Happy Birthday Jim Henson
Posted By Kathleen David on September 24, 2006
Today would have been Jim Henson’s 70th birthday.
So in honor of that, tell me your favorite moment of Muppets or Henson’s work in general.
I am grateful that I got to meet Jim Henson
I’m a huge muppet fan so narrowing this down wasn’t easy. I have to say as far as favorite sketchs from the muppet show goes muhuhna huh from early on in the first season always cracks me up. I don’t know if jim was a preformer on that one. As far as work I know he was a preformer on, any thing with the swedish chef was golden. On a off jim topic I ran across this interview with Kevin Clash on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY_sl1R3KJQ
I think you’ll get a kick out of it
JAC
My favorite moments would either be the Animal vs Buddy Rich drum solos or any of the Pig in Space skits.
Oh, and Labrynth, and Dark Crystal. Sesame Street.
Uhmmm… all of it.
Favorite moment: Harry Belafonte, “Turn the World Around.” I think Harry was one of the few performers on the show who truly got the whole idea of the Muppets rather than just the comedy potential. (And yes, I know there were others.)
Tons of others are very nearly as fond, of course. Lisa and I used “The Rainbow Connection” as recessional music and quoted it in the ceremony as well, so that’s got to be high on the list.
Oh, hëll — here’s a list of a few others off the top of my head:
“The Soldier and Death” (from The Storyteller)
Christopher Reeve on Vets’ Hospital (“I’ll have you fixed in no time.” “Never say ‘fixed’ to a dog!”)
Mark Hamill AND Luke Skywalker guesting (a.k.a. the first evidence I ever had that Hamill was a nutcase in the very best of ways).
Almost anything with the “yip yip yip” aliens on Sesame Street. I suspect most of that was just Henson and Oz riffing without a script.
Anything with a Sesame Street muppet having to interact with a small child, just for the fast-on-their-feet thinking.
I think I should leave it there. I’m getting a weird combination of warm fuzzies and deep sadness.
TWL
One of my biggest regrets as a journalist is not getting a chance to meet Jim Henson while he was still alive. One of the great pleasures of writing my Farscape book a couple of years ago was being able to dedicate it ‘In memory of Jim Henson, who started it all.’
My early awareness of “Sesame Street” came from staying at my aunt’s in the school holidays when I was 12. Before I was school age, the programmes that I remember for that age group were “Play School” (still going strong), “Romper Room”, “Owlie’s School” and “Here’s Humphrey, with Humphrey B.Bear”. All of these were local productions (with Aussie accents). By the time “Sesame Street” was airing here, my younger siblings were at school too, so they missed it as well.Why was I watching “Sesame Street”? I was keeping my 2 year old cousin occupied so her Mum could get the housework finished. My cousin would scream with delight everytime “Cookie Monster” appeared. The down side is that here, we have to break the habits of the kids (my own included – yes my 4 grew up on Sesame Street, although my daughter wasn’t so fond of it as the 3 boys were) calling biscuits “cookies”, and teaching them that it’s “zed”, not “zee”. A small price to pay for the hours of joy, laughter and education provided
He must have been very young when he passed away, that’s what, 14 years ago now?
PS, I loved the “Muppet Show” My boys do the best imitation of the Swedish Chef.