Jim Henson: Muppet Master

In 2010, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History received a very special donation: The original Kermit the Frog puppet, created by Jim Henson over 50 years earlier. The design and craft was basic, fashioned from a swatch of his mum’s grey coat with a ping pong ball cut in half for eyes. Created in 1955 for a late-night sketch show, he wouldn’t even become identified as a frog until years later. Yet the simple, friendly-looking puppet took pride of place in the Museums’ collection of Henson creatures – According to Ryan Lintelman, the Smithsonian’s Entertainment Curator:

“This is one of the museum’s most treasured objects alongside George Washington’s uniform or Abraham Lincoln’s hat… I would make the argument that Kermit has had as much influence on American history and culture as those other iconic objects.”

Jim Henson and Kermit went very far from the early days of homespun puppets on Sam and Friends to international fame in the ‘70s and 80s before Henson’s untimely death in 1990. The Jim Henson Company still remains in the hands of the family today, and the late puppeteer and visionary’s huge menagerie of zany creatures have become as instantly recognisable as Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny. Let’s take a look at how the Muppets took over the world, and won millions of hearts along the way.

I was only a little kid when The Muppet Show was originally on telly in the UK. It ran from 1976 to 1981, which would make me about three years old when the final episode aired. It still left a big impression; compared to the reserved and beige world of most British TV productions at the time, it was like the biggest and craziest carnival honking and parping its way into town each week. Then there was Sesame Street which, set against the sticky-back-plastic children’s shows like Button Moon and Rainbow, also seemed incredibly colourful and exotic, like George Clinton landing his mothership in the middle of a jumble sale.

Back then, it didn’t occur to me that these wonderfully friendly characters – Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear, Bert and Ernie, the Cookie Monster – were all from the same creator and his brilliant team of designers and puppeteers. Not even when Kermit the Frog would show up on Sesame Street; that was just like, hey! What’s Kermit doing here?

Jim Henson learned his craft while studying a puppetry class at the University of Maryland in the 1950s, and it was on the course that he first met Jane Nebel, who would become his puppet comrade, business partner, and wife. Jim was fascinated by TV as a medium and saw puppetry as a means to getting into the business. He didn’t see puppets as something specifically for children. The pair got the gig creating and performing with puppets on Sam and Friends, a series of comedy skits that aired before The Tonight Show. Despite its 11.30pm slot, it was a hit and earned Henson more publicity on other shows, not to mention greater demand for his and Jane’s creations.

On Sam and Friends, the proto-Kermit was part of a larger ensemble of more complicated puppets. However, the style was significant: Made from soft fabric and operated like a sock puppet, Henson found that he could be very personal and expressive in his performance. He would later come to see Kermit as his alter-ego, especially as his fame grew and his team of talented artists got larger, a kindly and optimistic character at the centre of a madcap world.

Initially, Jim and Jane worked as a two-person team, creating and performing with their characters before they formed Muppets, Inc. in 1958. A trip to Paris in the same year convinced Henson that puppetry was a true art form and the Muppets (a combination of “marionette” and “puppet”) started making more appearances on other shows and TV commercials. 

Henson made hundreds of adverts plugging a variety of products, even though he was ambivalent about the commercial aspect. Even so, he made them as fun as everything else he did, and the anarchic short skits were a world away from the usual staid commercials featuring humans at the time. Despite his misgivings, Henson was astute enough to realise that bowing down to the altar of money (he literally built one for his team) would enable them to do so much more.

Kermit the Frog may have become Henson’s most famous creation, but Rowlf the Dog was Henson’s first breakout star in the early ‘60s. Originally created for a dog food commercial, the laidback pooch landed a regular guest spot on The Jimmy Dean Show, which in turn gained further exposure for the fledgling Muppet brand.

In 1960, Jim and Jane had their first of five children. Jane would spend more time away from performing and the creative process. Henson attended the Puppeteers of America convention in 1961 looking for people to team up with, which is where he met one of his most important long-term collaborators, Frank Oz. Around the same time, Henson also brought onboard two other key creative figures, Jerry Juhl and Don Schlin.

