How I met Jane and Brian Henson

[abiraniriba]

This story starts in 1990, just a few months prior to Jim Henson’s death. I was in Kingsborough Community College working on an A.A. in Liberal Arts. At the time I was not sure what I wanted to go into as a career, but was leaning towards Journalism (I have since changed my career goals to Teaching, but that’s another story) and had enrolled in an evening course in Hunter College in Drama Critique as part of my Media Communications minor. For the course I had to do a term paper on a movie or television show. I chose a movie and was debating between “Chariots of Fire” and “Labyrinth.” I chose “Labyrinth” and started work. Halfway through the creation of the paper Jim died. I stopped working on the paper for a week. Then I decided the show must go on. I finished the paper and turned it in. I got an A on the paper but I only got a C in the course. Unfortunately I was taking it at night and thus I spent most of my time doing this .

Flash forward to two years later I was now a full-time student at Hunter College pursuing a degree in Media Communications and taking a course in Desktop Publishing. As a term paper I had to produce a magazine on a computer using a program called Quarxpress. I created a magazine about the late Jim Henson and entitled it Mah Na Mah Na. I did my research for the magazine at the Museum Of Television & Radio (MT & R) in Manhattan. While there I attended a live theatre production in honor of Jim Henson with appearances by Jane Henson, Frank Oz and Jerry Nelson. Jerry even brought along a puppet of Sgt Floyd Pepper and did a little performance . After the show I got Frank’s autograph and told Jane about my magazine. She said she would love to see the finished copy and offered me a tour of the New York office at 116 E69th Street right across the street from Hunter.

I got an A this time in both the course and the paper. Jane liked the final creation too. The tour was amazing, did you know they have a chair in their conference room that is a replica of the Emperor’s Chair from “The Dark Crystal. ” Brian was on hand and popped in to say hi while my guide was taking me around. At the end of the tour I got a Kermit Watch, and later I received in the mail a copy of “The World Of The Dark Crystal” from Jane Henson.

Since then I have seen Jane and Brian several times at various productions. Unfortunately the magazine was a one-issue production, however since the articles were all written by myself under various pseudonyms based on the names of the Muppet Characters I may submit these articles to the forum under the fan fiction category.

 

[Whatever]

Very cool! I'm jealous.

 

[abiraniriba]

thanks

Thanks I'm trying to dig up the script I wrote for the magazine of a Sesame Street Newscast for the death of Jim Henson. I will make this my first Mah Na Mah Na post