Of Muppets And Men – The Making Of The Muppet Show

Of Muppets And Men – The Making Of The Muppet Show

Reviewed/summaried by Emma Shane

© July 2007

If the book Of Muppets And Men The Making Of The Muppet Show is regarded as the ‘holy grail’ of Muppet collectables, then this documentary must surely be it’s equivalent in terms of Muppet documentaries. There have been many since, and a good number of them have usually included some clips from this one. What makes it so special is that it was actually made during the run, well towards the end, of The Muppet Show itself, when that legendary television programmes was at it’s height. It has an immediacy that no other documentary about The Muppets has ever quite had; though some of the later documentaries have been very good, and included stories that could not really have been told at the time. This is a very special documentary. It captured the true magic of The Muppets, in a way that was very at that moment. If you were to watch just one Muppet documentary then it should be this one.

The Eight major TMS (The Muppet Show) puppeteers are all featured, and all introduced by name. Four of them speak directly to camera, while the other four are just shown in action (and on occasion speaking to their colleagues, but not to camera). Head writer Jerry Juhl, and executive producer David Lazer also speak directly to camera. While director Peter Harris, choreographer Norman Maen, dancer Graham Fletcher, and bandleader Jack Parnell are all shown in action conversing with their colleagues. Several other personal, notably: writers Don Hinkley, Chris Langham and David Odell, floor manager Richard Holloway, and set designer Leigh Malone are also shown at work (conversing with colleagues); while puppeteer Karen Prell puts in several largely silent appearances. Unlike many Muppet documentaries this one does not have a formal narrator, although Jim Henson himself fills that role where necessary; helped out a little by Frank Oz and David Lazer. This is great, because it gives the documentary an added warmth, with the gang very much presenting themselves, in a kind of “this is who we are” very accessible way. Pretty much everyone named in the documentary is introduced to the camera by The Master himself, often in very affectionate terms. He clearly loved being with the wonderfully talented bunch of people he had assembled to work with him. And if you want a laugh in a schadenfreude kind of way, by chance there is a rather amusing, obviously accidental mishap involving a young lady puppeteer.

As with all really good behind the scenes documentaries, there are a good few behind-the-scenes shots of what actually went into the putting together of various scenes on TMS. With a television puppet show like, The Muppets, this is particularly interesting because the Making-Of cameras show you the bits the television programmes own camera ‘s don’t, behind or underneath the set, shots of the puppets very clearly on the arms of their puppeteers, and scene shifters moving bits of the set about during the filming of a number. Performers out of a scene, armed with a puppet, waiting their cue to move. An example of the latter, has Jim Henson with Kermit on his arm about to converse with Roger Moore, while to the side we can see Louise Gold armed with another of Jim’s character’s Rowlf The Dog (dressed for a Vetinarian’s Hospital sketch). We then see part of the scene this was the set up to, where Kermit is talking to Roger Moore, and suddenly the three Vetinarian’s Hospital characters rush by to take their place on stage. (Obviously as Jim Henson himself was busy with Kermit, Louise would have performed Rowlf for that scene).

The documentary opens with a behind-the-scenes piece for a number with Pigs On Motorbikes, at first we see the pigs in the bikes, but gradually the camera pans down to reveal the puppeteers below, alighting on various individuals. After this Jim Henson introduces himself, and soon introduces fellow puppeteer, Frank Oz. There follows a behind-the-scenes clip of Frank Oz puppeteering Miss Piggy, as she tries to seduce Roger Moore. Frank Oz then speaks to camera explaining how the thing about being a puppeteer is “You can do a whole bunch of characters but you can go into a supermarket to buy a can of beans and no one will recognise you.” He goes on to say this is both a good thing and a bad thing. Every time I watch the documentary this line always makes me laugh. After all The Muppets are just so well known, that I feel quite sure that at some time or another there must surely have been at least one instance of one or other of the TMS Eight having been recognised while buying a proverbial can of beans in the supermarket.

A behind-the-scenes clip shows a bunch of Pigs tossing food around, the documentary cameras being positioned such that we can see the puppeteers and their assistants underneath it all. Head scriptwriter Jerry Juhl also has a few words to say.

Jim Henson introduces the TMS scriptwriters, explaining how he and Frank Oz often sit in on the scriptwriters meetings. There follows a clip, in which the scriptwriters, along with Jim and Frank, are discussing an up and coming musical number involving the curtains coming down. We then see the number in question, Another Opening Another Show, being performed. It involves four characters performed by I think five puppeteers (as Louise is definitely involved with performing Link Hogthrob, but it’s hard to see whether she is simply right-handing or actually puppeteering the head of the character (there is the added complication that because Louise is left-handed she always uses her right hand for the character’s hand). There is also the addition of a fifth character, Steve Whitmire’s Rizzo popping up briefly.

