Why did Jim continue with puppetry?

[Pinkflower7783]

Who's Kermit?

 

[Twisted Tails]

Who's Kermit?

Kermit is a frog with flippers. Duh!!

 

[Pinkflower7783]

What frog? Okay no more muffining but you do realize I was kidding right?

 

[Twisted Tails]

What frog? Okay no more muffining but you do realize I was kidding right?

I knew it! You were muffining! I can't believe it! Okay, you did kid around, eh? You were um scaring me silly. (laughs softly!)

 

[mupcollector1]

Hi, I can answer that question. During Sam & Friends and well before that Junior Good Morning Show, there were several reasons why he started puppetry.
(1. To get a job working on television
(2. A way to help fund his way through College
(3. To experiment with art and the film medium.

Jim went to Europe and left Jane and Bob (Forgot his name) to making more Sam & Friends' episodes without him. Jim was always an artist, but he mostly did print art like having a little side poster business I think during his college years as well as being the cartoonist for his college paper. Jim traveled and to also I think clear his mind on what he was going to do with his life in terms of a career. He didn't think much of being a puppeteer. Then he seen adult puppetry for the very first time, from my research there was a couple of really risky adult content as well as some satire that Jim must have seen at a certain show. I forgot what show it was but Jim was amazed that here's full grown men performing puppets as a career. So Jim thought of what he was doing with art and the television medium and thought, perhaps there's something there he could do more of. And to my knowledge, became history.

"The truth of the matter is that the frog is a great deal more interesting to look at, and who notices what the bearded man is doing?"

lol World of Jim Henson, I just bought the rare VHS of that recently. Anyone know when that footage originally came out? Not WoJH (that's 1993 right?) but the Jim Henson / Kermit interview? Looks late 80s.

 

[Skekayuk]

One would presume he discovered it was something he could actually do rather well.

Anyway it's a question which could well be asked about several of his Muppeteer colleagues.

 

[MrBloogarFoobly]

Because he hated it so much.

 

[JimAndFrank]

I was reading the 'Imagination Illustrated' book and apparently Jim took some kind of trip around Europe to see if puppetry was a viable art form at that point in time. When he saw just how diverse and important puppetry was, he decided to keep going with it because he had gained new inspiration in his travels.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Yes, apparently that was exactly it. Pick up the new Jim Henson biography that comes out in a week or so. I received an advance copy (it's fantastic) and Jim's early career is covered in quite a bit of detail.

 

[jvcarroll]

Jim Henson had many ideas that he wanted to explore and that's really why he was in the process of selling his characters to Disney. The old Animation Magazine article covers some of this. He'd have continued to do puppetry, yet he did want to explore live action and animation too. It's a shame that he never got to enjoy the "third act" of his amazing life. He would have had the opportunity to be purely creative without the business or financial hassles of running the Henson Company.

Here are a few projects and areas that Jim would have helped pioneer if he'd been with us the past 20 years. He was on the forefront of all this stuff in 1990.

• Web Content and Internet Publishing
• Performance Capture and Computer Animation
• Classic and Cutting Edge Puppetry
• Traditional Animation of the Muppet Show gang from Disney Animators.
• Countless Technological Innovations
• Continued Charity Work for Social and Environmental Causes

I would have loved to see a Disney animated Muppet movie. The idea of it blows my mind! It's also interesting that he was one of the first popular entertainers to take up causes like wildlife and energy conservation.