Jim Henson: The Biography (44 page)

Still, there were more than enough big names moving through Elstree during
The Muppet Show
’s five-year run; the second season alone featured Zero Mostel, Milton Berle, Steve Martin, John Cleese, Peter Sellers, and—in one of the most anticipated shows of the season—ballet virtuoso Rudolf Nureyev, who gamely danced with a gigantic pig in a Muppet production of “Swine Lake.” “
As the show kept gaining in popularity, we had a waiting list,” said Brillstein. “Jim was the king of London.… It was a great time.”

That summer, too, Jim moved into a flat on the serendipitously named Frognal Gardens, a shady, bending street lined with quaint Georgian row houses in London’s Camden district, just south of Hampstead Heath. It was an area Jim came to love, strolling the steep streets, and walking or flying kites in the enormous, rambling, grassy Hampstead Heath, which came to be a special retreat for him. Some nights, if he wasn’t working too late, he would put on a tuxedo and spend the evening at one of the exclusive clubs to which he belonged, often taking Lazer or any interested
Muppet Show
guest with him to have dinner and play craps or blackjack until late into the night. “He
loved
all that James Bond kinda stuff,” recalled Cheryl Henson.

While Jim wasn’t normally a high-stakes gambler, he could be a gutsy player—and one evening, during a hot streak playing craps, he chose to let his money ride for much of the night and ended up winning $10,000. For Jim, though, the gambling experience itself—putting on a tuxedo, walking into a smoky club, and sidling up to the craps table—was more exciting than the outcome; losing didn’t matter, and any winnings were cheerfully regarded as a kind of unearned income. “
It’s a kind of equanimity that he really cultivated,” said Lisa Henson, “so that if he lost money, it would mean nothing.” Still, watching Jim build a big pot could be nerve-racking. Lisa recalled another evening when Jim spent most of the night at the blackjack table, building a sizable pile of chips—“and I just took the chips off the table,” she said, “and he was like, ‘Oh, come on!’ and I said, ‘All right, you can keep gambling with what you have, but I’ll be taking this for later!’ ” Rather than pocket the money for himself,
then, gambling winnings were usually reserved for upscale staff retreats or entertainment for the Muppet crew—in the case of his $10,000 gambling windfall, Jim banked the money until Christmas, using it to pay for a lavish Christmas party for Henson Associates.

Jim also loved the restaurants in the Hampstead area. He wasn’t much of a cook—peanut butter sandwiches and tomato soup were the extent of his culinary skills—so he ate out nearly every evening. Eventually, said Lisa, he knew “
every single restaurant in Hampstead,” and could steer visitors to the best restaurant, pub, or bakery for anything from crepes and pastries to French or Italian food. And there was always dessert; Jim
loved
dessert, and would end every meal by asking the waiter to bring over the dessert tray, where he would waggle his long fingers at every item. “
What’s that thingy?” he would ask playfully.

Despite being an ocean away from his family, Jim was an intensely devoted father—and every night, almost without fail, he would call Bedford at 6:00
P
.
M
. New York time, so he could speak to each of the Henson children before he went to bed at midnight. “
There was no question that he was totally part of our lives and our scene,” said Jane, “even though he wasn’t physically there.” During summer breaks or school holidays, Jim would almost always have one or more of the children stay with him in London, taking them to the studio during the day and out to dinner meetings with him in the evening. Whichever child happened to be in London with him, said Lazer, “
was his absolute favorite at that moment. [He had] total focus and concentration on that child.”

“
We all enjoyed being around him, and one of the best ways for us to be around him was to work with him,” said Cheryl Henson, who spent several summers working in the ATV workshop, “because when he was working, he was always at his peak.” For Jim, having his children with him was never an inconvenience. “
That’s great fun for me,” he wrote, and he would eagerly jump into projects and other schemes with them, even committing to “go vegetarian”—at least for a while—at the encouragement of Cheryl, who had been impressed by vegetarian Bernadette Peters during her August 1977 appearance on
The Muppet Show
.

J
im returned to New York in early September 1977, just in time to spend several days taping inserts for
Sesame Street
—as he had assured Cooney and the media, the show would always be a priority—before dashing off to Los Angeles to attend the Emmy Awards. In its first season,
The Muppet Show
had been nominated in three categories—including Outstanding Comedy-Variety Series—and won one, earning Rita Moreno an Emmy for her guest appearance. Not a bad showing for a show in its first season, but privately Jim was a bit disappointed. “
Up for 3,” he wrote in his journal, “—only Rita won—sigh.”

Regardless of the Emmy Award losses,
The Muppet Show
had grown steadily in popularity in the United States during the five months Jim had been in London, continually picking up viewers and winning over critics. Jim, too, was becoming nearly as well known as his creations. After making appearances to promote the Muppets on
The Tonight Show
or
Merv Griffin
, Jim suddenly found himself being stopped by fans as he walked in Central Park or ate in restaurants near the Muppet workshop—and had to admit he liked it. “
If some people recognize me, that’s enough to flatter my ego,” he said sheepishly.

Suddenly, the Muppets were everywhere—in every newspaper, on every television, in every city, in every market. By Lazer’s account, the Muppets were already being seen by 125 million viewers in 103 countries—and it was only their second season. Whatever channel they were on, in whatever market, they were unbeatable. When channel 11 in Chicago tried to launch a new local children’s music show and put it up against the powerhouse
Muppet Show
, the reviewer at the
Chicago Sun-Times
snickered, “
Dumb, dumb, dumb.”

