Jim Henson's Red Book

In June 1965, 28-year-old Jim Henson started a written log of his activities in what became known as “The Red Book.” He noted what had happened up until that point (deemed “Ancient History”) and then recorded anything that he felt was worth recording as single line journal entries until the end of 1988.

Selected curated entries courtesy of The Jim Henson Company Archives.

3/26-28/1979 – ‘Shoot more Meeting Films – Frank produces’

Posted on March 26, 2011 by admin

Topics: 03-March '79, 1979, Commercials | Tagged Frank Oz

3/24/1978 – ‘Begin Jerry Juhl on Muppet Movie’

Posted on March 24, 2011 by admin

Historical information provided by The Jim Henson Company Archivist:

By the time Jerry Juhl started working on the script of The Muppet Movie, he had been collaborating with Jim for almost 17 years and was trusted to give voice to the essence of the Muppets. When Jerry came east from California in 1961, his comic sensibility and world view meshed with Jim’s easily, giving the characters their personalities and heart. Though from opposite coasts, Jim and Jerry had similar tastes and influences; both were fans of Stan Freberg, Ernie Kovacs, and Rocky and Bullwinkle. Underneath the zaniness, they shared a sense of decency and desire for their characters to connect in a real way with the audience. While entertainment was the paramount goal, it needed a deep foundation based on the characters and their relationships. Jerry once wrote, “When comedy is written well, the writer first writes characters who have attitudes, passions, obsessions, derangements, faults, nobility, and, in short, humanity. These things should be funny in and of themselves. Then, when everything else is done, he tries to find some jokes to sprinkle in – like raisins in the cake.”

Jack Burns, head writer for the first season of The Muppet Show, wrote the first two drafts of The Muppet Movie script based on an outline he developed with Jim in 1977. After long years of collaboration with Jerry on projects ranging from Muppet appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show to the surrealistic drama The Cube, Jim knew how important it was for Jerry to contribute his voice to the script, too. He jumped in and reworked the structure and the script. It made for an incredibly busy spring, but Jerry was excited by the possibilities of the big screen. “It certainly opened us up into a whole new world that allowed us a whole emotional range that was wonderful to work with,” he explained. The combination of Jack Burns’ comedy, Jerry Juhl’s sense for the characters and their relationships, and Jim’s overall vision made for a compelling screenplay. The resulting film was a hit when it opened in 1979 and remains a classic today.

Jerry Juhl in Berlin, 1962 in photo taken by Jim.

Jim’s sketch of Jerry Juhl on their USIA trip to Berlin, 1962.

Jerry Juhl and Don Sahlin on the set of a Pak-Nit industrial film, 1965.

Jerry Juhl and Jim on The Muppet Show set, 1970s.

Topics: 03-March '78, 1978, Muppet Movie | Tagged Jack Burns, Jerry Juhl

3/22/1969 – ‘Shoot “Wizard of Id” pilot’

Posted on March 22, 2011 by admin

Historical information provided by The Jim Henson Company Archivist:

In the summer of 1968, Jim Henson met Johnny Hart, the creator of the popular comic strips B.C. and The Wizard of Id. They discussed the idea of creating a television show based on The Wizard of Id that would combine puppets with an animated background. That fall, puppets were built, and Jim and his colleagues made a presentation to Hart’s publisher, the Publishers-Hall Syndicate. The response was positive and in early 1969, Jim shot a test pilot. Robert Reed of Publishers-Hall spent the next year and a half trying to sell the show to the networks as a series or as several specials. In September of 1970, ABC expressed interest in making a Wizard of Id feature film, but, by that time, Jim was busy with Sesame Street, the Tales of Muppetland specials, and his variety show appearances and decided not to take the idea any further.

Jim loved comics and cartoons and collected books of Pogo, Peanuts, Dennis the Menace, L’il Abner, Charles Addams, Jules Feiffer, Roger Price, James Thurber, and Johnny Hart. During the 1960s, Jim pursued several projects based on classic fairy tales, but the Wizard of Id project was the first time Jim sought out a creative collaborator with an existing character group. The snarky humor of Hart’s B.C. and Wizard of Id appealed to Jim, and he saw how his sensibility overlapped with these funnies. It was a good match, both comically and visually, even if it never made it on the air. It wasn’t until 1977 that Jim found another outside property that enticed him – Russell and Lillian Hoban’s Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas.

See a sample of Jim Henson’s test pilot of Johnny Hart’s Wizard of Id here.

Jim’s characters for Wizard of Id, 1969.

