http://web.archive.org/web/20001003125242/www.henson.com/ask/ask_archives_body.html

It’s more than likely that Scott learned of the character when Henson and his act hit stardom and assumed that his childhood friend named the frog after him. As you can see in an official statement from The Jim Henson Company, Jim Henson himself denied this rumor.

I had a knack at a young age to pick out names from TV credits. Since their titles were always at the top of the Muppet Show end credits, I simply knew that the Jim Henson and Frank Oz names had to be a big part in the making of these shows that I loved so much.

I remember my mom pointing out to me who Jim was at the end of the Muppet Christmas special as he played out his cameo washing dishes in the kitchen. That was the first time I could place a face to the legendary name that was ‘Jim Henson’, and from that point I knew exactly who he was, it made a lot of sense to me.

I was instantly sad when my mother told me, and I remember the short Entertainment Tonight special on him that night. I recall thinking that I’d never see Kermit & Ernie again, at least never see new performances from those characters. Then was appalled at the thought of anyone else performing those characters & voices, but later realized that those characters would never pass away as long as there was an excellent puppeteer ready to take on the task.

I was only 14 when he passed but I’ll never forget how I felt. Like the news of a distant relative had just passed away. I didn’t know how much of a major influence Jim’s work had on me until I got into animation, and found myself studying puppetry in order to improve my character acting within the craft of hand-drawn cartoon animation. As the internet was really beginning to grow in the late 90s, I found myself researching Muppet websites and information, at first just for pure nostalgic effect.

8 Years ago was my first time wandering through the Ebay website, I believe the third item I ever searched for was “Muppet”. I was always obsessed about finding or creating my own muppet characters, and had finally found a way to discover them. Ironically I have 12 puppets of my own now, none of them are actual vintage muppets, and Ididn’t get any of them from Ebay. But as I searched around I found many small puppet-making and puppet performing communities online, and eventually designed my own characters and found craftsman to build my puppets for me.

As I think back on my childhood, I loved the Muppet Show and Sesame Street soooo much… I simply assumed as a child and teenager that I would never have the opportunity to play around with a puppet. Little did I know that technology would make it very simple for me to get into it as a hobby, with the ease and inexpensive nature of digital video cameras and the internet; many puppet makers and performers are connected across the world thanks to YouTube and various Puppet Forums and sites like this one. This very easy way of sharing information and knowledge, and the love of all things Muppet related make it so simple for anyone to become a fan, to pursue their dreams and become a independent puppet film maker.

I will always have Jim to thank, he still sparks creativity within me, even after all these years.

-Ron

Hope it is do be done again the next time we have a ceremony.

Thanks for my awards!

Beauregard

Scapecast: A Farscape Podcast — http://www.scapecast.org/

I emailed to say I saw this and thought of you…just let it play for a few seconds and turn up your sound…

http://www.savetodaysavetomorrow.com/

Cheers,

Jon

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“Pam Arciero, Fran Brill, Leslie Carrara, Ryan Dillon, James Godwin, Andy Hayward, Eric Jacobson, Peter Linz, Noel MacNeal, Ed May, Paul McGinnis, Jerry Nelson, Marc Petrosino, David Rudman, Ian Sweetman, Matt Vogel, Bryant Young, Jennifer Barnhart, Tyler Bunch, Stephanie D’Abruzzo, Artie Esposito, BJ Guyer, Patrick Holmes, John Kennedy, Michael Lisa, Amanda Maddock, Joey Mazzarino, Tracie Mick, Carmen Osbahr, Martin P. Robinson, Andy Stone, Gabriel Velez, Steve Whitmire with Caroll Spinney as Big Bird and Oscar.”

Great job on the show!

I hope you can go and get some juicy audio for us

Great job on the intros! Keep em up.

Another thought on Tinseltown. Yeah, it was a pilot, but if they want the show to get picked up, they should make sure that the pilot is fantastic. So many pilots get brushed off because of their mediocrity (or in Tinseltown’s case, pure blandness.)

