Remembering Richard

[TravellingMatt]

It's been eleven years since Richard left us. I still find it hard to believe. I remember the shock I felt when I saw the Sesame Street CD "We Are All Earthlings" at Best Buy and saw "In Memory of Richard Hunt" on the back.

I couldn't believe it...this was the guy who performed Statler, Scooter, Janice, and so many other great characters...and so soon after Jim Henson too.

Richard's characters had just the right amount of silliness and edginess to them. We admired Scooter's determination to get into show business. We tried to dislike Statler because he put everyone down, but couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous he and Waldorf were. We sympathized whenever Don Music got flustered and banged his head on his piano, and we rocked out whenever Janice took the microphone for the Electric Mayhem.

So let us now take the time to remember some of the great moments Richard (and his characters) gave us.

Here are some of mine:

Scooter singing "Mr. Bass Man" with Floyd
Scooter singing "Six String Orchestra" with the band
Janice singing "Little St. Nick" on the John Denver Xmas CD
Any Don Music sketch
Sweetums challenging Avery Schreiber to a fight
Junior Gorg singing "Dum of a Son of a Gun" with Pa Gorg
The Mean Genie singing "Do You Want It?"
Janice singing "Rockin' Robin" with the Electric Mayhem
Placido Flamingo singing with an all-animal orchestra led by Seiji Ozawa
Gladys invading an "Alphabet Chat" about the letter R ("Cock-a-doodle-MOO!")

However, I think one of my favorite Richard character moments was on "Sesame Street". He was performing Forgetful Jones, and Forgetful was holding up a sign that said "NO" and was talking to a little girl. He kept asking her what the sign said and when she said "NO", he got upset...then he forgot that that was the word on the sign and let the little girl cuddle him (I think).

I think that segment captured the true essence of Richard. He understood the nature of children (big and small alike) and tried to bring out the child in all of us.

Richard, you sure did.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Reply

Well, that answers my previous question. I also have a lot of memories of Richard's characters. Here are some I've thought of:

Forgetful Jones asking "What's the Name of that Song."
Janice singing "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" with Floyd or "It's in His Kiss" with Linda Rondstadt.
Placido Flamingo flirting with Maria
Seeing Scooter at the beginning of every Muppet Show episode (seasons 2-4 anyway) and telling the guest star "15 seconds till curtain."

The list can go on and on.

 

[Gorgon Heap]

Junior Gorg's "How Wide, How Far, How Long"
The Wizard of Fraggle Rock's "Is It True?"
Any time Statler's face got scrunched up

He was one of the Muppets' best vocalists, and was said to capture the spirit of the Muppets especially well. I was shocked when he died. I liked the guy then, and I miss him now.

David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole

 

[The Flying Sheep]

My Favorite Rihcard Moments are:

Scooter singing"six string orcestra" on TMS
Scooter's solo in "Saying Goodbye" in TMTM
Janice SInging "With a little help from my friends" on TMS
Sweetum's duet with Robin in the John Cleese epsoide

(NOTE: In this episode both Kermitage and the little known muppet thread on Sweetums list this number as being called "We've got each other." actully, it's from the musical "**** Yankees!" and is titled "Two lost souls". Weird)

JAnice's lines wth Kermit in the Pearl Bailey Eps

Wanye in the Muppet Melodrama in the Gilda Randeir (i think) eps.

 

[The Flying Sheep]

Originally posted by swedish chefs

Actully, it's from the musical "**** Yankees!" and is titled "Two lost souls".

That came out weird It's called "D*** Yankees!"

 

[Skeeter Muppet]

My memories of Richard

• Any of Scooter's numbers on TMS (Simon Smith, Mr. Bassman and Six-String Orchestra)
• Scooter performing Lewis Carroll's "The Jabberwocky"
• Robin and Sweetums' duet in the John Cleese ep (I can just imagine Richard with a big grin on his face as he was doing Sweetums' little dance routine in that skit)
• Scooter asking Julie Andrews' cow "Who do you belong to?" in the Julie Andrews episode
• Super Scooter!
• Scooter's verse in "Saying Goodbye"
• Anytime Statler traded barbs with Waldorf
• The Two-Headed Monster as Santa Claus in the Sesame Street gang's production of "The Night Before Christmas" in MFC
• Scooter playing (the reluctant, I'm sure) straight man to Gonzo, Bean, Rizzo and Fozzie in the Muppet*Vision pre-show (I always felt so sorry for him!)

Unfortunately I only have vague memories of Sesame Street from my childhood, and even vaguer (vaguer? *shrugs*) memories of Richard's characters. I see the names of the characters he played and can bring up mental images of them, but no distinct sketches come to mind.

Sad to say, Richard didn't really become "known" to me until I watched Muppet Christmas Carol, and saw the dedication to Jim and Richard at the beginning. When I noticed that Statler's voice was different, I gathered that Richard had been Statler's performer. It didn't really hit me just what a great talent he was until I found Muppet Central and read the tributes to Richard, and found out all the different characters he had given life to, especially my favorite go-fer. Now it just makes me sadder that I don't remember a whole lot about Forgetful, Don Music and the rest.

-Kim

 

[Thijs]

Richard is my favourite puppeteer.
The best singer, and the most beautiful voice of all.
My appreciation for Scooter is already mentioned in the Scooter-thread. Janice is my favourite Mayhem-member. ooo, her songs rock!
And I HAVE to mention Wayne. Wayne is soo funny.
And of course Beaker. Beaker is such a great character, that people always forget to mention how great he is
Statler has always been my favourite of the two. Sweetums i an example of excellent puppeteering. And Gladys was a great character too. Never understood why she dissapeared.
Last, I will always remeber those fantastic monsters, Beautiful Day, Behemoth and Big Mama.

 

[Gorgon Heap]

Oh my goodness! "Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear"! How could I have forgotten that one?! It's my favorite!!!

And yeah, he was so great at playing the Muppet monsters. No one else could quite do what he did with them. Won't ever be another like him.

David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole

 

[Joggy]

Richard always sounds like a great dude to be friends with...! I mean, when you read about the ways he liked to entertain people...

Scooter's my favorite Richard character. Maybe because of all the characters, he's the best singer. Richard really inspired me with his voices...

 

[SillyRed]

At the start of "Muppet Christmas Carol" something reads:
"In memory of Jim Henson and Richard Hunt" or was it the other way?
I did not know Richard was dead until that movie!!