Wednesday, May 16, 1990

[dshentertainment]

53-year-old puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, is dead.

Early obituaries, along with his IMDB entry, listed his cause of death as "bacterial pneumonia," to make it sound more naturally caused; the real truth, however, is far more sad (and shocking) than anyone may realize.

In the early morning hours of May 15, 1990, Jim was voluntarily admitted to a local New York hospital for routine throat surgery. Instead, just 24 hours later, while recuperating from the surgery, Jim went into Septic Shock--and died.

James Maury Henson was born in Greenville, Mississippi on September 24, 1936, the youngest of 2 boys born to Betty and Paul Henson, Sr.

As a 17-year-old high-school senior, Jimmy, as his family called him, made his first puppet out of one of his mother Betty's old sweaters.

At age 18, as a college freshman at the University of Maryland, Jim met and fell in love with a fellow student named Jane Ann Nebel, 2 years his senior, who would become his wife in 1959, 3 years after his brother Paul was killed in a horrific car wreck at age 24.

In 1960, Jim & Jane became proud 1st-time parents to a little girl, Lisa. 4 more children would follow over the next decade--Cheryl (born 1961), Brian (born November 30, 1962), John (born 1965), and Heather (born 1970).

In 1969, Children's Television Workshop founder Joan Ganz Cooney hired Jim to create exclusive new puppets for her proposed PBS Network series "Sesame Street," which debuted that November and is still on the air today.

In 1975, Jim created a proposed prime-time network showcase for the ABC Television Network called "The Muppet Show." Although ABC passed on the project, British producer Lew Grade soon bought the project to air on the BBC Network to be produced in England, with the CBS Television Network having U.S. rights to air the series.

After retiring "The Muppet Show" in 1981, during that show's wrap party, Jim conceived an idea for a new project that eventually became "Fraggle Rock."

The "Fraggle Rock" pilot was filmed in Spring 1982, with the show debuting internationally that Fall and enjoying a successful 4-year run until ceasing production in 1986. HBO aired the series in the U.S. from 1983-1988.

During this time, Jim also ventured into feature films, starting with 1979's "The Muppet Movie." He also produced/directed 1982's "The Dark Crystal" for Universal Pictures and produced/directed 1986's "Labyrinth" for TriStar Pictures and Lucasfilm, Ltd.

In late 1989, after the failure of his variety show "The Jim Henson Hour" on NBC, Jim decided to sell his old Muppet characters to The Walt Disney Company (a move that would eventually happen in early 2004).

Before the deal was finalized, he suddenly died of Septic Shock, and Jim's company remained private until December 1991, just before Christmas that year, when The Walt Disney Company announced it had bought distribution rights to the entire Jim Henson Productions library up to that time, including the Muppets and "Fraggle Rock" but excluding "Sesame Street."

After Disney sold the distribution rights in late 1996 to Columbia/Sony, the company made the movie "Muppets in Space" for Columbia Pictures.

The company was bought by a German company called EM.TV in late 2000 before the rights reverted in 2003 back to Jim's 5 grown children, who own the company to this day.

In November 2011, Disney will release a new live-action Muppet movie called "The Muppets," where the human lead, Walter (Jason Segal), brings the Muppet characters back together in order to try to save their old theater from being torn down.

On a personal note, I'm in the process of developing a tribute play for Jim Henson that I call "Muppet Mania: A Tribute to Jim Henson and His Imagination." In its present, development stage, the play centers on a re-enactment, almost verbatim, word for word of Jim's funeral mixed in with re-enactments of Jim's life and career as a puppeteer.

What I'm sorely lacking, though, is character development, and that's where your input comes in: what are some good scenes to include for Jim Henson's character development, as far as re-enactment scenes are concerned? Do any of you readers have any input on this?

Unlike Chris Weekes' "Muppet Man" proposed biopic, which based on what I've read is more of a hack job than a true biopic, my intention is to make it as true to the story as possible without making it a hack job.

The target date for the play to be put on is December 2012, just before Christmas, on my birthday weekend, no less.

I would also like to know a way to convince Jim's family to allow me to put the production on--and by that, I mean, I've tried before in sending the script to Brian Henson, but he didn't even read it.

If anyone reading this has any inside tips on how to make my Jim Henson tribute play stageable, I'd love to know. Thanks in advance.