Muppet Workshop in NY

Secret Squirrel

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Actually, it was scaled back and relocated. A lot of people were laid off, but the Workshop stayed in operation to build, among other things, Audrey II for the Broadway debut of Little Shop of Horrors.

secret squirrel
 

scarecroe

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Yeah, someone's got to be building those fantastic Elmo variation puppets that appear in Dorothy's imagination at a rate of sometimes 3 or 4 per episode!

I want an Elmo peacock doll and Elmo as a charioteer!
 

Buck-Beaver

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My understanding was last summer it was cut back to only a few full time people as a cost saving measure. The shop staff had been around 30 and my impression was they were employees. One would assume that they still "crew up" with a lot of these folks when they are needed as their experience is invaluable.

Alot of the key staff have left in recent years and there was quite a bit of bitterness over what happened among Henson insiders apparently. Many of the people who were let go had been with the company since the 70s. The workshop relocated to the basement of the Muppet townhouse in NY, which is where it was in the Muppet Show era.

There's a fairly long thread devoted to this subject (including posts from workshop insiders and at least one Muppeteer) at
http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=957&highlight=Muppet+workshop.

BTW, does anyone know how the construction for "Sesame Street" is done? Is the NY workshop or does Sesame Street put together it's own shop now that they own the characters?
 

ToastCrumbs

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MUPPET WORKSHOP NY

The five story Muppet Workshop that was located just a few blocks from the Muppet Townhouse is gone and now part of Muppet history. What's left of the once great shop has been split up between the L.A. workshop and N.Y. workshop.
The New York workshop had been in charge of designing and building all Muppet characters until it closed down about a year ago now. It had between 25-30 puppet builders, costume makers, and prop builders and that number would grow to about 40-45 during a build for a Muppet movie. Sadly the creative talent that was behind all those beautiful puppets for the past twentyfive years has been let go. All that remains of the origianl builders are a lucky four and three or four talented freelance people.
All Muppet Show characters that were once kept in N.Y. have been sent to the L.A. shop with all of their props and patterns. Sesame Street and the Fraggles remain in N.Y.
It would be smart of me to mention that the New York Workshop was responcible for all of the great work on the Muppet Christmas special that everyone loved so much. It shows that even with all the crazy stuff goin' on all around them they were still able to do an incredible job. The New York Workshop was like no other place on earth. To be surrounded by all those wonderful Muppets and the extrodinary people who brought them to life was something extremely special.
It was an extremely rare situation to have such a talented group of artist and mad men working in one great big building, but this is what Jim enjoyed,and in return everyone at the N.Y. workshop enjoyed it too.
You should all be happy to know that there are various projects in the works and a great many things are about to happen. The Muppets will be around for a long, long time...you can all be sure of that.
So although the Historic New York Workshop is gone to an extent, let us never forget all those exceptional people behind the scenes, for they are the ones who provided the gifted Muppeteers with characters who had so much life, even when they remained still on a puppet stand. :smile: :smile: :smile:
 

Buck-Beaver

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If you don't mind me asking, are you still doing any work with the company?
 

Chilly Down

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Re: MUPPET WORKSHOP NY

Toastcrumbs, thanks so much for your lengthy and informative reply. A quick question for you. Is the building in NY with the stain-glass Ernie and Bert, the Muppet Theater mural, etc., still intact? When I first heard this news last year, I feared that this building had been sold to someone who would just tear this down. Now it sounds like a larger building was sold, but that this building is still being used by Henson.

Trust me, we're all very sorry that so many people got laid off. The Workshop builders were hugely instrumental to the Company's success, and they've left a rich legacy which we still revisit today with our videos.

A side note to everyone else: the funny thing is, since they've moved the Muppet Show characters to LA, I actually now live within relatively short driving distance of where Kermit and co. reside! I've driven past a couple of times, on my way to other things (but making a point of keeping an eye out for it). That Kermit-as-Chaplin statue looks great. I've never stopped or tried to go inside, of course...they don't offer tours and I'd just irritate them. Maybe someday I'll get a real chance...
 

Buck-Beaver

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I'm not toastcrumbs....but my understanding is that the Henson townhouse is still around and there is some workshop activity of some kind in the basement (which housed the NY shop during the Muppet Show era). The workshop that was shut down was a separate building located a few blocks away.
 
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