I’m starting a new series called “Creative Inspirations,” in which I highlight the figures who have inspired my writing. And for my first installment, it only made sense to start at the beginning and highlight a person who is responsible for my first obsession which has continued throughout my life: Jim Henson.
First memories
I don’t know a world without The Muppets. Some of my first memories are of watching Sesame Street, The Muppets, The Muppet Babies, and of going to see live performances of these iconic characters at The Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.
The Muppets had been a household name for over three decades by the time I entered this world, and they were just as popular as ever. They had the colorful, friendly disposition of any cartoon character yet the biting wit of any standup comedian, making them family friendly in the most well-rounded way.
My love for The Muppets extended well past the closing credits of each episode or film. I also liked to know how the sausage is made. My dad would tape every documentary that came on TV about The Muppets and their creators. So, I got to know the behind-the-scenes tricks as well as the creators of my favorite characters. At the head of all of this team was Jim Henson.
This giant, soft-spoken, sweater-clad, bearded man had such an interesting way of talking and such an enthusiasm for his craft that it kept the magic of what he did alive while showing me all of the work it takes to make it all happen and the messages behind what he was trying to do.
The message behind the Muppets
The thing that the Muppet movies and the multiple Muppet TV shows that have aired over the years are all about the same thing: entertainment. The Muppets in particular spend their movies showing the audience their desire to entertain and the steps that they have to take to become famous enough to reach a wide audience with their talents.
The Muppet Movie is about the literal journey that the Muppets took to get to Hollywood. Of course, once they get there, they’re literally handed a contract by Orson Welles. The Muppets Take Manhattan is about the numerous rejections that the Muppets go through in order to put on a Broadway show and how those roadblocks don’t deter them from following their dreams.
These messages were a great basis for any creative kid to let them know that a creative life is a hard one with multiple challenges and years of hard work that is required in order to fulfill your dreams. But as long as the dream is there, it’s worth pursuing.
The friendships
The Muppets and the Muppet performers mirror each other in that they’re both a group of distinct personalities who somehow work. And at the head is Henson who is this gentle yet inspiring leader who allows everyone to be themselves while also wrangling them into shape so that they can put on a great show. It’s so similar to Kermit the Frog, the leader of the Muppets who does the same thing with his crew onscreen.
My desire to write about misfit groups of characters is certainly inspired by the Muppets. Whether it’s the Sesame Street gang or the Fraggles, there are so many personalities in this world and so many different ways that these personalities can fit together in order to create magic. It definitely instilled in me a sense of accepting people for who they are and letting them be themselves so that I can be myself.
The learning aspect
The Muppets are more sophisticated than your average children’s personalities. The Muppets in particular have such a natural, distinct way of interacting with each other that it feels like you’re part of the conversation instead of being talked down to. They talk over each other, ad lib jokes on the side, and react normally and hysterically to odd and crazy behavior.
Sesame Street is primarily responsible for my early education because of its teaching methods. Of course, topics such as letters, numbers, shapes, and colors already interested me, but Sesame Street made it fun.
My mom still tells people about the time she heard me climbing the stairs at two-years-old, counting each step in Spanish as I ascended to the top. We were not a Spanish-speaking family. So, she was shocked to hear me counting in another language and how influential my favorite TV show was in teaching me things I couldn’t have even learned from my parents.
The flood of creativity
Jim Henson was full of ideas and worked hard to bring as many of those ideas to life as possible. You can find so many sketches and notes that he scribbled down and how many different ways he could use puppets to tell stories and send messages to his audience.
Aside from the puppetry, he was also responsible for those animated segments that ran between the main storylines of each episode of Sesame Street. Here, he was able to branch out to other mediums such as cartoons, stop motion animation, and even just utilizing live actors completing mundane tasks in entertaining ways, such as making fruit salad or playing in puddles. For years, when I would think about counting, I would imagine colorful dots in the style of these segments that I would watch on Sesame Street, and I would be able to see them in my head and get to the answer in this fun, animated format.
My first loss
On terrible day, my parents broke the news to me that Jim Henson had died. At the time, his cause of death was described as pneumonia. Years later, I panicked when my baby sister had to be hospitalized with pneumonia as the death of Jim Henson immediately came to mind.
But I later learned that his death was more of the result of an aggressive bacterial infection mixed with a delay in seeking treatment. If you ever read his biography, you’ll get all of the horribly gory details that caused us to lose a legend way too young.
Death was never a concept that was sheltered from me. By the age of four, I got the gist, but it was the first time that I remember feeling truly sad that somebody had died, and it’s something that I carried around for a long time. I remember asking my parents a ton of questions about what had happened and what would happen.
Months later, a special aired titled The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson. I taped this special, of course, and it not only eulogized the creator but also shared interviews with his collaborators and letters from his fans. And when Kermit walks through the door of the end as the entire cast sings One Person, opens his mouth, and speaks in a near-Kermit voice, I was floored. Kermit’s voice was gone. Yet here he was. The magic was still there, and the Muppets could still go on.
Returning to the Muppets
The Muppets did go on after Jim Henson’s death. And they did plenty of great work for years after. At some point, they loss that spark, likely as the original performers began to be replaced.
Luckily, there is an extensive back catalog of content that I can return to and which continues to inspire me with its messages, humor, and mix of talent. It’s something I haven’t outgrown, and it’s the foundation of my creative pursuits. If I can create and put out something that even remotely measures up to Jim Henson’s work, I’ll be happy.
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