Doll-A-Day 2019 #277: What I Did on My Vacation Part 3: The Center for Puppetry Arts Part 1,and First Mate Piggy & the Pigs in Space Deluxe Playset

  Today I am finally getting back to the vacation story!
  We arrived at Lori's Tuesday night. We were planning to go to Disney World on Wednesday and Thursday,and to Atlanta on Friday. (Lori would be off work on the weekend,so we couldn't just head home from Atlanta when we went anyway. We wanted to spend the weekend with Lori.) There were a few reasons that turned out to not be the best plan. For one thing, it was so terribly hot,and it was supposed to cool off a bit on Thursday. I would much rather go to Disney on a cooler day. Also, my right leg had been bothering me. The muscle in the back of my calf had become a painful knot, made worse by all the driving I had been doing. I thought a leisurely day in Atlanta would give it a chance to loosen up before I had to do so much walking at Disney. So we switched our plans,and on Wednesday we got up and drove to Atlanta. Why were we going to Atlanta? Because in looking to see what things I might want to do on the trip I spotted something about The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, and it's huge Jim Henson/Muppets exhibit. Yes,I found myself another Muppet exhibit!  (Ken wouldn't tell me anything he specifically wanted to do. His answer was always,"I enjoy seeing you happy." What do you do with a guy like that? Love him,I guess.) There were also many other interesting and beautiful  puppets there,which I'll be showing you. But let's start where I did,with the Muppets.

"Hey! Are we there yet?! We're going to Disney today, right?" "Uh, no. Actually the plans have been changed. "What?!" It's ok. Look where we are. You'll love it.

"Wow! Ok,that's different!"

 We went to The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia. As I said, I thought I was going to let my painful leg muscle rest for the day,in preparation for Disney. The ramp to the entrance had other plans for me. As I was going up the ramp the muscle gave a final clench...and stayed that way. I had Ken squeeze it in hopes it would relax,but no. I limped through the exhibit. I was afraid it would close before I finished,so I probably went through more quickly than I would have wanted to,had I known that I actually had plenty of time. (No watch or phone to tell time with.) But I did really enjoy it.
The entrance to the exhibit:

The first display was this recreation of Jim Henson's office. Not all, but a lot of the things in it actually came from his office.

Notice the Kermit lamp with the big green shade.

I was dealing with my auto focus being out. Ken, luckily, also took some photos,and I took the earlier ones with his camera. It was very fortunate that this exhibit was more brightly lit that the other one I went to,so I was better able to focus,and most of my pictures came out alright.

Jim Henson's notebook, where he kept project notes and family events.

Jim Henson made these blocks for his kids.

This papier mache' moose was made by sculptor John D. Richards and bought by Henson in 1966.

The needlepoint made by Jim Henson's aunt Bobby Henson.

His Emmy awards and gold and platinum records.

There was this interesting guy, from a very early show Jim and Jane Henson did, called 'Sam and Friends'.

And then of course, there was Rowlf. He appeared on The Muppet Show,and in the movies, yes. But Rowlf was a star long before that.

His worn fingers!

The stained glass window was just a photograph of the one in the Henson offices in New York.

  

A clipping from the premier of "Labyrinth" that I missed in 1986 because I had to babysit that night.



  Sometimes people don't realize that puppetry has become so much more than someone's hand in a sock. The Henson company was responsible for a great many advances in animatronics. This dog, from the TV series "The Storyteller",was able to make realistic facial movements and expressions by the use of the remote device seen below,with no puppeteer hand in the actual puppet at all.

There were occasional design sketches. This display also had some fabric samples for the character.

 

The character was there too!

Ken took this picture of me taking a picture.

More design sketches.

Don't forget that the Henson shop also worked on Farscape.

This lady was familiar.

Those look like the googly eyes you can buy in craft stores.

I remember this from The Muppet Show.

I do have a problem with killing or harming real animals to make fake ones. (I'm looking at you,"Santa Claus The Movie".) The Muppets use a lot of feathers. You may say, 'but they don't have to kill birds to get feathers.' No,but if they pluck them alive that's almost worse. Can you imagine the pain? 

