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THE MUPPET SHOWS
Lord Grade, that entrepreneur extraordinaire, had the brilliant idea to bring Jim Henson’s Muppet characters to Elstree for a series, which Lew intended for worldwide distribution.

Jim had brought his Muppet team to Elstree before for inserts into other American aimed productions, of which JULIE ON SESAME STREET was by far the best. Top writers were employed and the first series was produced by Smith and Hemion and overseen, production-wise’ by the American comedian/producer stalwart Jack Burns. The directors for the series were Peter Harris (ATV staff) and Phillip Casson (freelance). Jack Burns sat alongside the director for the entire first series and attended all dubbing sessions.

Jack was a brilliant personage. On show one, when Gonzo announced he was going to eat the entire car on set, even the tyres………..Jack got him to add the words (after a pause)…….”white walls”. As if that was the ultimate task. However, he was a volatile person – on one dub he insisted on a big laugh after Fozzy Bear (on ordering a meal) said……..”Hold the mayo”. I queried this with Jack asking if it were funny. He exploded, left the dubbing suite and didn’t come back for two hours. Once, in a phone call a secretary innocently gave Jack’s ex-wife his forwarding address – this compelled Jack to leave the country temporarily.

After the first series, Jim Henson decided to do without Jack’s assistance (and Gary & Dwight’s) for the rest of the memorable five years of Muppetry. owever,Jack Burns came back a year later to produce (and star in) a terrific crazy series called BONKERS but more, much more, of that some other time.

Sound-wise, I did the first two shows, after which Roger Knight and I alternated on the remainder of the five year run. Each show took around five days to shoot. The following week we sound dubbed the shows then making various different versions for the world.

On week one, Monday was music record day with the guest star. Voices would then be put on the musical items with the regular Muppet operators. This usually took until 8pm as the Muppet people would be required to sing and add vocal effects.

One item was totally sung in bubbles and gargles. The operators would drink a glass of water and gargle along with the track as in tune as possible. Much laughs emitted from these sessions and they would have provided a show on their own.

In the present day world of puppetry, rarely does the puppet operator also do the voice. i.e., Spitting Image – where the voice was an impersonation which the puppet operator had to learn and synchronize to. Many other children’s puppet shows are recorded on this basis.

It is important to point at this time, that ATV already had a massively successful and long running show called INIGO PIPKINS, which called for the operators to not only manipulate the puppet but to use their own voices thereby giving the puppet a trademark sound. BIRMINGHAM PIG and HARTLEY HARE spring to mind from The PIPKIN factory. Recorded in all the various ATV studios it starred George Woodbridge as the human being link person. The show transformed to PIPKINS after George died.

Most off the shows were directed by Michael Jeans and the main puppet operator was Nigel Plaskitt. Nigel has probably been the most successful British puppet operator around with dozens of shows and characters to his name. He is also a puppet Wrangler and advises on casting and booking operators on many productions and West End shows, the latest being ‘Avenue Q’

You may also remember a younger Nigel starring in a famous commercial for Sinex, where (for many month) he implored his mum to solve his stuffed up nose. Oddly, I remember that commercial as if it were yesterday.

A full history of PIPKINS can be found by clicking Nigel Plaskitt’s on-line Pipkins web-site. The modern concept of recording a children’s series in great quantity and then repeating them ad infinitum (i.e., HOOBS) should have been around when PIPKINS was in production. Birmingham Pig and Hartley Hare would still be alive and well, although they are available on dvd.

Back to the MUPPETS.

No artiste was allowed to bring their own musicians. You used the Muppet band and staff arrangers or didn’t do the show. Some artistes failed this condition. The Muppet band, under the direction of Jack Parnell, was a nine piece comprised of the best session musicians of the day.

The guest star was met at the airport, or wherever, limo’d to the studio and given the TOP STAR treatment by the Henson Organization’s own production star, David Lazer, who could, and did, charm the wings off a bird without batting an eyelid. Political correctness with a constant smile was David’s trademark.

Shooting-wise, Tuesday was Guest Star day. The artiste would do a sketch, or two, sing a song or two and say the farewell speech in front of the tabs. Live voice was picked up from the artiste via a boom whilst the Muppet Operators had head-sets for playback with adjacent microphones for dialogue. On camera, the artiste usually stood on a raised platform with the operators beneath them working their dolls whilst following the action on a small TV sets scattered around the floor.

Whilst Roger Moore was charming the pants off Miss Piggy on a sumptious sofa, Frank Oz would be squeezed in under that sofa operating Miss Piggy watching the picture output on a monitor while following a rough script. Other productions involved multi muppets. A good example comes to mind with the PAUL SIMON Muppet Show. He did ‘Strawberry Fair’ walking and singing live among rows of stalls selling all types of market produce. The stalls would be at camera level while Paul walked a narrow plank between them performing. Six feet beneath the plank would be a cacophony of power and talkback cables feeding the monitors and operators. Sometimes one Muppet character involved up to three operators.

Interestingly, after a playback of the Paul Simon Muppet Show, Richard Hunt one of the talented operators was overheard saying to Gerry Nelson (another multi-talented guy) . . . . . . .’He should have brought Art’. (Presumably referring to Paul Simon’s almost lacklustre performance and the absent Art Garfunkel).

