37 “This is a very unusual evening of theater” Ibid.
38 “We loved the idea of Rowlf” FO interview.
39 “I’m not a real dog” See JJ script for “Pirandello Meets Rin Tin Tin” (JHCA 14-0103).
40 “You will pay no attention to them” See “The Muppets Get It Together, Run Down: First Half” (JHCA 02-0564).
41 “present a series of contrasting moods and scale” JH, “Some Thoughts on ‘The Muppets in Concert’ Proposed for Alice Tully Hall—Early Fall, 1973.”
42 “He thought that we were applying” JH Quotes.
43 “The character comes first” Gottfried, “The Mastermind of the Muppets.”
44 “[Jim] was the art director” Caroly Wilcox, archival interview (JHCA 10356).
45 “[Jim] felt concerned” Al Gottesman, archival interview (JHCA 10368 trans). 188 “the one property I’ve wanted to do” See “List of Projects,” early 1970s (JHCA 14-0467).
46 “I was very good” BH interview.
47 “I was a strange kid” John Henson interview.
48 “[He and John] certainly cared for each other” Jane Henson interview.
49 “increas[ing] a child’s psychological awareness,” “a family mood with characters,” “by which time it is hoped” G. S. Lesser, Affect Show draft, July 19, 1972 (JHCA 14-0028).
50 “character that always sees things in abstract symbols” See Jim’s notes for the Affect Show (JHCA Affect Show folder).
51 “meaningful” Diana Birkenfield, memo, “My Thoughts on Your New Show for CTW,” circa 1972 (JHCA Affect Show folder).
52 “I’d say to him” FO interview.
53 “stand up to him and get angry at him” Al Gottesman interview.
54 “In my opinion” Birkenfield, “My Thoughts on Your New Show for CTW.”
55 “Diana was just a bit too relentless for Jim,” “powerfully silent” FO interview.
56 “Diana vs. Bernie” JH RB, July 27, 1973.
57 “Talked to Diana Birkenfield” JH RB, February 6, 1974.
58 “These things were never personal” Ibid.
59 “I think it’s fascinating” LH, email to the author, August 8, 2012.
60 “My parents weren’t really big on funerals” CH interview.
61 “Mom passed on” JH RB, October 21, 1972.
62 “account of life in the next stages of existence” Ruth Montgomery, A World Beyond (New York: Fawcett, 1985).
63 “My dad would never, ever be snippy” CH interview.
64 “I’ve read and studied” JH, introduction, “The Courage of My Convictions.”
65 “the innocence and the simple optimism” JJ, archival interview.
66 “very strongly” Richard Hunt, archival interview.
67 “One of the extraordinary things about Jim” WAMI, 59.
68 “I believe that life is basically a process of growth” Being Green, 125.
69 “awkward mess” JH RB, May 1972.
70 “We’ve got to stay together for the children” Al Gottesman interview.
71 “I looked underwater” LH interview.
72 “Like every other first-day skier” WAMI, 55.
73 “He really didn’t like to do something” Jane Henson interview.
74 “We were all about the same level” BH interview.
75 “[Driving] across country” LH interview.
76 “I’m not an ecology nut” George Maksian, “Jim Henson Fights Trash with Trash,” Los Angeles Times, March 26, 1973.
77 “fascinated with the design process,” “like an assassin” Dave Goelz interview.
78 “I was starting to tap into that” CH interview.
79 “Dad was driving fast cars” LH, note to the author, August 9, 2012.
80 “I think … he was setting an example” LH interview.
81 “He was so repressed” Ibid.
82 “His repressive silence” Ibid.
83 “I think my father was very intrigued” CH interview.
84 “DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE” JH RB, June 11, 1973.
85 “I think probably in the long run” Jane Henson interview.
86 “I probably just kept things inside for so long” Ibid.
87 “fiercely loyal” CH, email to the author.
88 “Gelbart out of B’way” JH RB, February 17, 1973.
89 “You’re a better artist than you are a client” Walt Kraemer to JH, May 10, 1973.
90 “We would carry these big” FO interview.
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE MUCKING FUPPETS
1 “The time is right” Proposal for The Muppet Show, circa 1969 (JHCA 14-0467).
2 “Puppets are fortunate,” “The Muppets, more than any other puppets” See various Muppet Show proposals (JHCA 14-0650, 14-0467).