Topics: 03-March '69, 1969 | Tagged cartoons, comics, Johnny Hart

3/19/1975 – ‘AIR The Muppet Show ABC. Watch it with Dad and Bob in Albuquerque.’

Posted on March 19, 2011 by admin

Historical information provided by The Jim Henson Company Archivist:

When Jim sat down at his dad’s house to watch the pilot for The Muppet Show, it marked a major step in a long effort to get his characters their own show in prime time. From the beginning, Jim Henson dreamed of a musical variety series featuring the Muppets. In 1960, he made notes and sketches for a hypothetical show called The Zoocus. Elements of the show included sets with arched colonnades, the appearance of a celebrity guest host, and, of course, a repertory company of puppets led by Kermit. All of these would materialize more than fifteen years later on The Muppet Show. While The Zoocus was never produced, Jim continued over the years to try to sell his concept.

He circulated several full-scale proposals starting in 1968. Over the next five years, several variations went out, all with the same general format first envisioned for The Zoocus. When the idea for a series wouldn’t sell, Jim circulated proposals for various holiday specials. Finally, in 1974, The Muppet Valentine Show with Mia Farrow aired on ABC to great success. That December, the pilot Jim would watch in Albuquerque, The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence, was taped. It had the putting-on-a-show format that became integral to the series, a Muppet emcee (in this case, a character named Nigel rather than Kermit), but no celebrity guest. While some of the characters came from the Muppets’ existing troupe, several were created specifically for the show with the idea that they would become regulars on a series. The most memorable are the members of the Muppet band, The Electric Mayhem, and the two old men hecklers, Statler and Waldorf.

Despite the good reviews for Sex and Violence, Jim Henson still struggled to find someone to back a Muppet series. Help eventually came from London impresario Lord Lew Grade who agreed to finance the show, as long as it was taped in England. Production began there in January 1976, and the show went on the air on September 20, 1976. At the height of its popularity, The Muppet Show had more than 235 million viewers in over 100 countries each week.

Pattern envelope with designer Bonnie Erickson’s sketch of Statler and Waldorf, 1974.

Jim Henson and Nigel on the set of The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence, 1974.

Announcement card for The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence designed by Michael K. Frith, 1975.

Topics: 03-March '75, 1975, Family, Muppet Show | Tagged ABC, Albuquerque, Barbara Henson, Paul Henson

3/-/1971 – ‘To and From Toronto re – “Frog Prince”’

Posted on March 16, 2011 by admin

Historical information provided by The Jim Henson Company Archivist:

At the start of his career, Jim was known for his short, funny sketches and commercials. When Sam and Friends ended in 1961, he started to think about longer pieces. A fan of the work of Walt Disney, it’s not surprising that Jim looked toward traditional fairytales as source material. His first efforts in 1962 resulted in a half-hour television pilot called Tales of the Tinkerdee, featuring Kermit as a troubadour narrating stories in a fairytale setting. The show didn’t sell, but Jim continued to work with the characters he created for it and eventually developed three television specials under the banner Tales from Muppetland.

In these fractured fairytales, Hey Cinderella!, The Frog Prince and The Muppet Musicians of Bremen, Kermit both had dramatic duties and acted as narrator, and he appeared as a frog for the first time, trading his stubby feet and lizard-like designation for flippers and an amphibian identity. Hey Cinderella! came first, taped in Toronto in 1968, but it was in the second special with a theme focused on his species that Kermit’s frog-ness really solidified.

The Frog Prince, spiced with wisecracks and anachronisms and combining Muppets with live actors, featured the witch Taminella (the only character performed exclusively by the show’s writer Jerry Juhl) and the cigar-smoking King Rupert II (performed with glee by a gravel-voiced Jim Henson), both originally created for Tinkerdee. Kermit and a group of frogs were joined by a new frog character Robin (performed with charm and sweetness by Jerry Nelson) who sang a memorable duet with the large and hairy Sweetums, also conceived for the special.

Through The Tales from Muppetland specials, Jim learned a lot about putting his own shows on national and international (these specials also aired in Canada) commercial television. With R.J. Reynolds Foods as the sponsor, Jim got the full power of a big publicity engine and saw what promotional tools were available to get the word out and attract viewers. Slick press kits were created, Sweetums made appearances in various television markets, and special printed promotional materials were circulated. It paid off – the combination of Jim’s characters, Jerry Juhl’s writing, performances of Jerry Nelson, Frank Oz, and the team, Joe Raposo’s music and the publicity from the sponsor led to great reviews and enthusiasm for a third special the following year.