Word: muppeteer
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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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...
...full of Muppet stories. One is told by Lew Grade, the English entertainment mogul, who says that some months ago, he flew to Paris to persuade Sophia Loren to appear in one of his films. He had exactly an hour for the conference, so he launched directly into his serenade, enumerating the reasons why Sophia alone could make his project take wing. Soon he noticed that she was paying only the faintest attention. Eventually the great actress explained: It was the Muppet hour, and she absolutely must see them. A blow to his ego, admitted Lord Grade with a shrug...
...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...
...phenomenon has been observed: children trap their parents in front of the terrible tube and force them to watch the Muppets. The parents become habituated, and thenceforth on Muppet night somewhat sheepishly remind the children to close their calculus textbooks and turn on the set. In the last stage of addiction, the parents are sheepless and do not require the presence of child stooges...