127 “This guy Henson’s” Howard Morris to BB, May 19, 1967 (JH 5780).
128 “strange electronic pulses and rhythms” See Jim’s proposal for “Inside My Head: A Concept Outline for a One Hour Experiment in Television,” circa 1968 (JHCA Inside My Head folder).
129 “to communicate the ideas of Youth” Proposal for “A Collage of Today” (JHCA 14-0886).
130 “We worked twenty hours a day” Barry Clark to David Granahan, May 7, 1968 (JHCA 140882).
131 “Back in the sixties” JH Quotes.
132 “We got into” JJ, archival interview.
133 “Visually the program” John Voorhees, “TV Can Be Art Form,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 23, 1968.
134 “No television program” Ralph Gleason, “NBC’s Portrait of Our Youth,” circa 1968 (JHCA Youth ’68 box).
135 “one of the most inspired programs of this season” “Youth 68,” Variety, April 24, 1968.
136 “excellent, brave, courageous, Hippies and drug addicts” See various viewer mail (JHCA Youth ’68 box). Also R. L. Conner to KNBC, April 21, 1968 (JHCA 14-0886).
137 “a novelty act” Jerry Nelson interview.
138 “a few larger projects,” “attempt a feature film” Barry Clark to David Granahan, May 7, 1968 (JHCA 14-0882).
139 “a weird kind of dark ritual look” JJ, archival interview.
140 “original, surrealistic comedy” See JH, JJ original screenplay for The Cube. Also “ ‘The Cube,’ Original Surrealistic Comedy by Jim Henson and Jerry Juhl, Set for ‘NBC Experiment in Television,’ ” NBC Press Release, January 21, 1969 (JHCA Cube production box).
141 “I see no hope for it” Tom Egan to BB, November 4, 1966 (JHCA Cube production box).
142 “After Time Piece, Jim often got frustrated” FO interview.
143 “[Jim’s] inspiration” WAMI, 44–45.
144 “Congratulations” A. Kleihauer to KNBC-TV, February 25, 1969 (JHCA Cube production box).
145 “We were in an era” JJ, archival interview.
146 “A dramatic highlight of the season” Ben Gross, “A Fascinating TV Play, ‘The Cube,’ Makes a Hit,” New York Daily News, circa February 1969.
147 “excellent,” “provocative,” “a challenge and a pleasure” See assorted correspondence, JHCA Cube production box.
148 “it must have been intended” “Television Reviews,” Variety, February 25, 1969.
149 “the most disciplined attention” F. Dionne to JH, February 22, 1969 (JHCA Cube production box).
150 “Dear Mr. Dionne” JH to F. Dionne, March 13, 1969 (JHCA Cube production box).
151 “That’s actually very Jim!” FO interview.
152 “work Jim” LH interview.
153 “That isn’t something” Jane Henson interview.
154 “I used to always think” JH Quotes.
155 “demonstrate the technique and approach” Robert Reed to JH, January 13, 1968 (JHCA 14-0874).
156 “just decided he didn’t want to do it” “The Greenwich Years” exhibit.
157 “This is completely wrong” See draft contract with Young & Rubicam, March 3, 1969 (JHCA 14-0190).
158 “Tape Pilot Shows” JH RB, July 9–18.
CHAPTER SIX: SESAME STREET
1 “I think there was a kind of collective genius” WAMI, 74.
2 “We discovered we had a tremendous empathy” JS, archival interview (Henson Family Properties).
3 “to create a successful television program” Borgenicht, 9.
4 “I want this show to jump and move fast” Beatrice Berg, “Goodbye Bang, Burn, Stab, Shoot,” New York Times, November 9, 1969.
5 “I talked to [Joan Cooney] for fifteen minutes” JS, archival interview.
6 “I hadn’t remembered the name at first” Davis, 150.
7 “There was a huge ambivalence there” JJ, archival interview.
8 “Jim got involved right away” “Jim Henson Productions Legacy Meeting—Jon Stone and Jerry Nelson Discuss the Beginnings of Sesame Street, May 26, 1993” (JHCA interviews box).
9 “This was an educational children’s show” JJ, archival interview.
10 “this future amorphous television show” “Jim Henson Productions Legacy Meeting.”
11 “He said, ‘So, Brian’ ” BH interview.
12 “I fought like hell” JS, archival interview.
13 “if nobody came up with a better idea” Davis, 156–57.
14 “The design was so simple” WAMI, 61.