A scene involving the Prairie Dogs singing, The Coyas Answer To A Man, ends with the camera panning down to reveal the puppeteers all sitting under one of their raised sets, and at the number’s conclusion some of them want to get up and stretch. Jim Henson introduces the rest of the senior puppeteers. First Jerry Nelson, and there is a clip of him in action with Floyd. He does not speak directly to camera himself. Next Richard Hunt with Scooter. Richard explains how Scooter’s voice is his own voice from when he was younger. And then Dave Goelz in action with Gonzo, he does not speak directly to camera.

A diversion occurs with a behind the scenes clip of Guest Star Cleo Laine in conversation with Frank Oz’s Fozzie Bear.

Jim Henson now introduces the little three (as the Muppet fans refer to hem). First he introduces the young man who (although no one knew it back then) would one day become very much his own successor as a puppeteer, Steve Whitmire. Jim explains that Steve had had his own TV puppet show on local television in Atlanta. We see Steve in action on TMS, but again he doesn’t speak directly to camera (he was very shy in those days). Jim then introduces Kathryn Mullen, she doesn’t speak to camera at this moment, but does later on.

And finally, one last puppeteer in The Eight, Jim says “Louise Gold is our English puppeteer”. He goes on to say, in a very understated tone of voice “Louise is a great singer and does a lot of our best musical numbers”. At which there follows a glorious clip of Louise in action, making full use of her big loud voice and magnificent vibrato belt, as a fish singer doing I’m Gonna Catch Me Some Blues. Why save Louise till last? Well why not? She never speaks directly to camera, but after the next behind-the-scenes clip everyone is sure going to remember her anyway. She accidentally provides one of the funniest moments on the documentary. The Muppeteers are in the recording studio (at one of their Monday recording sessions), laying down tracks for a gargling fish number. The Muppeteers seems to be in quite a jovial mood, one of them asks Jim Henson what he is doing there, he replies “I’ll be there in case the sound isn’t good enough”. The puppeteers doing the number each hold cups of water, one by one each takes a sip and the gargles into the microphone. The documentary camera is focused on each in turn. Then it is Louise’s turn. The look on her face makes it obvious, she is trying desperately not to laugh. Eventually the laugh wins though, as if embarrassed she turns away from the camera (and her colleagues), and drops towards the floor, we hear her laugh win through. “Uh oh she’s drowning, help her”. says one of the other puppeteers (possibly Steve Whitmire). By the time the documentary camera catches up with her, Louise is sitting on the floor quite literally choking with laughter, as one of the crew has to thump her on the back; while a fellow puppeteer on the other side of the room calls out “artificial perspiration”. Yes it’s a pretty hilarious mishap, but at the same time one feels sorry for the drowning muppeteer. After all she does seem to laugh rather easily, especially (or so she claimed many years later in an interview) when she is tired. Perhaps it really wasn’t such a good idea to try getting her to gargle a number.

Jim Henson talks about the “Whatnots” or “Anything Muppet” characters, along with a behind-the-scenes clip of him in the Workshop being shown some spy puppet characters for Roger Moore’s Talk With The Animals number. This number then being shown in action, with some behind the scenes shots (mostly of Steve and Dave on set performing the said spy puppets).

We come to one of the really major behind-the-scenes scenes in the programme, The Viking Number. First we are shown the puppeteers in the recording studio laying down the tracks for it, given their clothing this was presumably on the same day’s recording session as the gargling fish number. We are shown the actual band of musicians in action, with someone, possibly Jack Parnell, requesting “Much more quasi-horn”. The Muppeteers are shown recording the lines “We want you, we want you, we want you as a new recruit”. It is noticeable one can spot Louise Gold standing with the men recording this refrain’s backing chorus (she can have quite a deep voice). There is a lot of footage of the Muppeteers in action filming this number. All of them clustered around, and sometimes standing on, the platform that the boat set is on. One can clearly see that many of them, most notably Richard Hunt, are wearing trainers. One can also note that Louise Gold and Kathy Mullen are both wearing t-shirts and blue dungarees. Kathy’s t-shirt is yellow. Louise’s looks like it could be a dark green or blue. It may also be noted that 5ft9” tall Louise is taller than one of the guys (Dave Goelz) and almost as tall as some of others. There is a delightful moment when Kathryn, who has a puppet on each hand says, to the documentary camera, “Really it’s hard, opening on the beat with this hand and closing on the beat with this one. I can’t do it”. She pauses for a moment, and then adds with a laugh “Don’t worry, no one can.” Not only do we see this number from the studio floor, we also see it from the control gallery, particularly when Peter Harris says “Stop, Stevie went too high, saw underneath, hands the lot”. Which is a good moment for the documentary to cut to Jim as narrator explaining that one of the difficulties is that the camera only has a limited space in which to operate, from the top of the performer’s head to the tips of their hands, and “there is a large puppeteer underneath” All in all a truly fascinating behind-the-scenes sketch, a true highlight of the documentary, this really is the behind-the-scenes of The Muppet Show in full action.

