My brother sent me this touching photo and I just wanted to share it here:
(http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc311/illoman/image.jpg)
I remember when Sesame Street first aired. Loved the Muppets then, still love them now...
So many fond memories of the Muppets..........especially watching the Prime Time "Muppet Show" with my dad, and seeing him just roar with laughter.
BTW, Jim Henson's studio in Hollywood is the studio originally built in 1917 by the immortal Charlie Chaplin. It was built to resemble an English village in order to assuage the outraged neighbors who didn't want a big ugly warehouse type studio in their midst.
(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1191/1235540738_d73415151c.jpg)
(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1029/1235540734_1f24855dd2.jpg)
And here it is today, still the home of Henson's Muppets, with Kermit added atop the gate dressed as Chaplin.
(http://kittypackard.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/jimhensonstudio.jpg)
I believe Jim's voice was a huge part of the Muppets popularity. After his passing it just wasn't the same. He brought his own stamp on it which was lost after he was gone.
Thanks for sharing that studio history, Gary...how cool the see the Chaplin-Henson connection honored with that statue. Unusually sentimental especially in chew 'em up and spit 'em out Hollywood.
I was shaken by the news of Jim Henson's sudden, unexpected death in 1990. He was such a great loss.
When Jim died, the Muppets lost their heart and gentle charm. The most suggestive references to flirting, romantic obsession and inter-species mating where subtley handled in a way that made them appropriate for the youngest of audiences - and still hysterically funny for adults. The Swedish Chef's unending attempts to catch, slaughter and cook a turkey were never anything but cute (you KNEW he would never suceed in using his butcher on that darn bird). The shouted insults from the two old guys in the audience concentrated so heavily on being clever, that they never really came off as being truly mean.
When Jim Henson died, the Muppets lost that lovely innocense. The humor became less subtle and developed a harder edge. The heart was gone.
The Muppet franchise was sold out to Disney shortly before Jim Henson died. At that time, I feared what might happen to the Muppets after that sale. Then, when the news of Jim's death was announced, the end of the Muppets as we knew them seemed imminent. The Muppets have continued with Henson's son at the helm, but with too little envolvement from Frank Oz. I wonder what the Muppets would be like with Oz being the driving force behind the later movies.
The last great Muppet movie was "A Muppet Christmas Carol". It was completed not long after Jim's death, but benefited from his total envolvement in the development and production.
Here is one of my favorite Muppet images:
(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6166/6197124502_998ab12b0f_b.jpg)
Henson Productions and Disney are working on a movie biography of Jim Henson to be called "The Muppet Man" with a VERY tentative release date of sometime in 2013. I'm not holding my breath.
Thanks for all the history! I had never seen pictures of the place that made the magic before! What a wonderful human being Jim Henson was :)
I still laugh til I cry at the Muppetvision 3D show at Hollywood Studios, even though I've seen the show 8 times! The characters rank right up there with "human" comedians! They are as entertaining today as they were when I was young. My 10 year old niece collected the entire dvd series as birthday gifts, and she watches The Muppet Show regularly. I had forgotten how many different stars were on that show. I think I might need to get those dvds, too :)