His wish to reach a wide interview finally came true when " The Muppet Show " start filming in the United Kingdom in 1976 and became a huge hit .
More than just a puppeteer , Henson was a " cultivator of talent " and " see how to put the right endowment together to organize a powerhouse corps de ballet " [ germ : Stephens ] . Steve Whitmire was 18 when he was hired to work on " The Muppet Show . " In one incident , Whitmire was having trouble with his character , and they were move out of sentence . In an interview with Muppet Central , Whitmire say that while they could ’ve just pass it off to a more experienced puppeteer , Henson " would not let me get off the horse . " He adds " But it was so gentle [ … ] he was so patient and so slowly . I remember that so well because that ’s the way he was " [ source : MuppetCentral ] .
" The Muppet Show " spawned a successful film , and Henson end the show in 1981 to focus on make movies . While he returned to his roots a turn with the Saturday morning cartoon " Muppet Babies " in 1984 , he broke new TV soil with " Fraggle Rock , " which explored serious themes such as prejudice and class structure within an allegorical earth . Although he created the shows ( and perform some minor Fraggles ) , Henson was n’t hugely involved in their day - to - day operations .
We may have already surprise you with some of the things that Jim Henson has done , but there ’s so much more . Did you know that Henson made experimental motion-picture show ? say on to ascertain about some of his non - Muppet endeavor .
Henson Beyond The Muppets
Jim Henson was a panther and a commercial artist in college , but he also enjoyed experimenting with other art forms like film . The 1965 , nine - minute - longsighted film " Time Piece , " which star Henson , contains surreal imagery as well as animation . " Time Piece " was put up for an Academy Award . Henson also get together with electronica pioneer Raymond Scott on the short pants " Ripples " and " wheel that Go " ( create for Montreal ’s Expo ' 67 ) . In 1969 , NBC vent an minute - long telly pic directed and produce by Henson , which he co - wrote with Muppet author Jerry Juhl . " The Cube " is an experiential part about a man stuck in a livid way from which other people can fall and go .
In the mid-1960s , Henson also come out on " The Mike Douglas Show " and " The Tonight Show " with a sketch featuring a case know as The drifting Face . He consisted of two oculus and a mouth made of string controlled by invisible wires and was puppeteered over a prerecorded background of images . In some cases , he was animated using an analog animation system calledScanimate . Most of these public presentation were monologues or song by Henson .
While " The Muppet Show " was ending , Henson began working on movie and television receiver with darker , more grownup motif . The 1982 motion-picture show " The Dark Crystal " featured tool that looked nothing like the Muppets and were based on concept by fantasy artist Brian Froud . The workplace showed no humans on - silver screen , used newspaper clipping - edgeanimatronicsand was praise by critic . " The Labyrinth , " resign four years later , also showcased wight designed by Brian Froud . The film still focused on the basic themes of good and malevolent but was calorie-free than " The Dark Crystal . " Unfortunately , it was not as successful , although neither did particularly well financially .
Henson launched two different shows at the conclusion of the 1980s : " The narrator " in 1988 and " The Jim Henson Hour " in 1989 . " The fabricator " showcased European folktale and mythology with both humans and puppet , while " The Jim Henson Hour " was a mixture of shortsighted motion picture , sillyMuppetsketches and coloured tales . Both shows gain Emmys , yet both were quickly canceled .
At the time of his death , Henson was working on a deal to sell his company to The Walt Disney Company so he could rivet solely on creating instead of business . Puppeteer David Stephens states that " Jim felt very powerfully that one of Disney ’s strengths was its cultism to its characters . It was his hope towards the end of his life that Disney would be able to extend that strength to the role he created . "
People who worked with Jim Henson draw him as a visionary and an trailblazer who was always looking for something young . In the next section , we ’ll look at some of the innovative ideas that Henson contribute to the password of puppetry .
