Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to Jim on this thread today! I recently found a Richard quote from an interview with the muppet performers while they were filming "The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson."
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''It's history, like having your life played before your eyes,'' says Richard Hunt (Scooter), who describes the taping as ''a time for retrospection. ... a process of grieving for a friend (who died suddenly in May of pneumonia) and also for a way of life that for some of us has been continuous for 20 years. All of a sudden, your life is completely disrupted.[/FONT]
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''We've been spoiled. We were a small group of specialized talent that were needed and worked continuously for a long time. Now the focal point and the driving force is gone ... and there is an element of some sort of transition, how you gonna do it?''[/FONT]
They all must have felt very displaced at the time. Having something define your life for so many years, and then suddenly it's gone. Still, "The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson" ended up being a great event, both funny and touching. I'm sure Jim enjoyed and appreciated it.
Here's the link of the whole article, it was on the Muppet Central tribute page.
http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/tributes/henson/hensonarticle8.shtml