And it wasn’t just children who were fans. The American Guild of Variety Artists gave the Muppets their “Entertainer of the Year” award—where they were lauded by Edgar Bergen as “
the most elegant and sophisticated creation of the puppeteer’s art”—while the National Association for Better Broadcasting hailed
The Muppet Show
as the year’s “
most creative, entertaining and refreshing new program.” American soldiers and their English counterparts adopted Muppets as their mascots, flying banners emblazoned with Kermit or Miss Piggy.
People
magazine and
Good Morning America
sent reporters to shadow Jim in the workshop, dazzled by the relatively small crew that built and performed the magical Muppets.

Lazer could barely contain his glee. “
[Critics] didn’t feel this show could bridge the gap between kids and adults. But we knew it could. We knew it.” Brillstein, too, was nearly vibrating with excitement, and wrote Jim a heartfelt note to let him know how pleased he was for him. “
I guess the reason for this letter is simply to tell you that I love you,” wrote the agent, “and I’m very proud of what you’ve accomplished … you’re terrific and I am proud to be part of the amazing success you’re having.”

Jim, too, was pleased, but circumspect. Since the early 1960s, he had been drafting, drawing, writing, and pitching various iterations of
The Muppet Show
, from the rough sketches of
Zoocus
in his notebooks and the unrealized pitch for
Johnny Carson and the Muppet Machine
to the proposals and outlines that eventually became the
The Muppets Valentine Show
and
Sex and Violence
. Now that he finally had
The Muppet Show
, he was ready to move on.

Jon Stone, who was still working with Jim on
Sesame Street
, thought he understood Jim’s creative wanderlust. “
He was restless,” said Stone. “And Jim would’ve been restless if he’d lived to a hundred and nine.… He would never be satisfied to stay where he was. He was always pushing the limits.” Added Lazer, “
He’d want to move on to another phase.… That’s what kept him doing this.… If he didn’t have that other thing, he would be bored. But he never stopped thinking or going beyond.”

To Jim, then, the next step was obvious. He had conquered television; now he was going to make a movie.

Frank Oz, Jim, Dave Goelz, and Jerry Nelson perform on their backs in the baking sun for 1979’s
The Muppet Movie.
Jim was delighted by its success
. (
photo credit 10.1
)

O
N A BRISK
N
OVEMBER MORNING IN
1977—
THE
T
UESDAY JUST BEFORE
Thanksgiving—Jim left his flat in Frognal Gardens and slid into the backseat of a hired car for the twenty-minute ride to Elstree. He and the Muppet crew were in the middle of a hectic week; on Monday evening, they had made a triumphant appearance at the prestigious Royal Variety Performance (“Last night,” Jim had written with near audible glee in his private diary, “I met the Queen of England—
ta dah!
”). Now they would spend the next three days packing in tapings for two episodes of
The Muppet Show
before taking a short break for Thanksgiving—and on Thanksgiving Day, a gigantic Kermit the
Frog balloon would glide over the crowd during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. As the car moved north through London, Jim’s driver asked,
“Did you ever, in your wildest dreams, think you would have success like this?”

Jim had no doubt about his answer. “The honest answer to this,” he explained later, “which I do occasionally admit, is that yes, I’ve always known that I would be very successful in anything I decided to do—and it turned out to be puppetry. And not only am I not surprised, but I’m disappointed that it’s taken this long, and I haven’t begun to be as successful as I will be.”

That response would have been no surprise to Jane, who had been impressed by Jim’s quiet resolve and self-confidence since the very beginning. “
Jim’s way of operating and his way of thinking was extraordinary,” said Jane. “I met him when he was eighteen and it was already in place.… And even by eighteen he was convinced he was going to be successful.” And yet, “his dilemma,” said Jane, “was, ‘Why is it taking so long to be successful?’ ”

Like his protagonist in
Time Piece
, Jim still felt he was racing against a ticking clock to get everything done. As Jon Stone had said, Jim would have been restless if he’d lived to be 109—and one had only to look at Jim’s schedule that winter to see a man trying to do it all. During eight weeks in London, Jim had wrapped up work on eleven episodes of
The Muppet Show
, participated in the Royal Variety Performance, and taped new television specials with Julie Andrews and Bob Hope. On December 16, he flew back to New York long enough to host two Christmas parties, went skiing for five days, then spent ten days in early 1978 working on inserts for
Sesame Street
. “
Jim was the hardest working man I have ever met,” said Muppet performer Caroll Spinney, who was also astounded at how little sleep Jim seemed to need. Spinney recalled once leaving a party with Jim in the wee hours of the morning, and asking whether he was at all concerned about getting up in time to make a 9:00
A
.
M
. taping. Jim laughed; he’d be ready, he told Spinney, because he had a breakfast meeting to attend first. “He loved what he did so much, I don’t think he thought of it as work,” said Spinney. “It was the way he lived.… He was like a juggler who could keep twenty things in the air at the same time.”

By late 1977, one of those things was a movie—and not just “
The Muppet Show
on film,” as Jim put it, but rather “the flip side of
The Muppet Show
.” Instead of bringing a live guest into the world of the Muppets, Jim explained, “we are taking the Muppets out into the real world.” It was an ambitious idea. Puppets had played supporting roles on the big screen before—puppeteer Lou Bunin had provided the puppetry and stop motion effects for a 1950 version of
Alice in Wonderland
, while Bil Baird had performed the memorable marionette sequence in
The Sound of Music
. But no one had ever filmed a full-length movie with puppets as the main characters, interacting with real people in the real world. “
Jim was a dreamer,” said Jerry Juhl, and yet “he was pragmatic enough to make the dream happen.”