Also, a large majority of Muppet fans are gay, so they’ve always been around. Miss Piggy can be seen as a gay icon, in many ways. The thing is, the characters are gay. Ok, that’s great, but it seems like nothing more than a joke. Can’t they just “happen” to be gay without making a stereotypical fuss over it? Howard is even on the slightly offensive side, in my opinion. Logo makes some pretty horrendous gay programming. It’s almost all like Tinseltown, and none of my gay friends watch it because so much of it is pure crap (Big Gay Sketch Show, for example, is one of the worst shows on tv in my opinion…flat out unfunny.) Logo tries too hard to be gay. Most homosexual people are not like this, and they’re targeting the programming to a specific niche inside another niche market.

My thinking is this: The Muppets/Henson have been making really bad shows and films for the past ten years or so. If this is the way they’re going to keep going, no, I DON’T want to see any more new Muppet things. Look at what a tradgedy Swamp Years and Oz were! I want to remember the Muppets I love from the 70’s and 80’s. If the characters are going to be treated this way, I’d rather not see anything new and sit back and watch old Muppet Show DVD’s.

Sorry for going off on a tanget, just kind of upset about the trash being made lately.

You mentioned Tinseltown in the podcast, and I thought I’d share my opinion on it:

I saw the pilot, and it was terrible. The story went nowhere, and it relied on stereotypical “edgy” humor. We’ve seen that a million times. Nothing fresh and new about this show.

Also, they’re trying to sell this to a gay audience, and one of the characters is once again, stereotypical and FLAMING. It’s the puppet equivalent Will and Grace, character wise (Will and Grace is actaully FUNNY, however)

The puppetry was amazing and the acting was well done, but you’re nothing without a story. With shows like this and Puppet Up, it seems as if the Henson Company will never get it right.

It makes me sad that one of the “jokes” from the pilot was a pig saying “Nipples!” Why is that funny? Oh, wait, it’s NOT.

A message to the people at Henson: Just do good work. Stop trying to shock us because it ain’t workin’.

Thanks for doing the show, keep up the good work.

It would be really cool to have the questionarres in the interviews, ala “Inside The Actors Studio” (what is your favorite word? what is your least favorite word? who is your favorite muppet? etc.) That’d be really fun to learn more about the guests.

I think the comment by Sean Walsh really rings true for me. I was hurt when I heard about Jim dying all those years ago, but sometimes I, personally, forget what all he brought to the world and my life. It seems, to me, his work is too sweet and pure and just unadulteratedly good to have a creator. Sesame Street and The Muppet Show have never seemed like television shows written and acted by people, they were natural phenomena. To my childhood mind they must have always been there because I couldn’t imagine the world without them. That’s how they seemed then, and to a degree that impression hasn’t changed much. Couple with that the variety of what the company works on and it seems far far far too large to owe it’s existence to one man.

But it does, and your podcast reminded me of that. That, and the fact all of us whose lives have been enriched so much by such a simple, elegant philosophy of inclusion and love delivered so elequently and enjoyably owe so much gratitude to the same man.

Thanks for saying thanks for unintentional ingrates like myself, Steve.

Thanks Jim.

Awesome Show by the way!!!!

-Janelle

My question - do you think it’s possible to get all of the shows posted on iTunes? Every week, when a new one is posted, the oldest one listed is bumped off. I have all the shows on my iPod, but I’d rather replace the ones I downloaded from the site with ones from iTunes with the show notes. Any help would be appreciated!

But I have ONE big problem.

This is about the Muppet world. NOT the Disney World. They shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath for the most part and I am tired of hearing all the Disney talk on the cast.

Otherwise, continue with the shows (it would be nice if your shownotes contained clip titles and source names)

And the “Unplugged” segments where you sing the songs are REALLY well done!

Ummm… Bye!

Here’s a newer clip taken that same afternoon after a nap and lots of water…

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yst2UTcvC1k

Catch you later man!

Check out the latest youtube clip o’ mine from the festival…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yst2UTcvC1k

Ive been listening from the Start and the shows only seem to get better and better!

