Muppet parody puppets on Crank Yankers

[MrTheFrog]

Actually I know the information I've provided to be 100% accurate, as I've been with the show since before we started production back in January 2002. In Season 1, I was a part-time puppeteer, builder, and wrangler, and in seasons 2 and 3, I've been a principal puppeteer.

Actually Artie, I have it on very good authority that The Crank Yanker puppets were originally designed by a company called Funny Garbage -

That is absolutely true. Funny Garbage designed each and every character for the show. But Funny Garbage, run by Peter Girardi is purely a visual company (design work, websites etc..). They have no knowledge of puppet building, and as such have never built puppets for the show.

...which is not known for it's puppet work but who's design style Jimmy Kimmel (one of the series' creators) liked and so they were asked to do the puppets despite knowing almost nothing about puppet construction (this happens a lot more in the business than you'd think). F.G. pulled together an in-house shop to do most of the characters and "Crank Blanks".

Jimmy does love their design work, but again at no time have they ever built any of the puppets. In fact I was there the day Special Ed (our first puppet)was delivered from Den Design, and Peter and Todd(one of FG's main artists) came to the set to see their drawing brought to life.

I don't know for certain that any of the staff specifically worked for Henson, but it's very likely since most of the experienced LA/NY "puppet people" in the industry have gone through the doors of the Muppet shop at some point in their careers.

I can assure you that that was the case. In fact the very talented Eric Englehart, a former Henson builder, who designed and built Pepe the Prawn, also built Elmer Higgins, the character that I perform (voiced by Jimmy Kimmel).

Some of the puppet building work was sub-contracted to folks like Rick Lyon and it's entirely possible that was the case with Den Design. These other companies may have become more relied upon after the 1st season. I can't say for sure. It's pretty common for multiple companies to work on a show like this (that was done on Between the Lions too) which creates confusion. I am 99.5% certain Funny Garbage is the main company involved though.

Actually for 1st season Den Design built about 95% of them with the remainders built by BJ Guyer, Rick Lyon, Ron Binion, and myself. In second and third season (which we're working on right now) we used some freelance puppet builders, as well as a few full time builders that we hired to work on the lot.

-Artie

 

[MrTheFrog]

Actually, on the Lyon website if you go thru the photos of his work there are photos fo multiple puppets that he designed and built for Crank Yankers.

Rick is an incredibly talented Puppet Builder, but alot of the puppets he's holding on his Crank Yankers pages are characters he performed rather than built. I wish he had built more of them. His puppets are very finely crafted and much easier to manipulate than alot of the other ones.

-Artie

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Thanks for clearing up that Artie...there has been some press and industry stuff that made it out like Funny Garbage actually ran the shop, which never made any sense to me - why hire them with so many capable builders and companies in LA? I suspected they either hired a lot of experienced freelancers or sub-contracted the work.

So who are in the principals in Den Design?

 

[MrTheFrog]

Thanks for clearing up that Artie...there has been some press and industry stuff that made it out like Funny Garbage actually ran the shop, which never made any sense to me - why hire them with so many capable builders and companies in LA? I suspected they either hired a lot of experienced freelancers or sub-contracted the work.

So who are in the principals in Den Design?

Exactly, there are so many skilled builders looking for work it would be ridiculous, but the press in general seems to always have their facts wrong when it comes puppet things as I'm sure you've experienced.

As far as who is at Den Design now, I'm not really sure. We shot the first season in NY, but the next two have been out here in L.A. A guy named Bob Flanagan was running things when we were there. He might actually be the owner..I was never sure.

-Artie

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Ah, Ron Binion's site mentions Den I think. Should have caught that sooner. There's more pics from the set here too I see.

I'm assuming Rick did not do season 2 or 3 in LA?

 

[MrTheFrog]

I'm assuming Rick did not do season 2 or 3 in LA?

No he didn't.

-Artie

 

[Puppetplanet]

Ahhh, now see, I had always thought that Rick Lyon built several of the crank yanker puppets! I got that impression from reading his website...... must have been one of those late night discoveries again. *laughing*

 

[Matteo]

Looks like I'm the only one that hasn't seen the show
Anyone here has got a picture or a clip of the sketch? I'd like to see it, just for information. Tahnks,

See ya!

 

[Buck-Beaver]

There's a few pics and some info at http://www.funnygarbage.com/client/case_study.php3?proj=32 and there is some video clips and behind the scenes stuff on Comedy Central's site at http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_shows/crankyankers/

 

[JaniceFerSure]

Crank Yankers parody

I just posted a new thread on this subject,didn't know someone else had(or had seen it).Yup,its pretty far out there(especially to have BB smoking w/ downward eyebrows to make him look mean).