3 “Somehow it seems to make” JH to Gary Smith, ATV, September 25, 1973 (JHCA 14-0034).
4 “struck with [Jim’s] originality and humor” WAMI, 84.
5 “We made this special to appeal to all ages” Sue Cameron, “Coast to Coast,” Hollywood Reporter, January 30, 1974.
6 “absolutely delightful” Review of The Muppets Valentine Show, Variety, February 6, 1974.
7 “we blew them up,” “one of those great roars of appreciation” Gottfried, “The Mastermind of the Muppets.”
8 “Hi, guys!” Dave Goelz interview.
9 “Bonnie Erickson’s boyfriend” WAMI, 27.
10 “I find this inspired material very beautiful” JH Quotes.
11 “He was always interested in getting beyond” JS, archival interview.
12 “I didn’t believe a word of them” FO interview.
13 “That’s Jim Henson” BB, archival interview.
14 “someone must have needed it” BH interview.
15 “My car was broken into,” “make fun of himself a little bit” Ibid.
16 “It would be a half hour show” See “List of Projects,” circa 1973.
17 “create[s] new dishes” See “The Muppet Show as a Series,” circa 1975 (JHCA Muppet Show box).
18 “[he] was in the office every day” Bonnie Erickson, archival interview (JHCA 14213).
19 “I used to ride with him a lot” BH, introduction to The Muppet Show DVD. Brian remembers the tapes being recorded by comedian Sid Caesar. Oz, however, was certain it was Brickman who had made the recordings.
20 “who represents the older establishment values” See “The Muppet Show as a Series.”
21 “These are all characters” Ibid.
22 “He’s a lot like me” “Seventy New Muppets Created by Jim Henson Make Their Bow in the Special, ‘The Muppets Show,’ Airing on ABC, Wednesday, March 19,” ABC Press Release, February 10, 1975 (JHCA Muppet Show box).
23 “Jim wanted to get out of performing a little bit” JS, archival interview.
24 “come over [to London] for lunch,” “I … was just knocked out” JH, private diary (JHCA 1597).
25 “produced substantial negative reaction” Memo on “Sex and Violence with the Muppets” [sic], Bob Boyett to Gloria Messina, December 6, 1974 (JHCA Muppet Show box).
26 “My 14-year-old daughter Lisa saw it” Gottfried, “The Mastermind of the Muppets.”
27 “freak city!” Bernie Harrison, “Muppets Special Brings in Spring,” Washington Star, March 19, 1975.
28 “Puppets are by their very nature symbolic” ABC Television Network promotional materials, February 10, 1974 (JHCA Muppet Show box).
29 “A lot of our work has always been adult-oriented” Unidentified clipping, December 6, 1974 (JHCA Muppet Show box).
30 “He had lots of changes which were necessary” Richard Hunt, archival interview.
31 “zippy” “Television Reviews,” Variety, March 19, 1975.
32 “There was a mixed reaction” “REPORT: Consumer Survey taken on the evening of Wednesday, March 19, 1975 after the Jim Henson Special” (JHCA Muppet Show box).
33 “Perhaps one thing that has helped me” Being Green, 52.
&nb
sp; 34 “We thought it was gonna be great” BB, archival interview.
35 “Puppets are funny things” “Jim Henson’s Self-Imposed Fantasyland,” Herald (Palatine, Illinois), November 12, 1977.
36 “translat[e] Jim’s philosophy and essential ethic” Al Gottesman, archival interview (JHCA 10368 trans).
37 “fair” DL, archival interview.
38 “He was very interested in her opinion,” “ever consider joining,” “That was a dream,” “I’m very serious, Dave” Ibid.
39 “We had to work on Jim’s image” Ibid.
40 “Friends, the United States of America” “The Muppets” pitch reel script, circa 1975 (JHCA Muppet Show folder).
41 “If they don’t buy this” BB, archival interview.
42 “it didn’t sell” DL, archival interview.
43 “so that [independent] producers” “FCC Limits Network Program Ownership,” Los Angeles Times, May 7, 1970.
44 “something good for us” DL, archival interview.
45 “a wonderful goddamn thing” BB, archival interview.
46 “He described the show” Harris.
47 “NBC Show” See Jim’s daily desk calendar for 1975 (JHCA 9146).
48 “We wanted to redefine comedy” Shales and Miller, 69.
