Yeah, I did some small parts in high school and the first year of college and then fairly soon thereafter I settled into the backstage scenery, and then at the University of Maryland I was doing posters for their productions.
Yeah, well when I first started working, it was $5 a show; it was probably a little higher by the time I got to my own show, but I remember that they put me under contract at $100 a week, which to me was really an astronomical price.
Well, Detroit Institute is kind of a key – probably the largest permanent collection of puppets in the US.
Never eat anything at one sitting that you can’t lift.
You’re assisting the audience to understand; you’re giving them a bridge or an access. And if you don’t give them that, if you keep it more abstract, it’s almost more pure. It’s a cooler thing.
Yeah, I think we did the term Muppets before we got the show Sam and Friends – a few months after I started working.
Yeah, we pretty much had a form and a shape by that time – a style – and I think one of the advantages of not having any relationship to any other puppeteer was that it gave me a reason to put those together myself for the needs of television.
I believe that life is basically a process of growth-that we go through many lives, choosing those situations and problems that we will learn through.
There was a little afternoon show that was called Afternoon. Back in those days in television, most local stations had a midday show for housewives that had a series of things. It was like a variety show for midday.
When The Muppet Show ended, we all sat around and said, what kind of television show would we like to do. We felt the need these days are for some quality children’s programming.
If you take a character and you call him a frog, or like Rowlf, our dog, call him a dog, you immediately give the audience a handle.
Do everything at 100 percent of its potential and never accept second best.
I think my own strengths are in television production.
I was very interested in theatre, mostly in stage design. I did a little bit of acting.
If anything, there’s a difference in working with color in England and the color in the US.
I decided that what I really wanted to do was go off and paint.
NBC was trying to convert all of their local programming to color right away to encourage the sale of the sets, so I barely remember working in black and white, although I do know that I did do it, but there was not a major difference, though.
I don’t know exactly where ideas come from, it’s just a matter of us figuring out how to receive the ideas waiting to be heard.
No time is wasted time.
I try hard not to judge anyone, and I try to bless everyone who is a part of my life, particularly anyone with whom I am having any problems.