15 “We played with who did what” FO interview.
16 “it’s a total coincidence” “Jim Henson Productions Legacy Meeting.”
17 “I don’t like it” John Culhane, “Report Card on Sesame Street,” New York Times, May 24, 1970.
18 “We had been told by all our advisors” WAMI, 71.
19 “to have a character that the child could live through,” “Big Bird, in theory, is himself a child” JH, Henson’s Place: The Man Behind the Muppets (documentary).
20 “Oscar is there” JS, archival interview.
21 “an experimental production” Spinney, 20.
22 “I couldn’t see my films” Ibid., 21.
23 “Jim never just wanted to chat” Ibid.
24 “I saw your show” Ibid., 25.
25 “I wasn’t in California very long at all” Eide, “In the Company of Genius,” 5.
26 “When Big Bird was being developed” WAMI, 57.
27 “Fortunately” Spinney, 41.
28 Oscar’s Salt of the Sea Located at 1157 Third Avenue, just around the corner from the Muppet office. The name of the restaurant has often been mistakenly recalled as “Oscar’s Tavern.” The Jim Henson Company Archives contains a number of doodles drawn on napkins from the restaurant. Borgenicht, 107–8.
29 “It would lift up” JS, archival interview.
30 “Left hands are much stupider” Davis, 187.
31 “I hoped I had the right voice,” “That’ll do fine” Spinney, 53.
32 which Jim later admitted Ted Gottfried, “The Mastermind of the Muppets,” Plain Dealer (Cleveland), September 11, 1975.
33 “stocking puppets” Jack Gould, “This ‘Sesame’ May Open the Right Doors,” New York Times, November 23, 1969.
34 Washington, D.C., City Council approved a resolution Elizabeth Shelton, “Sesame Street Opens,” Washington Post, November 11, 1969.
35 “It’s clever and witty and charming” “Sesame Street Swings,” Detroit Free Press, November 24, 1969.
36 “an undisputed hit” Jack Gould, “TV: Important Breakthroughs for Sesame Street,” New York Times, December 10, 1969.
37 “I didn’t know what success meant” Joan Ganz Cooney, archival interview.
38 “only Jim” FO interview.
39 “Apparently, the Children’s Television Workshop” Jack Gould, “ ‘Hey, Cinderella’ Given as A.B.C. Classic,” New York Times, April 11, 1970.
40 “For the past ten or twelve years” Davis, 212–13.
41 “extreme sensitivity to commercialization” Irving Schlessel to Richard C. Waldburger, Esq., August 14, 1970 (JHCA 14-0190).
42 “We were really checking the clocks” DL, archival interview.
43 “The attitude you have as a parent” Being Green, 113.
44 “Jim was intrigued with his children” Ibid., 109.
45 “Lisa has great taste” Harry Harris, “Muppet Master Lauds Sesame Street,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 9, 1969.
46 “odd, because we’re really not kid oriented” Frank Langley, “The Moog Makes the Muppets,” undated clip, Sesame Street early publicity folder (JHCA 06-0389, folder 2).
47 “I forgot about the party” “Jim Henson Productions Legacy Meeting.”
48 “Puppetry is different” “He’s His Own Best Audience: Muppeteer Jim Henson Watches TV While He Works,” TV Guide, August 6, 1972.
49 “We look for a basic sense of performance” Harris.
50 “but puppeteers do th
eir own voices” Srianthi Perera, “An Interview with Fran Brill,” Arizona Republic, January 8, 2008.
51 “That was very much criticized” Joan Ganz Cooney, interview on Archive of American Television website, http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/joan-ganz-cooney.
52 “She brought a sharpness” FO interview.
53 “analogous to a family of boys” Fran Brill, email to the author, July 24, 2011. 156 “When I was eighteen” Richard Hunt, archival interview.
54 “God, he was a comedic force” FO interview.
55 “It was one of the most exhausting times I ever had” Caroly Wilcox, archival interview (JHCA 10356).
56 “He’d be in the back working” FO interview.
57 a beautiful short film A perpetual Sesame Street favorite, the song in the film—sung by Juli Christman—was written by Alan Scott, Marilyn Scott, and Keith Textor.
58 “My dad made the whole thing himself” LH interview.
59 “I like both a lot” Maurice Sendak to JH, September 15, 1970 (JHCA 14-0787).
60 “Yanked by the suits at CTW,” “the representative of the audience” JS, archival interview.