49 “NBC was so scared” BB, archival interview. See also interviews with BB at the Archive of American Television.
50 “I’d always liked and been a fan” Lorne Michaels, interviewed by Judy Harris, unpublished interview, September 1982 (JHCA 21463).
51 “Mystic set up” See Jim’s notes for Saturday Night Live (JHCA 14-0755).
52 “a place called Gortch” See Jim’s full proposal for “Land of Gortch” (JHCA 14-0755). While the sketches are usually referred to as “The Land of Gorch,” I am holding to Jim’s spelling.
53 “He was the hardest-working person” Dave Goelz interview.
54 “They had their style, we had ours” FO interview.
55 Oz grumbled Ibid. Hansome would be replaced by Fran Brill in subsequent episodes.
56 “Somehow what we were trying to do” Harris.
57 “I think our very explosive, more cartoony comedy” Star Wars Insider, 42, 69–70.
58 “very frustrated” JJ, archival interview.
59 “It was a very, very difficult premise” Lorne Michaels, interviewed by Judy Harris.
60 “Whoever drew the short straw,” “I won’t write for felt” Shales and Miller, 69–70.
61 “They weren’t interested in the Muppets” JJ, archival interview.
62 “The Muppets were known” FO interview.
63 “Lorne Michaels loved them” DL, archival interview.
64 “The good part” Star Wars Insider, 42, 69–70.
65 “a little grass” Jerry Nelson interview.
66 He was determined, then, to take an acid trip This story was told, and corroborated, by interviews with Frank Oz and Jerry Nelson, as well as archival interviews with Jon Stone.
67 “was not a great thing” BB, Archive of American Television interview, http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/bernie-brillstein.
68 “I always loved [Scred]” Jerry Nelson, interviewed by Kenneth Plume.
69 “Lorne, being Lorne” BB, Archive of American Television interview.
70 “see if he would do a TV series for me in England” WAMI, 84.
71 “all over the country” BB, archival interview.
72 “always felt Henson would be interested” Abe Mandell, “Creative and Marketing Talents Wed in Selling ‘Muppet Show,’ ” Variety, January 3, 1979.
73 “I said, ‘I’ve saved you a lot of money’ ” BB, archival interview.
74 “We have a deal” Ibid.
75 “We finally did it!” Ibid.
76 “I love you” Ibid.
77 “We’re doing twenty-four half-hour shows, guaranteed!” FO interview.
78 Four days later “New Comedy-Music Show Set for Prime Access,” Broadcasting, October 27, 1975; Ruth Thomas, “Muppets to Do Series,” Sunday Spectator, November 16–22, 1975; “ITC Sells ‘Muppet Show’ to CBS O&Os,” Variety, October 29, 1975.
79 “I always figure people stay” Lorne Michaels, interviewed by Judy Harris.
80 “I really respect Lorne” Harris.
81 “Dear Gang” See postcard from “The Muppets” to “Sat. Night Live,” circa 1977 (JHCA 14-0757).
CHAPTER NINE: MUPPETMANIA
1 “British Louis B. Mayer” FO interview.
2 “talking around ideas” JJ, Puppetry Journal (Fall 2005), 6.
3 “[none] of us were convinced” JJ, archival interview.
4 “very, very little money” DL, archival interview. See also Guests folder (JHCA 14-0661).
5 “The first … guests were” BB, Archive of American Television interview.
6 “We got a blood bath,” “too British” DL, archival interview.
7 “Grade had told us, ‘Don’t be British’ ” FO interview.
8 “were all wrong” JJ, archival interview.
9 “Jim was pissed at them!” DL, archival interview.
10 “It’s not the end of the world” Ibid.
11 “We knew we wanted to have a stand up comedian” “Jim Henson’s Self-Imposed Fantasyland.”
12 “Fozzie was a disaster” JJ, archival interview.
13 “Fozzie did help make Statler and Waldorf” OMAM, 39.
14 “Frank was dying,” “working in a vacuum,” “find that bear” JJ, archival interview.
15 “real shower” Living arrangement memos (JHCA 20216).
16 “[Jim was] accused of spoiling everyone” DL, archival interview.
17 “We were setting up with this room” Bonnie Erickson interview.
18 “slightly sticking their necks out” Stephen Webbe, “Muppet Mania,” Christian Science Monitor, December 1976.
19 “Let’s leave that in” Richard Hunt, archival interview.
