The $elling of the Soul

“(While) in lockdown in Australia (I hadn’t) seen my family in about seven months.  I thought I’d revisit the Muppets for some solace, but it’s just not the same anymore…I tried watching those new “Muppets Now’ episodes on Disney+…It had a nice concept, but the execution? It was…boring. Which Muppet/Fraggle/Sesame production makes you the happiest to revisit? Maybe it could be mine too.”  – Marni Hill

(BIG SIGH…)  Well….the short answer is that I really don’t revisit any of them in their entirety.  And I think the reason why is because I feel similarly towards the past work as did Jim.

In about 1980, or so, Jim decided to have a big company meeting in Bermuda.  Though I had only been with Jim’s company for a couple of years, I was asked to be there along with everyone else involved in all aspects of his company at that time. “The Muppet Show” had ended, a massive worldwide success that Jim and his team had achieved after years of his trying to be allowed to show what he could do.  So, a big reason behind having that gathering was to talk about what the Muppets would do going forward.

During the gathering there was a public room at the hotel with a video player and a pile of videos of some of Jim’s early work.  There was “Hey, Cinderella”, “The Muppet Musicians of Bremen”…stuff like that.   At that point in time those shows would have been less than ten years old.

One evening after a larger gathering on the first night to view some of the past work, several of us young newbies gathered around the television to watch one of those Muppetland specials.  I think it was “The Frog Prince”.

At some point on his way to somewhere else, Jim unexpectedly wandered past the open door to the room.   In a beat, he turned back to the doorway and asked (in a sort of incredulous tone) “what are you all doing…?”.  Someone said, “Oh, we were watching ‘The Frog Prince’”, and I said, “would you watch it with us?”.  

Put on the spot, Jim paused for a beat and said in a bit of a pained way, “Uhhh….no.  I never watch the old stuff…”.  I could tell from his tone of voice that he hated to disappoint us young folks who were new to the company, but that he literally had no interest in looking back.  It was as though he didn’t want to be influenced by it in any direct way at all, and that he simply wanted to look ahead towards whatever was to creatively emerge next.  For Jim, that’s why we were all in Bermuda.

And, I get that now; how the work done previously becomes factors that remain in ones knowledge base to aid in future creative endeavors rather than an exemplar to be displayed for ones own gratification.  Jim was not one to rest upon his laurels.  And, for me, I find that after all these years I have almost no interest at all in revisiting any of the stuff.  I am profoundly proud of the body of work, and I have my favorites (mostly because of the experiences surrounding the period in which they were created), but I never sit down to watch anything I’ve ever worked on.  I am always looking to move on to the next thing whatever that might be.

But (as it should be) how the past work is viewed and treated now is a different experience for fans.  I started out as a passionate Muppet fan, as well.  As fans, theirs is an objective exterior experience, watching and connecting with the end creative product, the final result of the creative act – the art, itself.   The artists – in particular, the performers once they become a part of the Muppets – necessarily need to move beyond a fan’s view of the work to begin integrating that view into a subjective experience.  The third-person “IT” view must become integrated with a first- person “I” view.                                                                                                                            

  The Four Quadrants Explained HERE

If a character is to survive intact, performers and writers must inhabit that character to varying degrees, but in the case of so-called ‘legacy’ characters (those characters that have been recast) without direct first-hand experience of the originator, there is no real chance of the character evolving, only going forward as an impression that becomes reinterpreted; an “impression” rather than a “continuation”.  Without first-hand knowledge of the originator’s intent, it will essentially be a new, different character because every interior detail that went into the creation of that character on the part of the originator is unknown to a re-cast performer in a direct way.

In that situation, the bump in the road between performers becomes an impasse.  And, depending upon the relative importance/contribution of the particular character in question to the overall Muppet group dynamic, that impasse can quickly becomes the difference between a legitimate future for a franchise, or a departure so divergent from the original that the connection to the audience, and the ability to reconnect with a future audience, is severely jeopardized, perhaps permanently lost.  That connection is quite fragile.  The odds against such a longevity-based connection being established in the first place are huge.

I see that as likely the biggest factor in why the present day Muppets are, as you said it, “not the same anymore”.  The primary frame of reference for all involved is based upon objective interpretations of the past, what they have seen of the originals rather than what they have experienced.  They know what the Muppets did, but they don’t know why.  Those presently involved in trying to continue them have no first-hand experience of the character’s origins to rely upon, and that lineage (not “legacy”, lineage) can not be synthesized, as your assertion attests.  Dave (Goelz) is the obvious potential exception, but, like me, will be given no authoritative input beyond portraying his original characters until he walks away.

Still, I tell fans that my favorite thing that I ever worked on was “Fraggle Rock”, and because fans have recently sent various links to me, I have been “reintroduced” to some of the songs we did that are out there on YouTube.  I have to say (and I can say this quite objectively after so many years and so much distance) I love Wembley.  I love him as though the little guy was never me, but instead was someone else; some little guy named ‘Wembley’.  I love his energy, his innocence, his enthusiasm, his curiosity about everything, his relationships with the other Fraggles, especially Gobo and Boober.  

He was a delight, and it pains me that I am still walking this earth at the top of my game only to be intentionally passed over for consideration to keep him alive and evolving for the more recent “Fraggle” work.  BUT, at the same time, it would have been very difficult to be a part of any illegitimate directionality where these very special characters are concerned.

So, “Fraggle” might be a place to start – the original “Fraggle Rock” as it emerged in its purest form for all the right reasons.  That series was the product of a particular time and place, and the people gathered together in that era. I have no interest in speaking (or basis to speak) on more recent versions as I have not seen any of it (except some music video a few years back that left me speechless).  But I know that it can never be the original.

I agree with you that ‘it’s just not the same anymore’.  There are SO many reasons why that is so, and so many ways that it could have been prevented from becoming that way, but at the end of the day, it boils down to one broad generalization:  the complete lack of Jim’s influence as the primary operating principle.

“Frank Oz says “the soul’s not there” in Disney’s version of The Muppets”