jim henson notes

8/7/2019 Jim Henson Notes

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Figure 1 | Jim Henson and Friends

Jim Henson career started early in his life; from childhood he was intrigued by art and latertelevision. His interested inspired by a closeness with his grandmother who was an avid painter andalways encouraged Henson s efforts; As he often experimented with a vast amount of artistictechniques leading him at the time to latest in visual media.

In his high-school year of 54 , Jim hand already engaged in puppetry as began his television careerperforming puppets on a local Washington, DC Saturday Morning Program on WTOP-TV which laterevolved in to a twice-daily, five minute show Sam And Friends, on a local NBC affiliate, WRC-TV byhis freshman years in college.

Through this, Henson and his future with introduced many innovations in to the world of puppetryeliminating the puppet stage and using the television itself as the Proscenium .

Also called a Proscenium arch: - the arch that separates a stage from the auditorium.

http:// dic t ionary.reference.com /b rowse /p roscenium

At this point one of the most memorable characters was born, K ermit the Frog.



F i u ¡

¢ 2 | Ji £ ¤

¢ nson ¥ ith 'Sam a nd Fr i¢ nds | '55 - '6 1

The s ¦ ccess of hi s show l e§

to gu es t app earan ces on national n e twork s such a s th e S ¨

© v ©

ll © n Show

and Today to m ention but a f ew. A s well a s making hundr eds of humorou s comm ercials for spon sor

throughout th e countr y. By th e 60 s thi s had in crease d with w ee kly app earan ces on Today and

eve r-growing li st of comm ercial client s a s well a s Mupp ©

¨

be ginning to d eve lop - pr ess uring

© n on

to bring in n ew colle agu es such a s Don Sahl

n,

©

y

uhl

and F

an Oz .

With hi s team of collaborator s ¨ h © Mupp ©

¨

began with on e

of th e first chara cte rs Rolf ¨ h © Dog who b ec am e a r egular on

Th ©

y D© an Show from 63 to 66. With hi s group of

collaborator s, h e th en w ent on to pur sue his pra ctice. Furth e r

tou ching on filmmaking in th e lat e 60 s to e pand hi s

knowl edg e of film t ec hniqu es by making seve ral e p e rim ental

film s such a s T

©

© ! ©

You ¨ h 68 bec oming so of hi s mor e

award -

winning

pieces . Inres ult

leading to

great e r

inno vation s with th e Mupp ©

¨

F i" u re 4 | Rolf The Do "

F i " u re 3 | Pre se n t Day M upp e ts on Today



Meanwhil e , a produ ce r nam ed Joan C oon # y be gan work on a ground -br eaking edu cational childr en

show S# $ a % # S &

' # #

& ( that would pr e mie re in 1969. Thank s to He n $ on growing r eputation him and

his team wh ere calle d in to populat e th e str ee t with a famil y of chara cte r whi ch eve n toda y ar e well

known $ u ) h a $ Er n0

e and Bert, O$ ) a r t he Gr ou ) h , Gr ov er, C ook 0

e Mon $ ter and Bi g Bir d 1 Through

th ese earl y stag es appl y his e 2 perim e ntal knowl edg e of film t ec hniqu es . In r es ult showing how

app ealing pupp e ts ar e to a young er audi en ce and se t him a p e rsonal targ e t to u s chara cte rs to

ent e rtain a wid er famil y audi ence .

F i 3 u re 5 | Se sam e St ree t Ca st

Soon aft e r He n 4 on and hi s team produ ce d mor e chara cte rs for

his brain child t he Mupp ets , with th e likes of M iss y Pi ggy ,

An im al , Fozz ie Be a r and Ri zzo t he Ra t coming to th e small

scree n in att empt s, to r each a bigg er audi ence . To str e ngth e n

his att e mpt s of r eaching an audi ence he introdu ce d a ho st of

famou s gu es t star s such a s John C l eese and Ste v e Ma rti n. The

res ult wa s a success and naturall y led to Holl ywood, wh ere th e

Mupp e ts starr ed in six f e atur e films and toda y ar e main str eamTV se ries for famili es to wat ch and e njo y with K ermit t he F r og

be ing th e ho st and l ead.

F i 5 u re 6 | Steve Ma r t in w ith Th e Mupp e t



Figure 7 | Jo hn Cleese wi th th e Mu pp e ts

By the 8 0 s however, Henson was again looking for something new and innovative and after his hitfilm such as 6 7 he 8 uppet s 8 ovie and 8 uppet 7 reasure . In result creating two revolutionary fantasy

films 6 7 he 9 ar @

C r A

staB

and 6 LabA

rinth . Each film, detour away from; the more comical and childishside of his work to a more dark and ominous tale of Good vs. Evil. To do this he assemble a teamwhich later where known as Jim Henson s C reature Shop C ho continuing to set industry standardsin animatronics, performance and performance technology.



In conclusion this brief history depicts more than just a success of a man and his puppets. It showsthe creative mind of a master. Most of which can contribute to any field in the creative world. In JimHenson case his success was down to a single word Experimental . Henson s was never happy withjust one success be from local to national to big screen to bigger audience and then to innovationinto animatronics puppetry. Henson s legacy was to do something new and makes him more of aninnovator than puppet master. In conclusion showing why his programs are big success in the worldtoday and why his

R

egac S continues with C reature shop.

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