Jim Martin - An Under-Appreciated Performer?

[D'Snowth]

I've been watching clips from The Great Space Coaster on YouTube, and have been liking what I've watched - after reading more about the cast, I saw that Jim Martin was a regular puppeteer, playing the character of Gary Gnu and others; from what I've seen, Martin's got some great puppeteering and vocal talent, which got me to wondering if he might be under-appreciated working with the Muppets? As far as I can remember, all I've read about his work with the Muppets is that he does the puppetry for Oscar whenever he and Big Bird are in scenes together and Caroll's in Big Bird, and that's it. I think he should've been given a chance to branch out a bit more.

 

[antsamthompson9]

Jim is a great performer. I enjoyed his character Ben from the Puzzle Place.

 

[D'Snowth]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about The Puzzle Place.

Wow... isn't it amazing how most of, if not all of these other puppets shows have a Muppet connection, but Wimzie's House (with Jim Kroupa, Norman Stiles, and Chris Cerf) was the only one that resulted in a lawsuit?

 

[antsamthompson9]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about The Puzzle Place.

Wow... isn't it amazing how most of, if not all of these other puppets shows have a Muppet connection, but Wimzie's House (with Jim Kroupa, Norman Stiles, and Chris Cerf) was the only one that resulted in a lawsuit?

What lawsuit are you talking about?

 

[D'Snowth]

Back in the early 2000s, JHC filed a lawsuit against the creators of Wimzie's House, claiming the puppet characters looked too Muppety - the characters for the show were designed, created and executed by Jim Kroupa (again, a Muppet connection), while both Norman Stiles and Chris Cerf were creative consultants on the show.

We had a discussion thread about the lawsuit a few months ago to determine whether the similarity claim was the real reason behind the lawsuit, or if because the show was considered a flop and JHC didn't want to end up being associated with it. Either way, the similarity claim wouldn't be too logical, because look at shows like The Puzzle Place and Between the Lions.

 

[antsamthompson9]

Back in the early 2000s, JHC filed a lawsuit against the creators of Wimzie's House, claiming the puppet characters looked too Muppety - the characters for the show were designed, created and executed by Jim Kroupa (again, a Muppet connection), while both Norman Stiles and Chris Cerf were creative consultants on the show.

We had a discussion thread about the lawsuit a few months ago to determine whether the similarity claim was the real reason behind the lawsuit, or if because the show was considered a flop and JHC didn't want to end up being associated with it. Either way, the similarity claim wouldn't be too logical, because look at shows like The Puzzle Place and Between the Lions.

Oh. Okay.

 

[GSmiley2007]

Jim is a great performer. I enjoyed his character Ben from the Puzzle Place.

Same here, my friend. Ben's one of my favorite PP characters.

I even enjoyed his character of Forest Stump the beaver from Once Upon a Tree (which is no longer airing on PBS at the moment)-- especially when Forest got to act out as Bionic Beaver (guess every puppet show wanted to have a Super Grover clone, huh? ;-)).

 

[D'Snowth]

I don't believe I've ever seen Once Upon a Tree, but I think I'll search for it on YouTube to see for myself.

Anybody else have any good recommendations for Jim Martin performances? I'd really like to see more of his work, as again, I think it's a shame that he hasn't gotten to contribute a lot of talent to the Muppets.

 

[GSmiley2007]

Only problem-- I've looked everywhere on YouTube, but no clips.

VHSs of the show should, however, be on Amazon and eBay.

 

[GSmiley2007]

Never mind-- I found a clip on Veoh.
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/animals/watch/v19659988eX9qmMDE