I don't know if you can read the sign. this guy is The Little Nut Tree,from 'Jim Henson's Mother Goose Stories'.

This guy is a famous one. He's the King, from "Hey Cinderella". He's so familiar,I had to actually realize that I have never seen that show! I've only ever seen clips from it.

 

He's a pretty big guy. I had Ken stand next to him to show you just how big.

Like Rowlf and The Swedish Chef, the king is a two man puppet,with one person controlling the mouth and one arm, and a second puppeteer controlling the other arm.
  Then we entered the Sesame Street section. The Bert and Ernie are 'photo puppets'. In other words, they aren't real puppets. They're for posed photos only.

It's always a little weird to see these guys with legs,although you do see their legs occasionally on Sesame Street.

Can you imagine a Henson Bert and an Oz Ernie? I think the switch was the right thing to do. Although Frank Oz is pretty good at an excitable Miss Piggy, his male voice is perfectly suited to Bert's somewhat depressed nerd.

I'm only 5 feet tall,so you can figure out from that how tall these guys are.

Bert loves his bottle cap collection. You know, that isn't a stupid idea. Some of those bottlecaps can look pretty interesting. And there are really people who do collect them.

Ernie is so lovably annoying. One of my favourite Bert and Ernie sketches I remember from when I was a kid, which was still showing  when my kids were little, is the one where Ernie is eating cookies in bed. Ernie's anxiety escalates as Bert compounds the reasons he shouldn't eat cookies in his bed. "If you eat cookies in bed, you'll get crumbs in your bed." "Crumbs in my bed?!" "And if you get crumbs in your bed, you'll get crumbs in your pajamas." "Crumbs in my pajamas?!" "And if you get crumbs in your pajamas you'll itch." Eventually Ernie climbs out of bed with his cookie and starts to get into bed with Bert. "What are you doing?" Bert asks. "I'm gonna eat cookies in your bed Bert." answers Ernie. Now that's classic comedy. It's better than Abbott and Costello.

   The fabric texture is different on these clothes compared to the actual screen used Bert and Ernie I saw at the other Henson exhibit. If you don't believe me, you can check that exhibit in my post HERE. The reason may have to do with how different fabrics photograph,or move on camera.

  This year is Sesame Street's 50th anniversary. I remember when it first started. I was 7,and I saw it in the TV guide. I remember reading it out and saying,'What's this? See Same Street." My sister and I were both too old for Sesame Street, but we watched it anyway, for the songs, the comedy sketches, and for, of course, the Muppets.

My mom didn't enjoy things she considered childish. There was only one cartoon she liked, (Pink Panther), and only one thing on Sesame Street she found funny: Grover's illustration of near and far. You can watch that original sketch HERE. Other than that,mom had little patience for the Muppets. When we saw "The Great Muppet Caper" at the movies,(my choice), she called the scene where the Muppets climb a drain pipe to escape guard dogs, "The stupidest thing I ever paid money to see,a bunch of stuffed animals climbing up a drain pipe." You can see that scene HERE.

I said the Muppets used a lot of feathers...

Now that's a lot of feathers.

This guy is listed as an 'exhibition puppet'. One thing left off the description is Big Bird's performer. Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch were performed by Carroll Spinney, from the show's beginning in 1969,and their voices at least were performed by Spinney until just last year. Spinney once said he would perform Big Bird "as long as I can do this", illustrating by holding his arm up in the air as if he were operating Big Bird's mouth. He stopped physically performing Big Bird at 81, in 2015,having developed balance problems. You can watch a clip about Carroll Spinney HERE. It was Spinney's idea to make Big Bird a childlike character,to act as a surrogate of sorts for the children viewing the show. An artist too, Spinney drew the classic portrait of Mr. Hooper, which Big Bird keeps by his nest.

 Big Bird's legs remind me of Dolly Madison, (I guess they're now Hostess), Zingers.

People are a bit less familiar with Little Bird,since the character has appeared sparingly since season one of Sesame Street,more often being used in the books. The character was developed from a puppet that originally appeared in commercials for the Easy Bake Oven.

These are lesser used characters.

 

This guy is very interesting. He really does look like stone.