Things were going well, but Henson still wasn’t 100% committed to puppetry. He harboured a deep interest in experimental film and made several during the decade, such as Drums West (1961), Time Piece (1965), and Youth 68 (1968). A constant innovator, he also had other ideas he wanted to play with such as Cyclia, a nightclub where revellers would find themselves immersed in film projections on multi-faceted surfaces. The novel psychedelic club concept didn’t come to fruition and Henson went in another direction, setting up residence on Sesame Street.

First airing in November 1969, Sesame Street was born out of concerns that young kids were spending a lot of time in front of the TV. Since the United States was already a nation of telly addicts, was it possible to tap into what children already liked watching and also make it educational? The show’s creators, Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, certainly thought so, using techniques found in TV programmes to help little ones learn vocabulary, shapes, the alphabet, and basic mathematics.

To hold the attention of the young audience, Sesame Street would feature animated sequences, funny sketches and, of course, puppets. To this end, Henson and his team were hired to create a series of colourful characters for the show. Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, and Kermit the Frog all appeared in the first episode. The deal was sweetened for Henson because he would be allowed to make experimental short films such as the trippy number counts and he continued to add to the roster - other favourites like Mr. Snuffleupagus, Grover, Elmo, and Count von Count would follow in later seasons. Among the performers, Caroll Spinney played Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and other favourites, working on the show for almost 50 years until his retirement in 2018. Henson and Oz also operated some of the characters and formed a semi-improv double-act as Bert and Ernie.

Originally, the Sesame Street creators wanted to keep humans separate from Muppets, worried that a mix might confuse younger viewers. Yet their research found that kids often lost focus when the puppets weren’t on screen and the decision was made to combine live actors with Big Bird and the gang. That was where the magic happened – the Muppets brought the street to life and the show was an unexpected smash hit, proving to millions of viewers that learning could be fun and cool.

Despite all the success, Jim Henson worried that he might become pigeon-holed as a children’s entertainer. Besides, he had a wealth of other ideas he wanted to explore, including a ballet and Broadway show. He also had a long-gestating passion project: To make a variety show with Muppets.

Although Sesame Street had made Henson and his team famous, the concept of a mainstream TV muppet show for grown-ups was a hard prospect to sell – most network executives were stuck on the idea that puppets were just for kids. Two specials, The Muppets Valentine Show (1974) and The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence (1975) couldn’t convince them otherwise, and Muppet skits on Saturday Night Live only lasted for one season.

Eventually, the Muppets got their big break with adult audiences thanks to an unlikely source. Henson received a call from Lew Grade, the British media mogul and impresario behind popular shows like Thunderbirds, Crossroads and The Prisoner. Grade had seen one of the Muppet specials and was ready to give Henson the green-light for The Muppet Show.

Henson and his team decamped to Elstree Studios in the UK, building the format around the old English music hall tradition with Kermit the Frog as the host trying to maintain control of the chaos unfolding around him each week. Fozzie Bear told jokes, Gonzo the Great did ridiculous stunts, Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem (featuring manic drummer Animal) did musical numbers, and Statler and Waldorf heckled from the balcony. Miss Piggy, performed by Frank Oz, emerged from a chorus of singing pigs to become Kermit’s love interest and one of the show’s most beloved characters.

To say The Muppet Show all came together beautifully is something of an understatement and everyone wanted a piece of the action. Huge celebrities were soon queuing up for the coveted guest slots, which were a major part of the show’s success. Henson and his team were just as adept at getting the best out of their human guests as they were from their puppets, lightly poking fun at the celebrity’s persona while also giving them a chance to shine.

