Muppets at 60! (Plus, News on "Oscar and Friends")

Hi, everybody! May is almost over, and I didn't post anything new on any of my blogs since April. I have no excuses to make for myself (except maybe I'm starting to moderate from the computer, and I've been spending more time in my art; I was able to work on Classic Logo Remake Party 2! whenever I got to). Anyway, this could excuse me to use this blog post as a sort of month in review thing.

So, the month of May is what I'd like to call "Muppet Month", because it's home to two very important anniverisaries relating to the Muppets and their creator, Jim Henson!

#!: The 60th anniversary of the start of the Muppets' career on May 9, 1955.

It all started in Washington, D.C. The creative, then-aspiring puppeteer Jim Henson, and his partner-turned-wife Jane, crafted a weird little local 5-minute sketch comedy called Sam and Friends. This ancient puppet show, one of the first with perfect close-ups on puppets on TV (since Jim realized that the television set is already like a puppet theatre surrounding the puppets), starred a bunch of abstract creatures known as Muppets from the very beginning! These early Muppets included Sam, a guy made out of paper-mache who didn't speak; Harry the Hipster, a beatnik sock with sunglasses; Yorick, a purple skull thing with a big appetite; and of course, Kermit, a little nice green guy made out of Jim's mother's old felt coat. who officially became a frog by the time Sesame Street started development in 1968.

Long before The Muppet Show, Kermit and his now anarchic buddies on Sam and Friends mostly lip-synced to old songs and comedy tracks (such as those from the late Stan Freberg), because Jim was shy to use his own voice for the characters. Really? That's the best excuse, Jim? Okay. So, you could say that the Muppets were pioneers in lip-syncing to popular songs, something that has become one of the biggest trends on YouTube nowadays!

Of course, Sam and Friends was a (local) hit, and the breakthrough point of Jim's puppeteering talents. After that, Muppets starred in many, many silly commericals (like those for Wilkins Coffee), guest appearances on shows like The Ed Sullivan Show, and of course, he got the attention of the Children's Television Workshop to create lovable and memorable Muppets for Sesame Street! And the rest is history.

#2: The 25th anniversary of Jim Henson's death on May 16, 1990.

Muppet fans, and of course, the Muppets themselves were emotionally struck by the news of Jim's death; the cause was something called Group A streptococcus. Obviously, that doesn't mean that our memories and appreciation for Jim and his achievements died with him. Jim Henson is to puppetry, what Walt Disney is to animation. He was an incredibly influential artist who went to great lengths to revolutionize the medium, to make even more stunning and profitable. Without Jim and the Muppets, all puppets might still be like Punch and Judy, with static, lifeless expression on their faces, and no flexibility whatsoever.

I don't think I need to say much else about the Muppets' impact. I mean, who isn't aware of how important these guys are? They are who they are, a sensational, inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational group of timeless, hilarious, adorable (in most cases), lovable frogs, pigs, bears, birds, monsters, and whatevers.

I may have mentioned before that Jim Henson and the Muppets are my number one influences in puppetry! There was some kind of entertainment I love to death that isn't animation, it's Muppetry! I love these guys so much that I must write an entire book expressing how much they mean to me. They are, after all, the inspiration for my own fledgling group of homemade puppets, the Homemadis! Oscar the Cat, in particular, is my own Kermit the Frog.

Oh, and speaking of the Homemadis, due to all the delaying (and my focus on other projects and life), Oscar and Friends will not be going into production until further notice! So, you'll just have to stick with the Meet the Homemadis video on YouTube, and the photo gallery on the NoParking Berry website.