Henson the Visionary
Henson was always a originative innovator , and his outside - the - box thinking contributed to the Muppets ' live on popularity . When he started " Sam and Friends , " puppets were typically made out of very stiff fabric and were either square hand puppet or marionette . When he built the puppet that would later become Kermit the Frog ( ab initio an abstract , lizard - like creature ) , he used foam rubber for the physical structure . This gave it more flexibility and permit the puppeteer to be more expressive . The foam - pencil eraser ( laterreticulated polyfoam , which does n’t decay over fourth dimension ) dead body became the ground for most futureMuppets .
Another of Henson ’s puppet innovations had to do with the removal of the stage or rampart that hid the puppeteer from the interview . Although some mechanism for hide the performer was necessary in live puppet show , it was n’t always in television – the tv set was the " microscope stage . " Henson eventually used a proficiency on " The Muppet Show " call " platforming up , " in which the sets were build up luxuriously so that the performers could stand at full tallness ( although in many case , they had to twist into various positions to keep from being seen ) . The photographic camera framed the Muppet action above , and the Muppets could move freely about in their space . This was unmanageable for the performers , who had to regard their marionette ’s actions in a monitor .
Henson and his builders were speedy to make use of grow technology to make the Muppets more lifelike as well . removed controls were employed to make spike and eyebrows jiggle . Kermit and the Muppets did things that puppets had never done before , such as driving cars ( which involved using a little person to aim from the trunk ) and riding bicycles ( attain by marionetting from a Harold Hart Crane above ) . Near the destruction of Henson ’s life , Henson Productions was working on a system that would allow a single puppeteer to control condition multipleanimatroniccharacters . Known as theHenson Performance Control System , it would finally come through anAcademy Award .
Henson also made it a point to cover his Muppets as real characters when they were out in public – not just as puppets – which led other people to do the same . Kermit made talking show and game show appearances alone , and he also guest - hosted " The Tonight Show " and " Larry King Live . " The combination of more flexible materials in the building of the Muppets ( allow them to move freely in space ) and handle them like multitude made them more accessible to their audience – which was Jim Henson ’s destination all along .
Speaking of which , on the next and final varlet , we ’ll examine the unplumbed impact that Jim Henson had – and continue to have – on the world of puppetry and audiences everywhere
Henson’s Legacy
The party first establish in the early 1960s asMuppetsInc . blend through various name change and is now known as The Jim Henson Company . It is co - have by Henson ’s five child , who are all involve in running it and all active in the battleground of puppetry . The company has several goggle box series in production , as well as adult - orient theater and television receiver shows under the subdivision Henson Alternative .
Another branch , Jim Henson ’s Creature Shop , has been building marionette , as well as providingdigital effects , animation andanimatroniccreatures , since 1985 for both Henson productions and other company . The company sold off the possession of the " Sesame Street " part ( to Sesame Street Workshop ) and the Muppets ( to The Walt Disney Company ) in the early 2000s , but the Creature Shop still builds the puppets for " Sesame Street . "
Jim Henson champion the advancement of puppetry as an art form in the United States . In 1966 , he institute the U.S. chapter of the UNIMA ( Union Internationale de la Marionette ) . He and Kermit were both on hand in 1978 to switch off the ceremonial decoration for the opening night of the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta , Ga. , the nation ’s with child puppetry establishment . In 1982 , Henson founded the Jim Henson Foundation , a charitable organization that still provides Grant to artists and theater owners today .
In addition , Henson ’s impact is evident in the macrocosm of puppetry today . According to puppeteer David Stephens , " [ … ] there is now a immature generation who are discovering Jim Henson ’s workplace and being inspired by it . Puppets are still being used incommercials , music video , idiot box , film and in both large and small scale hot operation . "
The success of the Broadway melodious " The Lion King , " the charade melodic " Avenue Q " and sovereign puppet performances also speak volumes about the enduring popularity of puppetry , which would not have been possible without Jim Henson .