Ken is such a good sport. I know he must have been bored,although he denies it.

And then of course there was this guy.

This Kermit is another photo puppet.

I was excited to see Dr. teeth there, but he's a photo puppet, and not a performance puppet.

He's still interesting to see. close up. You can really tell he's made of foam up close like this.

Then there's Kermit's nephew Robin.

Now we're talking. These guys are actual performance puppets from The Muppet Show. Doctor Strangepork and Link Hogthrob!

The insignia is hand drawn on hand cut felt pieces. That's something you can't tell when you see it on TV.

He's made of foam, but he's also been painted pink. His mouth/tongue has been hand painted.

Link Hogthrob,or as my sister always got it wrong, Link Porkthrob,was pretty big.

You can't see the texture of the puppets on screen, but it's really obvious up close. Link has a furry snout.  The paint is also obvious up close. Like Dr. Strangepork, you can see his tongue has been handpainted.

The hair! the eyebrows!


The inside of his ears has also been painted.

This pair are from "Muppet Treasure Island", which, I have to say, is my least favourite .Muppet project. Some people lump it together with "Muppets From Space" as one of the worst Muppet movies,but I really like "Muppets from Space".  Some strange people think "Muppet Treasure Island"  is great. What's the matter with you people?

Those little shoes!

There was no adult Miss Piggy in the other exhibit I went to, so I was excited to see this lady!

This Piggy, from Muppet Treasure Island,a theatrical movie,looks a lot more manufactured than the Pigs in Space guys. You can tell that things were less hand done by that point and more 'professional'. That's because The Muppets were a big business by then. They had the money to have their things manufactured and also had less time to hand make things. I imagine they needed a lot of Miss Piggy's for different projects,as well as multiples for single projects for one reason or another.

Look at Piggy's furry leg.

You can see what a furry texture he has.

There are plenty of random Muppets that are familiar, but nobody actually knows their names.

It's a bit weird that his fin is just plain old foam. It's not even painted.

 

Yes, the purple guy really is that big.

Anybody remember "The Muppet Musicians of Bremen"? I saw it when I was a kid.

This guy is also from "Hey Cinderella!", like the king we saw earlier.

This was one of my favourite things in the exhibit: Emmet Otter's row boat!

Based on the book by Russell and Lillian Hoban, the creator's of "Francis"*,"Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas" is a sort of  'Gift of the Magi' type story, about Emmet, a young otter, and his mother. The prize in an upcoming talent contest tempts Emmet, who earns money by doing odd jobs,to turn his mother's washtub into a washtub bass for the competition,so he can win the money to buy his mom a piano,while his mother, who earns her money by doing laundry,sells Emmet's tools to buy fabric for a dress to perform her song in so, she can win money to buy Emmet a guitar.  (* As in "Bread and Jam for Francis". You can see my post on my Francis doll HERE.)

The boat has holes cut in the bottom for the operation of the puppets from below. Ken had to take these pictures for me because I am too short!

This is what happened when I tried to take a photo of the holes!

I was surprised the boat was so small. Somehow I pictured Emmet and friends as being bigger puppets. I had Ken pose with the boat for size comparison.

 

 'Emmet Otter' was made in 1977. It was the first Muppet project to use radio controlled puppet effects.

The radio controller used during the production of 'Emmet Otter'.

The very cute and distinctive illustrations of Lillian Hoban were very well translated into actual Muppet characters,such as the mayor and his wife, seen below.

The teeth!

"Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas" originally had Kermit as a narrator. Later versions had Kermit's narration cut out for legal reasons. Disney now owned Kermit, while the Henson's retained ownership of 'Emmet Otter', so Kermit was unable to appear. (I hate that Disney owns the Muppets,as I have said before.) Later remastered versions restored the Kermit narration. I have no idea how that worked legally.
I'm not sure what I was photographing here.
 

Maybe I was 'down at Fraggle Rock'...

The name Traveling Matt is a joke. A traveling matte is a blue screen technique used in films. You can read about it HERE.

 

 

I thought Sprocket would be bigger.

