Simplicity wins in high-tech age

Press, 18 June 1986, Page 16

Simplicity wins in high-tech age

By

IAN GORDON,

Features International

Jim Henson is not ashamed to admit that one Of his best friends is a frog; a make-believe frog, made from the sleeve of an old coat.

Henson has good reason to admire his unprepossessing pal. Kermit the frog has made him a multi-millionaire. Kermit is the star of the show Henson created — “The Muppets” — one of the zaniest and most successful shows in television history. In a high-tech age, its simple glove puppets and lovable characters have won it an audience of 300 million in more than 100 countries.

“The Muppets” have starred in more than 100 television shows and two movies. They have won fop entertainment awards and been installed in the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. Fan clubs have sprung up around the world, books have been written about them and psychologists have claimed to get vital clues about people’s pesonalities according to which Muppet they choose as their favourite. While other television, shows get more complicated, technical and expensive, the original Kermit still exists, with his eyes made from two

halves of a split ping-pong ball (although he now has a few doubles) stored in cardboard boxes in Henson’s office on East 69th Street, New York City. But nobody will say exactly how many Kermits exist.

Henson explains: “I am not sure I would like to talk about that A magazine once published the fact that there were nine Miss Piggys, but I don’t think people want to know that.

“It is like being told there is more than one Lassie!” Some secrets behind the making of “The Muppets” can be revealed, however. For example, the voice of Kermit is the voice of Jim Henson himself. His wife, Jane, once said the best way to find out what Henson was really thinking was to listen to him playing the part of the frog.

The voices of Miss Piggy, Fozzy Bear and Sam Eagle all come from the same man, Frank Oz. Now 41, he has been working with puppets since he was 12.

Henson, Oz and a team of about 10 others make most of the main char-

acters move. They lie or crouch under a one-metre high platform working the glove puppets. It is a long and uncomfortable business. The action for each scene is first sketched on huge boards. The puppeteers monitor their own movements on video screens, and frequently film has to be scrapped when they inadvertently let their arms appear in view. A whole day’s filming usually produced about 10 minutes which can actually be shown on television.

The production costs are enormous. Jim Henson once calculated that it worked out at $5 a second.

There are a total of 150 people working for The Muppet organisation at workshops in London and New York. They include artists, sculptors, designers and jewellers. Among the rare mechanical aids which have been introduced to “The Muppets” are a pair of motors inside Fozzy’s head which can make his ears twirl, and a device which enables Kermit to cross his legs.

In films and other projects, Jim Henson has used computers and special effects, but he is reluctant to move too far from the simple concept behind “The Muppets.”

“The fact that ’The Muppet Show’ characters are simple and straightforward puppets does not make them any worse than their more sophisticated rivals. In many cases, the simpler the better."

The charm certainly appeals to superstars invited to appear on "The Muppet Show.” They have included Bob Hope, Raquel Welch, Elton John, John Denver and Rudolf Nureyev.

“I could never tell in advance which guest stars would be good with

’The Muppets’,” says Henson.

“We would spend a week getting to be friends before taping the show. But, particularly in the first rehearsal, the guests would often speak their lines directly at the puppeteers, instead of at the Muppets.” The latest success story is “The Muppet Babies,” which screens on Saturdays oh One at 7.30 a.m.

These were first seen in the film, “Muppets Take Manhattan,” and made such a good impression that an American television network commissioned a new series.

It won the 1985 Emmy Award for the best animated show. Now Jim Henson is coming under pressure to build a Muppetland — a giant theme park on the lines of Disneyland. He is reluctant, so far, to commit himself. “I love Disneyland, but it would be such an enormous project to build a Muppetland that it would take up all my time. “My life is wrapped up in the production of new ideas. It takes a lot of creative energy to keep the whole thing going.” Whatever the future holds, nothing and no-one can take the place of Kermit in his affections. “I love what I do and I have never, ever got fed up with Kermit. “I don’t know where I would be without that little guy.” — Copyright, Features International.