Hopefully there will be many more podcasts in the future

From KB!

I also posted some cell phone video on there. I bet you can find better stuff on youtube.com since there were tons of people with video cameras.

It was a blast!

I would love to hear the following 5
1. Being Green (the Muppet show version)-Kermit
2. Halfway down the stairs - Robbin
3. I’m Going back there someday -You singing
4. Can you Picture That - Dr. Teeth
5. I’m gona explode an atom boom (from The Muppet Show: Sex and Violents)

Great news on TWO major fronts….That Jim’s hometown will have a permanent exhibit in his honor is lovely and, to state the obvious, well-deserved.

And to acknowledge the work of Paul Williams is great to hear, and a tad ironic…at least from my personal perspective. Having first met Mr. Williams as a villainous record producer (’Swan’ Phantom of the Paradise’) it’s sometimes hard to look at the same guy who swindled a poor songwriter out of his life’s work and think, “He wrote ‘Rainbow Connection’” ha, ha.

Thanks for the update.

joanna

You can watch 2 new clips every wed

I don’t know what else to say, thank you for this incredible tribute to an American hero. Jim Henson was a hero of mine and an inspiration that has kept me going for a long time in my creative career. I am an artist, graphic artist, animator and puppeteer of over twenty years. This episode was wonderful to hear. It brought tears to my eyes and joy to my heart.

Bless you! Thank you!

May Jim’s Legacy go on for generations to come!

The muppets have always meant a lot to me and I do remember how I felt when Jim died in 1990. It was like losing a parent. I was in shock and dissapointed for all the lost things that would never get created.

I was lucky to be of the Sesame Street generation and carried that love of muppets my whole life. I’ve now shared that love to my own kids through all the DVD’s and videos.

The muppets were such an important part of my life growing up that I performed Kermit singing Ranbow Connection at my mother’s funeral last year. My old beat up Kermit on my knee. I wanted to do something special at my mom’s funeral and I thought of the wonderful tribute that was done at Jim’s funeral. I knew that was the right thing to do.

Thanks for assembling such a fantastic show. Podcasters forget to always have an extra link for their classic, must have episodes. Please make sure you keep access to this special episode for all your new listeners.

Steve M

I was kind of surprised at how I felt. I mean, I felt sadness and a sense of loss, but I thought “This should hurt more. Why am I not crying?”

I grew up with Sesame Street, The Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock. I watched “The Great Muppet Caper” and “The Dark Crystal” over and over. I taped every episode of “The Jim Henson Hour” that I could. I found so much joy in everything he did, but now that he was gone, it felt like the passing of some distant uncle you only saw in home movies and faded photographs. I felt distant, and didn’t want to be. I had this pent-up emotion that just wouldn’t come out.

As I listened to this podcast, I cried. I finally cried the tears I wanted to cry seventeen years ago.

Thank you.

–David da DuKe

when I was a child, I grewup with the first Sesame Street, The first Muppet Show, and of course the first Fraggle Rock. I to have a room full of muppet stuff, but in the center of my wall of Muppets is a picture.

I had came across this back in 1990 at a puppeters convention. It is of Jim and Kermit. This is one of my fave pics of all time because I found this a month after his death.

Growing up I had always wanted to met Jim and have a chance to work with him, But my dream shattered. I am still in with my puppets that I had builded over the years, And one day I will meet other muppeteers who keeps this magic alive and well. I am thankfull for your podcast. Thank you for being one of the few that keeps the magic alive.

RIP Jim

Good question!

I wish it were easier, but there are good things happening to block this ruling. I’m cautiously optimistic.
–Steve

Nice concept for a podcast, however the problem I have with it is that your listeners are Muppet fans, most of whom have all read the news already from other sites. The news you put on the site is very repetitive for people who already read it. Since the Muppets aren’t working much, make a show about it. What pisses you off about what they’re doing now? What do you like about it? Should they be kept in the past? What’s wrong with the approach today? Make an opinion. Make connections to insdier people, etc. This podcast will get bigger wih the more new information you have.