61 “Jim never considered anything to be ‘done’ ” Spinney, 41.
62 “What the hell is that?” Spinney, 59.
63 “He’s not a villain, not horrible” Ibid., 54.
64 “There’s no heart of gold” JS, archival interview.
65 “he didn’t really enjoy it” “Jim Henson Productions Legacy Meeting.”
66 “they’re just handed to me” Robert Higgins, “The Muppet Family and How It Grew,” TV Guide, May 16, 1970.
67 “There was a big three-hole binder” JJ, archival interview.
68 “two weeks to a month” Higgins, “The Muppet Family and How It Grew.”
69 “Jim was an extraordinarily serious, yet silly man” Gikow, 43.
70 “Ready to wiggle some dolls?” FO interview (and verified by pretty much every Muppet performer).
71 “like a day off … that was my holiday” “Jim Henson Productions Legacy Meeting.”
72 “He loved the one-on-one aspect of directing” FO interview.
73 “The most sophisticated people I know” JH Quotes.
74 “Often, the material that we were given” WAMI, 59.
75 “Performing the Ernie and Bert pieces” Gikow, 46.
76 “We respected the writers’ jokes” FO interview.
77 “The best thing of all” Borgenicht, 183.
78 “And what are we teaching?” FO interview.
79 “I can’t imagine doing Bert now” Gikow, 47.
80 “They’re Jim and Frank” JS, archival interview.
81 “There are certainly elements of our own personalities” Gikow, 47.
82 “We were two people” FO interview.
83 “it was a magical coming together” JS, archival interview.
84 “to be a kind of Kermit spokesperson” Ibid.
85 “Kermit is the closest one to me” Tom Shales, “Ta-Dahh! It’s Jim Henson, Creator of Kermit the Frog and King of the Muppets,” Washington Post, January 25, 1977.
86 “I live kind of within myself” ABC Television Network promotional materials, February 10, 1975 (JHCA Sesame Street box).
87 “an explosion of energy” FO interview.
88 “On Sesame Street, the monsters” JH Quotes.
89 “Blue Monster” “In Just an Hour a Day, Fewer Learning Cavities,” Life, October 31, 1969.
90 “I noticed the purity of the dog” FO interview.
91 “really enabled me to get a real feel” “Jim Henson Productions Legacy Meeting.”
92 “Jim loved complicated puppetry” Joan Ganz Cooney, Archive of American Television interview.
93 “Every time we built” JH Quotes.
94 “It wasn’t much fun for Richard” Jerry Nelson, interviewed by Jessica Max Stein, http://jessicamaxstein.com/2010/05/jerry-nelson-interview-part-i.
95 “He was like a puppy” Ibid.
96 “I always used to do Jim’s right hand” Richard Hunt, archival interview (Henson Family Properties).
97 “blue sky!” Fran Brill interview.
98 “we’d give the puppeteer a concept or a problem” “Jim Henson Productions Legacy Meeting.”
99 “I’m working with Ernie” Gottfried, “The Mastermind of the Muppets.”
100 “Family, school and television” Higgins, “The Muppet Family and How It Grew.”
101 “TV is frustrating” Foxy Gwynne, “Jim Henson and His Muppets,” circa 1972 (JHCA Sesame Street box).
102 “Kids love to learn” Higgins, “The Muppet Family and How It Grew.”
103 “It’s why the show is a success” JJ, archival interview.
104 “He loved to perform with Frank and Jerry” Gikow, 183.
105 “destroyed God knows how much” “How Cookie Monster Destroys Work Habits of George Plimpton,” Wall Street Journal, April 22, 1971.
106 “profusion of aims” “Who’s Afraid of Big, Bad TV?,” Time, November 23, 1970.
107 “nondemocratic and possibly dangerous for young Britons” “BBC Finds Sesame St. Not Ducky,” New York Post, July 7, 1971.
108 “Jim’s contribution was absolutely essential” “Jim Henson Productions Legacy Meeting.”
109 “Jim Henson’s Muppets” Jack Gould, “TV: ‘Sesame Street’ Begins Its Second Semester,” New York Times, November 11, 1970.
110 “I think it wasn’t until Sesame Street” JH Quotes.
111 “When Sesame Street came on” Harris.
112 “I just stopped doing that stuff” Ibid.
113 “my goals have changed” JH to Robert H. Steen, Quaker Oats Company, May 18, 1971.