 

I didn't watch much Fraggle Rock until my kids were around to watch reruns. When it started I was in my early 20's,but the real reason is probably that I didn't have HBO! What I did see of it told me that I wanted a live Doozer.

He's so cute!

Look at those tiny tools.

Somehow I missed the TV series "Dog City". I knew of the cartoon series,but where was this one? Emma was a year and a half to 3 and a half years old when it aired. She would have loved it. Why didn't we watch that Emma?

The cast looks pretty interesting. My favourite is the cat lady.

Look at that face.

I love what she's wearing. It's very pretty. Lots of detail too, for clothes that aren't for a real person.

She has lots of rings and painted claws!

This lady is much less high maintenance than Miss Fluffe.

Her face looks manufactured,compared to the handmade look of the earlier Muppets.

'Sparky' used to be the cliche' name for firehouse dogs, which were traditionally dalmatians.

 

His face looks so soft and furry.

The cord is a remote control for his facial movements.

 Krystal is a burger chain. I have only seen them in the South. Ken tried it and he compared it to a slightly more upscale White Castle, with Southern things. Apparently there have been Muppets advertising for them.

The sticks are called rods. They're for controlling the arms. Muppets like Gonzo have them,although these days they are digitally removed from scenes where they are used.

This Jim Henson quote was on the wall.

I would have this stained glass in my house.

The Muppet Mansion was the name given to the Henson Muppet headquarters,(Known as Henson Associates, or, HA!.) in New York.

There were some Dark Crystal things but there was a separate Dark Crystal exhibit too.
 

I thought this was really neat.

 

 From the miniature version of this guy, above, to this HUGE version of him.
 

This is some of the disgusting detail on his side.

 

There was only this costume of Kira, one of the main characters. There was no one to go in it.

This crystal bat looked like a real animal.

This guy looked amazing. The things to the left are what remotely control his facial movements.

Bleh! That is gross! But it looks so real!

After the small "Dark Crystal" section there was a "Labyrinth" area.

He looks very leathery. He kind of reminds me of Otzi the Ice Man,the guy they found who had been frozen in ice in the Alps for over 5000 years.

Love the striped socks.

This guy was beautiful.

His feet look so real, right down to his toenails.

This guy looks real too...and real disgusting.

Uh...it's a woman. I don't remember the movie that well.

The head is a cast used to make the Hoggle head.
 

They must have had at least two sets of these guys, as we also saw them at the other exhibit.

A maquette is a small model made to help work out the look of a character without making it full size.

  That's the end of part one. Tomorrow we'll see the rest of the museum's displays, including some very old puppets, and some familiar ones. Now to today's doll. It's actually a whole playset. It's the Starship Swinetrek from Pigs in Space, complete with First Mate Piggy.

'Pigs in Space' was a reoccurring  science fiction parody sketch on The Muppet Show.

This set was made by Palisades in 2003.

They're still called 'Jim Henson's Muppets' on the box. The following year they became Disney's Muppets, and I will never like that.

 

The sides of the box show Link Hogthrob and Doctor Strangepork. Those figures were also available.

 

There were a lot of other Muppets made by Palisades. They were pretty good likenesses. I have a few of them, and Emma has one or two.

The figures even have texture molded into their faces to make them look more realistic. They aren't just smooth plastic.
 

First Mate Piggy really looks like Miss Piggy.

That may sound stupid, since she isn't a real person in the first place,but it's harder than you think to replicate a Muppet as a doll or toy, and have it really look like the character.

She has bendable elbows and knees.

 

She's jointed at the neck,shoulders, elbows, gloves,hips, knees, and boots. As far as I can tell though, she can't sit down.
 

She has the insignia with the pig head on her chest.

The Swinetrek is really good. There are all kinds of little details.

The view screen has 6 interchangeable screens.
 

The chairs really swivel. What good is that if the figures can't sit down? They must be able to.

 

The console has lots of controls that really move.

They can also be changed around.

There's lot of detail in the console and the walls. The doors really open and close too.

 

Maybe if I ever get Link and Doctor Strangepork I'll unbox the set. But for now, I like the way it displays in the box.

  That's the doll for today. More vacation tomorrow. See you then.