I describe operators like Richard Hunt and Gerry Nelson as multi-talented because apart from being top puppet manipulators they also gave each of their character a memorable voice and KEPT to it for the entire series. Louise Gold was the British puppeteer alongside Dave Goeltz and Steve Whitmire, who later was to become the new KERMIT the frog. Louise operated a smaller (and younger) pig than Miss Piggy causing much humorous, well written friction. The lovely Louise could easily have been a big star in the musical world. Recently, she was a lead in MAMA MIA currently running in the West End. All of these people, including the Pipkin gang, were the forerunners of devised-for-television Puppet Shows world-wide. Their talents were imitated but never bettered. Apart from operating, Jim Henson and Frank Oz were brilliant in every way. Frank later became a famous movie director after Jim tragically died.

Director Peter Harris was a great influence on the shows. His liason with Jim was exceptional. Jim wasn’t the type to accept too much ‘advice’(far from it) it was his show, his concept (and his life) at all times, but he did listen to Peter constantly. Peter continued in the puppet director frame for many years from Spitting Image to all sorts of other Henson inspired productions. Phillip Casson continued his career as a jobbing director, music, drama, you name it – Phil could put his hand to anything, even having a beautiful boat built in Taiwan (I think) and driving it home with wife and children. Where are you now Phil?

Because the UK had less commercial breaks than other countries, every UK Muppet Show had a ‘two minute spot’ – the space had to be filled with a song, usually a UK based item – ‘Any Old Iron’ and other cockney songs spring to mind. Incidentally, the two minutes had to be frame accurate EXACTLY. This always involved tricky work by ace VTR editor, award-winning, John Hawkins..

The sound dub on the Muppet Show was an important factor. Sometimes a show would require a hundred, or so sound effects to be laid onto the track in synch. The eight track dubbing recorder was configurated as follows.

Track 1. Main edited program sound.

2-3-4 Music & dialogue laid back from sound studio master recorders.

5-6 Laughter tracks

7-8 Final mix (ready for layback to VTR and buzz track to enable

perfect synchronization.

Sixteen track recorders were later used improving the storage problems.

As in all ATV shows at that time, it was imperative that ALL sound was laid back to the video tape to avoid poor generation effect. Without layback, sound could be fifth, or even sixth generation. (see BOB HOPE GALA NIGHT later).

The laughter dub was time consuming. Every added laugh (and they were ALL added) involved a debate. Jim and Frank attended all dubs and ensured that the laughter chosen for any gag was correct. My job was to mix the whole thing together for a finished show ensuring (at all times) that no dialogue was drowned by laughter or added effects. Today, I often sit dejected in front of my telly deploring the lack of finesse in voice to music mixing.

Re-takes during the dub were multiple. Sometimes an added laugh was too short, too long, too raucous, not raucous enough etc etc. We would wind back time and time again, drop into record and try it once more. After a long track laying day Jim and Frank would appear and the final dub mix would commence. An easy show would be finished by ten thirty. A difficult show could go until the early hours.

The remainder of the dub week would involve producing the various other versions for world consumption. Muppet record week was a five day affair. The second week for dubbing and world versions would be three and a half days. This careful (and miserly) scheduling would involve no overtime payments for the Muppet sound crews but we were proud to be an important part of a production that would be seen in a hundred countries around the world.

A word about the laughter machine is relevant. This machine was devised by ATV’s Design & Maintenance department (our Mission Control) after consultations with the sound department chiefs and Indians. It had sixteen faders all loaded with a different function. Two faders held coughs. The others had laughs of varying degrees from chuckles to bigger chuckles to even bigger chuckles to small laughs to slightly bigger laughs to much bigger laughs. Applause could be started on one fader, continuous on another and ended on another. Other bands of applause of set lengths were also loaded. All fingers on both hands could be doing different things with this machine and, on the whole, it worked well. Jim often said he would prefer to have done the show without a laugh dub but the Networks in the USA could not countenance that scenario. One Muppet Show had the guest star (Steve Martin) arriving as the theatre was supposedly being redecorated. Without the Muppet audience Jim foresaw this as a ‘no laugh track’ production. But it was not be to be, the Network big wigs clamped down.

To operate this ‘laughter-machine monster’, no schooling could be provided. You may have twenty A levels and be useless. We had Roger Banks (remember Stringbean from the Peter Pan segment?) For some obscure reason Roger had the knack. He had a good (but often strange) sense of humor and he made the machine laugh along with himself. If Roger considered something not funny, the machine wouldn’t laugh and he had to be convinced it WAS funny. If he went off track, he would willingly go again, and again. He never lost his cool, never (ever) argued with Jim or Frank or me but managed to do things with that machine that few others got close to.

There were over a hundred and thirty Muppet Shows, of which I was sound director on almost a half. Roger Knight, the other sound director, probably has his top ten favourites but mine were roughly as follows;
Elton John; Buddy Rich; Star Wars; Ethel Merman; Liza Minelli; Roger Moore; Johnny Cash; Debbie Harry; Juliet Prowse and Rita Moreno.

To delve into the making of these and all the others (The Good The Bad and The Ugly) will be quite a task but WILL available at a later date.