114 “hauled in $350,000 in ’69” Higgins, “The Muppet Family and How It Grew.”
115 “really ugly” Gwynne, “Jim Henson and His Muppets.”
116 “Foundation support is impermanent” Gikow, 264.
117 “If I have a song to sing” JH, “The Producer’s Point of View,” Action for Children’s Television (Avon, 1970), 25–26.
118 “I told him” BB, archival interview.
119 “You can’t take advantage of the love” “Jim Henson and His Magic Muppet Empire,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 3, 1987.
120 “If Jim or the Muppets” Ibid.
121 “Here’s what you have to do” BB, archival interview.
122 “I said no” Joan Ganz Cooney, Archive of American Television interview.
123 “Our bottom line consideration” “Jim Henson and His Magic Muppet Empire.”
124 “receive the widest possible distribution” Leonard Sloane, “Toys Are Talk of Sesame Street,” New York Times, July 31, 1971.
125 “more Muppets or more educational value” Al Gottesman interview.
126 “Jim was incredibly proud” JJ, archival interview.
127 “His means of expression” FO interview.
CHAPTER SEVEN: BIG IDEAS
1 “We can do anything you like” JH to Bill Persky, October 22, 1970 (JHCA 14-0370).
2 “I’d sit there” JS, archival interview.
3 “We need a song for a frog” Davis, 256.
4 “I really found it so difficult” “Girl with a Heart of Goldie,” New Jersey Record, February 7, 1971.
5 “one day he was working” See Jim’s mid-1970s pitch for the unrealized television documentary The Autumn Years (JHCA 13501 Misc).
6 “delightful visual treat for the kids” Variety, December 23, 1970.
7 “It was their show” See assorted reviews, 1970 (JHCA Great Santa Claus Switch folder).
8 “Henson deserves credit” Variety, December 23, 1970.
9 “Time is slipping away” John T. Ross to JH, October 5, 1970 (JHCA Frog Prince box, Prod. 17281).
10 “We just can’t get into that” Sid Adilman, Toronto Telegram, March 26, 1971.
11 “Jim Henson’s Muppe
ts are so humorously conceived,” “both kid and adult appeal,” “Jim Henson’s Muppets are so good” See the memo “Frog Prince Reviews” from John Frango and Mike Yuro to Bill Frantz et al., June 16, 1971 (JHCA Frog Prince box, Prod. 17281).
12 “Good, solid entertainment” “Neighbors from Sesame Street: A Visit with Jane and Jim Henson,” Greenwich Social Review, 22–25.
13 “Jim was going crazy” JJ, archival interview.
14 “big, busy, colorful” “Night Club Reviews,” Variety, June 30, 1971.
15 “brought down the house” Norma Lee Browning, “Slight but Super,” Chicago Tribune, June 21, 1971.
16 “We tried to put together material” “Henson’s Muppets Star Along Las Vegas Strip,” Greenwich Times (Connecticut), June 21, 1971.
17 “jarring” “Night Club Review International,” Hollywood Reporter, June 23, 1971.
18 “I don’t particularly like,” “Working here [in Vegas]” “Henson’s Muppets Star Along Las Vegas Strip.”
19 “We spent half our time” JJ, archival interview.
20 “a great success” Gwynne, “Jim Henson and His Muppets.”
21 “My dad … always remained faithful” LH interview.
22 “Jim was loyal to puppetry” FO interview.
23 “The more I was associated with puppets” Ibid.
24 “When I hear the art of puppetry discussed” Being Green, 32.
25 “That was a big difference” LH interview.
26 “It’s nice for the children” Gwynne, “Jim Henson and His Muppets.”
27 “I was driving early” BH interview.
28 “At home, we had all kinds” Being Green, 128.
29 “He loved to take a chair” Ibid., 2.
30 “It took him a while to get comfortable” FO interview.
31 “I’ve … sat on the panel as myself” Don Freeman, “Henson Is Shy Actor,” World (Monroe, Louisiana), June 28, 1977.
32 “He was nervous about going on” JJ, archival interview.
33 “It’s something I’ve always faced” Don Freeman, untitled radio/TV column, San Diego Union, March 17, 1975.
34 “Puppeteering covers a wide range of stuff” Ibid.
35 “it would not be supposed” See JHCA ideas folder.
36 “We know that many people will bring children” JH, “Some Thoughts on ‘The Muppets in Concert’ Proposed for Alice Tully Hall—Early Fall, 1973” (JHCA 14-0107).
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