The next behind-the-scenes shot is one where a set is clearly superimposed by some effect (such as chromsky or blue-screen). The puppeteers are doing a number “All The Little Birds...” with various puppets on a superimposed tree. One can spot Louise Gold to the left of the screen on a green dress.

There follows an interesting little scene with The Swedish Chef. Well I found it interesting, not least because it happens to very clearly illustrate a point or two. The Swedish Chef is doing is thing, when three cross prawns enter, the lead one, performed by Jerry Nelson is brandishing pistols. The second on is performed by Louise Gold, and the third by Steve Whitmire. Louise is very very easy to recognise in the behind-the-scenes shot, because, as always, she is puppeteering left-handed, but the other two are puppeteering right-handed, and when the three of them are lined up together, charging across the set, one can see this very clearly. This scene leads very nicely into Jim Henson talking about the programme’s use of props, which is then illustrated with a Muppet News Flash segment; during which we see someone standing high up to drop a “silver” pot onto The Newsman. Because the making-of camera is also position so high, we just make out two puppeteers behind the Newsreader’s table, although they are unidentifiable, one would guess they are likely to be Jim Henson and Louise Gold. Their heads are out of shot under the table, so we can’t see if they are wearing hardhats on this occasion (they sometimes did for Muppet News Flash – because of the danger of being hit by heavy props).

One of the major features of The Muppet Show was its use of guest stars. David Lazer explains how the first contact with the guest star would be a telephone call either from himself or head writer Jerry Juhl, to discuss what they are going to do. Maybe the Guest Star would like an opportunity to do something they don’t normally get an opportunity to do; this is illustrated in classic form with a clip of Opera Singer (and onetime vaudevillian) Beverley Sills tap dancing, amongst other clips. Moving on to a behind-the-scenes shot, we have Jim Henson and the set builders Leigh Malone and someone called Harry discussing Blue Bayou, there follows a clip of Linda Rondstadt on the finished set. If you have read the Of Muppets And Men book, which describes the positions of the puppeteers in detail, this is an opportunity to really try and work out who is performing which puppets.

The Muppet Show’s choreography by Gillian Lynne and Norman Maen just had to be covered. This too is illustrated with a behind-the-scenes scene of Raquel Welsh’s caveman routine. First we see Norman Maen himself rehearsing Raquel Welsh in a dance studio. Then on the sound stage we see Steve Whitmire and others helping Graham Fletcher get into one of The Muppets more outlandish costumes to partner Raquel in the number. I think Steve may even have been holding a radio control box to control some of the creature’s functions, if so, that would be a very early use of this sort of puppetry, which was only just coming in at that time.

The programme concludes with a montage of clips, mostly behind-the-scenes ones from earlier in the programme, to the accompaniment of a truly apt Broadway classic, from the first series of The Muppet Show, namely Ethel Merman and The Muppets singing There’s No Business Like Show Business. A great song to end on; a great singer. And a rather neat comparison, with one number earlier in the programme, namely I’m Gonna Catch Me Some Blues, as that had featured The Muppets’ own Mermanesque belter (whom they did not of course acquire until part-way through their second series).

Overall a truly brilliant documentary, a very uplifting one. The Muppet Show itself was very very funny. This documentary about it is even more hilarious than the programme it is about! Perhaps the funniest moment in the programme is, as Muppet-fans sometimes refer to her “The drowning Muppeteer”. Some people never really change; at least not when it comes to corpsing at the most inopportune moments. And if there was anyone out of the eight madcap muppeteers who was going to accidentally make a complete spectacle of themselves, trust Louise to be the one to do it. The best thing about the documentary is its warmth, the Muppeteers especially, and to a certain extent the rest of the behind-the-scenes personnel (well people like Jerry Juhl and David Lazer) come across as a bunch of people who seemed to really enjoy working together. Hard work it may have been, and yet they appear to have enjoyed it. But perhaps what really comes through in this documentary is that it captures The Muppets at their peak. It captures them fresh when they were still fairly new and exciting. It captures a moment in television history in a way that no other documentary about The Muppets ever could quite do. And that’s why it is so special. Instead of making new documentaries, good though some of them are, why not screen this again in all its glory.