jim henson research

[rileyxo]

hey all, im doing a research paper on jim henson and i need a "debatable question"

any ideas?

thanks

love riley

 

[Muppet Newsgirl]

Hmm, hmm.

Well, if you're shooting for an artistic bent, a possible question would be: Would you say that the Muppets owe more of their style to traditional puppetry, or more to slapstick comedies of previous centuries? (Personally, I think the Muppets can trace a few of their roots to old Roman comedies, and to old farces of the 17th and 18th centuries...not to mention vaudeville and stuff.)

You might also do something on whether or not the Jim and the Muppets made a lasting contribution to world culture in general, as opposed to just pop culture.

 

[minor muppetz]

I don't know if this would be considered ebatable, but you could point out that before the Mupets had become famous, most of the original performers weren't really interested in careers in puppetry at first, and now it seems like most puppeteers became interested because of the Muppets (though I don't know of any official sources regarding puppeteers who became puppeteers because of the Muppets). Jim Henson only became involved with puppetry because he was desperate to work on television productions, Frank Oz initially wanted to be a journalist, I think that Jerry Nelson aspired to be an actor at the same time that he was a puppeteer, Kathy Mullen initially wanted to be an actress, Fran Brill and Louise Gold were actresses before being puppeteers and became Muppet performers without any previous puppetry experience, and Dave Goelz was originally hired as a puppet builder (and I think he had some other buisness as well) before becommign a puppeteer.

However, Caroll Spinney, Kevin Clash, and Steve Whitmire all wanted to be puppeteers ever since they were children. I think the same was true for Jerry Juhl, who soon swithced to writing.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I think the Muppets were the last great Vaudeville acts of the 1900's. There's a twist you might play up.

 

[lowercasegods]

The one question I put up for debate a couple years ago was who wore the green collar first, Jim Henson's Kermit or Syd and Marty Krofft's H.R. Punfnstuf. Obviously I side with Jim, but my research shows that Kermit first wore the collar in 1969 on Sesame Street, the same year Puf premiered on TV. With pun firmly intended, it's a neck and neck race to see who ripped off who!

Of course, if you want to just sidestep the whole debate, it could also just be assumed that the similar collars are just a coincidence. But how fun is that?

 

[rileyxo]

thanks guys =]

keep 'em coming, a broad range is good =]

love riley <3

 

[Ruahnna]

Jim was very adamant that his style of entertainment was not just for children, but was entertainment than spanned generational lines. He strongly resisted being pegged as just a children's entertainer. (Even his agent was initially not interested, saying he did not want to represent someone who did entertainment aimed at kids.) But Jim persisted, even in the face of rejection by all American television stations. Now, with more than 50 years of success showing that puppets are for more than children, the fastest growing segment of puppetry is what is euphemistically called "adult entertainment."
(This presumes that bathroom humor, childish sexual innuendo and flatulance jokes are fodder for only truly mature minds.)
What is remarkable about Jim's stuff is that is never strayed too far in either direction.
There are very few adults who cannot be charmed by Big Bird, for example, although the character is clearly childlike and does not engage is sophisticated humor.
And there are very few children who are not delighted by the exploits of the muppets (let's let that mean the MUPPET SHOW muppets, not the Sesame ones) even though there are some decidedly adult elements--romance and drinking, for example.
Here's what my thesis would be: How is it that Jim Henson managed for his whole career to appeal to all segments of the population and avoid the slippery slope of becoming more vulgar and peruile or more simplistic and vapid? And why--oh, why!--has his success never been duplicated.

 

[Skekayuk]

I don't know if this would be considered ebatable, but you could point out that before the Mupets had become famous, most of the original performers weren't really interested in careers in puppetry at

<snip>
Fran Brill and Louise Gold were actresses before being puppeteers and became Muppet performers without any previous puppetry experience, and Dave Goelz was originally hired as a puppet builder (and I think he had some other buisness as well) before becommign a puppeteer.

Even after they became known as puppeteers some of them still wanted to pursue their other careers. Fran Brill and Louise Gold have always carried on with their acting careers. In fact according to one newspaper interview, there were certainly occassions (the second season of Spitting Image is a good example) when Louise Gold opted for acting over puppetry (despite puppeteering being better paid).

 

[SarahOnBway]

Dave Goelz originally worked with computers, that much I know.

I wrote a paper for my history of directing class on Jim Henson. I can't remember what exactly my thesis was, but it was something along the lines of how he took multiple mediums (theater, television and eventually film) and made them work together. Puppets were traditionally theater creatures, as was vaudeville, but Jim managed to combine mediums to create an entirely new one. I wrote this like over a year ago so it's kind of fuzzy but I know I talked about that. And somehow I wove the theme of dreams throughout his work... Dreams like "making millions of people happy," not teeth falling out and showing up for the assembly late and naked or anything.

Good luck with the paper. I've always felt it's easier to write a paper and much more rewarding when you're actually interested and invested in what your writing (someone should tell that to my Criminology teacher though. I currently have an A in a class I skip, pass notes during and write the papers in two hours the night before. But college, children, teaches one above all, how to do such things).

 

[Collgoff]

Dave Goelz originally worked with computers, that much I know.

I wrote a paper for my history of directing class on Jim Henson. I can't remember what exactly my thesis was, but it was something along the lines of how he took multiple mediums (theater, television and eventually film) and made them work together. Puppets were traditionally theater creatures, as was vaudeville, but Jim managed to combine mediums to create an entirely new one. I wrote this like over a year ago so it's kind of fuzzy but I know I talked about that. And somehow I wove the theme of dreams throughout his work... Dreams like "making millions of people happy," not teeth falling out and showing up for the assembly late and naked or anything.

Good luck with the paper. I've always felt it's easier to write a paper and much more rewarding when you're actually interested and invested in what your writing (someone should tell that to my Criminology teacher though. I currently have an A in a class I skip, pass notes during and write the papers in two hours the night before. But college, children, teaches one above all, how to do such things).

My mom works with computers, anyway if Dave Goelz use to work with computers how dose Dave Goelz know about useing computers?