Free Memoirs of a Muppets Writer: (You mean somebody actually writes that stuff?) by Mr. Joseph A. Bailey

fingers and a thumb because it was a Henson tribute to Disney, since Mickey Mouse only has three fingers on a hand. Until the advent of computers, animation was a slow and tedious operation. Each individual cell, or film frame had to be hand drawn and individually photographed. Disney had enormous staffs of artists working on his projects. But Jim had neither the patience nor manpower for that.
    In high school, Jim worked at a local TV station making puppets for a children’s show. Later, while studying commercial art at the University of Maryland, he took a course in puppet making. It was then that Jim melded his experience in television and puppet making to devise what was really a new, simpler form of animation.
    Of course, there have been puppets on television almost since its inception. Howdy Doody, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, and Bil Baird’s Marionettes, all preceded the Muppets. (Baird said he dropped the second “L” from his first name because nobody ever pronounced it.) But all of these were just conventional puppets put on television. Jim Henson incorporated television right into the design of the Muppets.
    To begin with, Jim did away with the play board, the stage that puppeteers hide behind during the performance. Instead, Jim used the bottom of the television screen for that purpose, “hiding” the puppeteers below it.
    He then had the cameras elevated so the bottom of the frame was seven feet over the studio floor. The scenery was raised to the same height. That meant that instead of crouching on the floor, hiding behind props or scenery, the puppeteers could work standing upright. This gave the puppets complete mobility and was also much easier on the puppeteers. It also allowed scenes to be reset faster for a second or third take - in television, time is always money. So, when you see a Muppet scene on Sesame Street, or a piece on The Muppet Show, it’s all done seven feet in the air.
    Jim then went on to devise a set of principles for designing puppets specifically for television. To begin with, Muppets are essentially hand puppets. The puppeteer’s hand is inside the head. The puppeteer speaks in the character’s voice and moves his thumb in sync with the dialogue to animate the puppet.
    If you hold your arm straight up in the air and make a “duck head” of your hand, you’ll see a puppet’s mouth is 16” to 18” above the top of your head. Since the top of the puppeteer’s head is the cut-off for the bottom of the TV screen, those 16” to 18” are all the space that’s available for the character’s body.
    Human beings are roughly eight heads high. But, because television is a “close-up” medium, that eight to one ratio would mean the puppet’s head would be much too small for a television close-up, not to mention a human hand. So, Muppets are roughly designed on a three to one ratio, one third head and two thirds body.
    Since the only support a Muppet has is the arm of the puppeteer, weight is always a consideration in puppet design. Imagine working eight or 10 hours a day with your right-hand straight up in the air. So, foam rubber and feathers are the basic Muppet building materials. Great care is also taken to make sure that seams and joints don’t “read” on camera.
    Color also requires a certain amount of attention. Colors change under television lights and some shades just aren’t television friendly. They can go dark or muddy. So for example, every Kermit puppet (yes, there are several for practical reasons) is that exact shade of Kermit green.
    Big Bird’s color is also very crucial. Some yellows can go brown on television. So, Big Bird’s feathers are hand dyed that particular shade of yellow that looks so vibrant on color television.
    Between takes on The Muppet Show, it was not unusual to see a hand appear on camera holding several swatches of material, all different shades of the same color. It was a puppet builder testing to see which shade read the best on