20 “[Jim] worked the hardest of anybody” DL, archival interview.
21 “a light day” JJ, archival interview.
22 “I’m really enjoying it” Ruth E. Thompson, “Lavish New Muppet Series Product of Henson’s Wizardry with Puppets,” The Leader, October 31, 1976.
23 “We phased out that ballroom dancing thing” JJ, archival interview.
24 “What he always seemed to do best” Richard Hunt, archival interview.
25 “these puppets are not just characters” JH Quotes.
26 “How the characters play” Ibid.
27 “He would drive [the writers] crazy,” “the implied joke,” “We can show that!,” “There would be fairly heated arguments” JJ, archival interview.
28 “Most TV humor is verbal” Morton Moss, “Muppet Man Henson Tracks Puppets’ Humor to Source,” Herald Examiner (Los Angeles), September 30, 1976.
29 “Fozzie’s ineptness” JJ, archival interview.
30 “a simple guy who wants to be funny and loved” Jean Rook, “Jean Rook Meets Miss Piggy,” Daily Express (London), August 19, 1977.
31 “We sent the material down on the floor,” “They just played the hell out of it” JJ, archival interview.
32 “funny not because of what he does” Bill Marvel, “TV’s Captivating Muppets Are … The Adult Kids’ Show,” National Observer, May 1977.
33 “He relates to the other characters” WAMI, 33.
34 “There’s a bit of me in Kermit” Cordell Marks, “The Muppet Men,” TV Times (U.K.), undated article.
35 “I suppose he is not unlike me” Martin Jackson, “Now Cool It, Miss Piggy,” Daily Mail (London), August 1977.
36 “Me not crazy?” The Muppet Show, Season 3, Episode 15.
37 “a bunch of goddamn lunatics!” FO interview.
38 “It’s The Mary Tyler Moore Show” JS, archival interview.
39 “Sometimes a character will start” David Hawley, “Muppets Pull the Strings on the Children in All of Us,” untitled clip, M
ilwaukee, circa 1977 (JHCA Muppet Show box).
40 “I was working as Miss Piggy with Jim” Culhane, “The Muppets in Movieland.”
41 “The place fell apart” JJ, archival interview.
42 “Miss Piggy was to have been a minor character” “Henson Muppets Bridge even Barriers of Language,” Greencastle Banner Graphic (Indiana), February 3, 1978.
43 “Rowlf could have been one of the stars” WAMI, 119.
44 “Poor Rowlf” Jane Henson interview.
45 “She takes over” “The Muppets: TV’s Unlikely Superstars,” Knickerbocker News (Albany, New York), June 15, 1978.
46 “But let’s get it straight” Rook, “Jean Rook Meets Miss Piggy.”
47 “It’s a man?!?” FO interview.
48 “real, real tough,” “The whole Muppet Show conceit” JJ, archival interview.
49 “She grew up on a small farm” FO interview.
50 “She’s sensuous and she’s been hurt a lot” Rook, “Jean Rook Meets Miss Piggy.”
51 “endless [and] fairly pointless,” “He was this little, little kid,” “Richard, shut up and go away!” Richard Hunt, archival interview.
52 “I was so upset” Bonnie Erickson interview.
53 “I was very insecure” Dave Goelz interview.
54 “Gonzo believes he is a worthless creature” Marks, “The Muppet Men.”
55 “a loser who did these horrible acts” Dave Goelz interview.
56 “This could be Gonzo,” “this little dark frightened character” Ibid.
57 “They loved watching Jim and Frank work” Dave Goelz, interviewed by Kenneth Plume, “Gonzo Puppeteerism: An Interview with Dave Goelz,” Muppet Central website, January 28, 2000, http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/interviews/goelz2.shtml.
58 “Jim kept saying, ‘Well, do it again’ ” Dave Goelz interview.
59 “Gonzo can still get very, very depressed” Marks, “The Muppet Men.”
60 “As I got confidence, he got confidence” Dave Goelz interview.
61 “is an aspect of my own personality” The Muppet Show newsletter, 1978.
62 “really tough” “Some [guests] relate to us” Webbe, “Muppet Mania.”
63 “to work in a sort of fun land” “Jim Henson’s Self-Imposed Fantasyland.”
64 “Although he never told people what to wear,” “The women stars fell in love with Jim,” “Listen” DL, archival interview.
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