I watched back a whole bunch of guest spots while I was researching this piece, and one thing that really stood out was how much the stars seem to be enjoying themselves – they always looked like they were genuinely honoured to be on the show. Some standout moments include Kermit and the gang gently persuading Gene Kelly so sing his most famous number; Fozzie helping Harry Belafonte with the Banana Boat Song; old-school stand-up Milton Berle roasted by Statler and Waldorf; and Julie Andrews performing a beautiful rendition of “The Lonely Goatherd” from The Sound of Music.

Some appearances were even critically acclaimed. Rita Moreno (West Side Story) nabbed an Emmy for her terrific routine in which she was upstaged by Animal. Bernadette Peters and Peter Sellers also received nominations for the same award, the latter choosing to appear as various characters instead of himself, including a variation on Dr. Strangelove.

The Muppet Show was a massive success, winning numerous awards and syndicated in over 100 countries. The Muppet Movie followed in 1979, giving Henson and his team a chance to take Kermit and pals out of the theatre and into real-world settings with an all-star cast of cameos including James Coburn, Madeline Kahn, Telly Savalas, Elliot Gould, Bob Hope, Orson Welles, Steve Martin and Richard Pryor. Critics loved it and the movie was a box office hit, taking $65 million versus a $8 million budget.

But once again, Jim Henson wasn’t prepared to stand still and keep doing the same thing, no matter how popular or lucrative it may be. The Muppet Show only ran for five seasons between 1976 and 1981 before the final curtain fell and Henson moved on to even more ambitious projects.

The Dark Crystal was a labour of love for Jim Henson and its origins pre-dated the meteoric rise of The Muppet Show. He was inspired by illustrations in a compilation of Lewis Carroll’s works depicting regal crocodiles living in a palace wearing stately robes and jewellery – no doubt the seed that gave rise to the ghastly Skeksis. He began working on a story called The Crystal, which was developed further into a fantastical alien world with elements of Grimm’s Fairy Tales that was populated by strange creatures.

To help visualise his ideas, Henson hired Brian Froud after seeing his incredible paintings in the book Once Upon a Time and also started bringing other artists into the team. He realised that he would need to upgrade the puppet production line if he was to bring this grand vision to the big screen. To this end, Henson’s company bought an old post office in Hampstead, UK, which became the original Creature Workshop.

Ultimately, The Dark Crystal was a little too ambitious for most audiences at the time. The film was billed as the first live-action picture without any human actors on screen, which proved a little alienating for some. To make matters worse, the dialogue in the original version featured several invented languages and no narration, dumping the viewer straight into an outlandish world where they couldn’t understand half of what was being said. Test audiences hated it, forcing Henson to re-record lines that would match the lip movements of the puppets.

Although it made a reasonable amount of money at the box office, The Dark Crystal wasn’t a big hit  – The Muppet Movie took over $20 million more in theatres. Some attributed this to the far more scary nature of the film compared to the lovable worlds of Sesame Street and The Muppet Show and critics were mixed, suggesting the film was too much of a departure to sit well with audiences.

For his next non-Muppet related big screen venture (The Great Muppet Caper arrived in 1981 followed by The Muppets Take Manhattan in 1984), Henson acknowledged that The Dark Crystal had gotten “heavier than intended.” To course-correct, he teamed up with concept designer Brian Froud again to create a more light-hearted fantasy adventure, this time centering around a human girl setting out through a treacherous labyrinth to rescue her baby brother from the Goblin King. Indeed, goblins were the first thing on Henson and Froud’s agenda, later receiving criticism for similarities between Labyrinth and Maurice Sendak’s Outside Over There, which almost ended in a lawsuit.

To give the film a more playful edge, Terry Jones of Monty Python fame was brought in as early as 1984 to work on the screenplay. Jones disagreed with Henson about the direction of the story, and later griped that the finished film was very different from his original ideas. Others were given the opportunity to tweak the script, including George Lucas and Elaine May, who had previously worked on Tootsie and Warren Beatty’s Oscar-winning Reds.

