Word: muppet
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Writer Jack Skow started out thinking the story was simple enough. "Then," he says, "I found myself feeling as if I were trying to stop 4,000 Ping Pong balls from rolling off a table." Trying to pin down the mystique of Muppet mania, Skow first tried to attack the question scientifically, only to throw up his hands cheerfully in the end. Says he: "The trick in writing the story was to analyze the magic without destroying...
After spending some time with Kermit, Miss Piggy, Trashman and the rest of Jim Henson's Muppets, the members of our staff who worked on this week's Show Business story underwent a remarkable transformation. They all began by assuming that Muppets were strictly for kids, but they ended up shaking Kermit's hand, being cautious in the presence of Statler and Waldorf, and avoiding the near lethal karate chops of Miss Piggy. "It's magic," says Reporter-Researcher Janice Castro. "The Muppets have something that is real: straightforward humanity. All of their feelings are right...
...wobbling dollar, but a more cheerful and indeed more bankable asset: Kermit the Frog. He is the gallant and slightly desperate master of ceremonies of a weekly eruption called The Muppet Show, which in its third season on the air has become what is almost certainly the most popular television entertainment now being produced on earth. The Muppet series is seen by at least 235 million people in 106 countries. Those who have not met Kermit will ask, in thank-you-not-today tones, "A frog?" And they will ask, "Adult?" The answer to the first question is a confident...
Weird kiddie cinema? An outtake from National Lampoon's Animal House? Nothing of the sort. It's just the Muppets, the world's most popular television stars, making their first movie-an $8 million comedy called simply The Muppet Movie. The film is a "road" epic about the puppet gang's perilous trek from the Deep South to Hollywood...
...movie is being shot in Georgia and California without any animated effects. Beyond the clever scenes and imaginative facial sculpting, its success depends on a proud and well-paid crew of 20 invisible performers who are the real actors. The Muppeteers must crouch uncomfortably below the set's surface with their Muppet-covered arms stretched painfully skyward, as they stare into reverse-image video monitors to see what their arms and fingers are doing. "Think of dancing, which is a physical extension of internal feelings," explains Muppeteer Jerry Nelson, 44. "In a smaller way, pushing creative energy through your...