With two main human characters involved, casting was very important. Helena Bonham-Carter, Laura Dern, Marisa Tomei, and Sarah Jessica Parker were among the many young female actors who auditioned before Jennifer Connolly landed the lead role. Henson decided he wanted a musical star to play Jareth the Goblin King and considered Prince, Mick Jagger, and Michael Jackson before courting David Bowie for the part. He’s really good in the role, bringing his enigmatic quality to a character who can veer from good-humour to threat while also providing a strange sexuality that – let’s face it – can seem a little uncomfortable in his scenes with Sarah. Bowie also contributed five songs for the film including “Magic Dance,” which was released as a single.

Like The Dark Crystal before it, Labyrinth was a miraculous feat of imagination and ingenuity from Henson and his collaborators – yet all the rich creation on display and the added human touch didn’t help it fare any better with critics and audiences. Several reviewers battered the film, taking issue with everything from the thin plot to Bowie’s performance. It took even less money at the box office, grossing only half its $25 million budget in the United States before crawling to a global total of $34 million.

Henson took the critical and commercial failure of Labyrinth hard. His son Brian told Life Magazine that the period after its release was the closest he’d ever seen his dad to depression. Jim kept himself busy as usual, however, throwing himself into other projects like Fraggle Rock, The Storyteller and The Jim Henson Hour. But Labyrinth was the last feature film he would direct.

Jim Henson passed away on May 16th 1990, succumbing to a bacterial infection stemming from a bout of pneumonia. His memorial took place less than a week later at the Cathedral of John the Divine in New York, and it wasn’t any ordinary memorial. Befitting a true visionary who thought of every detail, Henson had left instructions and his colleagues and family really stepped up to put on one last show in his honour. 

The most extraordinary moment came when Big Bird walked onstage and sang “Bein’ Green,” the signature tune of Kermit the Frog. If they’d had more time, perhaps the team would have found a way for Kermie himself to perform it. As it happened, a hush descended on the audience as the large yellow bird lamented the loss of a dear old friend. Carol Spinney, playing the character as he had done for over 20 years, gave a beautiful performance, his voice cracking with emotion as he sang. A writer for Life Magazine described it as “an epic and almost unbearably moving event,” and it’s hard to disagree. Jim Henson lived for his Muppets, and Big Bird’s heartfelt rendition of the song was perhaps the finest tribute to his creator.

My sister was a big fan of Stephen Lynch in the early 2000s and she got me into him as well. If you’re not familiar, he is an American musician and comedian who made a career performing off-colour songs about every taboo subject imaginable. His debut album A Little Bit Special dropped in 2000 and much of it wouldn’t fly today, and tucked in among the ditties about perverse sexual habits, errant Catholic priests and inserting gerbils where gerbils shouldn't go, is a song called Jim Henson’s Dead.

I remember groaning when I first saw that title on the track listing – what possible atrocity can Lynch commit against the beloved Muppeteer? I needn’t have worried, however, because the song is a outlier in the Stephen Lynch back catalogue:

Pokemon’s a silly faze,

Barney’s now just purple haze,

The Power Rangers lost their will to fight.

Yeah the Pigs in Space, they rule the sky,

And Oscar’s still a grouchy guy,

And Animal is looking dynamite.

Oh, Jim Henson’s dead and gone,

But his Muppets will live on,

And Kermit’s still hot, ‘cause it’s still not

Easy bein’ green…

On it goes, a surprisingly sweet and touching ode to Henson, showing that his Muppets even demand love and respect from comedians intent on offending everyone. Lynch’s lyrics captured the spirit of Henson’s creations and reiterated a simple truth: Jim Henson may have passed at an unreasonably young age but his Muppets indeed live on. I’m reminded of the scene at the end of Labyrinth when Sarah is feeling a bit sad once her adventure is over. She imagines Hoggle and her friends in the bedroom mirror and tells them she needs them. When she turns around, the whole gang is in the room with her. That’s the Muppets – they are always there whenever we need a touch of warmth, humour, and humanity.

So there you have it, our tribute to the late great Jim Henson. What are your favourite characters? Do you rate The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth? Let us know!